Summer's Solstice

Chapter Two

It had been a few weeks since the group returned back to the human world, but things were far from normal. Liv's troubles didn't end with Killian. She sighed heavily as she piled food onto her plate. She kept thinking back to the week they had returned.

She had been in Aderlane for a full month before she had been allowed to return to the human realm. Basically in time for school to start. She came home facing accusations of murder and a missed funeral. Nathan's death had come as a shock to the small, tight-knit community. It was even more unbelievable that he was found in the woods behind the house of one of his best friends, dead.

    The disappearance of his entire friend group for weeks following his death did not help their public image. Considering Nathan's tox screen came back negative, and the autopsy revealed even less, his death became a real mystery. Naturally, it was consuming all of the town's attention. Everyone and anyone was speculating about how such a close group had turned on one of their own. Even worse, the appearance of Keiran just months before Nathan's unfortunate demise only added fuel to the fire.

    Despite having no cause of death and no evidence to speak of, the police were relentless in their interrogations. How did a star athlete wind up dead, his body left to rot in the woods, while his friends seemingly vanished into thin air, only for them to return just as mysteriously weeks later?

Liv and the others had no real excuse to offer up. Oliver's home was Nathan's last known location. He disappeared on the day he went there to find Liv, and everyone knew his friends were the last people to see him alive. Using the excuse that they had been in the mountains at Oliver's cabin proved to be of little merit. It was a decent alibi- the cabin obviously existed, but there was no way to corroborate that they had actually been there, or that Nathan had been alive and well the last time he was seen.

Liv thought it was unfortunate, really, that she couldn't just tell the truth. Who would even believe her? Even if they did, wouldn't she still be the cause of his death? Wouldn't she still be at fault for lying, for not using her powers to save him? Wouldn't things be different if only she had answered his texts? If she had just sacrificed herself as Leland asked? It was hard for Liv to lie when they asked if she knew anything about the night that Nathan died, since she had stood and watched as he was cut down.

Worse than anything, although the cops could go no further with their investigation, the rumors didn't cease. Though the police cleared the group of friends, it was only under the admission that they couldn't prove anything, and the town still treated Liv and her friends like killers. All day long, they could hear the whispers of their classmates accusing them of murder. Keiran bore the harshest comments and treatment, most people decided that Nathan's death was his fault in its entirety, even if he hadn't been the one to take Nathan's life. Liv found herself wondering if maybe they were right- if Keiran hadn't shown up, maybe Nathan would still be here.

Liv sat at the table, staring down at her plate, shoving spoonfuls into her mouth as she ignored Killian's glower. She shook her head, attempting to force the thoughts of Nathan's death from her mind. It was nearly impossible to do these days. She knew it would take time to deal with the grief she was experiencing, but she didn't have the energy to do so. She especially didn't want to try to atone for choosing to erase the town's memories just as her own had once been erased.