Murder in the woods

Chapter 13

A girl is lying with her back to me on the floor. Her hair is messy and coated in a thin layer of blood. The sticky substance glues her hair together in small clumps and tangles. Her shoulders are shaking and I hear her sobbing quietly. I go around to see who it is.

It's Lara. She's taking gulpy breaths and trying to calm her breathing, but failing miserably. "What happened, Lara?"
"I-they- they're gone." she cries, her hands trembling with shock.
"Who's gone?"
"Chloe and- and her sister."
"Lara, she's an only child. I think we should get you to hospital, you're delirious."
"But I'm not."

Then she bursts into another set of tears. It's an awful thing seeing your best friend like this- crumpled on the floor, unable to even sit up. She's a snivelling mess, her emotions from the events she has just endured spilling out of her, flowing with the rush of tears. I feel helpless as I sit there rubbing her back, but what else can I do? She's beyond comfort now, a broken shell of the person she once was.

I decide to call an ambulance as she's really worrying me, but Lara quickly snatches the phone out of my hand out of my hand and hurls it down the stairs. "It's up to us now, Lara." she shakes me fiercely, "We need to gather the proof that they killed her."
"Lara..."
"No! Don't you dare tell me that I've gone mad! Don't you dare! I know what I saw, Skyla! Believe what you want, but I know what happened that night in the woods." She spits her words out at me and each syllable burns me like a drop of acid from her venomous tongue. What is she talking about? Is she mad or simply telling me the truth? I don't know what to believe anymore, everything seems to be a lie.

I decide to believe Lara, her injury can't have been bad enough to make her hallucinate. But that means that my other best friend is a cold-blooded, vicious murderer. And she has a sister that she never told us about? Even after everything that has happened over the past few weeks, this seems incredibly far-fetched. But what if Lara is genuinely telling me the truth? We could solve this case once and for all and be able to put that dreadful day in the woods behind us. We could get closure for Chloe's - Sheila's - family.

"What is it that you want me to do?" I ask Lara and her tear stained face splits into an enormous grin.
"Well, first, we have to find them. And for that, we'll need to split up."
"I can't leave you. Not like this: you're injured!"
"It doesn't matter, Sky, we need to do this and we need to do it now."
"Ok. Let's do this." I smile back at her to hide my nerves, if they managed to do that to Lara and kill their mum, what might Chloe and her sister do to me? I guess there's only one way to find out.

Lara and I hug each other before heading off in separate directions to find them. I don't turn back.