Careless, Reckless Decisions | ONC 2021

Chapter Nine

hey guys! I know that I took a huge break, and was gone for like a couple months, and I won't lie it was mostly because I didn't get to the second round of the Novella Contest. But like I said, I'm not going to stop writing this story, and I'm super thankful to all of you. I had this chapter typed up for a while actually, and I thought that you all deserved to finally see the next chapter. I hope that the next updates won't be as slowly! Thank you all <3

. . .

Throughout the whole night, it felt as if Kia and I had gone back to our normal selves. Almost like we went back to our carefree, teenage lives. We had completely blocked out all the recent memories of what we now labeled "That Night", and focused on what was in front of us. And in our case, that happened to be food and movies.

What could go wrong?

That's what we had thought, until karma seemed to catch up with us.

"What other crappy movie do you have planned for us now?" I groaned, pretending to hate the cheesy high school romances that Kia kept forcing me to watch.

"Oh, you know. Just the most classic high school movie of all time." Kia wagged her eyebrows at me, and walked over to her shelf, pulling out the dreadful movie.

I gasped, and dramatically fell onto Kia's bed, "Is that what I think it is? Please, let my eyes deceive me."

Kia smirked and then proudly presented the horror of my childhood, "Yep, you guessed it. HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL!"

Kia danced around her room, waving the DVD around in the air.

I snatched up one of Kia's million pillows and stuffed it into my face, "Suffocate me. End me now, while I still have a chance."

"Oh, shut up, you know you love this movie." Kia rolled her eyes, and quickly placed the DVD into her computer. "Now watch, and be amazed."

But before the movie could even start, our phones pinged at exactly the same time.

We both instantly picked up our phones, us equally as curious as the other.

"Oh my god." Kia's face had a look of pure dread, and I could only match her expression.

Sent to both of our phones, was a message that we had tried to block out of our minds. Except it wasn't just any message.

It was a threat.

The anonymous text read:

We know.

I kept reading the 2 words over and over again. It didn't seem to make any sense. How could someone know? How could anyone know?

And that's when a lightbulb went off in my head.

"Sam. It has to be Sam." I insisted, pausing the movie that was long forgotten, and turned on Kia's lights.

Kia didn't say anything, and kept staring blankly at her phone.

I took this as a sign to continue.

"He was the only one there that night. The only one who saw me go with John alone. The only one who knows that when we came back, John didn't. He's the only reasonable explanation."

I was pacing at this point, knowing that my gut feeling was hardly ever wrong.

It had to be him.

At that exact moment, another message came through.

Come forward, and you will be spared.