Tethered

Chapter Sixteen

1

"Why is my name here?" She whispered. "Why is it here? How did..."

"Relax", he said. "What do you know about Ken Leadwood?"

"Who's Ken Leadwood?"

"The guy I chased that night", he said. Sarah shook her head. She didn't know the guy nor had she ever seen him before. She was frightened—terribly frightened. She wanted to sit down. She sauntered to Philip's master bed, and sat down uninvited.

"What's going on?" She asked, nearly whispering again. She felt hot and she felt sick to her stomach.

Philip shrugged, then grabbed his laptop. "I want to show you something", he said. Sarah looked at him for a second before approaching, and sitting next to him. The screen showed a teenage boy, maybe eighteen or nineteen years old with rusty brown hair and hazel eyes. Philip hit the play button.

"Hey guys. (The guy rubbed his eyes, and tried to smile). It's me again. Your crazy boy. It's been a month and half now. I can't sleep well because of these fucking nightmares. They're killing me, and...and these unreal things I keep seeing (he paused, rubbed his eyes and sighed) I don't understand shit. It's a mess. I'm a mess. People say I'm fucking depressed and traumatized. Err...um...err. Shit! This is crazy. The headaches, and shit. Well, I guess that's a crazy way of life. I know I'm a bad person and probably deserve this but I can't remember shit. It's a mess."

The video ended with the guy trying to smile but it came out like he was about to cry instead. The fact that the guy even had the courage to make such a video amazed Sarah. He was practically mumbling. Below the video, Sarah could see thousands of likes and comments.

This is crazy, she thought. Who could want to see something like this and like it?

Sarah was speechless. For a moment, she visualized the crazy life on social media and how people went about liking and commenting on nonsense.

"Does it sound familiar?" Philip asked, snapping Sarah back to reality. She glanced at him, but said nothing. The whole thing sounded frightfully familiar to Sarah despite the mumbling and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't a bit excited to know that she actually wasn't alone in all this.

"That's George Carme", Philip said. "Two days before he committed suicide."

Sarah's blood ran cold. "Suicide?" She murmured. Philip took the small paper from Sarah.

"Nicki Charity, Nadia Brown, Ken Leadwood, Vivian Lana, and George Carme are all dead", he said. Then, he went on showing Sarah the images he'd managed to find. George Carme, and Nadia Brown had committed suicide but Nicki Charity, Vivian Lana and Ken Leadwood had died bleeding from their noses, mouths, ears and eyes. It was all very peculiar for Sarah to process. She was speechless, wondering how all this was connected to her and her situation.

2

"It says here that the teens had gone insane, took their own lives or died of drug overdoses since all of them were either depressed or traumatized."

"What does any of this have to do with me?" She asked. "I don't understand. Why is my name on this stupid list?"

"Ken Leadwood had these names with him, and that's why I want to find out how and why", he said, closing his laptop.

"This is bullshit!" Sarah erupted, adrenalines kicking in. She could feel her skin crawling at the thought of what could happen and how it could happen. "This is madness. It's all a lie! What..."