Hidden Investigations (#Wattys2015)

Chapter Twenty Five

  "NINA" Becky shouted.

"Becky are you there?" I shouted.

"Yes, I'm alright" She shouted back.

The flashlight is probably lost and we aren't even near Jessie's car. As the fear rises, the temperature around us falls which makes me shiver hard. With trembling hands and shattering teeth, I look for the others.

"Nina, Jessie, thanks god." I heard Becky say.

"Girls, we're alright. Where's Ash?" Jessie said.

"I'm here." I say with quivering voice, my teeth are still shattering. I crawl to them as I can't really move in that freezing weather.

"We're okay" Nina said and I could tell by her voice that she's smiling.

"Hayley?" Becky cried.

The adrenaline rushes through my veins as I turn around to see Becky holding her flashlight and lightening half of Hayley's face. Pale and lifeless, that's how it looks. She raises her palm which doesn't last for seconds in her hands and quickly falls to the ground.

"We got to get out of here" Jessie ordered.

"We can't just leave her." Becky sobbed.

"We have to." Jessie insisted.

Before we could reach Jessie's car, a figure stopped us. "In a hurry?" Brad asked leaning against the car like there's nothing has just happened. 

"You d-" Jessie stopped me from slapping him.

     In a blink of an eye he fell to the ground and his throat was between somebody's hands.

"Jason?" Nina gasped.

        "Hayley's brother?" I murmur to myself. That's the person that Hayley cared so much for that she planned and turned against her friends. She was in a battle and she had to choose, either to stand up by her friends and watch her brother executed or stand up by her only brother. We judged her fast but if I were her, I don't know what I would have done. This girl has struggled more than any of us.

        I look at the others and saw Jessie's jaw dropped and the others looking at me with their mouths hanged open which made me quickly realize that I said all of these words out loud. The boys are still fighting.

"That wasn't our deal" Jason shouted with crazy eyes filled with tears.

"She spoiled everything and I'm not ready to get into troubles. That's it. I'm not here to make sure that you and your sister are alright. I promised to help and you promised that she wouldn't blow it and here's what she has done. I'm involved now in what you've done and so, that was the right thing to do" Brad yelled at him and he was out of breath.

"How dare you?" As we saw Jason's crazy look we rushed to the car but someone, and I'm sure it's Brad, fired his gun.

"Quickly" Nina screamed.

"Oh my god!!" Becky cried.

Nina held her and  threw her on the backseat of the car, which made her scream louder, and sat beside her. I sat on the front and Jessie drove fast.

"Becky's got shot" Nina shouted.

Becky's still screaming, moaning and bleeding! 

"Be thankful, it's her leg. We could've died there" Jessie said.

 Guilt is taking over me for a little while. They all got through this for me. Hayley died because I didn't mind my own business. She's right, whether I received that message or not I'd have done the same and tried to know who killed Sasha.

"We've got to go to the hospital" I say looking at Becky's legs. Her jeans are stained red and her leg is slightly twisted, I didn't look at the wound and the bullet itself. It's awful and I turned my face quickly.

"That's where I'm heading" Jessie said with her eyes focused hard on the road.

Same day, 6:00 am.

"What do you mean I don't have to call the police? My daughter's got shot" Mrs. Campbell, Becky's mother, said to us  in the most dramatic tone. We are standing in front of Becky's room and we had all waited with Mrs. Campbell till the operation was over and Becky's really alright now.

"It was an accident." I told her.

"An accident ? Look! you are all hiding something and Becky would tell me. If you got her in troubles-"

"Mrs. Campbell?" A nurse called her and they walked away.

I don't like the smell here. It smells hospitals !. Even though I only went to this hospital once when Lux was ill, the same time when I saw mom crying for the first time, I still feel like I hate this smell. Besides, the hospital with its chairs and walls, make me feel colder.

"She's alright" I remarked and Jessie understood.

"We can leave if you want" Jessie said.

"You can come over" Nina offered.

"Thanks" I murmured. "I'll just go home"

6:45 am.

I was about to ring the doorbell but I remember that I got the keys. I open the door slowly and enter. The house is a little dark and silent. Oh my god! They are still sleeping! I think to myself. I look at the clock. Dad's got 15 minutes till he wakes up to get ready and go to the school, where he works. It's really weird how they are still asleep since I sneaked out. It feels like days, I was fighting, struggling and watching a friend die and all of that time they were just breathing heavily and snoring in their beds.

School!! I still have to go to school. How will I be able to go to school after all of that? I decide to call Jessie and ask if she's going or not.

"Hey" I just said.

"You home?" She asked.

"Yup. Are you going to school?"

"I think so''

"Ok, bye" I didn't fell like I wanted to talk more.

Polina High school 8:10 am.

"So, they both died?" Nina asked and I could see that she's struggling with her tears.

"Mr. Gordon thinks that somebody killed them but he doesn't know that they killed each other." I said.

"This is unbelievable" Jessie started to cry. "What a bunch of teens can do" she sobbed. She looked around with her eyes "This school has lost Sasha, Brad, Jason and Hayley. I still can't believe this. It's like mafia lives here."

We all just hugged for a moment. I remember the last hours that we spent together and how these three girls were with me through thick and thin. Hayley is still Hayley. I still love her and I still love how she tried hard not to let me harm myself and she just wanted to protect her brother. That's it.

Home, 3:35 pm

 

I finally understand everything. I feel like the war is over, if there was even a war, and I'm free. But somehow I feel like my life is aimless now. I found out who killed Sasha and what Hayley's done but I still need to know one thing, the thing that matters the most, where Zack is right now. I pick up his envelope and take a look at the short story.

Author's note: So everything is about to end. Please, let me know what you think. Don't forget to vote :)