Try Not to Die

Chapter Four

Edited: 4/17/17

Keira West

"It's dark out." Sarah says.  She narrows her eyes, as if that would help her see better.  "I can't see."  She shakes her head and her dirty blonde hair shakes along with her and then lands gently on her shoulders.

Summer nods thoughtfully.  She thinks for a second.  "Are there any flashlights around here though?"  She asks.  I shrug, unsure of the answer.  A few others shrug along with me, because we have no actual answer.

"There might be some in the basement." Alex says, basically volunteering himself to go down there.  "Keira can come with me to get them."  Yes, because I would loved to be killed. 

"What if the murderer is down there?" Hailey asks afraid.  Finally, some common sense.  Although, she'd be the least person I'd expect common sense from.  Actually second to least, because Lizzy is here.

"Then we die."  I say simply.  It's true.  But the killer has to be one of the girls and they won't be able to kill Alex.  Probably me, but not Alex.

"What if Alex is the murderer?" Cameron asks, receiving a glare from Ashton.  Alex surprisingly laughs lightheartedly at this.  Clearly he doesn't care if people suspect him.

"He's not.  He has an alibi." I tell Cameron, defending him.  I turn around and reach the doorway.  I cautiously start walking down the stairs to the basement.  I take a deep breath.  Here goes nothing.

It's pretty dark, but it's still clear enough to see a little bit.  I fumble my way through but eventually grab a few flashlights.  I turn one of them on, in Alex's face.   I spin the flashlight around, letting it reflect on everything.

I stop myself when I see the electricity box.  There electricity box looks normal, but the door protecting it is wide open.  The wires look normal until my eyes trail down to the bottom of the wires.

"Oh my god, the wires have been cut!" I say, examining the wires of the box.  The wires are all neatly trimmed, they had to be cut.  They weren't broken, they were cut.  It was intentional.

Alex walks over. "Someone turned out the power on purpose. Who could it have been?" He asks curiously.  I close my eyes and think.  Who could it have been?

"It could have been Lizzy, Hailey, Sarah, Dylan, Evan, or Carter." I say immediately, remembering my mental list of suspects.  That sounds like a lot of suspects.  And if they had an accomplice, that would make everything even more difficult.

Alex turns around. "They were all out of the room when Emily was murdered." He says.  That's why they were suspects.  But nevertheless, he is right, so I agreez

I nod. "Which means we can eliminate me, you, Ashton, Colton, Summer and Cameron.  We were all in the other room together." I tell him.  He nods vigorously, agreeing with me.

"I wish Emily was still alive, so we can ask who did it." He says.  I nod solemnly. I didn't know Emily that well, but I know that she didn't deserve to die. I stand up straighter, trying to remain tough.  We've been done here awhile, we better go anyway.

"We better go back up or they'll think that we died too." Alex says. That's true.  He's not joking on this one.  I nod, pulling a strand of my hair behind my hair.  We head back up to find everyone looking distressed.

"Lizzy, Cameron and Dylan are missing!" Ashton says, almost pulling out his hair. Carter has both arms wrapped around Summer and Hailey. I roll my eyes, disgusted at his antics.

I open my mouth to respond when Dylan's phone lights up from the couch.  He's not here, so we all go over to his phone and examine it.  On the screen, there's Lizzy in a chair and blindfolded.

"Is this a febreeze commercial?" She asks dumbly.  Colton lets out a small laugh and then stops after seeing the glares given to him.  I shake my head slowly and avert my eyes back to the video.

The killer, who looks like he's a male, is in all black. "No." He says. The video makes his voice altered so we can't identify him. I continue watching nervously alongside everyone else.  Lizzy's eyes open in shock and her mouth opens.

"Wait- I know who you are! You're-"

The video ends. Cameron and Dylan come running down. Panic is stricken on their face and they're both panting.  Everyone looks at them in a concerned way. 

"We all got lost and now Lizzy's dead!" Cameron exclaims. He looks down at the floor sadly.  Wait-how does he know that Lizzy was killed?  I bite my lip in thought and stare at Cameron. 

"The video was on your phone." I say, handing the device to Dylan. His eyes widen and he stares at his phone in shock.  Then, he wrinkles his nose in disgust and tosses his phone on the couch.

"Did someone hack your phone?" I ask, eyeing him suspiciously. He shrugs, but his eyes widen.  He knows what I'm up to.  Alex grabs my arm and gently pulls me over to him.

"That eliminates Hailey, Sarah, Carter and Evan as suspects." He says finally after a second of staring at me.  It does eliminate them because they were with us at the time.  But what if the video wasn't live?

A thought suddenly overcomes me. "What if they're working together? It could be two people, or even more." I say, shuddering.  Alex nods. "That is a possibility."

Ashton walks over. "You guys could've died in the basement. You two aren't leaving my side again." He tells us.  This reminds me of Alex's actions.  They must have twin telepathy.

"What about the others?" I ask. They're all scattered off and Cameron and Dylan just wandered off by themselves last time.

"I know I can trust you two. Right now, that's about it." He says.  I look at Ashton. He hasn't been a suspect at all and he has no motive. Can I trust him?

"When I was 12, some boy threatened to kill my parents as a joke. I didn't know it was a joke. I beat him up." Ashton says, sharing a secret.

"When I was 13 I moved here from Georgia. I knew no one." I say, sharing a slight secret. "Why did you move?" He asks. "Because I did." I say, pleading with my eyes to stop. He takes the hint and nods.

Ashton, Alex and I all join everyone else. Summer walks over to me and smiles.  "You're the only girl here I can actually trust." She says, her tone sounding relieved.  I give her a slight smile and ignore the thought coming to my head.

I don't know if I can trust you.

She's rich. What if she paid someone to kill everyone for her? But she doesn't have a motive. I'll trust her for now. I shouldn't assume she did something because of her wealth.

"What about Hailey and Sarah?" I ask, surprised. They're her friends, why can't she trust them?  "I trust them, but they're too obnoxious." Summer says, shrugging. Should I trust Summer?

I decide to put my trust in her, because she's not a suspect yet. A frightened scream pulls my out of my thoughts.

ITS MY BIRTHDAYYYYY!!!!!!

Anyway, who do you think screamed?

I have 0 reads so idk why I'm asking questions haha