Welcome to the City of Lancaster

Chapter Thirty-Three

Calum's POV

They watched Abby walk away, he sighed and went over to heave himself up on the dock.
"Well, I guess the cat is out of the bag," he mutters.
Sam swims over and heaves himself up. "We should've said something to her."
"Yeah? Maybe you shouldn't have invited her!"
"Oh so this is my fault now?"
"Yes Sam, yes it is. You trust people too easily and now, I'm royally fucked. If she hears it from someone else and believes them, what is stopping her from telling everyone back at the academy?" Calum covers his face with his hands.
"No, no I don't think that's true," Sam says.
"What makes you think that?"
"She doesn't seem like the type to running her mouth off."
Calum scoffs. "The kid doesn't stop asking questions Sammy, she doesn't stop talking."
"Oh well, I guess you'll cope better if the roles were reversed. As if you wouldn't wanna know everything about a strange new world that is the complete opposite to the world you came from. If she wants to ask a billion questions just so that she feels safe, I think she is allowed to do so."
Sam was right.
He usually always was right.
"I know you are innocent. I was there that night and I know you did not do it. Patrick lied to everyone but since Malcolm's body vanished... it looked bad but not everyone believed an eleven year old was capable of doing something so horrific," Sam lets out a breath. "You've been so afraid of people getting too close to you and when discovering the truth, they would rip open those wounds and ruin your reputation. I get it but you're almost eighteen, I think it is time that we put the past behind us."
Again, he was right. Calum was so afraid of what people would think of him if they found out the truth, some people jump to conclusions and become an outcast or worse, not being accepted as a Ranger.
He should accept it.
He knew the truth and some of the people in this town did not believe he did it anyway. Sam and his family believed him and when his family, who didn't believe him tossed him out and disowned him, they took him in. Sebastian believed him as well and even tried to convince their parents to not toss him out of the house which led them to threatening to disown him. Calum disliked his brother but least he was trying to help him.
Calum was tired. He was tired of pushing people away, he hated being cold towards others and hasn't been fair towards Abby.
"I'm so tired of this," Calum admits out loud. "You are right Sammy. Of course you are right..."
"Whether I'm right or not doesn't mean anything, I'm your best friend. I want to help you but at the end of the day, I can only do so much, the rest is up to you."
Calum smiled at his friend. "I honestly don't know where I would be right if it wasn't for you."
Sam returns the smile. "Don't think about that... now," he clears his throat. "What's our next move?"
"I wanna say that we should go and find Abby however I am not overly sure that's a great idea," Calum says, he slams his fist down hard against the wooden dock causing Sam to jump at the sudden move. "Shit. If I wanted her to find out, I didn't want it to be this way."
"She hasn't been told the full truth though," Sam assures him. "Don't go doubting anything until you talk to her."
"What if she won't talk to me?"
"I think she trusts me," Sam frowns for a second and nods. "Yeah, I am ninety-five percent sure she trusts me. I'll be your back up, that's our next move! We go and find Abby, she's probably back at the house by now."
Calum nods. "We find Abby and tell her everything."




Abby's POV

"They aren't Abigail because I was there. I saw the whole thing."
A shiver went down my spin and tears rolled down my cheek. "It can't be true."
"Well, it is," she says folding her arms, her expression softened. "You must really care about him, don't you?"
"No!" I wiped the unwanted tears. "He is a jerk."
Jade raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I am curious about this now."
"No, I just wanna hear about what happened?"
"Are you sure? I don't think you really wanna know."
"Please," I begged. "They are telling me jack shit."
She clicks her tongue observing me for a moment before shrugging it off. "All right."
I scooted forward ready to listen.
"It was about six years ago, we all were friends back then and we agreed to sneak out to meet at the old abandoned church," she pointed across the lake, I could just see a building through the trees. "It was apparently haunted but that theory was shut down because there was nothing, the boys were goofing off quite a bit." She laughed at the memory. "We were quite the group of friends," she clears her throat. "Patrick snuck some alcohol drinks from his parents place, he even managed to score some drugs."
"You guys were young though, way too young to be doing that," I commented.
"No shit, look are you going to talk through my story?"
"No, sorry" I pressed my lips together.
Jade mumbled a couple of curse words before continuing. "Yes, we were young but the older kids were doing it and we thought they were cool so we did it. We got hammered and drugged up. Malcolm and Calum got into a massive fight over something, I can't remember what and Samuel suggested they sorted it out. They went upstairs to the balcony so that they wouldn't kill our party buzz. Patrick went outside to take a piss, a few minutes went by and we heard a scream and someone fell. I never sobered up so fast in my life, we ran out to find Malcolm dead on the ground and Calum..." she takes a deep breath. "Calum was standing there looking down at us with a cold-hearted expression on his face."
Jade shivered even though it was quite warm out still.
"We shouted at him, Patrick came running out of the bushes and Calum turned around and walked back inside. When he came out with Samuel, they acted all confused about what happened. They denied it!
They fucking denied it. I thought Samuel was in on it but the look on his face when he saw Malcolm's body... something told me he had nothing to do it but he defended his friend. Samuel suggested we searched the house for someone else but there was no one else."
She stopped talking taking another deep breath. "I'm sorry, it's just hard thinking back."
"Take your time."
She inhales and exhales a few times and wiped her eyes before continuing. "We told the authorities what happened and when we returned to the scene, Malcolm's body was gone. Vanished into thin air. Patrick accused Calum of doing it but they could never find the body."
She turns her head to me. "He is a murderer Abby."
It was starting to get dark when Jade finished her story and her last words sent chills throughout my body.
We sat in silence for a while, she watched the water while I was still processing everything she had just said.
They never found the body.
An eleven year old boy murdered another person who was a couple of years older, I don't know something about it just doesn't sound right.
"You're so quiet."
Yeah, well the last words you said literally shook me to the core, how am I supposed to respond. I thought the story again and something told me that something just was not right about the whole situation.
"It just... it sounds like an accident."
"Whether it was or wasn't, he dragged the body somewhere and that poor family has never been able move on."
"You said they searched everywhere - the lake, the woods, the church - everywhere. They would have found something because eleven year olds aren't exactly the smartest."
Jade shrugs. "It's the story. Look, I don't care if you believe me or not but if I were you, I'd keep my guard up around him."
She gets up. "Do you walk me to walk back to where you are staying or...?"
"No, I'm fine," I smiled at her. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it kid," she smiles a small smile. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way, I can see that you liked him a lot."
My snapped in her direction. "What? No!"
"You don't have to lie to me, I can see that you do by how you reacted. Like I said, keep your guard up around him and be safe" and without another word, she leaves me alone.
I sat there for the longest time not entirely sure what to make of it, the sky continued to darken so I decided to return back to Sam's place, I needed a bit of space to think things through, I was sure that they would want to chat with me about what happened today, I wasn't ready just yet for it. It was a short walk to Sam's house, I took off my shoes and walked in, Calum was sitting on the bottom step of the stairs chewing his nail and practically leaped up when he saw me.
"Abby!" He looked relieved but that expression changed in a second. "Where the hell were you?" He whispered angrily.
"No where," I pushed past him, he follows.
"Sam is out searching for you."
"I didn't ask for a search party, okay?" I opened the door to my room and turned to him. "I am fine, you guys don't have to worry about me all the damn time, okay!"
Calum was taken back by my words.
"I have nothing to say to you right now."
Calum bit his lip. "Do you believe them? Do you think I did it?"
He sounded scared, I took a few seconds to respond. "Look, I've heard a lot and right now all I want to do is process it all before we talk about it. Is that okay with you?"
He nods his head. "Okay. I'll go find Sam then."
"Okay."
"Dinner will be ready in about ten minutes," he says backing away, he turns and stops looking back at me looking rather, sad, it was a surprising seeing the vulnerable side of Calum. Our eyes locked, I felt myself wanting to go over and wrap my arms around him and let him know that I didn't believe a word they all said. I fought against the urge looking away so I could not be tempted and closed the door.