Scattering Lilac Ashes

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Four

"You're fucking kidding me," Lila's voice came out in a weak tremble, despite her word choice. Clare's face was drained of colour, her eyes fixed on Lila's as she slowly shook her head.

"I'm not. I'm so sorry, Lila," Clare whispered, her eyes sparkling once more with tears. How many more tears would Clare shed that night?

For a moment, anger burned through Lila's veins. Why hadn't Clare gotten rid of them? The mounting frustration, fury, and absolute terror, for a fraction of a second, almost compelled her to slap Clare.

Instead, Lila turned on her heel and promptly walked to Clare's door, her breathing heavy. Her restraint was dangerously flimsy now – most likely because of how tired she was. Staying any longer would make her snap.

"Lila-"

"I'm going to bed," Lila responded, closing Clare's door forcefully behind her.

Lila's stomach twisted as she realised that she'd have to open her own door and see what carnage awaited her. She paused, her hand outstretched for her doorknob. Would sleeping on the couch be suspicious?

But... if she slept downstairs, then the likelihood of encountering her Mum was basically guaranteed.

Gritting her teeth, she twisted her doorknob and swung her door open.

It was dark, but she could tell it wasn't the same as she'd left it that morning. She stepped in and closed the door behind her before turning on the light.

Blinking against the harsh brightness, Lila tried to take in the state of her room. It wasn't as bad as Clare's by any means, but clothes had been thrown out of her closet and her desk was littered with the contents of her drawers.

Her bed had a similar scattering of objects, and she dejectedly changed out of her clothes and into pyjamas that were lying around. Rubbing her eyes with a yawn, she decided that she'd just sweep the stuff off her bed and deal with it tom-

Her heart skipped.

There was a folder on her bed. The folder. The godamn folder filled with the documents they'd found in the farmhouse. She frantically picked it up. Would anything be missing?

With shaking hands, she opened the cover. The documents... looked fine. There wasn't anything missing from what she could remember. She wasn't sure whether her Mum opened it – there were other schoolbooks and related materials on her bed, too.

'The photos of Marlene's house,' a voice inside her mind whispered. She placed the folder on her desk, her eyes darting all across her room. If her Mum found the folder, then the photos had to be somewhere.

The envelope wasn't on her bed so she turned her attention back to her desk. With a sigh of relief, she saw it sticking out under a textbook that had clearly been knocked sideways from its previous position. At least her Mum had left it in her room. She opened the envelope, hoping that at least these photos had remained.

From her quick glance, nothing seemed amiss, which would suffice for now. It would be impossible to go through everything and catalogue it, with how heavy her eyelids were feeling, so she simply placed the envelope on top of the folder.

As she'd already decided, Lila swept everything that had been on her bed to the floor and climbed under the covers. Her mind was awake now, wondering whether her Mum had picked up on the fact that Lila shouldn't have either the folder or photos of the interior of someone else's house. Would that be another thing her Mum would yell at her about when she saw Lila next?

Lila turned around, facing the wall with a shaky breath. She wasn't a sex worker, but the photos Piper had prepared weren't exactly even evidence in Lila's favour. How apt was it that weeks after Piper's death, she still somehow managed to haunt Lila and mess with her life...