"I DID NOT KIDNAP THAT LADY. I DID NOT KILL THAT LADY. I... I"
Gerald couldn't believe what was happening. He began to wonder what he should do next. He was pretty sure that he didn't have anything to do with what he was being accused of, but he couldn't prove it right at this time especially with his hoodie being MIA at the moment. A very loud noise then came from the next-door apartment.
"BANG!"
It had become a bit difficult living comfortably in his apartment since those new tenants moved in about five months ago. They were a couple, and they were noisy. They fought with each other often, screaming and being loud at late hours of the night. It was very triggering for him. Loud noises made him remember the night of the accident and triggered him as they brought back very solid memories of it. This frustrated him so as a remedy he would use sleeping aids before he went to bed so that he could get into a deeper sleep to be able to avoid the noises. Still in his dilemma, he was suddenly jolted out of his thoughts by vibrations.
"ring, ring, ring"
It was his phone. Someone was calling and the name on the screen read 'Mom'. As he answered the phone in a rush, he could hear both his mother and father trying to speak with him at the same time on the other end. They were panicking as expected and were desperately seeking an explanation. As he waited for them to give him way to speak, they finally grew quiet after asking the obvious question.
"Gerald what is going on here, why are they searching for you concerning the kidnapping of this young woman?"
Though not screaming at him on the phone anymore, he could hear his father in the background swearing and shouting in frustration. They couldn't understand what was happening, so she stopped in between the double talk to hear Gerald's explanation. She desperately wanted to hear something that made sense of it all and not simply him denying the allegations.
"Mom, I have no idea what is going on. I need your help! I didn't do anything to that woman! I didn't do this."
Wasting no time, his mom replied to him immediately.
"Gerald why would they say that you did it and why does that guy's body look just like yours? Have you ever even met that girl in your life?"
He reiterated the same words that he did prior this time in a stern, slow tone.
"MOM, I DIDN'T DO THIS."
He couldn't have said those words any more firmly than he did. He was genuinely confused. He knew 100 percent that he was innocent. His father took the phone away from his mother to speak with him to encourage him to surrender to the police for questioning. Ever since he had been diagnosed with PTSD, his father started treating him as someone with an extreme mental issue. He felt disappointed in himself from this. He knew that his father saw him as weak for allowing the accident to affect him that deeply and so he tried his best to keep to himself as much as possible because of it.
"Son, if you are certain that it's not you then go into the station and speak to the officers. Please do not make this into anything more if it's a simple misunderstanding. It is already embarrassing to everyone the way that it is."
For a moment he thought about what his father said however, from the mood of his voice he knew that he had already believed the report and was simply trying to convince him to turn himself in. Gerald himself also found at that moment that it would have been the best thing to do but what if the police didn't believe him? What if they arrested him without question and prosecuted him for this? He had no answers for any of the questions that they had to ask anyway concerning Ashley's disappearance. He was innocent. He spent a few more seconds on the phone with his parents then he simply just hung up. With no goodbyes, no 'I love you' just a press of the red button on his phone screen.
This led him into panic mode. If his parents had seen the news report, then he was near certain that other people who knew him also saw it.
"What to do, what to do, what should I do?"
He asked himself this question three times each time building up his confidence more and more to realize that,
"Someone is setting me up!"
He proceeded to grab his bag pack and started shoving clothing from his freshly washed laundry basket into the bag; he needed to leave. The police thought that he had kidnapped and probably murdered a young woman who he neither knew nor had he ever met her before. He needed to get out of his apartment and leave. He had to clear his name because he was being set up. He grabbed his wallet and began putting his track pants on when he heard a knock at the door again. He rolled his eyes. He thought that it was Ryan coming by again to invite him to socialize, but he was wrong. This time it was the police.
"THIS IS THE POLICE, OPEN UP WE NEED TO SPEAK WITH YOU!"
Without missing a second, as if it were a scene from a movie, Gerald grabbed his bag pack and climbed through the window to his apartment aiming to get to the side door that led into the emergency exit stairway. It was located close by but first he would have to get to the stairs that led to the door. He thanked heaven that it was a relatively close distance away. Each room had this exit way available as it was what the building owners decided was best for safety exits in case of an emergency. As he entered the side door and ran through the emergency exit door and down the stairs, the police officers were breaking down the front door to his apartment. Knowing that his phone could be tracked, he left it behind on the dinner table and as the police entered, again it started ringing this time the name 'Dr. Lawson' came up which was Gerald's therapist.
He had no friends in that area, and he knew that he couldn't go to his parents who lived about fifty minutes away as they were already trying to get him to turn himself in. He walked through some alleyways lost in his thoughts. He pondered on what was the best decision to make. It was no time to panic, someone was setting him up and he had to get the evidence that he needed to prove his innocence. He first thought about how someone could have gotten his hoodie. That person had to have access to his apartment in some way or another.
He remembered that recently the pest control man came to spray for small pests such as roaches, mice, termites and flies and he had left work early to accommodate him in his apartment. He would have not fit the description anyway though. He was much taller than him and a bit more strongly built in size. He continued to wonder. There were no other people that he could have thought about unless it was someone who had broken in. But how? Someone must have seen someone trying to break into his apartment. After all, as mentioned before, there were usually always tenants in the hallway chatting and interacting with one another.
He finally concluded that he had to start from the beginning and go back to basics. Firstly, he had to find somewhere safe to occupy where he could stay, hidden away from the police. He wasn't running from them but rather working as a vigilante alongside them trying to assist them in finding the real person guilty of this crime. He also decided that he needed a disguise of some sort. Lastly, he realized that he had to somehow very quickly overcome his fear of traveling again. How else would he be able to get around? He took a deep breath as the thought of possibly having to travel for miles and miles made his head spin. He sat down in an alleyway completely alone. Sad, worried, stressed and innocent.