euphoria | cazzie

That One Nightmare About You

2 months later...

I laid down in my bed and stared at the ceiling, recollecting everything that happened the past 2 months. The last time we saw Mr Stewart was when he picked us up from my house after we got the news about the cashier's death. He made us both sleep in Izzie's room and said that he was going to stay outside. In the middle of the night, I got thirsty and went out to get some water and saw him sitting outside the door, wide awake. "Why are you awake Casey?" He asked and I pointed to the kitchen. When I returned to the room he said, "Just... stay in there okay? I'll deal with this. I don't want you two involved."

The next morning when I woke up he was gone. I assumed he went out to get something so Izzie and I prepared breakfast for ourselves but he just never returned.

I brought Izzie back to my place and told Elsa that she would need to stay for the week because she was having troubles at home and of course she immediately invited her in. Elsa loves Izzie.

There were no evidence and answers found by the police pertaining to Carter, William and Tyler's death which was good for us. But nothing was found about Cody's death which was what worried us the most.

That week, Izzie spent most nights crying herself to sleep and every time I tried to comfort her, she would push me away. "He left. Just like he always does," was all she mumbled to me before making me leave her alone. It pained me terribly to leave her in this state but I couldn't do anything about it. I had texted Mr Stewart multiple times but I never got a reply. I headed down to Stewart Constructions a couple of times too but he was nowhere to be found. The colleagues told me that he would always disappear for a few weeks and it's usually for overseas business matters. But I knew this had nothing to do with business. It had something to do with J.

Izzie and I had drifted quite a bit which was the worst part of this entire thing. It kinda felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders because there were no more murders and the police were slowly giving up but the feeling of not being around Izzie as much, although we were in the same house, was tearing me apart. The only time we left the house together was to go to Cody's funeral. There was a large crowd that had gathered there and it was there that I found out he was actually a student at Newton. I can never forget the cries from his classmates and the absolute distraught and numbness written all over his parents' faces at the funeral. Izzie broke down there and so did I. We didn't even know this kid but we were the last ones he saw before he got killed.

The drive back home was horrible because Izzie didn't want to talk about it at all. We sat in an uncomfortable silence and the ride felt like forever.

Right now, I was lying on my bed, refusing to continue on my homework. Elsa's paranoia about letting us out of the house had reduced a little because everyone was slowly starting to forget about all the murder cases. Except me and Izzie of course. Especially Izzie.

Thankfully, regionals were next week which meant that Crowley was being extra hard on us with all the extra hours and the weekend training and it did help to get my mind off everything. The track team could tell that Izzie and I weren't being our usual selves and they questioned us about it once or twice and even tried joking about it but eventually stopped when they realised that what we were going through seemed pretty serious.

Next week, the track team was going to travel out of the state to compete in regionals and I was afraid of what to expect. Were Izzie and I going to be fine by then?

I twirled my pen between my fingers when Elsa knocked on my door, getting my attention. "Honey, dinner is ready," She said.

I got off my bed and dragged my feet down to the dining room, where Sam, Izzie and Dad were. Dad had finally moved back home but he wasn't sleeping in the same room as Mum yet. But it was enough for me.