Hunted - The past that kills [COMPLETE]

25 - New Perspective (Epilogue)

Clara's Recovery Journal – Entry #1
21th May 2016

So, uh, I guess this is entry number 1 of this... diary? Journal? I don't know what to call it yet. This is meant to be a new coping mechanism for getting out any bottled up feelings that I have from what is being labeled as the "Alton Point Murder Spree 2.0". I can understand why my therapist thinks this is necessary, but I'm not sure how often I'll be bothered to write. Oh well, I guess I can work that out down the track...

Everything is slowly getting back to normal. But considering what actually happened, things won't ever go back to normal again, for any of us. Our situation could take months, if not years to disappear for good from the social buzz, but I feel I have the patience somewhere inside me.

Nate and I both left the hospital together on the 23rd of November if I remember the date correctly – almost three days after we faced off against my long lost aunt and Indiana, barely getting away with our lives. Hayley had been dismissed on the 22nd, but I insisted on staying with my other two friends until they could leave as well. I mean, Hayley had her over-caring and protective dad, he'd be more than capable of looking after her.

The nurses had been right to keep Nate that extra night; he had had a seizure. Thankfully, the hospital staff was there to treat him before he hurt himself or anyone else. It was the most frightening thing I think I had ever seen, and that was saying a lot when I had seen dead bodies...

Once I got back home, I could tell just how much everything had affected the family. Mum was happier, but also became a little more sensitive and, naturally, more protective of me. Even Chris stopped causing shit and being his annoying self. I bet Mum told him to do that to give me a break. I knew I was right when he started up his same antics again two weeks later.

My friends and I began counselling a week after getting out of the hospital. We all had to attend weekly sessions for about three months from then; they were horrible at first, but it turned out to be very helpful later on when everything sank in. I quickly realised how hard talking about things was to somebody who hadn't been there to witness it with us, saying things out loud was much difficult that any of us had anticipated.

I had hoped that we would be able to slowly return to our normal lives without causing too much of a disturbance to people's regular routines. Unfortunately, nowadays, there is this thing called publicity. First, it was the local news, then the state news. Pretty soon word had travelled around the whole of Australia. We were asked for interviews from Adelaide to Sydney, even ones from overseas networks. Collectively, the four of us agreed to do an exclusive story with a national news program here in Australia, but for now, we've postponed it, just until we can get comfortable talking about everything without spiralling into post-traumatic panic attacks in front of a camera.

Our experience and injuries didn't stop us going back to school when it started back up again in January. We had been excused from the remainder of school for the year, which had really only been an extra two weeks. Due to our rare circumstances, we were all given free passes from final exams and just allowed to progress to 11th Grade with the rest of our peers; one of the few benefits of surviving a real-life killer.

None of that had been a worry for me. Oh no, my concerns were our peers and the power they had over the internet. Social life was harder than ever, half the school completely ignored us, even bullied us over the incident, as if we had asked to be attacked and wanted to bring panic to Auburn Vale and the rest of the town. The other half of the students were like the press, wanting to know what happened and how everything had changed for us.

It was annoying, but at the same time, the attention wasn't too bad. Haha, get the sarcasm? Ahh, gonna love it. We did, however, get closer to a few older faces from primary school, along with a few new ones too; teenagers who didn't judge us or blame us for what happened, really genuine kids who treated us like people and not like walking tragedies.

And that leads up to now. It's officially been six months to the day since that night that changed our lives forever.

Hayley quickly returned to her normal happy self. She remembers the week beforehand and that my aunt Blake was behind bars once again, but it seems she has forgotten a majority of that night's events. How do I know this? Because every now and then, she asks me how she got the scars on her arms. I never give her a proper answer, I'm too afraid of what will be triggered if I did tell her the truth.

Devon's recovering a lot faster than she should be. She ended up having to stay in the hospital until a few days before Christmas, but she keeps surprising everyone with how far she has come already. Her ankle has healed completely and the deep cuts she had sliced into her are only angry red scars from what I can see of them. Her shoulder has healed quite a lot and she has even built up some of the muscle that had been torn originally, but she can't do anything that involves lifting weight in case she risks tearing everything open again. She's handled what happened better than Hayley, but she doesn't like talking about the torture she had been through or half of what she and I had said that night. I respect her decision, so neither of us bring it up for the other's sake - it's not like it's my favourite topic of discussion either.

As for Nate and I, we're still together, and we couldn't be happier that way. He officially asked me out on Christmas Eve after things had settled down for the holidays. Every time the bullies get to me, he's always there to hold me and help me shut them out. And if some dickhead teases him about hanging out with girls, or almost being raped by his psychotic ex, I'm always there to kick their ass halfway across the country. Speaking of Indiana, we heard she had been taken out of the state and sent to a mental institution in New South Wales. We were told that Indiana and the person who had helped attack us that night were two different entities – which we had worked out for ourselves – but other than that, we haven't heard anything about her.

And I guess, while I'm on the topic, I should mention my aunt... Blake somehow didn't die after not only being beaten up but also being shot by police a total of 9 times. She now resides in a rural, undisclosed prison/mental asylum where she will be guaranteed to spend the rest of her days. So that's good news for us I guess.

Well, for now, this is it. Back to normal life. However, I've got this weird feeling about what will happen next. I'm nervous about what the future has in store for us, and I think for parts, I'm not gonna like what I find. But I'm also optimistic, and I'm ready for whatever adventures are around the corner.

Yours Truly (still working out how to do this journal thing... :P)

Clara Evans.