Lies In The Dark

I Get Detention, and Somehow That's the Least of My Problems

Emma

Detention. Of all the things that could happen after last night, it had to be detention.

I sat in the classroom, staring blankly at the clock as Mr. Yates droned on about responsibility. The usual detention lecture that I had heard countless times—though normally, I wasn't the one sitting in the seat. Normally, I was the one sweet-talking my way out of trouble. It wasn't that hard, usually. Flash a smile, drop a joke, and bam—I was free to go.

But not today.

Today, I had nothing. No clever quip, no charming smile. The words just stuck in my throat, my mind blank. I didn't even argue when I got caught. Didn't even try. And that wasn't like me.

At all.

The fluorescent lights above buzzed, mixing with the constant scratch of pencils on paper as the other students scribbled out their detention assignments. I could feel Mr. Yates' eyes on me—probably waiting for me to pull another stunt. But I wasn't in the mood to play games. My mind was stuck on something else, something bigger.

Lara.

Her body. The look in her eyes. I couldn't get it out of my head. The shock, the confusion, the fear—it had all come crashing down the second we found her, and it still hadn't stopped.

And now I was here. Trapped in a classroom while my friends were probably out there, trying to figure out what the hell we were going to do. I wasn't with them. I wasn't with them.

I had detention.

I rubbed my temples, feeling the headache start to creep in. Why didn't I get myself out of this? Why didn't I fight harder? I could have—we all knew I could have. I always found a way out. But today... I didn't.

And now it was eating at me. Hard.

I glanced around the room, my eyes flicking over the faces of the other students. None of them knew. None of them knew that somewhere out there, a body was lying cold, lifeless. That somewhere out there, my life was spinning out of control.

That somewhere out there... I might be the only one who could keep it all from falling apart.

But how?

I sighed, leaning back in my chair, my fingers gripping the edge of the desk. My mind kept running through the events of the night over and over again, like some horrible movie on repeat. The party, the laughter, the alcohol—then Lara. Dead. And now the questions, the silence, the suspicion.

I was starting to suspect everyone. Even my best friends. The thought alone made me feel sick, but I couldn't shake it.

Mel, Poppy, Miri, Zyran... were they involved? Could one of them actually have done something like this? I trusted them, but right now, trust felt flimsy. It felt weak.

And then there was me. What did the others think about me? Did they suspect me, too?

A voice snapped me out of my thoughts. Mr. Yates was standing in front of my desk now, his arms crossed.

"Miss Dawson, care to join the rest of us in the present?"

I blinked up at him, barely registering his words. "Uh, yeah. Sorry."

He narrowed his eyes at me for a moment, but then just shook his head and moved on. I stared after him, my chest tight with frustration. The world was falling apart around me, and here I was, being scolded like a kid who forgot her homework.

When the clock finally ticked toward the end of detention, I practically bolted out of the room. The hallways were empty, echoing with my footsteps as I headed to the parking lot. My car sat in its usual spot, but somehow, everything felt different. Even the school felt different—like a thin layer of reality had peeled away, leaving something darker underneath.