Masks

Chapter 2- Cheer

"What?!" Tara almost yelled.

The sheriff sighed again. "Look, you understand why it's important for us to ask you questions, right?"

Tara nodded sullenly. Rye? Missing? Wha...?

"What were they talking about?" he asked.

"They were arguing," Tara said. The sheriff raised both his eyebrows. Tara panicked.

"It's not what you think!" she hurriedly mended. "Rye had come to apologize to Emily about some feud in their past. Emily didn't accept her apology and then Jacob arrived. He just told her to go away."

The sheriff seemed to ponder for a minute.

"Who do you think kidnapped her?" he asked. Tara's face paled.

"Kidnapped? How are you sure?" she spluttered out.

"We're not. It's a hunch. But a name popped to your mind when I said she was kidnapped," the sheriff said. "Tara, what name was it?"

Tara swallowed and felt like she was gulping a rock. Her throat went dry.

"What name was it?" the sheriff asked again.

Emily.

But there was no way in hell Tara would say that. Emily couldn't have done this.

But how long have you known her? One day? A nagging voice at the back of her mind asked.

But again, Emily claimed that the backstabbing exchange between them happened a long time back. What reason did Em have to do something to her now?

"Tara," her father said, his voice holding a warning. Tara looked up to the sheriff and smiled, even though she knew it looked like a grimace.

"No one sheriff. Nobody," she said with a shaky voice. The sheriff stared at her for a minute.

"Men, we're done here," he hollered at his men without taking his gaze off Tara.

"Ma'am, if you are holding back on telling us something, it is against the law- obstruction of justice. You can be arrested," the sheriff said quietly. Tara shivered slightly. He was trying to scare her into giving him information. Wait, not information. Opinion. Her gaze snapped to the sheriff's and she glared at him.

"I'm not going to be arrested for not giving my opinion on who might have kidnapped Rye. It's not obstruction of justice you moro-," Tara started. Her father pinched her elbow.

"Language," he muttered. The sheriff seemed taken aback but Tara caught the glint of anger in behind his hooded expression.

"Get lost," Tara mumbled at him as she shoved past him to hit the roads. She ignored the shouts of her father, telling her to come back and apologize to the sheriff.

The sky was grey. As she ran, thunder stormed high up in the clouds. The sound hit her ears like paper tearing. The weather seemed to reflect her mood.

Tara continued running, but she wasn't on her usual path. She ran all the way to Emily's house. Droplets of rain had started falling. They made their way into Tara's hair, down her forehead, mixing with her sweat and stinging her eyes. Tara blinked rapidly through the convulsive rain. When she reached Emily's house, she knocked the door with her knuckles. She didn't bother wiping her face. Water dripped down her chin as she waited.

The door creaked open. Emily stood there. She was wearing sweatpants and a shirt with some band's name on it. She looked like she'd been awake for a long time. Tara stared at Emily.

"Was the sheriff here?" Tara asked. Emily nodded silently. They stared at each other for an entire minute before Emily lost it. She threw her arms around Tara's neck and started sobbing uncontrollably. Tara was shocked for a second and the next, her arms went around Emily.