Salem

✨Chapter 13✨

I don't think I've ever dialed a number so quickly.

As the phone rings I race to my room and fling the door closed, scaring Moony in the process.

"Someone knows."

"Have you seen the news?"

"Did you hear a new Starbucks opened near the mall?"

Liv, myself and Scarlet all answer the phone and speak into the receiver at the same time.

"Scar? Have you even seen the news?"

"No? What happened? Wait- Someone's at the door, I'll call you guys back now."

Her side went dead.

"Ellie, what are we going to do? If they find out about us..." As she trails off I hear a doorbell sound and Liv going to answer.

I can barely make out what they are saying and eventually give up when she, too, puts the phone down.

I pace around my room for ten minutes and only settle once the doorbell rings. I peek my head out of my doorway and look down the hall to the front door, which Mom had answered.

No...No, no, no.

There, at my doorway, illuminated by the kitchen light stood a policeman.

The man's eyes flicker to me for a second and Mom notices the movement, turning to look at me.

"Ma'am, could you come down to the station, we just want to have a word."

~*~*~*~*~

"I can't believe he handcuffed me!" Liv complained later, once I had been thrown in the same holding cell as them.

Scar turned Liv's blood red wrists on her own hands. Her mahogany skin contrasted with the red rings on her arms.

"Do you think they...?" Asked Scarlet, who was quickly silenced by Alivia, sending a quick glance to the camera in the left corner

"No. We didn't do anything." She said finally. "This is ridiculous." 

I curled up on the bench and closed my eyes, letting my memories take over.

Two girls, only about thirteen or fourteen years of age, sat at the edge of a small lake. Their milky feet hanging over into the water. The blonde girl turned her head away.

"What happened?" The girl with the black hair asked, referring to the blooming bruise over the other girls cheek.

"He got angry, that's all" The dark haired girl didn't believe it, pulling her feet close to her and taking a deep breathe she said what had been on her mind all month.

"You need to tell someone." Before the words had even left her mouth, the other girl had gasped a 'no!'

"It will just make it worse..." She mumbled.

"Kaylee,"

"Besides, El," Kaylee began, eager to change to subject. "I think I've found my parents!"

A moment of silence passed through the girls as they stared at each other.

"You...found them...?"

The blonde girl threw her curly hair over her shoulder and pulled two photos out of her bag.

"This is my mom...and my dad."

Ellie couldn't stifle the sound of surprise that came from her. Her dad looked nothing like her.

She looked up at Kaylee's shining face. Her bright blue eyes contrasted with the man's dark brown. His nose was too wide, his mouth too thin.

Ellie knew the woman Kaylee was showing her was Kaylee's mother, but that man...

"Are...are you sure that's your dad?" She asked tentatively, afraid that too many questions might crack her.

Kaylee looked hurt for a moment then stared back at the pages. "Yes and I'm going to find them, and then-"

"And then what, Kaylee?! And then you leave me?! I thought we'd promised to stick together. my dad..." Ellie exploded, unable to contain her anger anymore. She picked up a stray rock and threw it angrily into the lake.

She felt a small sense of pride at how it splashed water up at Kaylee.

"I'm not going to be leaving you! You've always left me! You're just so afraid to be alone to need someone. Anyone. Well this is my resignation. We're done." Kaylee grabbed her bag up, ignoring how some of the papers flew out.

Ellie wanted to stand up and protest. Tell Kaylee how it was never about needing someone, just needing a friend. She wanted to push Kaylee in the water and watch as she splashed around, drowning her papers and pictures. Tell how how stupid her ideas were. Instead she sat there and let the tears pool up in her eyes and watched, for the last time, as her best friend walked away.

"Elliot Mitchell, Alivia Smith and Scarlet Stanhope, you girls are free to go." A very grumpy looking policeman held open the cell door.

Behind him a stern looking woman stood. She reminded me of a tall bird, her blue patterned pencil dress cling to her tiny hips. Her black high heels made clicking noises as she made her way to our cell.

"My name is Evelyn Grant, I was hired to be your lawyer, you girls better get out of here." She stick her long neck out further as we walked out.

Alivia looked a little shaken as we made our way to her car.

"What's up?" I asked, getting into her car simultaneously.

She looked really worried, her dark face was now pale with fear and her forehead creased with thought

She took a deep breathe before she started explaining.

"That was Melissa Grant's mother. Melissa and I used to be friends when we were younger. Ugh, I'm such an idiot, why didn't I..." she shook her head then looked up into my eyes.

"When I was ten Evelyn tried to recruit my parents into their "club" after that my parents wanted nothing to do with Melissa or her family. I was told to never speak to her again. That same year my mom was fired from her work for "suspicious behaviour" and our house was completely ransacked, they stole and tore up anything. My parents moved houses the next year. I have a feeling it wasn't a golf club she tried to invite them to..."