Masks

Chapter 14- Prestige

They planned.

They proceeded.

Tara could feel the adrenaline rushing through her veins constantly for the next week. It was time to expose them the ruthless scum. The murdering thieves. The absolute sociopaths.

Tara barely looked at any of her classmates anymore. She didn't want any attention towards herself anymore. She wanted to keep a low profile; at least until the plan was through. She scurried out of class as soon as the bell rang. She kept her head down. She sat alone during lunch. Even though Jake and Clark were in on the plan, she couldn't risk anything. She focused on her schoolwork for a while. 

According to the plan, one of them had to land a role in the upcoming Macbeth play. This would make it easier for the distraction. Tara almost smiled as she remembered how they'd all been sure that either she or Jacob would be selected as a character and how it was finally Clarkson who landed the role of Malcolm. Now it was all up to him to stop the play.

 Tara's heart kicked into over-drive just thinking about the next week. Every minute she spent was in dread. Walking in the school halls had become unsafe now. Now that she knew.

Although the expose was going to take time and effort, Tara and her friends dreaded one thing above all; would the killer strike again before the play?

Tara's hands felt clammy and she wiped them down her pants. She was walking down the hallway, heading towards her chemistry class. It was in lone moments like these when she missed her best friend. 

Emily was still being held for attempted murder. Everything was chaos. Emily was probably going to get out of jail as soon as the play was over. But Tara couldn't say the same about her sister. She sighed and rubbed her face against her palms in frustration. 

Why did her sister have to get involved?

Just then, she spotted Clark stalking along the other end of the hallway.

She sprinted up to him.

"Hi, Tara," he murmured. Clarkson, who already spoke to a very minimum, barely spoke nowadays.

"How are the slides coming?" she asked.

"Good," he said, running a hand through his unruly hair. "You spoke with the sheriff yet?"

"Not yet," Tara admitted, frowning to herself. "I'll probably do it after school today."

"I need pictures from him too," Clark reminded.

"But pictures of what?" Tara asked. "The crime scenes? Or the victims?"

"Everything you can find," he said.

"Everything?" Tara asked in confirmation. Clarkson gave her a tight nod before walking away. Tara was left standing where she was. She had the worst part of it all; convincing the sheriff who the real mastermind was and letting Emily go for the duration of the play. She took a deep breath.

"You can do this," she reminded herself.

As soon as school got over, Tara tugged her backpack over her shoulder and headed towards the sheriff's station. She waited a while before they let her into the room.

The sheriff's eyebrows shot to his hairline.

"Ah, young nuisance," he commented. "What brings you here at this hour?"

Tara's blood boiled but now was not the time to go about thinking how pathetic the sheriff's manners were.

"Sir, I need to speak to you," Tara said in the most polite tone she could muster up. The sheriff studied her for a second before asking her to take a seat.