⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Brynn used her slimness to her advantage as she slipped through the crowds, pulling Tate and Bostyn behind her so to get closer to the house. Everyone looked so distraught, so upset, Bostyn had never realised that Maddie, who was a complete and utter bitch to nearly everyone on earth, would devastate so much of the population of their town. Red faces and sniffles made the trio feel uncomfortable as they pushed a short blonde, Ellie Kambry, one of the Ziegler's neighbours, to the side so to get to the front door. Everybody seemed to just be hovering outside and not going into the house.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Tate!" Mrs Ziegler called as the three pushed their way into the house and she ran over to the brunette and hugged her close to her. Melissa, which was the Christian name of the Ziegler mother, wasn't much taller than Tate, and Maddie and Mackenzie, her two daughters, had begun tipping her in height just months before.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Hello there Mrs Ziegler, it's been a while since I last saw you," Tate whispered, her voice sounding like a brickwork robots and her eyes were brimmed with tears of reminiscence. Every memory she'd ever shared with Maddie, from the time they met at Chloe Lukasiak's birthday party when they were three, the time they'd won Nationals with their duet that had brought many of the audience to tears and the time where Maddie had broken up with her first boyfriend Gino when she was 13, just months before she'd split from Tate, and her best friend was the only girl she could bear to tell about it and Tate had skipped a big birthday bash just to stay home with Maddie and watch a bunch of soppy rom com's and munch on popcorn and ice cream.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"I've missed you," Melissa said quietly, holding Tate backwards to get a good look at her face, which had definitely matured from the little 13-year-old tagalong of her daughter to a strong, beautiful girl with the body of a dancer, slim but still strong. A few tears rolled down her cheeks and when Melissa spoke her voice came out in a croak, "how much you've grown sweetheart." Tate just smiled in reply, tears falling down her cheeks in two steady streams.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀The pair carried on their conversation and Bostyn and Brynn just hovered their awkwardly, sharing glances between themselves of awkwardness and calming twiddling their thumbs until a short figure, just slightly taller than the minute Melissa, popped up.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Bostyn Brown and Brynn Rumfallo, I didn't know you were close to my sister, why are you here?" Mackenzie Ziegler asked. She had long brown tresses, wavy right now, and loose down to where they touched her waist. Her eyes were large and hazel, protruding natural innocence from them and she was dressed like a 9-year-old rather than her true 13-year-old self.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"We aren't, but we are curious," Bostyn replied truthfully, crossing her arms across her chest and looking Mackenzie dead in the hazel eyes. Brynn nodded vaguely as she hovered next to her, leaning on Bostyn's shoulder and smiling weakly in the direction of Melissa and Tate, who were embracing and sobbing just a few metres away.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Would you like to see her body then? Please just find out who killed her!" Mackenzie pleaded, her eyes brimming with tears and she leant up on her toes and pressing her hands together in a praying position. After hearing Mackenzie's offer, Bostyn looked over at Brynn, who replied to the glance with a firm nod.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Thank you Mackenzie," Brynn whispered as the short brunette grabbed both of them by the wrists and started pulling them up the stairs. The police had left to go report back to the station and Maddie's body was still lying where it had been found, surrounded by yellow crime tape.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"I was the one who found her, did you know?" Mackenzie said as she pulled them hastily up the stairs, trying to avoid Melissa who was still fully interested in seeing Tate again. "She's in he-"
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Her bedroom. We know. It was on the radio," Bostyn said with a forced smile, although inside she was begging to roll her eyes towards the little brunette. Mackenzie nodded, her lips pressed into a thin pink line.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Here you go, have. Fun," Mackenzie whispered, her voice dropping drastically in decibels as she finished her sentence. Brynn found it odd that she paused inbetween have and fun but she knew that Mackenzie had been the one to find her, as the girl had mentioned it earlier, and she was visibly shaken as she broke down in sobs as she left the duo in Maddie's bedroom, gazing upon her body which lay in a pool of blood which had dripped from her badly slit wrists.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"That's nasty," Brynn whispered, wincing slightly as she knelt down on her knees next to the bed where Maddie lay and looks at her wrists, inspecting the cut without touching her body. "It doesn't look like her slit wrists were the main cause of her death," she remarked, looking round at Bostyn and shaking her head grimly.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Oh," Bostyn replied but her brow was creased in confusion as she bent down on her knees and looked at the unusual object lying on the ground. "A blue bead? I specifically remember Maddie saying just a few weeks before that she'd given all her jewellery to Mackenzie and that she hadn't any sort of jewellery like that. It can't be hers."
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Bostyn, maybe she lied. It's Maddie we're talking about. She lies more than Allison DiLauntris and she fudging lied like a trooper."
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Oh shut up Rumfallo," Bostyn said whilst she rolling her eyes, using her right hand to pocket the beads and she looks over to Brynn. "I think we should leave now. The police will be back soon and we don't want to be suspicious, let's go."
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"You're right, let's go," Brynn said quickly, grabbing Bostyn by the wrist and dragging them down the stairs to where they'd abandoned Tate. "Bostyn?" she quickly said before they reached Tate again.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Yes?"
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"We are going to find who killed Maddie, aren't we? This isn't just all for nothing," Brynn whimpered, sounding scared at the full prospect of what they were facing.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"For everyone's sake, I sincerely hope that we do."
