The Perfect Witness

Watch me

I weakly opened my eyes to a dimly lit room. The curtains were still pulled tightly shut, though daylight tried to pour its way through them.

The first thing I noticed was the pounding sensation that reverberated through my skull, an uncanny pain pulsating throughout my foggy brain.

Sleepily, I surveyed my surroundings. Vincent was curled up with a red blanket that was half his size on the sofa next to mine. AJ, Masen, and Dylan occupied the sectional further back in the room, while Mia and Bella snuggled on the floor under a thick wool blanket.

I tightly squeezed my tired eyes shut before taking a long, much-needed deep breath. Lazily, I laid on my side, my eyes threatening to shut again when all of a sudden I was quickly sitting up, scanning the room.

At first, I had no clue why, but then I realized I didn't see Zoe...where was Zoe?

Alarmed but suddenly nauseous from the harsh quick movement, I nonchalantly looked around the room for the missing girl.

Unable to find her, I slowly pushed myself off the warm comforts of the couch and went on a hunt for her.

We all must stick together.

The cool wooden floor sent millions of shivers down my almost bare back.

I was shirtless and pantless...

Bemused, I quickly looked around the room for my now missing clothes. With no luck, I grabbed the fuzzy black blanket I had been sleeping under and wrapped it around my frigid body.

I'd only been in Masen's house once, so his dark, winding halls were nothing but a maze.

Zoe must be in the bathroom or something.

Or maybe she left early?

I leisurely made my way to the front of the house and peered out the glass window. Her big, shimmering white car sat right next to AJ's tiny black BMW.

Perplexed by her absence, I went to check the backyard. Maybe she came outside for some fresh air?

Before I made the trip outside, I took a detour to Masen's bathroom to see if he had any Tylenol.

This bathroom sat directly next to the door to the backyard, so I swiftly glanced out the window to look for our missing girl.

At first glance, I didn't see anything, so I casually grabbed some Tylenol that sat right on the edge of the sink.

On second glance, however, I noticed the blood.

There was thick red blood swimming throughout the pool along with rather large blood streaks on the tiles right next to it.

The fact there was blood didn't send worry through my brain until I remembered I'm looking for a missing Zoe.

"Shit!" I shouted a lot louder than intended.

Now panicked, I sprinted out of the bathroom to the backyard door. However, I was immediately stopped in my tracks by bloody handprints that lay messily on the glass sliding door.

There was so much blood.

"Shit! Shit um... HELP!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, hoping to wake someone so they could come help me outside.

Before I could even get a response, I hurried outside and over to the bloody pool where I found our missing girl, laying face down in the water.

Without a second thought, I dove into the warm and sticky liquid and swam over to Zoe.

Needing to get her out, I promptly flipped her body over with ease.

But when she was right side up, I immediately wished I had left her face down.