𝙊𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 - 𝐵.𝐸

21 - 𝘗𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘉𝘺 𝘝𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦

"Mom I lost it, how was I supposed to know you called!" I explained to my mom why I wasn't answering last night.

"No Jason tried to go and find it for me after but we couldn't, someone probably stole it." I tell her as I look around my room to all my friends sitting around. "Okay okay bye. Mom yeah I know I'm sorry I'll see you later bye." I hung up and gave Billies phone back to her.

I picked up Binx in my arms and stroked his black coat while I sat down on the ledge by my window. We all sat in silence for hours trying to come up with a logical explanation for last night. It was impossible, like trying to catch a ghost on camera.

Who was shooting arrows at me? Who placed the recorder on the tree? Who set up a bear trap ? Questions of who it was repeatedly played in my mind.

"How many times did they shoot towards you?" Jason asked, resting his back on the wall.

"I don't know, like three maybe why?" I clearly remember almost being hit by three but there could have been more,

"Like...Maddy I hate to ask this but...are you sure you weren't like hallucinating again-"

"Jason I haven't done any drugs since Italy." We knew from experience that keeping them in the dark was just more confusing for everyone. Me and Billie ended up telling Ali, Zoe and Jason what had happened during vacation.

"Sorry I didnt mean to snap, I just im confused and im worried and scared and I have no idea what the literal fuck is going on." I apologize.

"They wanted me dead. The way they pointed at me...they were definitely aiming for my head and they are good at it." I say letting Binx run on the floor onto his bed.

"And they had the recording of us filming the thing for Zoe and Claires assignment, remember? It sounded so real it was weird." I explained.

"Well Claire was with me basically the entire night, it couldn't have been them, they left like literally 10 seconds after we found you." Zoe tells me sitting up from the bed.

"Where was Kit?" Billie scoffs. "It wasn't Kit." I say.

"Are we inviting them to the cabin?-"

"Why are we even doing it there? Was there nowhere else to celebrate prom?" I asked.

"My mom suggested it, it's not like they know it's a crime scene only we do." Billie tells us that Maggie suggested we do a tiny thing at the cabin since we got kicked out from going to the real prom.

"Bil just told her we don't want to go back there because the police keep asking about it." Alison lays upside down from the bed. She's been scared ever since last night, I get it I mean we all thought this shit was over months ago, I hope she doesn't take it too hard.

"Dude the more I tell them I wanna stay away from the Cabin the more they will think im trying to hide shit." Bil tells us scrolling through her phone.

"Fine, are we inviting them?" I ask the group.

"No-"

"Billie you cant ignore Kit and Claire forever they are friends now." Alison chimes in.

"I don't feel comfortable with her there." She refers to Kit.

"No I get it your right. Plus the two of them were not banned from prom. They can come but, I'm pretty sure they would rather be at the real thing." I say. Billies right, the last thing I want to do is make her uncomfortable on prom night since she's already bummed about it.

"Guys sorry I gotta get going." Ali gets up from the bed.

"Why? Where are you going?" Jason asks.

"I just gotta go to my uncles for a bit and pick something up." She tells us before getting up and putting her sweater on.

"What is it?" I asked curiously.

"Nothing just...something about my dad." She said, causing us to stop talking about it.

"So like are all gonna wear the stuff we bought for prom? Wait when even is prom?" Jason asked everyone before I followed Ali downstairs to say goodbye.

"Wait Ali can you come over tomorrow, we can just hang out here?"I ask before she opens the door.

"Oh uh no I'm sorry I can't...I gotta do something with Sadie." She puts her converse on.

"That's fine, what are you guys up to?"I ask.

"Just some family stuff and I told her I'd help her with her homework." She says before saying goodbye and stepping out.

"Okay, just text me-well text Billie right away when you get home." I hug her outside and go back upstairs. I didn't want any of my friends going anywhere alone, something bad always seems to happen.

I went upstairs trying to figure out what the fuck was going on with my friends. Are we in danger? Are we being targeted? Even if we were by who? The police wouldn't try to kill us if they wanna pin Robin's disappearance on us, nothing made sense.

We sat in my room all day until one by one everyone left. I pleaded to my mom about spending the night with my girlfriends but she declined since I had five people sleep over last night. I deflated the air mattress Zoe and Jason slept on in the middle of my room before changing into my pajamas.

I heard the doorbell ring as I filled my glass of water up in the kitchen sink before going to bed. I peeked through the blinds but no one appeared to be there. We should really get a ring camera.

As I walked towards my front door, I couldn't help but feel a sense of unease from yesterday. It was late at night, and the street was eerily quiet. The only sounds I could hear were the rustling of the trees and my own footsteps. But as I reached the doorstep, my attention was drawn to a rectangular package wrapped up like a gift, sitting on the mat.

I picked it up and examined it. The blue paper was tightly wrapped around the box, and there was no indication of who it was from or what was inside. It was almost as if it had magically appeared out of thin air.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to take it up to my room to open it. As I climbed the stairs, I couldn't shake off the feeling that something was not quite right. But my curiosity was stronger than my fear, and I continued up to my room.

I sat on the edge of my bed and placed the package in front of me.. As I peeled back each layer, my heart started to race with anticipation. What could possibly be inside?

I threw the wrapping paper to the side and unveiled a canvas with my portrait. I smiled looking at the beautifully painted picture of myself, Kit is so talented.

There was some writing on the back of it that read "To Maddy, I was honored to be able to paint this for you. I'm in love with every single detail. P.S You gotta bring it in on Thursday so Mrs.Petrova can grade it lol but afterwards I better see this hanging on your wall or else."

That was so nice of her, it really does look beautiful. I titled the picture up on my dresser and held it in place with some random perfume bottles so it wouldn't fall.

I got back into bed and brushed the covers over my eyes wanting to forget about everything that's been happening, including going back to the place where we took lives away and painted the snow a crimson red that would forever be a part of me.

_______

Author's Note:

I've been liking posting double chapters lately since they have been a bit short

Word Count: 1303 / 93,700

Chapter Song: Ferrari - The Neighbourhood