The police and the ambulance arrived around a quarter of an hour later. They found him lying in a puddle of blood. A puddle of both his and Elena's blood. The knife was still in her neck, her eyes were still staring up at him, and Joseph was still looking into hers with profound dread. None of this should have happened. It was supposed to be the perfect getaway.
When the cops arrived and opened the door, the elderly couple he saw earlier stood behind them. They gasped and the old woman turned away, feeling sick of what she saw inside. It could have been them. If he had went to their room, they were the ones that would have been bloodied on the ground with a knife in their trachea.
When the paramedics took him and Elena to the ambulance, he saw to more bodies getting carried down. One was slender, it was the bellboy. The other was shorter and thinner. He had no idea who that was but there was no doubt that Emma was the one to blame. Or was she?
Sitting in the back of the ambulance were Joseph and two other paramedics. The paramedics did their best to help stabilise Joseph and it worked. They had kept him alive until they had reached the hospital. From there, doctors tended to him. He did not remember how long he had been out of it, but when he woke, there was a nurse and two detectives already on his bedside.
They didn't ask him anything instantly due to the state of shock he was in. They were polite and asked him personal questions to make conversation and that made Joseph feel more at ease. After seeing that he was comfortable, the police officers finally asked for Joseph's statement. He recounted only the important details of his endeavour.
The police officers then explained that Emma had also took the life of a housekeeper. The fourth body he saw that night, Joseph thought. The officers stated that she most likely did it for the housekeeper's cardkey. Another death on his hands. Three people died that night and it was all his fault.
"You did not cause their deaths, she did." One of the detectives reassured him. Then why did it not feel so? He did kill them. This was all his fault. If only he had not left the room and stayed calm, these senseless murders would not have happened.
When he fully recovered, Joseph went to grab all of his belongings from the hotel. It wasn't easy. The things he saw that night will live with him forever. The bellboy laying in a pool of blood on the floor, the lifeless eyes of Elena staring back at him from his lap. It did not go away and he knows that it will never. Just stepping into the hallway of his floor made his heart beat stronger than it normally does.
Joseph quickly got into his room, packed up and left. The neighbouring room, Room 404 or Emma's room had a police tape in front of it. He shook his head and refocused on getting out of there. He left his phone inside but who cares. It's probably in an evidence storage at a police precinct somewhere. Joseph just couldn't care less about it right now. As soon as he reached the airport, Joseph got on a flight and left Thailand.
Life resumed to a quasi-normal state, Joseph would think. The incident was all over the news which led his friends and family constantly checking up on him. He was grateful but at the same time anxious to forget that it happened. The people caring for him did not help in that aspect.
During his sleep, the faces he saw right before they lost their lives haunt him. Not even during sleep exactly, they appeared every time he closed his eyes. It was just too much. The guilt, the regret, it all weighed down on him. On some days, he wasn't even able to sleep.
Joseph would just stare up at the ceiling of his room while his mind was back at the hotel in Thailand. The things he could have done differently that would have saved those innocent lives. He can't take this anymore. It needed to stop. His life was only filled with sadness then on out.
'Ting' his new phone went. An email notification at 4 in the morning. That seemed off. Joseph opened his email application and saw that it was an email that was sent to himself. This just didn't make sense, but he needed to find out nonetheless. Joseph opened the mail and what he saw turned his whole body into liquid.
There were pictures that he took of Emma during their stroll around the town. She took his phone, it clicked. He scrolled further. Below those were selfies of Emma posing in front of the bloodied bodies of the bellboy, the housekeeper and the man under the bed. Joseph scrolled further still despite the sick images. Then he saw himself staring down at Elena's lifeless corpse.
The email read, 'Had fun. Hope to see you again XOXO'. Joseph couldn't take it.
He ran out of his apartment in his pyjamas and went straight to the roof. The doors opened up to an open rooftop. Joseph made his way to the ledge and stood there looking down. He could end this right here and now. Everything will stop. The guilt, the regret, the sadness. All of it. One leg dangled over the edge.
No. He will get through this. He needs to get it out. All of it. Both legs on the ledge. But those people that died for nothing. They died because of him. Why does he get to live? Those people did not deserve such a fate. He should have died. Him. Not them.
So many things ran in his head. He should not be alive when innocent people had died because of him. He was young, he can get through this. He will forget it eventually and move on with his life and find happiness again one day.
Both legs on the ledge. One leg over the edge. Both on. One over.