Dead Girls Walking: A Novel

Chapter Eight

Viola

Viola practically ran through the hospital halls. The receptionist told her that Marissa was being held on the fourth floor, and that she was awake. She had to see her, she had to make sure she was okay.

She finally found room 410 and opened the door. Marissa sat in a bed, with an IV in her arm. She looked pale. Lacey was at her side, sitting in a chair. She had on a fancy blue dress, like she'd just come from a wine and cheese party.

Marissa saw her, and the ends of her lips curved up, but her face still contained no expression. Lacey stood up. "Hey."

Viola wasn't sure what to say. She went to the bed and squeezed Marissa's hand. "How are you feeling?"

Marissa didn't look up. "I'm okay. I passed out on his lawn after I...found him. The doctors want me to rest for a few days."

Lacey's eyebrows raised in sympathy. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Marissa shook her head. Tears then began to pour down her cheeks. "Who could do something like this? David was good and kind and selfless. Why would anybody want to hurt him?"

Viola's heart ached for Marissa. She couldn't imagine what she must be going through. And who is that fucking psychotic? "I don't know."

"But it's gonna be okay. The cops are gonna figure out who did it, and they're gonna go to jail for a really long time." Lacey came to her side.

"You sure about that?" Marissa began to rub her arms. "They couldn't even figure out what happened to Olivia."

Viola squeezed her eyes shut. Not the words she wanted to hear. Before she could say anything more, the door flew open. Jasmine entered, in sweatpants and a t-shirt. Her curly hair was piled into a bun on top of her head. It was rare to see her like this. "Hey," she said hesitantly, "Are you okay?"

"My boyfriend was murdered in cold blood. Of course I'm not!" Marissa took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you like that."

"Girl, you have every right to." Jasmine sat on the side of her bed. Viola looked her up and down. She assumed that Marcus's party had been cancelled. Otherwise, Jasmine wouldn't be there.

"Why did you ask for us to be here?" Viola asked, suddenly curious.

"I-I was thinking, what if this had to do with the note you got today?" Marissa said the words, causing all of their eyes to grow wide.

Viola's heart began to pound. She never wanted to think that the secret messenger would go this far. To murder? That was a whole new extreme.

"It can't, Marissa. That person was probably trying to scare us." It was obvious Lacey was trying to hide her fear.

"Why would someone do that? It wasn't like we killed her." Jasmine said.

"Yeah, but we probably didn't save her from someone who did, and whoever wrote the note is blaming us." Viola went through today's events, tryin to put the pieces together.

"That person must really fucking hate us." Marissa muttered.

Viola gulped. If this person was truly capable of murder, who would they target next? Their friends? Their families? Them?

And unless they admitted what really happened six months ago, this wouldn't stop.

Lacey

"We're gonna find who did this." Lacey proclaimed.

Jasmine scoffed at her. "You think it's that easy? This is a murderer we're talking about."