The Fire

Chapter Fifteen

Present

I woke up at 7:00am – a lot earlier than normal because of my early night. Rubbing my eyes, I grabbed my phone, temporarily blinded by the light that it emitted and was surprised that I had forty messages. I frowned, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed and unlocking my phone in a hurry to see what all the fuss was about. The first message made my heart stop.

It was from Millie.

Have you heard about Josh?

No, it couldn't be. Josh...Josh...as in the Josh who received a death threat yesterday, because of me.

There was another one.

Have you seen Josh?

I leapt up from my bed and ran downstairs, my heart rate quickening and each breath becoming shorter and shorter. The living room wasn't empty as I thought it would be, I had come down to put on the local news, but my mum had already beat me to it.

I looked at her first, following her gaze to the TV screen and what I saw my legs turn to jelly. I was Josh's face on my TV – with MISSING written in bold capitals underneath it.

"Is that..."

"Soph, I'm so sorry."

It was him. I couldn't believe it. I turned and ran upstairs, I could tell my mum was in pursuit, her useless cries of desperation followed me to my bedroom, but I wasn't turning around. Locking my bedroom door, I climbed into bed – I was shaking. It was all my fault; I should never have told him. If it weren't for me, this wouldn't have happened. Josh would still be here, alive and well. Now, he is probably dead for all I know. Why was I so stupid?

The tears were rolling down my cheeks one after another, my sobs becoming uncontrollable, so I just let it all out. I lay there and cried for what felt like days. What if he was gone forever? I never even said a proper goodbye. The last thing I did was shout at him, and that was his last memory of me, and my last memory of him.

I temporarily recovered and grabbed my remote from my bedside table to turn on my TV; I needed to hear his for myself.

"Local police have launched an emergency search campaign to try and find the missing teenager, he was last seen yesterday afternoon, driving home from a friend's house at around 3pm. Josh Stevenson never returned home."

Oh god. A friend's house. My house. My mum must have seen him on the way back from the shops, she must have been the one to mention this "friend's house."

My breathing was slowly returning to normal but if I thought about him too much, I would probably cry again so I found a book and started to read, if you can call it that. I found myself reading the same line over and over again, sometimes even finding myself reading a whole paragraph for the third time.

For an hour, I attempted to distract myself, before giving up and throwing my book across my bed in annoyance. I turned over and hugged the cat pillow that still sat on my bed after all these years.

My TV was still on. I hadn't even noticed, but I wish I had never looked up.

The words on the screen were still written in bold but they had changed. The picture of Josh was still there, but MISSING was no longer headlining him. Instead, the words BODY FOUND were written there. My eyes widened, I turned up the volume. It couldn't be.

"Police have found a body in a burnt car that was on a deserted road by the 'Crimson Forest.' They believe it is the body of 19-year-old Josh Stevenson, however, the body is said to be burned beyond recognition. Forensics are now searching for any sign of DNA within the burnt car. At the moment, the death is being treated as suspicious."

No.

It was him.

It really was.

I had lost my Josh – forever.

My hand was on my mouth, trying to contain the scream that wanted to escape so much.

Beep. Beep.

My phone lit up next to me...it was The Hooded Man.

Told you so

The scream escaped and I threw my phone on the floor, thinking that stopping the messages would bring Josh back. I didn't even care anymore. He had taken everything from me. Why did I ever tell him?

My mum was knocking on my door, but I just ignored her. I couldn't talk to anyone right now. However, I did need to talk to Millie. I had to protect her at all costs. I didn't know what The Hooded Man's rules were about telling Millie anything, but I wasn't going to risk it. I just needed to keep her out of everything no matter what.

I had blocked out all sounds: the sound of my mum knocking on my door, the sound of James telling her to leave me alone, the sound of the news reporter informing me that my best friend was dead, and it was all my fault.

I did look up though. The headline was now BODY OF JOSH GRAHAM STEVENSON FOUND.

It was confirmed.

Josh Graham Stevenson was dead, and it was all my fault.