Sticks And Stones

Chapter 5: Brandon I

"I know how you guys feel about Katherine, I feel the same way obviously, but, we can't go killin' random guys we see on the street, I'm dead serious." I tell Jordan, Beth and Ethan

"Which brings me to my next point. We need to get Jordan to ask Katherine's parents to ask the police where they're at with their investigations. If they don't tell us anything or can't, we'll all drive to the place where Beth and I saw that creepy dude and see if we can find any fingerprints or shoe imprints to give the police any DNA evidence or anything to find the guy and, I dunno, ask around and question people about where they were on the night of...the party." Ethan says

"Sounds like a plan, when though?" I ask

"Any time after school this arvo." Beth informs

"Well, yeah, or tomorrow, basically any time from now." Ethan clears up

"But...what if we actually find the guy who killed Katherine? What do we do?" I ask, feeling a slight twinge of fear anticipating the answer

"We kill him." Ethan, Beth and Jordan say in unison

"I-I...I don't know, if I can do somethin' like that, I mean, I hate him as much as you can imagine, but I don't know if I-I can take part in actually killin' him," I stutter "Why can't we bring him to the police or somethin'?"

The second the words leave my mouth, Jordan looks at me with the most rage I've ever seen in a person.

"If we find this cunt, he's going to fucking suffer." Beth says before Jordan can open his mouth, which kind of surprises us as she never normally swears, but when Jordan processes what she said, he leans back and smiles

"Exactly, but wouldn't him rottin' in prison or solitary confinement or somethin' be better in terms of sufferin' than killin' him on the spot?" I suggest

"No, his death's going to be as fucking painful as he made Katherine's, he deserves to die for what he's done, and what if Beth's right? What if he kills someone else before the police can even get to him?" Jordan almost yells

"Whoa, slow down, dude, we don't know if this dude we saw was actually the culprit. You need to ask Katherine's parents or we all need to find out somehow where the police are at with their investigations or ask them to ask the police if they don't know already, and if the police aren't anywhere from where they first were, then we'll check out the spot where we saw this creepy dude and see if we can find any DNA from him or something to give to the police to store, match up, question him and then see if he was actually the one who killed Katherine. If he is and we get to him first, then we kill him." Ethan tells Jordan

"Wouldn't the police have arrested him by then?" I ask

"Not if we collect the evidence ourselves." Beth says

"Come on, Beth, how many people live here? Are you gonna ask everyone? If you do, do you think they're all gonna just willin'ly give you a shoe of their's or a fingerprint or something? Say this all works out, say you find him and everything matches up, wouldn't it be better to just turn him in?"

"No! We're killing him ourselves." Jordan and Beth growl and Ethan nods his head

Kyla and I exchange a glance and I know she's thinking the same thing I am.

"Well, that's only if we get to him before the police, and what'll be the consequences for us? What if he kills one or a few or all of us while we try to kill him?" Kyla rants

Ethan sighs and puts his head back, thinking it over

"It's a risk we're gonna have to take." Jordan says before Ethan can respond

"No, no, she has a point. Is risking all of our lives worth killing a murderer when we can just turn him into the police?" Ethan mulls it over "I mean, I couldn't stand losing another one of you guys." He wraps his arm around Beth again

Jordan and Beth open their mouths, but can't think of anything to say, so they fold their arms and look at their feet, wallowing in their anger.

"We can still go to the site where youse saw that creepy dude." I suggest and that seems to somewhat lighten Beth and Jordan's moods

"Yeah, if we find anything, we'll hand it into the police." Ethan finalises just as the bell rings signalling the start of third period

Beth, Kyla and I have the same English class, while Ethan and Jordan are in a separate one due to the one we're in being too full, so we head to the classrooms and reluctantly throw ourselves on the seats, knowing we're not going to take anything in. I pull out my pencil case and the zipper catches on my shirt, opening it and causing all of the contents to go clattering on the desk and then fall on the carpet. I groan angrily and hold my arm for a second before letting it and the pencil case hit the desk again.

I reach down to start picking up my school stuff when my hand unexpectedly touches another, I look up and see my face mere centimeters away from Jessica Riggs'. My hear skips a beat and I almost jump.

"Don't worry, I'll pick it up for you. I guess it's my way of apologising for thinking you were Ethan, sorry about that again by the way." She says and I manage to laugh

"It's fine, you said you were runnin' on, like, 3 hours sleep, right?" I ask her

"Yeah, I just haven't been able to focus or really do anything, since...you know." She trails off, putting the rest of my things in my pencil case

I nod my head "It's gonna be a hard next few days, or weeks, probably."

"Yeah...If you need someone to talk to or anything, just give me a call." She winks and slips me a small sheet of paper just as our teacher walks in and begins the lesson

I open it and written on the white surface is her phone number, obviously. I look back at her and she gives me another wink and smile and returns to her work. 

Despite today being the day after one of my best friends' funeral, I feel good, a lot sooner than I thought I would. I smile at Jessica one more time and then turn around and show Kyla and Beth, mouthing 'YEAH!', Beth smiles, but Kyla has tears in her eyes and my stomach drops. I feel so bad now, I'm too focused on Jessica when I should be focusing on Katherine who just died.

I drop my smile and stare at my unopened book, wondering how I'm going to get through the rest of the class. I sigh and go to open it just as my year advisor, a police officer and a detective come through the door with Ethan and Jordan standing behind them.

"Elizabeth Hamilton, Kyla Hunter and Brandon Smith?" The constable asks and the three of us exchange glances, getting up from our seats.