What Remains of Elizabeth Clove | COMPLETED & IN EDITING

Chapter 3

I stood there, staring at the musty and dark alleyway before me.

"So this is where Liz wanted us to go? The alleyway behind the Turkey Hill?" Cam asked quietly. I nodded. "Apparently, this is where it all begins." I opened the notebook in my hands.

If you've followed instructions, you're standing in or in front of the alleyway, the alleyway that began the end. You see friends, this is the alleyway where I first met Chase Oswald.

Yes, the Chase Oswald. High school football star? Yeah, this is where we met. He had just been standing there, like his thoughts had overflowed his brain.

One hello. That's all that it took. Instantly, there was some sort of connection between the two of us.

Totally platonic though, don't get me wrong. I had no interest in Chase, trust me. Meeting Chase though, that was the spark.

He was the beginning of the end.

Max, if you're reading this, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for not telling you about this, about any of this. But Max, you have to understand that this had to remain a secret. After all, how did you think I got invited to all of those popular parties in the first place?

One conversation lead to another, and well, I'll let Chase explain it to you. You see, every year on October 1st, since freshman year, the Chernova's have this party, called the Fall Throwdown? Chase will most definitely be there, and if you want the answers you seek, You need to find a way inside. You can't count on me anymore, Max.

"Is she serious?!" I cried. "She must be thinking of someone else right?" I turned to face Cam, who looked as shocked as I was. "Shit... That means...:" He trailed off. "Sorry Max, but I'm not going to get publicly huliminated in front of everyone at the Fall Throwdown." He sat up against the brick wall of the alleyway. "Is this really worth it?" He turned to face me, his eyes full of doubt. "This whole 'Journal Quest' thing?" My heart, which was beating rapidly with pure annoyance, slowed down to a steady beat of concern for my friend. Slowly, I slid down the wall to sit next to Cam, wrapping a heavily braceleted arm around his shoulder. "This isn't just about the notebook... is it Cam?" I asked him softly. Wordlessly, he shook his head, not looking me in the eye. "I just...Miss her so much Max.." He whispered. "Everytime we talk about her, or the notebook, I just remember the night of the accident so damn clearly.." He wiped his eyes as he turned to look at me. "Do you remember?" he questioned me quietly. I nodded, a flood of memories crashing on top of me.

The last I had seen of Elizabeth Clove was on September 6th. We had seen each other during school that day, and if I had known that that day had been her last, I would've done a ton of things differently. For starters, I wouldn't have been such a bitch to her that day. We had a huge argument that day, and it's been so long I don't even remember what it was about. I never even got the chance to say sorry.

I remember the sounds of sirens and the red and blue lights that blinded my eyes as I drove up to the place where the accident happened; Byers' Bridge. My heart had dropped as Liz's mom ran up to me, sobbing into my shoulder, rocking me back and forth as she cried. Everything she and I had ever known was gone in an instant, like the flash of a polaroid photo.

The following days afterwards I didn't go to school. I just stayed in my room all day, pouring my heart into a monochrome portrait of her that now hung on the bridge in memoriam. I just lived there, in the dark, waiting for her, my light, to come back to me.

But she didn't.

I returned to the real world, with Cameron at my side, thinking and rethinking everything that had happened over the course of the past two days.

Had it really only been just two days?

To me, it felt like an eternity.

"We'll get through this Cam." I said, squeezing his hand comfortingly. "I promise." He smiled softly at me, but it quickly turned into a thin line. "I'm just worried though.." he muttered, "What do you mean?" I asked him, confused. "I'm worried that this will lead to nothing." As my friend spoke, my heart sunk as the truth and reality of all of this hit me. In the end, this basically meant nothing. Liz would still be dead. The notebook I held in my hands wouldn't magically bring her back. It only provided us answered to the unknown, and to the mystery shrouding her death. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Is that a certain Max Rudd I see?" My thoughts were interrupted by none other than Sheriff Glean, who shone a flashlight onto the two of us. "And Cameron Guchal?" He raised a bushy black eyebrow at the two of us. "What might you two be doing back over on this side of town?" Cameron opened his mouth, and I knew he was about to spill everything. "The Red Box!" I cried before Cam could say anything. The Sheriff crossed his arms, obviously unconvinced. "... The Red Box?" He repeated. "Yeah! The one over where I lived didn't have the movie we wanted to watch, so we Rode our bikes here to the next location, which was this Turkey Hill." My lies began to pile up upon one another now, "Cam needed to rest before we bought it." Behind my back, I crossed my fingers, hoping he'd buy it. "Alright then.." He sighed. "Just don't get yourselves into trouble now.. There's a lot of drugs in this area.." He patted Cam gently on the shoulder. "And you two don't want anything on those almost perfect records of yours..Not in this day and age.." With that, Sheriff Glean tipped his hat off at the both of us and strolled into the small Turkey Hill next to us.

We both left shortly after that.

The alleyway had creeped us out enough to last a lifetime.

•••

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