by Marlowe Blue
3
The Present
Everything was a blur and nothing made any sense. Why was I bloody? Where had the blood come from?
Mr. Thorne sat in a chair across from me at the kitchen table. “Lela, please. Tell us what happened.”
The reporters on the news kept talking. “Again, the bodies of four teens—three male and one female have been discovered.”
Mrs. Thorne ushered a hysterical Morgan upstairs. She was screaming like a mad woman and I knew why. The Donahue twins lived four streets over. The reporter was standing in front of their house. Charlotte was always over there. So was Coach. If Charlotte was okay, she would have been calling me, freaking out about the news. It couldn’t be true though. My best friends couldn’t be dead.
Blue and red flashing lights shone through the windows and everything became a crazy mix of puzzle pieces that didn’t fit. Someone banged on the door. Cold metal cuffs were slapped on my wrist. There was shouting and yelling. Morgan kept screaming from upstairs. A police officer was reciting a speech. “You have the right to remain silent . . . in a court of law . . . if you cannot afford a lawyer . . .”
“Can you really do this?” Mr. Thorne asked the officer. “Without her parents?”
“Sir, all we need is a reasonable suspicion and the fact that she was yielding a weapon makes her an immediate threat.”
All those terms turned to mush in my head.
Mr. Thorne followed us to the police vehicle waiting for me in the driveway. “Lela, don’t say anything until your parents and a lawyer get down to the station. I mean it. Not one word.”
I nodded as a burly officer shoved my head down as I slid into the back seat. I wouldn’t say a word. I was too confused to do otherwise.
Neighbors stood on the sidewalk wide-eyed and whispering to each other. Most of them pointed their phones in my direction.
At the station they took lots of pictures of me as well as my fingerprints. I had to pee in a cup and they drew my blood. After that, they looked all over me for cuts and bruises and took pictures of them. There was a lot. I couldn’t feel them because my entire body was numb. I had no idea how the marks had gotten there.
I was led to a small shower by a female officer. As soon as I removed my clothing, it was bagged for evidence, including the shark-tooth necklace I’d been wearing for months. That was the hardest thing to give up.
If I could have stayed in the shower forever, I would have. The warm water washed over my aching bones and joints. It took forever to get the blood out of the cracks and crevices of my skin. The blood of my friends? Reality hit me like a freight truck. Charlotte, AJ, Brayden, and Coach were gone forever. They were dead and I would never see or talk to them ever again. How was that possible?
After I showered, I still felt dirty. I would need twenty more showers to feel clean again.
When the officers were done, they placed me in a cold white room and left me alone.
The room was tight and the only thing it contained was a small table with a chair on one side and two on the other.
Two men with expressionless faces came in and sat at the table across from me. They were as different as could be. One was older, white and bald. The other was black, younger than thirty, and had a hair full of dark curls. I prepared myself for the bad-cop, good-cop routine. I wondered which was which.
The younger one extended his hand to me. “Hello, Lela. I’m Detective Mark Nichols and this is my partner Harold Bloom. We want to ask you a few questions about what happened tonight. We need to know why you’re covered in blood.”
I needed to know that too. “You can’t do this to me. I’m just a kid.”
Harold Bloom rolled his eyes. “You’re on the verge of eighteen and the murder of four people is more than serious enough, so yes we can.”
I’d watched enough Law and Order to know that wasn’t about to go down. I leaned forward and said one simple word. “Lawyer.”
Detective Bloom slammed his hands down on the table looking like he was about to rail into me. He was definitely the bad cop.
Nichols squeezed his partner’s shoulder. “Easy. Her parents are on the way. We’ll get her a lawyer and then we’ll get some answers.” They left the room, not taking their eyes off me until the door closed.
The mention of my parents made my eyes burn. I had no reason to be the way I was. I didn’t come from a broken home. My parents didn’t abuse me and treat me like shit. They hadn’t spoiled me rotten either. Mom and Dad did their best to raise me and this was the way I’d turned out.
This wasn’t my first brush with the law. I’d done two months in juvie two years ago when I was fifteen. We’d gotten through that, but what the hell was I going to say when they saw me and asked about the blood? They weren’t going to believe that I was clueless. I wouldn’t have even believed that. No matter what I did or said, their hearts were going to be broken.
About an hour later there was a light tap on the door. I braced myself as it creaked opened. My parents appeared with a man in a shiny black suit carrying a brief case. Mom crumpled immediately when she saw me. Dad had to hold her up. His eyes were wet and I wanted to hug him. I hated disappointing him more than anyone because he was the person who had the most faith in me. He always told me that I was going to be something special despite my rough start. I wondered if he still believed that.
Before I realized it, I was standing up and reaching for my parent’s like I was drowning in the ocean and they were a life raft. They squeezed me tightly. Mom kissed me on my forehead and brushed the hair out of my eyes. She smelled like Ivory soap. “Are you okay?”
I nodded and then shook my head. I still felt like I was floating and nothing seemed real.
Dad said nothing but he squeezed my upper arms and kissed me on the cheek.
Mom’s look of concern turned to anger. “God, Lela. We thought you were upstairs in your room then we get this call from the police.”
“Not now, Laura,” Dad said gently.
I knew what she wanted to say. If I had stayed put where I was supposed to be, I wouldn’t be in this huge mess. As usual, she was right. I would have given anything to go back in time and be obedient.
The lawyer directed us to our seats so we could get started. His name was Duncan McAllister and he looked like he belonged in a toothpaste commercial. His chestnut hair was thick and lustrous, and combed over perfectly. He had sparkling blue eyes with the crinkles in the corner that made him look friendly.
McAllister studied my face for a moment. “Lela, are you okay? Have they been treating you well?”
I nodded. I guessed they had. They offered me water and a chance to go to the bathroom. I had turned down both.
He popped open his briefcase to remove a small recorder and a notepad. “Tell me everything that happened tonight starting from when you left your house.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but I didn’t even know where to start. I looked at my father. “Dad, what’s going on? What happened?”
I needed to hear it from someone I trusted. Someone who wouldn’t lie to me.
He gave me an exasperated look. “What happened? Honey, they found them dead. Murdered. All four of them.”
“Who?” I needed to hear it. Maybe it had been another four people and not my friends.
Dad glanced at Mom, squeezing her hand. “Charlotte, AJ, Brayden, and Kyle.” My heart stung at the sound of each name.
For the first time that night, tears flooded my eyes so quickly I couldn’t see. My chest felt as if someone was sitting on it. I couldn’t breathe. “They can’t be dead. They can’t be dead.”
McAllister looked me dead in the eye. “They are dead, Lela. Murdered in cold blood. And as of right now, you’re the number one suspect. Now you need to tell me exactly what happened tonight.”
4
Two Months Ago
After we’d scarfed down our food and Charlotte had ordered a chocolate shake to go like always, we headed outside to Coach’s Fo
rd Explorer. As we piled inside, Neil Bradley seemed to appear out of thin air.
“Got room for one more?”. Neil was a junior who wanted desperately to turn our hexagon into a heptagon.
It never failed. Every Saturday night Neil would camp out in front of Ray’s Burgers and hassle us when we left. Every. Freaking. Time.
The twins blocked Neil like a wall. They towered over him which wasn’t hard to do considering Neil was such a scrawny thing. He adjusted the Red Sox cap he always wore over his messy blond hair. He wore all black on those nights just in case we finally accepted him.
He laughed nervously and took a step back. “Come on. The more the merrier, right? I swear, I will do anything you guys dare me to do.”
Coach started the engine. “Right . . . I heard about the time you got stuck on the rock climbing wall in PE. If you can’t do that, there’s no way you can hang with us. The Hex is a no-pussy zone.”
Everyone piled in except Charlotte. She flicked Neil’s baseball cap playfully as she sipped her shake. “Aw, guys, give him a chance. Besides, how can you say no to this adorable face?”
Neil gave her the goofiest grin I had ever seen, like he actually thought she was serious.
“Hey!” AJ yelled at her. “Let’s go.”
Charlotte winked at Neil before hopping in.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” AJ demanded. “You have to flirt with anything with a penis?”
Charlotte shoved his shoulder. “Chill out. I was just joking around with the kid.”
I hoped they wouldn’t fight and ruin our night.
The tires squealed as we rolled out of the parking lot, leaving Neil to stare after us. I kind of felt sorry for him, but then again, I didn’t. We were actually doing him a favor.
It took us over thirty minutes to get to the river and Coach still refused to give us any clues. Not knowing made me feel a little antsy, but I loved the element of surprise. I knew how stubborn Coach was and if he said he wasn’t going to tell us, he wasn’t going to tell us.
My stomach flipped as we pulled onto the rocky trail that would lead us to the river. Pitch blackness surrounded us. The only things I could see were directly in front of us in the headlights. Finally, Coach came to a stop near the edge of the river.
He cut the engine off and turned to us. “Put your masks on.” Obediently, we unzipped our backpacks and did as we were told. That was the way it was. Whoever was in charge that week called the shots and we did what they said, no questions asked. Arguing or asking questions about safety was a good way to get yourself replaced. It had taken Morgan a while to understand that when she’d first joined the group. That’s part of the reason she and Coach had always butted heads, but now she simply followed along like the rest of us.
“Now,” Coach said as he adjusted his monkey mask. “There’s a part of the river where these huge boulders create a path from one side to the other. Everyone is going to use those rocks to cross the river.”
I felt a sliver of disappointment. That sounded fairly easy—way too easy for a Coach challenge.
Coach paused for dramatic effect. “But . . . you’re going to be blind folded while you do it.”
There were a few gasps, I was pretty sure one came from me, but no one dared say a word. Immediately, I imagined my sneakers slipping off the wet rocks. I would fall into the river, maybe banging my head on the rocks on the way down and be carried away in the current.
Coach chuckled from behind his mask. “Trust me when I tell you, that water’s freezing. Better not fall in. I won’t be jumping in to get you.”
The last part was a lie. Coach acted like a hard-ass, but if one of us was truly in danger, he wouldn’t hesitate to step in. None of us would.
We climbed out and made the slow march toward the river’s edge. Charlotte looped her arm around AJ’s as he whispered in her ear. He was probably telling her that everything was going to be okay.
Morgan was taking tiny steps so I hung back to allow her to catch up to me. If I could see her face underneath her mask, she would probably be pale and worried.
“You okay?” I whispered.
She nodded, but I knew she wasn’t. I took her trembling hand and squeezed it. This was scary. We had never done a dare blindfolded before. Coach was always feeling like he had to raise the stakes. I wondered when we would finally reach the limit where enough would be enough.
A burst of wind pushed through the trees and the branches danced above our heads. I shivered in my hoodie, wishing I had worn something thicker. Coach stopped at the edge of the river. “This is it, boys and girls.”
I noticed the line of rocks he had been talking about. They were crooked and uneven. Those rocks would have been hard enough to climb without the blind fold. Maybe if I was one of the last to go I could memorize the gaps and dips in the boulders.
Coach knelt and unzipped his backpack, taking out a bottle of Vodka and a stack of small paper cups. He poured everyone a shot. That was another part of our ritual. Morgan and I hated the taste of Vodka, but we took it anyway.
Coach held up his cup. “Here’s to pushing the limits and making life worth living!”
We all hoisted our cups toward the pitch-black sky and then gulped down the Vodka. Coach collected the cups and placed them in his backpack. We were always careful about never leaving things around with our DNA on it. You never know.
Coach clapped his hands. “All right. Let’s get this show on the road. Lee, it’s your turn to keep the time. Char, you have the bag?”
She nodded and pulled a brown paper bag from her backpack. Inside the bag were six slips of paper with our names on it. That’s how we decided who would go first. She shook the bag and then stuck her hand inside. Charlotte chose a slip and then read the name out loud. “AJ, you’re up first, babe.”
I exhaled, relieved that it wasn’t me. The people who went first always had a disadvantage. The others could learn from their mistakes and they had time to think up different strategies. AJ never minded that, though. He just liked to get his turn over with.
He shook his long limbs trying to loosen himself up and high-fived his brother. Coach tied a white blind fold over the eye holes of AJ’s mask and then patted him on the back. “Good luck, bro. Don’t die.”
Coach gave that same speech to each of us every time we took a turn. He thought it was hilarious, but the rest of us didn’t.
I got the stopwatch on my phone ready. Coach led AJ to the edge of the river.
“Ready, AJ,” I called.
“Yeah.”
“Okay, ready, set, go!”
AJ knelt, feeling his way to the first rock. Slowly he edged himself on top of it and then stood with his knees bent. My heart stood still, watching him make his way across. Several times he wobbled and he even almost slipped once. All it would take was one wrong move and AJ would be in the ice-cold water. There was no telling how deep the water was and the current looked powerful.
By the time a minute and a half passed, he was halfway across. He started moving faster which made me nervous. “Slow it down, AJ,” I said to myself.
The rest of us stood there watching silently. This wasn’t a stunt where you cheered people on. He needed to focus. I exhaled when he made it to the other side in two minutes and forty-three seconds. I clocked his time on my notepad.
Charlotte chose her own name next and handed Coach the brown bag. She made it across in three and a half minutes. I imagined that she and AJ would be on the other side making out until the rest of us got there. Brayden was next. He beat his brother’s score by two seconds and then it was Coach’s turn. I blindfolded him. “You have to beat two minutes and forty-seconds.”
“I could do that in my sleep,” he replied.
I was sure he could. It wouldn’t have even surprised me if Coach had gone out there a few times to practice so he’d have one up on us. That was against the rules but none of us would have any way of knowing.
Coach made the mistake of doing what he al
ways did—he moved too quickly with little regard for his safety. I watched him put one foot in front of the other without even stopping to feel what was in front of him. Twice he almost slipped. Once he did fall, but caught himself.
I rubbed Morgan’s back as we watched Coach make his way across. “You know you can do this right? If they can do it, you can too. Who knows? You might even be queen this week.”
Several loose curls blew over the top of her mask. “I don’t even care about that. I’ll just be happy to make it across alive.”
I got the sick feeling she was about to back out and that was totally not allowed. Backing out of a stunt was the same as quitting the Hex. Coach promised that anyone who did that would suffer an extreme public humiliation. I hoped I would pick Morgan’s name next, because if I left her alone, there would be no one to change her mind if she chickened out.
I stuck my hand in the bag and pulled out Morgan’s name, breathing a sigh of relief. “You can do this. Slow and steady just like the others.” I tied the white cloth around her head. “Don’t forget to time me when it’s my turn.”
“I won’t,” she replied, her voice quivering. I watched her as she maneuvered her way across. She did better than I expected her to do. Sometimes I didn’t give Morgan enough credit.
Once she made it to the other side, the whoops and hollers of the others reached me, even over the rushing river waters.
Usually going last gave you an advantage, but I realized that I had no one to guide me to the first rock. After tying my own blindfold around my head, I took a deep breath. On my hands and knees, I felt for the first boulder. Straightening myself, I took the first step. That one wasn’t so bad, but that was the easy part. I continued to move forward, the rubber from my sneakers squeaking against the wet rocks. I wished I could tell how far I had gone. It seemed like I had walked for miles but I was still probably only ten rocks in.
I remembered there was a dip near the middle where one of the rocks was lower than the others and I prepared myself for that. Standing on top of a rock, I put my foot out but I felt nothing underneath it. I was too afraid to see how low the rock went. I crouched down and reached my hand forward, lower and lower until I tumbled off the rock.