Trouble in Tiltown

Tip of the iceburg

As I approach West from behind, a bush rustles and he turns quickly around to face me. Or to block me, from something.. or, someone?
"Hey birthday guy." He chuckles as he pats my shoulder. I turned my head down to see his big hand on my shoulder before I look up at him once again with suspicion.
"Whatcha doin'?" I inquired him with a raised eyebrow as I attempted to peek around him.
"I was just getting some alone time. I don't like crowds." He admitted.
"Well to me, it seemed like you were talking to someone." I laughed.
"No, not at all."
"Well, then why-
"Wait, who's that?" He asked me looking behind me.
"I'm not falling for that-" But before I could finish my sentence, he was pushing past me and towards the lake where a guy was swimming with Elouise in the lake.
"Your sister is just making a friend." I reassure him until I started seeing what he was seeing. He was wrestling with her in the water, attempting to push her under. West ran into the water and pushed the guy back, allowing Elouise to run out of there. Before I knew it, everybody was watching the scene in the lake between West and the guy.
"What do you think you're doing?!" He yelled at the guy as he held on tightly to the guy's arm to keep him in place.
"West!" I hear Amber yell from nearby. She stood at the edge of the sand, pleading for West to come back.
"Look man, I was just told to do it. I swear!" The guy defended himself as he cried. My eyes wandered around to find Jerrick watching the incident, before we both glanced at each other with the same amount of concern.
"You were told to do it? By who?" West questioned him. However, the guy wasn't speaking anymore until West began to pull him by his short hair.
He winced in pain, "B-by Abraham! He's one of the leaders, okay?! We don't make the rules." A few moments pass and finally West whispers something to the guy and he runs out of the water and down the road. West walks out of the lake, past the crowd of watchers.
He stopped by me, keeping his head down, "Happy birthday." He lowly spoke as he took his family with him and drove off. Soon enough, everybody was back to normal. Almost. People talked in each other's ears now, staring at other people with suspicion instead of smiling. This was Tiltown's normal.

The warm, orange sun was going down slowly and my group of friends were the only ones left at the lake.
My mother comes up behind me, "We're leaving in five minutes, say goodbye to your friends." She pats me before going to the car. As I had my friends surrounding me to say goodbye, Elouise tried to walked past until I stop her with my hand gently.
"Are you alright?" I asked her. Her eyes held a tiredness in them, perhaps tired of the event that took place today. I can't blame her.
"Yes. Happy birthday, Laurence." She spoke softly before leaving. I turned back to my group of friends as we all exchanged looks of worry across our faces.
"We all know she's lying. Clearly, you're not going to be okay after that." Kat blurted aloud. Jerrick gave her a hard glare.
"There feels like there's something else to this." I admitted quietly as to not let anyone else hear. They both look to me with confused expressions before they glanced at each other to make sure they weren't alone in the confusion.
"Isn't there always something more?" Jerrick scoffed.
"Why would her own brother try to get her killed?" I wondered out loud.
Kat shrugs, "And the guy also said that Abraham was one of the leaders." She stated.
"We thought we know all we could know, but truth be told.." Jerrick drifts his sentence away.
"We know only the tip of the iceberg." I finished his sentence for him.

Elouise's POV
I lay on the bed as West and his family sat together at the table, eating dinner. As for me, I was too tired to eat. As I laid there and closed my eyes, the event of today haunted me into my sleep.

"Who are you?" I questioned the guy. His dark and wet hair covered his eyes.
"You don't need to know that, but you need to know that everything people do here in this town, isn't because they want to do it." The guy admitted to me as he began closing in.
"Okay, weirdo." I spat at him as I attempted to swim off but he pulled me back harshly. As we began fighting each other in the water, the splashes began to get bigger and bigger until I realized I was trying to get a breath. I hear the man whispering something over and over again, barely audible as I had water in my ears, covering noise. As I flayed my arms around above the surface, I came back up to see my brother yelling at the suspicious guy. My eyes trace all the people watching the incident before I rush out of the water. I go behind the bathroom and slide down the wall, crying to myself softly while I replayed the horrific scene in my head over again.
"Don't ask, don't wonder." I said to myself as I finally stopped crying. I began laughing with tears rolling down my face and once I realized what I was doing, I stopped and went into the restroom. I stood in front of the mirror, my hands on the sink as I took deep breaths to calm myself down. Finally, I decided to splash water on my face. Each splash, I felt as if I were drowning just like moments before. Turning the faucet off, I raised my head up slowly to look at myself in the mirror. As I did so, a man came from the closed stall from behind me. I flipped my body around to face him, however, his cowboy hat hid his face.
"You know too much. I'm sorry." He spoke in a deep voice, almost too deep to be human.

I bolted upright, sweat dripping down my forehead and down onto my chest as I breathed heavily. Next to me was West, Amber and Scott, all peacefully sleeping. I stood up and got a glass of water, downing it in just seconds. As a hand comes down onto my shoulder, I turn around with speed just to see that it's West.
"Are you okay?" He whispers.
"Yeah, I just had a bad dream." I admitted.
He sighs softly, "Don't worry Elouise, He won't be hurting you. Not on my watch."
My eyebrows furrowed together, "Who?"
"Abraham."
"What are you talking about?" I laughed, still confused.
"When he was in the restroom with you." He explained to me. That wasn't a dream?