Crazy Enough...

Chapter 6

"Without the rope, the measurements could be interpreted two ways. She could have done it herself, but not dropped that far, but I found some level of doubt. No one asked how she got cut down, and the length of the rope wouldn't be that much, meaning that whoever found her, would've had to climb the tree to cut her down. That would account for all her injuries, unless the killer wanted us to see it that way. The injuries that Lauryn sustained could've also been caused by someone, the killer I'd presume, pulling her into the tree. They would have swung the rope over the branch, then stood on the ground, and pulled her up on a pulley like simple machine. They could've then staged it to look like a suicide," I looked at the others, who looked shocked and amused by my knowledge.

"Okay, but without the rope, what does this mean? The police must've realized that," Kaitlynn commented.

"Yeah, they probably dismissed it, and for good reason. It pretty crazy," Ria added.

"Very true, but then again, it might just be crazy enough to be true," I raised an eyebrow and smirked a little. If this was the truth, I was terrified, but if it wasn't I would almost be disappointed.

It was an odd feeling, because for the first time in forever, I felt like I was fitting in. only it took a dead girl to do that, so maybe it wasn't such a good thing.

"So, what do we do now?" Toby spoke quietly, but it might as well have been a scream in the silently empty woods.

"We continue on, which I guess means breaking the law," Ria said in an equally quiet voice.

"How ironic, who would've ever thought that we'd have to break the law, to find justice?" Kaitlynn sighed into the pressing silence.

"What do we do next?" Jaxon asked looking at us one at a time.

"Investigate, I guess. To the best of our abilities," Liam said triumphantly.

"But we're not the cops, we can interview people, we don't have all the resources, and if we do anything suspicious, we'll be raising about a million red flags. And if we get caught, well I'm just not even going to go there," Ria stopped suddenly, snapping out of her frantic phase. She was staring over my shoulder, and we all turned in time to see a shadow disappear into the mass of trees.

"Did anyone else-" I was cut off.

"I think we should get out of here," Toby said.

I turned and saw fear, true and strong in everyone's eyes. We were no longer alone, and even though we all saw the shadow disappear, a shadow is always invisible among other shadows. The sun was setting, making dark likes streak across the forest floor like veins searching for a heart that was never to be found. Above our head, however, the trees reached towards the ever-darkening sky, like hands to the heavens. Everything seemed hopeful and yet, at the same time hopeless. Numb, was the word.

We hustled back to the subdivision and it was only then that I realized that I had been gone all day, and once again, not told my father where I went. I checked my phone and saw thirteen missed calls from Dad. I apparently didn't get very good cell service in the woods. I said my quick goodbyes to the group then ran up my driveway and burst into the house.

"I'm so sorry Dad, I was in the clearing in the woods with friends, and I didn't think I'd be out all day, and I didn't get good service, and-" I was cut short as I turned into the living room, and saw a large group of parents sitting throughout it. Some were leaning on the walls, or pacing nervously.

Behind my back, the front door opened and Jaxon, Ria, Kaitlynn, Liam and Toby all burst into the house. All the parents looked disapprovingly at the group of us. I assumed that all these people were their parents.