Prime Suspect (When I Saw You In Remains)

Chapter 2: Questions & Answers

When I woke up the next morning, it was almost noon. I was kind of restless from the night, but was still feeling great over yesterday. As I got out of my bed, my eyes were caught by the tulip on my desk. It put a smile on my face, yet it was standing so plain where it was. I relocated it in front of my window and left my room. Right in front of me, my sister was wiping the floors in the hallway, I simply asked her what was going on.

JENNETTE: -- "I am so bored! No paint, no books, no wifi. What am I expected to do?"

WILLOW: --"Not wiping the floors for sure, but good for you.", I looked at my phone with zero notifications, "There really is nothing to do, huh. Do you wanna go to the beach today?"

JENNETTE: --"YES! Save me from being Cinderella. We left the car in the pier, tho."

WILLOW: --"Oh, right! I should better ask Claire for a ride again before it's any later. We'll get ready when I come."

I quickly informed my parents and left without wasting any more seconds in order not to risk missing Claire. Too bad, her car wasn't standing where she parked last night. I decided to try my chance and see if she was home anyway. I rang the bell, her father opened the door. There was a hurry in the house, I asked repeatedly if Claire was home but he was constantly distracted by Claire's mother arguing with him from the kitchen. They were yelling so loudly at each other, they probably had hearing problems. Finally, I got both of their attention when Mrs. Dutchson came from the kitchen and saw me on the door.

WILLOW: -- ''Good morning! I was meaning to speak to Claire. Is she at home?

MRS. DUTCHSON: -- ''Oh, darling! She lives in the cove with her brother don't you know?

WILLOW: --''I KNOW INDEED but I just thought she'd still be here.''

MR. DUTCHSON: -- ''Oh, why'd she be her now? She'll be coming tomorrow. That's why we're in such a hurry, it's Claire and Matthew's birthday and we already started preparations.''

The way her parents didn't know that she crashed at their place last night was weird to me. Yet, I wasn't going to open up about it because I had only met Claire last night and I didn't know if there was a reason behind her leaving home without telling her parents and I didn't want to dish it, possibly causing a situation.

NO RIDE, THEN I mumbled, I didn't want to walk the entire road, so I thought it would be a good idea to take a shortcut by the woods. Upon entering, I regretted my decision fast as it gave so many flashbacks from yesterday, morning and night. I took a deep breath and whispered to myself: There's nothing to be scared about. The bright weather, beautiful trees, birds, flowers, footprints... FOOTPRINTS? Footprints! I made good points: It is completely normal for there to be footprints, I am walking here and so can anyone. I made bad points, too: Someone else probably used it to get to the town, I should follow the footsteps. Before my mind made the decision, my feet already had. I was walking on the footprints.

Close before the footprints ended, I heard a noise that made me walk even more quietly. I cautiously walked near the noise, which was also the final destination of the footprints. I Just stood behind a tree and looked. It was the masked person that I've seen yesterday. My vision was quite limited where I was standing. Thus, I reached further from the tree. Now I could see they were holding a shovel. On the ground, there were three graves: two open and one just closed. They suddenly turned my way and I hid back behind the tree as fast as I could, praying they didn't see me, my heart out of my chest. But, no! I could hear them walking towards me. As I saw their shadow got fully visible, which meant they were next, I got up and started running as fast as I could. I could sense them running after me, but I didn't have the courage to look behind. I ran and ran until I found myself out of the woods near the pier. I looked behind now, they had stopped following me. I was trying to breath and that's when I heard Shells reaching out to me: