Believing Lies

by Elizabeth, Anne

  “I’m sorry. I want this as much as you do, but I have no idea who would want to do this to Nick. I really wish I could help.”

  The last part wasn’t a lie. I didn’t know why someone would want to kill Nick, and I wanted to help. She just nodded, grabbing folders from her desk.

  “Then that’s all we needed. Thank you for your cooperation.” She shook my hand before going back to her desk work. I left the station, breathing the air of freedom. I couldn’t believe that I had done that so perfectly.

  I bet I left a sweat stain in that chair.

  I pretty much bolted home after that. I had all this built-up energy, waiting to burst inside me. I almost fell a couple of times, but I didn’t care. I pushed past people and jumped over potholes. The world was just passing too slow for me. I needed to run. The air rushing against my face fed me energy, making me sprint faster. People stared and laughed. It just went in one ear and out the other. My feet were trying to keep up with my mind. I was in control.

  I have the power.

  I stopped when I got to my house; the heat and aching caught their way up to me. I fanned out my shirt, bringing a cool breeze to tickle my stomach. I walked inside to find an empty house. I noticed that Mom’s office door was open, so I peeked inside.

  Mom stood there on the phone, looking angry as hell. She hadn’t noticed me, so I stood behind the door to listen. I heard her heels click against the floor as she walked around the room.

  “What do you mean there’s one missing?”

  Missing? What’s missing?

  “I can’t believe you are telling me that a dead body is gone.”

  Dead body?

  “Obviously, something happened. Dead bodies don’t just walk, Cassie!”

  More heel clicking on the ground. I moved to walk away, which made the floor creak.

  “Now I have to deal with the family suing the hospital!” A few moments of silence passed.

  “The body didn’t have a family? Can you ID it for me then?”

  I took a few more steps out the door.

  “How did this happen? We have so much security!”

  I finally made it out of hearing range, ignoring the faint parts of the conversation I could still hear. I called Marie to tell her to meet me someplace. The phone was ringing, and she answered without saying a word.

  “Marie?” I asked.

  “I’m here.”

  I grabbed my book bag and slung it over my shoulders. “Okay, can you meet me at Luke’s street?”

  “Sure.”

  I closed the door behind me, clicking my tongue to the roof of my mouth. “Okay, great. Are you mad at me?”

  “Oh yeah, I am.” She was quiet after that. I could barely hear her breathing on the other side.

  “Why?”

  I walked down the sidewalk, holding the bag tightly.

  “Because you never called me after you got spooked last night.”

  Oh, right.

  I decided to spare her the details of the whole gun story because I didn’t even know how it ended. I knew Marie wanted an explanation, so I made something up.

  “Oh, it was just Henry getting home from work.”

  “Fine. I’ll see you soon.”

  She hung up without another word.

  ~

  I saw Marie there when I arrived. She stood by the sign with her arms crossed. When she saw me, she did not seem happy. She stomped over and flicked me in the head.

  “Ow!” I yelled. “What the hell was that for?”

  “For making me worry all day.” She smiled. “Now, what are we doing?”

  I reached into my book bag and pulled out sweatpants and hoodies. I threw a pair into Marie’s arm, who was reluctant to take them. She held them out like they were dirty diapers. I placed mine on the ground before zipping the bag back up. She walked over to me, waving the clothes around.

  “Okay, what the hell is going on?” she asked. She placed a hand on her hip like my mother did whenever I was in trouble.

  “Put those on,” I demanded. I was already unbuttoning my shirt, which got me a weird look from Marie. “Turn around!” She threw her hands up in the air and faced the other direction.

  “Yes, Kyle, because I am so interested in you.” She spoke in a sarcastic tone. I laughed, throwing the hoodie over my body. “Also, I’m not changing in the middle of the street.”

  I hurriedly placed the sweatpants on and started to put my shoes back on. I looked around us and noticed a backyard shower in the neighbor’s yard. “That’s okay, you can change over there.”

  The shower was broken. Parts of the wood were chipped, showing the original color. The door swung open, and I was positive I saw a rat.

  Marie looked in the direction I was pointing in and saw the little privacy stall. She shrugged her shoulders and ran over there. She had to climb this little fence, which she had no problem doing. She threw the clothes over and jumped. Can’t say I wasn’t impressed.

  I stayed by the street while she changed. Cars passed by while the drivers gave me weird looks. I couldn’t blame them. A teenage boy dressed in all black, holding a book bag? I’d be a little creeped out myself.

  After a few minutes, she came back out in the hoodie and sweatpants I gave her. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, containing her curls as best as it could. She was holding her old clothes in her arms. She climbed back over the fence and smiled at me.

  “Look, we match!” she exclaimed, pointing to our clothing. I rolled my eyes and held my hand out to grab her clothes. I kneeled, stuffing them into the bag.

  She started to brush off the dirt from her hoodie that I hadn’t realized was there. “Wait, so what are we doing?” she asked.

  I smirked at her, standing back up. “I just happen to know that Luke, his mom, and Caroline are all out at a diner. This could be our only time to scope the room,” I informed her. I watched her eyes grow, light glistening behind them. “We don’t have too long, though. In and out as fast as we possibly can. Got it?”

  “Got it.” Before I knew it, Marie was sprinting off in the direction of the house. I have never seen that girl run faster than she did at that moment. She was on a mission, and she was ready to complete it.

  I knew Marie was going to be excited about it, but I had no idea how excited. She looked like a kid that was just told they were going to Disney World. I realized that I didn’t know much about Marie’s childhood. I knew she lived with her grandparents, but I had no idea where her parents were. I knew she had a mom, but the only time I saw her was at the hospital.

  I tried to catch up to her, but her boots were too fast. By the time I reached the house, the door was wide open, and Marie was standing there. I moved my head to the side, confused as to why it was already unlocked. Marie snaked her hand out from behind her back, holding up a key.

  “How the hell—”

  “I like to pickpocket.” She then handed me my wallet.

  “Marie!”

  “Hey!” she yelled, backing up. “At least I returned it!”

  I stuffed it back into the pocket of my sweatpants. She giggled, sticking her tongue out at me. I just rolled my eyes and went to take off my shoes, but Marie stopped me.

  “No, we are doing this my way. Shoes stay on.”

  She walked into the house, her combat boots slapping the floor. I followed suit, knowing there was no point in arguing with her. Marie stared at the skull that we found last time and shuddered. I looked around the room, my attention zooming in on a tear on the wall. I made my way over there while Marie walked down the hall.

  The tear was peeling the wallpaper. The pattern was flowers and trees, but the tear showed the gray behind it. I reached up to pull it back when I noticed something else. There was a string hanging out of the hole. I grabbed ahold of it. It was a plastic, clear piece of string. I yanked, then I heard glass shattering down the hall. I dropped everything and ran over to Marie. She was staring at a picture frame that was on the floor, with broken piece
s surrounding it.

  “I didn’t see it!” she exclaimed, backing away from it. I rolled my eyes and quickly started to pick up the glass. Marie bent down to help, but I stopped her.

  “No,” I said. “I don’t want you getting cut.”

  She rolled her eyes, bending down, and helped anyways. I picked up the frame and saw the photo hanging from it. It was Luke, Nick, and me. We were on the swings in Luke’s backyard. He got rid of the swing set a long time ago, so it wasn’t there any more. Nick and I were messing with each other’s hair while Luke was smiling giddily at the camera.

  Is this why Luke would do this?

  Was he jealous of Nick and mine’s relationship?

  Did he feel left out?

  I threw all the pieces away, leaving the photo in a drawer. I silently prayed that they wouldn’t notice the missing picture. Ms. Cloud’s wall was filled with frames with different pictures, so I thought we had a good chance of getting away with it.

  Marie and I went down the rest of the hallway, careful not to break anything else. We went into Luke’s perfectly cleaned room, which got Marie scoffing.

  “What?” I asked her, picking up some things from his desk and looking under them. I wasn’t entirely sure what exactly I was looking for, but it just seemed too neat.

  “Of course, Luke’s room would look like this.” she snarled. “Not a single thing out of place. I kind of want to ruin it.”

  I just laughed at her. She was right; nothing seemed out of place. His room looked like a serial killer’s room. Which made sense if this was all his fault.

  I should’ve seen this coming.

  It was funny to think about at the time because I didn’t think Luke would ever do something like that. Luke wasn’t capable of murder. But after Mark and everything I went through, I had to be sure. Which is why I got Marie, and we were going to investigate his room. My gut was telling me that everything was fine, and I believed it. But I needed proof for myself.

  “Okay, so what’s the plan, captain?” I asked, looking at her scanning the room.

  “Go through anything and everything.”

  Seemed like a good plan to me. Marie and I searched everything. It felt like we were on one of the crime shows Marie watched. We looked around his bed and under his pillows. Inside his closet was nothing but clothes. His perfectly neat desk was just that. We couldn’t mess anything else up either, though, because then they would’ve known that we were here. All his books were perfectly placed in alphabetical order, which sort of creeped me out. When I was looking through his books, I realized a lot of them were about psychopaths and psychology.

  What the hell?

  I remember Luke telling me he had these books, but I didn’t realize it was this many.

  I started flipping through one and realized a lot of the things had been highlighted. Some pages were marked with sticky notes. I started to read some of the facts in my head.

  Eighty-five percent of violent offenders are white males.

  It was highlighted in blue with a yellow sticky note to the side. The note just had a star on it. Marie was huffing in the closet, going through his clothes. I turned to another page with a line that was pink.

  Psychopaths tend to have a rough childhood involving absent parents or addicts as parents.

  The sticky note next to that one read: Dad leaving when six.

  Luke’s dad did leave when he was only six, but because his mom was a lesbian. Of course, he didn’t have to leave Luke, but I think he felt embarrassed. He was in a marriage that was a lie. When Ms. Cloud finally realized who she was, Mr. Cloud didn’t want any part of it.

  “Marie, come look at this,” I said, waving her over. She walked from the closet and peered into the book over my shoulder. Her eyes widened, and she took the book from my hands.

  “What?” she screeched. “This is kind of crazy.”

  I nodded. I started to get a sick feeling in my stomach. “He told me he was interested in this stuff, but I didn’t know it was like this.”

  Marie eyed me, flipping through the book. “Yeah, these borderline weird.”

  She was right. My breath became heavy as I thought about what that could mean.

  “Kyle, look at this.”

  She shoved the book back into my hands and pointed at a yellow highlighted fact. I followed where her finger was and read it to myself.

  Sadists kill animals before moving on to humans.

  I looked back up at Marie, who then pointed to the sticky note.

  —Related to Davis?—

  I threw the book out of instinct. Marie jumped back, staring at me. I swallowed the lump made of stone in my throat.

  “Is that supposed to be about me?” I questioned, pacing the room. I had never killed an animal before. My mind raced with a million thoughts, all attacking me at once. I felt like I was trapped again, with nothing left to defend myself with.

  “Did he know about the night with Nick?”

  I stared at her. “Only if he did this to him.”

  We searched everything again. Looking for that damn gun was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I never understood that expression before until now. Trying to find a gun in a psychopath’s room was even harder.

  We were looking for so long that Marie sat down on the ground after a while.

  “We aren’t going to find anything!”

  I rolled my eyes. “Not with you sitting on the floor we aren’t.”

  She went to stand up when there was a creak. I looked, and her hand pressed down on a wood panel on the floor. She looked up at me, grinning.

  “What?” I asked, putting Luke’s books back.

  “Hold on,” she said. “I saw this in a TV show before.” She removed the wood and reached her hand inside.

  I turned around to look around the room, throwing my hands up. I felt relieved that we didn’t find anything. Her opening up the floorboard meant nothing to me. “There’s nothing in here! Luke doesn’t have the gun; let’s just go.”

  “Kyle?”

  “What?” I snapped, looking at Marie.

  Marie sat there on her knees, with her eyes wide. My eyes shifted to what she held in her hands.

  She had a revolver.

  24

  “Marie, be careful!” I yelled at the moron skipping to my house, wearing a backpack with a gun in it. We had taken the revolver from Luke’s house and decided to bring it back to mine to figure out what to do. Plus, we needed proof. What if Luke had found out we knew about the gun? He would hide it or something.

  “Relax, Kyle,” she said, spinning. “The safety lock is on.” She shook the bag to prove that she wasn’t going to get shot. I went to grab it from her, but she turned away. We were almost at my house, and Marie insisted on holding the backpack. I was hesitant at first, but she assured me she would be careful.

  Liar.

  She slowed down and started keeping pace with me. I was lost in my thoughts, knowing what this meant. Marie wouldn’t turn away from me; she just gave me a weird look.

  “What?” I finally asked her.

  “Whatcha thinking about?”

  I paused, making her stop walking to look at me. I could tell my eyes were dark, staring into hers. Her facial expression dropped. I sighed before answering her.

  “Just about how Luke is probably planning on killing us all.”

  I continued walking, hearing Marie’s boots scrape against the concrete.

  “You know,” Marie said, “if Luke were to own a gun, it definitely would be a revolver. It just makes sense.”

  She’s right.

  Why does that make sense?

  We came up to my house, and I noticed that there were no cars in the driveway. Everyone was still out even though it was late afternoon. I took the backpack from Marie, and we went into my room. I placed it on my bed, checking the time.

  “Okay, Luke is probably already home,” I told her, reaching for the revolver. “If he was planning to do anything tonight, he can’t
because we have his gun.”

  I pushed my dresser out, away from the wall. Marie was standing by the bag, watching me. She grabbed Nick’s phone and the journal out from the bag, leaving it empty to put the revolver inside. She handed the backpack to me to hide behind my dresser. I placed the gun inside, and I put the bag in the far corner before pushing the piece of furniture back.

  “What do we do?” Marie said. “We have his gun, but we can’t go to the police.”

  “I know, Marie,” I snapped. I was getting really frustrated. I started to pull at my hair. “I didn’t think this far.”

  Marie started to pace around the room. She was starting to spiral. I could see it in her eyes. The door closed downstairs, footsteps marching around the house. I looked out the window to see Henry’s car. A shaky breath escaped from my body. Marie was biting her nails, and tears were forming in her eyes. I grabbed ahold of her.

  “You will be fine, Marie,” I insisted. “We both will be.”

  I grabbed the bag from the dresser and gave it to Marie. She was violently shaking, fear written in her eyes. I think the realization of this all just hit her like a truck.

  I took the revolver out and snapped the safety lock off. I placed it into her trembling hands and warned her.

  “Stay here. Use it on anyone that comes into this room or house. My parents are not going to be home tonight, so if anyone comes in, you shoot them.”

  She nodded, grasping onto the gun. I told her that I was going to go deal with it and get the police.

  “I don’t care if I go to jail; we are going to be safe,” I promised.

  I grabbed onto Nick’s phone, thinking it would be enough evidence. I ran down the stairs to be met with Henry about to come up.

  “Hey, I was just looking for you,” he called out.

  “Yeah, listen,” I told him, bringing him away from the stairs. “I need to go do something; can you do a favor for me?” Henry raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms. “Could you go out and just stay out for the night?”

  “Why?”

  “Um…” I tried to think of anything. My brain was racked with multiple things I could say, but only one stuck.

  “I have a girl coming over.”