The darkest hour

Prologue

Prologue

"Has anybody seen Emily?", ask Mrs Montgomery , while checking the number of pupils in the cantine. "Alena? Beth? Megan? Did she over sleep or is she still in the bathroom fixing her make-up?" The three girls briefly look at each other, then Beth and Megan continue eating their breakfast but Alena starts searching the room with her eyes. " She wasn't in her bed so I thought she already got up and went to the cantine", tells her best friend Alena. Even her boyfriend Toby, who had a hangover and didn't seem worried at all, hasn't seen her since the last evening because she staid in, while the rest of the class went out. "But she must be somewhere! Are you sure, nobody has seen here?" ask Mrs Montgomery with an anxious sounding voice. But everyone stays silent. "Peter, Alex, Spencer, Hanna. Did you fight with Emily yesterday?"

"We have already cleared that there is nothing to worry about", Peter replies, while the two girls nod in agreement. The teacher dosen't notice that Peter kicks Alex leg underneath the table. She turns to her college:"Did she report to you that she was leaving?" He shakes his head but Mrs Montgomery sees the nervous flick in his eyes. "So I guess the only thing we can do is wait.", she tells the students, while spreading butter on her toast with shaky hands.

Everbody knows somethings wrong.

When they finally hear steps, everbody stares at the door. Two police officers walk in. "I'm afraid, we have to interrupt you while breakfirst. But we have some unpleasant news for you.", one of them starts. The other tells:" On the beach underneath the rocks there was found a girl, which was about 18- years old and wore waterproof clothes, seriously injured. She was already lying their for hours and according to the doctor she was thrown off a rock. A jogger found her in the early morning. is ist possible that she was one of your classmates?"

Alena turned white. "Emily!", She screams and starts to cry.

"Where is she?" , Toby roars and jumps up." I' m going to kill whoever did that!" Mrs Montgomery doesn't move and stares at the wall. she try's to grab Mr Price's hand but he withholds it from here. "How is Emily?", he asks quietly, "Is she still alive?" The police officer stares at him for a longtime. "When the ambulance came she wasn't responsive but still breathed ", he explains, "they brought her to the hospital as fast as possible. TThat's all I can say. Please stay here!", he adds, when Toby walks to the door." You can't do anything for her right now and besides we need you for our investigation." Toby sits back down but curses low-voiced. There is murmur in the room and Spencer and Hanna starr at each other and than look to the ground. Some girls even start to cry.

"Let's get right to the point", says one of the policeofficers, " the man, who found her, told us that the girl briefly opend her eyes and said something. But it was hard to understand and afterwards she lost consciousness again. Perhaps you can tell as what it was supposed to mean."

Mr Price jumps up from his chair."What did she say?" The policeman clears his throat and everybody go s silent. He starrs at everyone and sees: Toby's anger, Alena's disbelief, Hanna's blank expression, Spencers head-shaking, Peter chewing on his lips and Mrs Montgomerys wrinkles on the forehead. He clears his throat again and says: "It was a name."...