𝔊𝔘ℑ𝔏𝔗𝔜 ~ 𝔇. 𝔗. | 𝔗ℌ𝔈 𝔇𝔈𝔙ℑ𝔏 𝔐𝔄𝔇𝔈 𝔐𝔈 𝔇𝔒 ℑ𝔗 (3)

three.

"Oh, hey! What's up?!" Debbie smiled as she answered the door. I could hear the stereo at full blast from outside the house.

"Can I talk to Arnie?" I asked.

"Of course! Come in!" She dragged me inside the living room where Bruno, Debbie and Arnie's landlord, and Arnie sat. Immediately, something was off. Why did Arnie look so out of it?

"Hey, gorgeous!" Bruno smiled. I shuddered. I always got weird vibes from him.

"Hey!" I politely waved at the older man before I sat next to Arnie. "Hey, can we talk?"

"What?" his face fell. He was sweaty and pale.

"Can we talk?" I repeated, louder.

"Yeah!" he nodded.

"What did you say to David that night? What happened?!" I asked over the loud music.

"I told it to let him go! I told it to take me!" Arnie spoke before his attention was dragged away, to Bruno who danced around with a laughing Debbie. He was dragged off the couch by Bruno and I let out a slight laugh.

He glared at Bruno and Debbie for a minute before walking off to the kitchen and splashing himself with water.

"Arnie! What's wrong?" I asked, honestly frightened by what I just heard.

Then, he straightened up, staring at Bruno and Debbie again before he grabbed her and dragged her away.

"Arnie! Arnie, what are you doing!?" Debbie asked.

"Arnie, stop! You're seeing things! Arnie!" I called after him, trying to get him to look at me, though he... it refused. Then, he fell, slowly backing up whilst looking down the hall.

"Arnie! Get up! Look at me, okay?" I called after him, trying to break him from the trance.

"Help... Me.." he whispered under the music as Bruno ran down the hall, also trying to comfort his friend in distress.

I couldn't believe my eyes at first. I didn't know what to do, or what to think as Arnie sunk a pocket knife into Bruno's neck, then his chest, and his legs. Debbie let out a scream, backing away from the scene as I stayed and stared in horror.

"Arne-" my voice cracked as Arne got to his feet. For a second, a twinge of humanity appeared in his eyes as he looked at me.

"I did something really bad." Then he left. I didn't stop him. I still don't know why I couldn't stop him from leaving the house.

Debbie called the police, not me. She waited for them to show, unaware and unable to stop me or Arnie, who both fled the scene. I arrived at the hospital again, emotionless and pale.

"Liz? Lizzie, what happened?" Rose spoke, now at the hospital.

"You were right," Drew gave up his seat for me, and I sunk into it, hot tears leaking from my traumatized eyes.

"Talk to me, Lizzie. I'm here, we're here," Drew wiped the tears from my face.

"Arnie admitted. Then he killed Bruno right in front of me."

~°•~°•

So now, here we sat, whilst Arnie was being questioned inside. Mom, dad, and Debbie went with him. I'd already been questioned, which nearly drove me insane. I hadn't stopped trembling since that day, two days ago to be exact. I'd barely said a word, not eaten, not dared look at anyone.

"Please... Eat something. Baby, I'm sitting here watching you killing yourself and I can hardly stand it!" Drew cried out as he knelt in front of my chair, M&M's in one hand and his other cupping my cheek, only making me look at him.

"I'm not hungry," I muttered. It wasn't necessarily a lie. I had no appetite anymore, not after seeing that.

"Please, darling... For me?" Drew coaxed. I let out a long sigh as I gave in. He sat back into his chair and kissed my forehead as I opened the small brown bag and popped one into my mouth, the chocolate immediately melting on my tongue. "That's better, isn't it?"

I silently nodded, the group leaving the room just a few seconds later.

"So?" Drew asked.

"Nothing," dad sighed.

Great.

~°•~°•

I hated court rooms. I never, ever found them interesting. They were boring, much like all the law talk, but we had to be there. Especially me and Debbie, who witnessed both the murder and the possession.

"My defendant pleads not guilty by reason of demonic possession," Mrs. Martin, Arnie's lawyer, stood up, and I snapped back into reality. The court room when silent. I felt Drew's grip on my left hand tighten as I sucked in a breath.

~°•~°•

"I just talked to a friend in the prosecutors office. He's going for the death penalty," Mrs. Martin spoke. I let out a sigh.

"I saw it. It wasn't him! I mean it was him, but it- I-" I tried to make sense but gave up with a groan.

"I'll build the case, but that kid is either gonna live or die depending on what you guys find," Mrs. Martin informed.

"Well, we don't let him down," Dad confirmed.

Then, we separated. Drew dropped me off at Rose's house, and he went back home to figure out a plan on what to do next, whilst mom and dad began looking back on all of our evidence so far.

"What's up? You seem stressed," Matthew, Rose's husband, questioned from his seat on the couch.

"I just got out of court... He's going for the death penalty if we don't figure out what the fuck happened. I watched a guy die, and I don't know what to do!" I practically collapsed on the couch next to Rose.

"The death penalty? How do we fix this?" Rose asked.

"I don't know," I let out a shaky breath, Matt staring at me like I lost my head.

"I'll explain later," Rose sighed.