Only In Her Dreams

Chapter 22

I slowly make my way back home with my legs that feel like they're made of jello.

I need to find something. I don't know what I'm looking for but I won't give up trying to search.

The first place I start is in Abby's room. I creak open the door and slowly make my way in. I used to come in here to sleep when she first died because it made me feel closer to her. But the more I thought about it the more it creeped me out knowing she died in the bathroom that's attached to the bedroom.

My mom still hasn't touched anything in here and I never really thought about it until now, but maybe there is a part of her that isn't accepting her death or moving on either. It has been over 11 months so you think she would have cleaned things out by now, but she hasn't.

I search through her desk and find nothing but homework, pens, and sticky notes. The bathroom comes up with nothing too. Cleaned and rinsed with no sign of what horror occurred in here almost a year ago.

I look at the tub and I know what she probably went through in her last moments. Before they injected her with drugs and slit her wrists and let her bleed out to make it look like a suicide. She must have felt scared and helpless and sad.

I guess they felt like Abby's life mattered less than what they thought they'd lose if anyone would have found out. Chris would lose his job and my mother's love. Kara would have lost her source of income and her extravagant life with her rich husband.

It makes me angry. Abby had so much going for her and she didn't deserve to die. It makes me want to kill Chris and Kara with my bare hands but I know that I would have to suffer in the long run and if there was no way to prove that they did it the I would lose my mom as well.

"Don't worry Abby," I say, hoping somewhere out there she is listening "I am going to make sure they pay for this."

As I walk out of the bathroom I see her phone sitting on the nightstand. Still untouched.

I know they had searched it for some suicide note but maybe they missed something.

I take her phone off the nightstand and plug it into the charger that's there. I wait for it to power on and I start looking through it.

There are so many pictures of the two of us together the night before she died. I never saw these before. That night when we stayed up talking about our futures, we took pictures of us together. I smile as I look through these pictures and my eyes begin to well with tears.

I just remembered something looking through these pictures. Chris came into our room and because it was late he offered to make us tea so it would help us sleep. He must have drugged Abby's drink!

The tears disappear as I am overtaken by anger once again.

I decided to take her phone to my room just in case Chris or my mom comes home, I don't want them to question why I am in here snooping.

I sit on my bed and start to go through her files and search history.

That's when I come across a search for hidden cameras. The drop-down menu in her search history says:

hidden camera's in smoke alarms

hidden camera's in clocks

hidden camera's in bookshelves

where to buy mini hidden camera's

Holy shit! Please tell me she bought hidden camera's and hid them around the house.

Think Alissa, think. I am almost too scared to go look for them. If my search comes up with nothing then it's just another dead end and I am back to square one with nothing.

Where would she hide them? All over the house? Maybe in his office and the kitchen. Or her room? I don't really understand the reason she would have bought hidden camera's but then I think back to the time right before she died. My mom and Abby and I were supposed to go out of town for the weekend for one of Abby's softball tournaments.

I think she wanted to catch him in the act with Kara.

I jump off my bed and fly downstairs to the kitchen. I grab a stool and pull it over to the smoke detector and take off the cover.

Holy fuck.

Right inside the smoke detector is a small camera attached to a battery pack. I take it apart and search through the pieces and out falls a mini SD card.

My hands are shaking. I need to hurry before anyone gets home. I quickly put the pieces back together and stick the SD card in my pocket.

I run through the rooms and collect as many as I can from all the smoke detectors.

I lock myself in my room and push a chair to the door to make sure no one can enter.

I sit on my bed and put the first SD card into my laptop. I can barely get it in because I'm shaking so bad.

The first SD card video looks like it is the kitchen. I search through hours of video trying to find anything. I notice the time stamps and try to fast forward it to the night before her death and about the time that Chris came and brought us tea.

The video plays and sure enough, I see Chris putting something in the glass that Abby drank out of. That son of a bitch.

The next couple of cards come up nothing until I pop in the one from Abby's room.

The scene from my dream played out right in front of me. It shows everything! This is it. This is the evidence I needed and I need to get the hell out of this house and fast before my mom or Chris gets home. I am not safe here.

Shaking, I quickly pull the SD card out and put them all in my pocket, I grab my keys and run down the stairs almost falling on my way down.

I throw my front door open to run to my car and run straight into someone's hard chest.