Only a month after Mallory's return, Adventure Bay is faced with a bigger problem. On her fourteenth birthday, Everest's birthday cake is injected with a lethal dose of Pentobarbital, and she is killed. But the thing is, is that the only ones at the...
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I stood there in the snow, frozen in time. My eyes were locked on Everest's lifeless body. How could this have happened? What happened? I felt the sting of tears in my eyes, but I pushed it aside, as I knew I had to go alert Ryder. I found the power inside my legs again, and barged through the cabin doors. Ryder, who was previously enjoying a conversation with Jake, stared at me, probably wondering what had caused me to look so panicked. "Ryder, follow me." I demanded, my lips quivering. He obeyed, looking weirded out, and followed me out the doors to come see what what going on. As soon as the door had closed and we were outside, I started talking. "Everest is dead." I said, trying to keep it together. "What?!" Ryder was shocked. "She said she had to go pee, and she didn't come back, and I found her body." I signalled towards the back of the cabin. I ran as fast as a pregnant pup could to her motionless body. There it was, I wasn't delusional. Ryder's mouth hung open. "Get yourself home," he muttered. "I'll take care of this with Jake, but things might get messy." He contacted the rest of the pups to let them know about the sudden change of plans.
We all hurried back to our vehicles, and everyone but me had no clue what was going on. They must have sensed the panic in Ryder's voice, because they all obeyed without question. I made my way to my helicopter, still trying to process what had just happened. I don't think I had ever flown so fast in my life. I just wanted Chase. I needed him to tell me that everything was going to be okay. Everest and I weren't on the same page on things, but that didn't mean I wanted her to die. She had been my best friend for years.
I hoped the pups wouldn't figure out that I knew about what happened and bombard me with questions. When we got back to the lookout, Ryder told us through our pup tags that we were to head to our pup houses immediately. There was a sense of panic throughout the group, even though most didn't know what was going on. Despite that, everyone obeyed. And I went with Chase to his pup house.
When he shut the door behind him, that's when it all really set in. One of my friends was dead, and it had happened instantaneously. Chase sensed my panic immediately. "Do you know what's going on?" He asked, quietly. "Everest is dead." The power in my voice was reduced to a whisper. Chase's reaction was similar to Ryder's in some ways, his mouth hung open, but he didn't yell. He was in shock. "W-what happened?" I felt dizzy, and I sat down. "While we were building a snowman, she didn't look so good, like she was light headed. But I asked her about it, and she just said she had to pee. She left, I assumed she was going to the bathroom, but I found her dead around the back of Jake's cabin. It just happened so quick." Chase kneeled down so we were face to face. "Was she bleeding out or anything?" He asked. "No, nothing had penetrated her skin or anything, she was just...dead." Chase breathed a sigh of relief. "So she wasn't killed. She must have suffered a heart attack or something." He didn't seem too sad that our lifetime friend had just died. I snapped. "DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?! EVEREST IS DEAD!" I lost all power in my body, and I slumped to the floor. I couldn't believe this was really happening. Chase put his head on top of mine. "I know, I'm just making sure everyone's safe first." I suddenly felt really bad for yelling at him. "I'm sorry," I whispered, trying to hold back tears. He didn't answer, and he didn't have to.
We waited for what seemed like forever, for Ryder to tell us that we could come out. It was dark, and I started to wonder if he would at all. Chase and I talked a little in the couple hours we were cooped up in his pup house, but it was mostly silent. I was petrified. I had witnessed death, and that isn't a good thing. I tried to get some sleep, but it felt like that would be impossible. I started to picture how things would be going over at Jake's cabin, how he would react. He loved Everest, and the news would be the hardest on him. "Are you still awake?" Chase's voice in the dark startled me after such a long time of silence. "Yeah." I replied, half heartedly. He could sense my fear, and he lifted his head off of mine. "C'mere." he whispered. He drew me into a hug. "It's gonna be okay." He whispered into my ear. "I really hope so." I whispered back.
I fell asleep in that position, and I had nightmares about Everest's death, and I dreamt that Chase died too. It was quite possibly the worst night of my entire life. I had planned something, something that I wasn't proud of, but Everest dead wasn't it.
I woke up, not feeling any better than the night before. Chase, who I figured was waiting for me to wake up, was talking the instant I opened my eyes. "Should I contact Ryder, and ask him if we can leave?" He asked. "Sure." I groaned, trying to push myself off the floor. Chase pressed on his pup tag, and it beeped twice. "Ryder? Is everything okay?" He held his breath hoping for some sort of reply. "Yeah, bud. You can come out now." The expression in his voice told me that he got little to no sleep last night.
Chase slid open the door to his pup house, and we walked to the lookout together. We scanned the room, no Ryder. I was just about to say something, when Ryder's voice came in through Chase's pup tag. "I'm at Katie's. Just trying to figure out how all this happened. If you guys wanna come down, you can, but if you don't want to, don't feel pressured to." I looked at Chase. "He probably needs some company.." He nodded. "We'll be right over." He said, into his pup tag.
We skipped breakfast, and went straight to Chase's cruiser. He put his sirens on, so people in the road would get out of the way. I thought it to be a little misleading, but I wasn't about to question it.
When we pulled up to Katie's parlour, I could already see Ryder's ATV parked out front. Chase parked his cruiser, and we headed inside together, not knowing what to expect.
As we walked in, I immediately saw Ryder, with bags under his eyes. I looked to their right, and there was Everest, her dead body on the bed. Katie was doing something with Everest, but I don't really know much medical stuff. She looked petrified, and she had probably never dealt with a dead body before. We headed towards Ryder, and kept him company. He pulled me up onto his lap, and Chase sat in an empty seat beside him. Being in that empty room, with a dead body, and the owner of the dead body, was more than enough to make everyone uneasy.
We waited until Katie stopped what she was doing with Everest. She covered her up with a blanket of some sort. "I found what happened," Everyone sat up in their seat instantly. "Everest has consumed a lethal dose of Pentobarbitala." She said. Dead silence hit the room as nobody knew what Pentobarbitala was. Katie did not look impressed. "I didn't want to put it like this, but I found poison in her cake. Everest was murdered."
