The Unlucky Five {1}

18 Matthew Strikes

They stood outside the Montanez's mansion. Police cars and ambulances surrounded the entire house. Aiden had his arm wrapped around Em's shoulder. Mark and Jess stood in a huddle with Sami. About ten feet away from them, Josh sat on the ground sobbing as his girlfriend, Jordan, tried to comfort him.

"It's bad," Em whispered. None of them knew yet what was happening, only Josh but he couldn't even make out one word.

"I know this isn't the time to bring this up," Sami said as she wiped away her tears. "But Adam isn't here. There is something really wrong with Lee and he didn't even show up."

"He's changed," Mark said with no emotion. No one said anything, they all knew Mark was right.

Yet, it was still weird to think about it. Adam had been one of their best friends for years. They all grew up together. They thought they knew him. Adam would have been here, he would have been at anything that was happening, good or bad. He really changed for the worse.

Agent Cooper and two police officers walked up side by side. Cooper put a hand on Josh's shoulder before walking over to the group of teenagers.

"I'm so sorry, Emercyn," Cooper said. With his words, she broke down in tears.

She knew what those words meant. She heard them every day for months after her father died. That same hurt released itself into her chest, the same hurt she felt when she saw her father's dead body.

A pain that only exists from death. The worse pain one could ever experience.

She never thought it would be Lee. She thought it would be her. She thought Matthew would come for her first. Out of anger for his dead wife, out of anger because she didn't love Adam back. Lee never did anything wrong, she never deserved this.

Agent Cooper engulfed Em's sobbing body into a huge hug. "I will do anything and everything to get to the bottom of this."

"And I'll be here to help," She choked out.

The agent pulled each one of the sobbing teens in for a hug before returning to the scene of the crime. The scene made Em's stomach turn. Matthew did this, she was sure of it. And she was sure it was Matthew who killed her father, not a suicide.

It confused her on why he would be doing this. This wasn't for Adam or had anything to do with Adam. He was doing this for his own sick pleasures. He was purely crazy as Cooper said. So crazy he was able to convince others he was fine. And Em had sadly been one of the people manipulated by his horrible game.

Why would he kill her father? Why would he kill her best friend?

His reason for her father made sense. He was angry and in denial over the death of his wife. Even though it was horrible, she understood that part of it. But Lee? She didn't understand at all.

Was he afraid that she would have told someone that he raped her? Was he afraid of being caught?

To put her mind at ease, that's what she thought. It had nothing to do with her and everything to do with Matthew Crawford.

Emercyn looked over at Josh who didn't move from where he was before Cooper came over. His shoulders shook violently as Jordan held onto him. She looked over at her own brother, she couldn't imagine her life without him. She couldn't imagine how horrible Josh felt.

She ran over to Mark and wrapped her arms around him tightly. They stayed there for a few minutes, rocking back and forth as they cried to each other.

"I love you, Mark," She whispered.

"I love you, Em," He whispered back.

As they stayed in each other's arms, they watched Cooper frantically talk to other officers. He looked over at them as if he had something to tell them but he turned back around and continued to talk to people.

They pulled apart. She stared at the huge house in front of her. The red letters still stood out against the gray exterior of the house. Mr. and Mrs. Montanez stood outside of the house talking to police officers. Neither of them seemed to be crying, not even shaken up at all.

She felt anger rise in her chest as she stared at them with such a deep look of hatred. She was so angry that she didn't realize she was stomping off in their direction. This was something Emercyn Rose would have never done.

"Are you kidding me?" She yelled. The police officers and the Montanez's turned around quickly.

"Your daughter is dead and you can't even show one ounce of sympathy?" She yelled. They both looked taken back by her shouting.

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Mr. Montanez shouted back in her face. She stepped back and glared at him.

"You," She yelled back as she pointed at them. "She used to tell us everything. She told us about what you would say, what you would do."

"That's enough," Mrs. Montanez spoke up.

"Come on, Em," Aiden said as he wrapped an arm around her.

Emercyn stood there and stared at them. No one moved, not even the police officers asked her to leave. Because for once, she wasn't crazy. She was right.

She glared at them one more time before telling them, "Burn in hell."

***

Emercyn was sleeping next to Aiden that night. The sobbing had finally stopped, the sleep was putting a temporary hold on the pain they were all feeling.

A phone ringing woke Em up. She leaned over Aiden and grabbed her phone that was beside her bed.

"Hello?" She said half awake.

"Emercyn! Thank god," Agent Cooper was yelling into the phone in the middle of the night. She could tell he was driving and that he was going fast. She could hear the loud wind.

"Agent Cooper? Is everything okay?" She asked. She was now wide awake and shaking Aiden.

"I just got a call from the Sheriff," He began. "The Sheriff was on his way home from his girlfriend's house when he found Matthew struggling to get a girl out of a car right outside of Fairmount Park. When he approached them, he let go and she ran off. She must have thought he was coming to help Matthew since he wasn't in his uniform. I had the officer describe the girl and it sounds like she was Sami."

"Oh my god," Em said as she finally was able to wake up Aiden. "Where's Matthew?"

"He's in custody," He said. "Right now, we have to find Sami and then we can go over everything."

"Where outside of Fairmount?" She asked as she jumped out of bed and tried to get ready as she talked on the phone. She checked Aiden's phone, 3:18 am.

"North entrance which is near the cabin," He said. Em quickly put clothes on.

"What are you doing, babe?" Aiden asked as he stumbled over to her.

"Sami might be in trouble," She said which caught his attention. "Put a shirt on, we have to go."

"Is Aiden with you?" Agent Cooper asked.

"Yes and we are getting ready to come down there now," She said as she threw him a shirt of his.

"Okay, I'm five minutes away. I'll meet you in the parking lot," He said.

"See you there," Em said as she hung up and they quickly made their way out the door.