A Murderous Game - Book 1

Chapter 7: ReveAled

Life is a series of unfortunate events and we were its dolls, dancing on loose strings like we were on some kind of puppet show. I stood in the living room, Aaron holding me close to him, and our friends standing there like statues. No one knew what to do or say. How could we? Someone murdered Kylie while we were all asleep. We were shaken to the core and scared. It could have been any of us in that bathtub. Michelle was comforting Bethany as she wept on the floor. Seeing her sister all bloody in the bathtub and then taken away on a stretcher to the ambulance broke her down – as it did all of us. It was the worst day of my life. The ambulance and police cars were surrounding Wendy's mansion. One of the police officers, the one in charge, was talking to Freddy and Wendy. Freddy pointed in my direction and the officer walked up to me. Since I was the one who found Kylie, he wanted to ask me a few questions. In fact, no one was to leave the house until the police questioned all of us. I took a quick glance at my phone; it was 6 a.m. Everyone was wide awake and on high alert, sleep far away from our minds.

After several hours of interrogations, the officer let us go around 9:30 a.m.

""You're free to go – all of you," he said. "But I'm calling this a homicide. And I will get to the bottom of this. We will find out who did this and they will be put away for a long time!"

The police took Bethany home and they cleared the house. The 15 of us stood in the living room wondering what to do next; I've never heard a silence quite so loud before. And then, in the quietness of it all, I heard the dreadful sound of a text message.

One's down. 16 bitches to go. -A

And that's the funny thing about life; it has a sick and twisted sense of humor, watching us like we were in some kind of horror movie while munching on salted popcorn.

"Livi, let's go home," Aaron said, taking my hands in his. But I hardly paid attention to him. In fact, everything seemed like it was in slow motion and I felt lightheaded. Flashbacks of Kylie's body in the bathtub kept replaying in my head and I felt like puking. I ran to the nearest bathroom and threw up in the sink. I looked at myself in the mirror and for a split second didn't recognize myself. It was the second time I see a dead body and it wasn't something one can get used to. It took me a long time to get over the first time I saw a corpse. And now Kylie's, oh God, Kylie's dead! I suddenly remembered the conversation we had a few hours ago and broke down. After her heartfelt apology, all I could muster was "thanks". I've never hated myself so much!

I heard a knock on the door.

"Aaron go away, not now," I said.

"I'm not Aaron," came a soft voice.

I turned around so fast the room began to spin. I felt dizzy but then she caught me before I lost my balance. It was Mia.

"Are you okay Olivia?" She lead me to the guest's room down the hallway and sat me on the bed. She tilted my chin towards her face and examined my face.

"Are you okay?" she asked, genuinely concerned for me.

"Y-yes," I croaked.

"Livi, it's me... you don't have to lie to me. I'm here for you... Always."

And that's when I broke down. I started crying in her chest. She held me as I bawled my eyes out.

"Shhh, it's gonna be okay," she said, rubbing my back slowly.

For the first time that night, I felt safe. Mia made me feel safe. Lying in her arms made me forget all about my worries. And I liked the feeling. I pulled away from her and turned my head in the other direction. I didn't want her to see me like this – all blotchy, tears and snot, swollen red eyes – I was embarrassed.