Easier to Lie

Chapter Five

"No way! Nope! Not happening! Leah, you've lost your mind!"

Adam had the great idea of sneaking into the home of Sandee Pastor. It was still considered a crime scene and Leah agreed to go investigate.

"Oh, c'mon, Reg, you love this gory stuff."

"Yeah, in the movies! Big difference!"

My mind went to picturing all the ways this could go wrong. How much trouble could we get into? I couldn't go to jail; I'd lose my scholarship. I couldn't afford to pay for college on my own. Leah was risking her sports scholarship and it didn't seem to bother her.

"Come on, have a little fun," her voice repeated over and over in my head.

"If you don't want to go in, I'll stay outside with you," Eric said. He had never been a fan of horror movies, so I wondered if he was using me as the excuse to not go in the house.

Against my better judgement I climbed into the back seat of Adam's truck. Eric sat next to me and Leah sat in the front. She leaned over and put her head on Adam's shoulder. I watched them as he drove and at each red light he would kiss the top of her head. She was nervous, I could tell by her nonstop chattering. She talked about nothing in particular, mostly the weather and how "it should be eighty degrees year-round," anything to keep the silence at bay.

The house was in a nice neighborhood with a cul-de-sac. The two streetlights were out, which is probably why no one noticed the killer near the house. I could barely make out the shape of the homes. Bushes and flowers lined the driveways. It seemed like such a quiet, safe place. I could picture myself living in a place like this someday. Married with a dog, a baby on the way. Tulips in place of the sunflowers and roses.

Eric and Adam used flashlights to lead us to the porch. They tried opening the window with no luck. The property was lined with crime scene tape and I kept waiting for the neighbors to step out, maybe one of them was keeping an eye on the place now. Too late for that if you ask me, but you know how people are after crimes, they must be nosey. Kind of like what we were doing.

It was Leah's idea to try the door knob. Eric swore it would be locked and suggested we go back home and watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia until we passed out. Adam and Leah ignored him, but I was on his side. I had a bad feeling, worse than the one I had earlier. This bad feeling was making me sick to my stomach and I ended up puking in the bushes. She barely turned the knob and the door swung opened.

The smell of blood was overwhelming. The Pastor house smelled like burned bread and cranberry candles. I felt the vomit making its way up my throat again, but I swallowed it down. Leah and Adam walked ahead trying to find the bedroom. The house was small, Eric and I walked together and looked around. The second bedroom looked like a hotel room, like it was just waiting on someone to stay inside. The kitchen was a mess—leftover pizza with the crust burned. Candles were in every room, and I usually loved the smell of cranberries, but this was too much.

"Found the murder room," Leah said when she came running out of a room on the opposite side of the house. She was gagging, and Adam's tan face was now white as a ghost. She coughed for a solid two minutes then added, "You guys have to see this."

"I'm good out here," I told her. I wanted to leave. My instincts were telling me to run away, run back to the truck and wait for them there. Hearing the news stories were one thing, but actually seeing the crime scene, the murder room, that was something completely different. I didn't want the image of that room to be burned into my brain. When I closed my eyes to sleep I wanted to see a shirtless James Lafferty, not a bloody room.

"No, Reggie, you have to see this!" Leah called me from the bedroom. "Isn't this Frankie's necklace?" She held up a gold chain with a pentagram symbol and 'Slayer' written across it. Frankie had worn that necklace every day since sophomore year.