The Hidden Truth

Chapter 7

My heart sinks to the bottom of my body. My mind explodes with tears. How could this be? My knees weaken as they hit the ground. All my emotions come pouring out at this very moment. All the anger and sadness from the past, all the confusion, and all the hard choices I've made, all the fears I've faced, they all come rushing back to me and I let it all out. Meghan sits down next to me and puts a hand on my shoulder. She hands me a tissue and I lean into her shoulder. Why could I have let this happen? I immediately think of the text message. The message I haven't shown anyone. "Can...You...Tell...Me...What happened?" I ask through tears. She nods. "Well, I'm not sure if she's actually dead, but she hasn't been home for, well ever since you've been gone. I sent cops to go find her but they haven't found anything. It's been three months Skyler. I don't think she's still alive wherever she is." She takes a deep breath at the end. I give her a hug. She wipes her tears away and says, "Come on, let's go back to the kitchen and I'll make lunch." "Um, is it ok if I stay in here a little longer?" I ask. She nods and tells me to come whenever I'm ready. I look around her room. I look on her dresser and find pictures. They're all pictures of us. I look through and can help but smile at all these crazy memories. I put them back on her dresser smiling. I stand in the middle of her room and just look around. I look back at her dresser. One of the picture has words on the back. I grab it. Miss you already, it says. I think long and hard about what that could mean, but can't come up with a solution. 'Think Sky, what could this mean?' I force myself to think. But soon my head hurts and I give up. 'For all I know she could've just written that for fun' I tell myself. I go to the kitchen and meet Meghan there. I ask her if I could keep this picture of us because it's my favorite. She nods and tells me I can keep it for as long as I want. I thank and her and eat lunch.

​Soon I am walking on the streets of Hillside. It's starting to rain and get cold. I put my hoodie on and put my hands in my pocket while I walk. I look around me and see little girls playing together and it reminds me of how Luna and I met. I stare at the ground gloomily. As I roam the city I see that everyone around me is happy and has a friend laughing along with them. I glance at a group of friends. 'That used to be me.' I whisper to myself. Without my best friend I feel lost. Empty. Like there's no point in living. Suddenly, my phone rings. I grab it out of my pocket. Grandma, it states. I answer the call and say, "Hey grandma. Yes, I'm in town. Yeah I'll be right over." I end the call and head towards my grandma's house. Grandma: the one whose taken care of me ever since my family died, the one who's tried to help me. I stagger down the road and let the rain wash all the pain away. I arrive at my grandma's house dripping wet. With shaky hands I ring the doorbell and wait. She stands in doorway and looks at me. With tears in her eyes she hugs me. "You're soaking wet." I giggle. "Well it is raining." I explain. She motions me to come in. The house still looks the way l left it. I walk straight to my room to put some dry clothes on. After drying off I meet grandma in the living room. "Are you hurt?" She asks me worried. I shake my head. "Nothing hurts?" 'Besides my heart nothing.' I joke with myself, but I shake my head no. Relieved she squeezes me. I hug her back. "I thought you were dead." She explains. "Well, here I am." I reassure her. "Come sit. Tell me everything." I roll my eyes thinking not again. I tell her all about my adventures. About how I met great people in the forest. And how I met this nice old lady in the cabin that reminded me of her. "I'm glad you came back," She says once I finish. "What's wrong? You look sad." She asks. "Luna's missing." I tell her through tears. She comes and sits next to me. "I know darling. I'm sorry." I look up at her surprised. "You knew?" I ask. She nods. Slowly the tears crawl down my cheek one by one again. "It's ok darling, everything will be ok." She soothes me. "How will everything be ok if my best friend is gone?" "This is just temporarily." She says. 'Yeah until I kill myself because of depression.' I think to myself. But on the outside I smile at her. What am I going to do without her? I go back to my room to cry and grab the picture out of my pocket. I stare long and hard at it. I know those words miss you already. It's the title of our favorite movie. But what does that have to do with anything? I think and pace around the room. 'Think Sky. Think, think, think.' The words keep repeating themselves in my head. Miss you already?? I put the picture on my shelf, step away, and look at it. I stare long at it. In my mind I go back to when that picture was taken. We'd just come home from the dance and I was bringing her home. She said miss you already with a wink. 'Wait a minute, what if I switch the letters around? Your mails say dye. Omg that's it. But, what does she mean by dye? Doesn't in this case dye mean color? Oh wait she must mean die.' I gather my thoughts. Immediately I grab my phone out of my pocket and look at my mail. I look at my inbox and see a new email. I click on it. Unknown it reads. The email says: if you want to find your friend, I suggest you do what this email says. Go to the police with the money (you know where it is) and let me off the hook by saying it was you. Every action has consequences. Break the rule, pay the price. If you decide not to do this, you may never see your best friend again. Oh my god am I being blackmailed? Who even is this? And how does he know about Luna and the money? No one knows about the money. Has someone been stalking me? So many thoughts circle my head.
​Later that night I wake up gasping for air. My heart races. I had a terrible nightmare. There was a guy pointing a gun at me. I started running with a heavy backpack. He shoots but misses and runs after me. I hide the backpack on the roof of an abandoned house. Once I climb down he has me cornered. I'm trapped. He laughs his evil laugh. He raises his gun at me. "Any last words?" He asks laughing evilly shoots. Before I can answer he shoots. Immediately I wake up. It almost feels like déjà vu. I can't take this anymore. The guy who sent the email must know something I don't, but if I do what he says I could end up in jail.   My conscience goes back and forth between what's right and what's wrong. What do I do?