Framed

Seventeen.

They spent a few moments in a state of speechlessness, Lauren keeping an eye on Niall and Selena while the rest take it all in.

Zayn and Camila are just staring in absolute shock at the scene, while Harry and Mani have given up all attempts to revive Dinah, and are just sobbing at the sight of her body. Lauren doesn't turn around, because it isn't real until she sees it for herself.

Camila, however, can't just stand by and watch, and she walks over to Mani and Harry, sinking to her knees at Dinah's closed eyes. "You can't do this, Cheechee." she says softly, tears running down her face as she whispers out her denial.

Selena, out of respect for her former friends, averts her eyes from the scene, looking down at the ground. But Niall stares unabashedly, looking at both Lauren and Zayn square on in the eyes.

"Why did you do this?" Zayn's head is turned to Selena, as Lauren keeps her steely glare on Niall. "What made you cause the deaths of your friends, people you told us you loved!?"

"She never directly killed anyone, that was all -" Niall raised a hand, beginning to talk.

"I wasn't asking you to speak." Zayn interjected, making a rough pause at every passing word. "I want to hear from her."

"I- he's right, I never did anything to directly kill them -"

"You killed them nonetheless!" Zayn's temper wasn't as bad as Lauren's, but he could already see the mask she was putting up, like paper mache - something that sticks well for the time being, but is so easy to crumble down by the end. He knew Lauren couldn't bring herself to speak now. So he tried to speak for her, in the best words he had. "Don't skirt around me with the i'm guilty but i'm not shit, you killed them, Selena. Why?"

"He asked me for help. He texted me after the first day of school and asked me if I could help him with something...a project. And it started with getting Austin Mahone's fingerprints, and Brad's locker combination."

"And then you interviewed him." Zayn added, prodding her to continue on.

"That was...by chance." Selena said. "Ellie selected me - Ellie chose me to talk to him, and by then he already had an alibi. Something I didn't know of until I heard him spill the story himself."

"And it worked." Niall smirked, stretching out his back. By now, Selena's hands are shaking so much that she's put them behind her back.

"Shut up, you rat bastard."

"Says the boy in a ragtag group of friends who were too dimwitted to bring firearms." Niall gloats aloud. "Idiotic enough to not realize that the sting of murders was just psychological warfare, trying to get a confession from Lauren, or the corrupt police system to be fed up enough to just put her to trial with tainted evidence. I was plucking off insignificants just to get to you. And it was working, for a little bit. Until you started trying to play Sherlock and track us down."

"That's not stupid," Zayn came quick to the defense of his friend, as snowflakes fell, making a white crown over his hair. "That's trying to do right by our friend."

"That was making things hard for me." Niall rolled his eyes, as if even thinking about it was annoying for him. "With Lauren out of the picture, it would have been simple. I would have visited Camila's house afterwards, been the strong arms she needed for her comfort. Then, then the spark would have started, without the damn Jauregui getting in the way. Camila...would have been mine. She could have been mine."

"She was never yours for the taking to begin with!" Zayn raised his arms in indignation.

"Imbeciles." 

"Some of them may be stupid, especially the tattooed boy." Ellie's voice barely rings into hearing view before shots ring out. "But I'm always one step ahead."

Selena and Niall fall to the snow, the ice staining red with liquified crimson crystals.

"Did you...did you kill them?" Zayn asks, as the others turn to Ellie, who is standing behind the two culprits with a small pistol, skin almost whiter than the snow itself.

She shakes her head quickly, bends down and takes the gun from Niall's hand with her latex gloved one. "Only enough to disable them, render them unconscious with the pain."

She tosses the dart gun aside, out of reach from Niall and Selena, who is still drifting in her consciousness. "I loved him...I did it because I loved him."

"Then you're just as sick as he is." Ellie rolled her eyes, removing the glove and tossing it to the side, before pulling out her cell phone. "Damn. No reception."

"What..." Lauren's voice is small, and squeaks as if it's a piece of rusted tin. "What are we doing now?"

"Calling LaF, and then the authorities." Ellie answers. "I'll need to drive. To the city."

"Dinah's gone." Zayn tells her, and she only gives a brief nod of the head. "Poisons...can render a person so unconscious that you think they're dead. They'll wake her up when the authorities come..."

"I checked her heartbeat, Ellie." Harry says, speaking the first words since Dinah's passing. He still doesn't look up from the body. "She's gone."

"No."

"Ellie, Dinah's gone." Camila tells her, standing up to look her in the eyes.

The blonde girl pauses, taking a seat in a red slush of snow. "It can't be."

"Camila." Niall's voice croaks. "Letters and CD ROMs in the car...please. Read them for me."

"She doesn't have to do anything for you." Ellie gets to her feet, brandishing the pistol.

But for once, Zayn is one step ahead of her. The gun is in his hand before she can point it at his head.

"Give me the gun, Malik!"

"Ellie...don't do this." his eyes let the tears stream down now, having faced enough turmoil for a lifetime. "I'm not saying forgive them. But don't sink to their level."

"They killed Dinah!" she shouts, pushing his chest, her strength making him stagger backwards into the snow. "And Ari. You don't want me to do anything to get back at them? Make them pay?"

"They framed Lauren...for now, we need them alive." Zayn reminded her once he regained his footing. He put his hands into his pockets due to the cold. "For the sake of their stories...we need them alive."

"Just shoot me." Niall groans. "Just shoot me."

"You don't deserve that much...you don't deserve respite." Zayn scoffs, before kicking Niall in the head, effectively silencing him for the time being. "I'll go to the city with you, then come back to the others."

"Let me come with you." Lauren rasps, shivering in the cold.

"No. Stay here. Help Mani and Mila." Zayn says, rubbing his arm for warmth. "Go into the cabin if you need to."

"But-"

"Lauren, just trust us, please." Ellie pleads. "We'll be okay."

There's a moment of hesitation, until to everyone's surprise, Lauren nods, then turns back to where Dinah is laying, and Mani and Camila and Harry are huddled in a sob filled embrace. She joins them, spreading her arms around Harry's body, before letting her walls come down. For the first time since Ari has died, she cries, wiping her tears on Harry's sweater as she loses herself in the hold of her friends, collectively mourning, feeling the loss as a single body of sorrow.

Zayn tucks the pistol in his pocket and opens the door for Ellie to get into the shotgun seat. Then, after closing the door to the van, he starts the car and drives off, leaving a fog of snow behind, and tire tracks, as the only trace that they were even there.