Dear Inspector, It Was The Ghosts

Part one, Chapter 3 -Lost

Julius and Robyn sat together on a bench in the corner of the gym. Robyn was crying, one of Julius' arms around her. Julius had tried to get her to eat something but not even ten million chocolate chipped cookies could tempt her. Xia, Kathy, March and KJ were talking across the room and pretending nothing was wrong. 

Grace and the caretaker had disappeared, but Robyn couldn't care less where they'd gone. They could die for all she cared at the moment. Sam had gone to refill the water. And that was all. The group of 12 happy people lessened to 9 in a matter of hours (six and a half, to be precise). It was 3 o'clock and none of them had even gotten a tiny bit of sleep. 

Sam rushed in with bottles of water and put some of them in the middle of the room. They picked one up and came up to Robyn. 'If you aren't going to eat any of the food we got, at least have a drink,' Sam offered her the bottle. 

'Come on Robyn, at least take a drink.' Julius offered her the water bottle and pulled her closer. She rested her head on his shoulder, finally caving in. She took a sip of water, then another. After a few minutes she reached into one of the four bags in front of her and pulled out a chocolate cookie. 

She took a bite and spat it straight back out. 'You got the vegan one?' she yelled. 'The vegan one!' The cookie fell out of her hands and crumbled to dust as it collided with the floor. Robyn reached for the other bags and pulled one out. She devoured this cookie in a matter of seconds and was about to reach for another but stopped abruptly. 

'What's wrong?' Julius followed her gaze to a tray of freshly baked potatoes with butter and cheese. 'Do you want one?'

'He cooked them about an hour ago. He was alive an hour ago.' Robyn burst into tears and pressed herself even closer to Julius. 'It's my fault. I should've gone with him. I should've known after all those deaths.'

'Joey and Anna's deaths were accidents, though?' Julius caught her eye. 'Right?'

'Wrong. Anna's may have been an accident, I wasn't there, but Joey was just something else. I saw Grace pour boiling water over his head and I think that's how he died but I have no way to prove it because the burn marks have disappeared and I don't know what to do!'

'We all have our secrets. Let Grace keep hers. We can deal with her when we're out. None of us could possibly have killed Benji either. I think what we need to worry about isn't each other. We're not alone, Robyn.'

'I know. We're all going to die.'

'No.' Julius wasn't going to let negativity corrupt Robyn as it had him. 'Look, after my sister died I went kind of mad. The dagger in the tree stump on my blazer is the symbol of Roseweed and Oakway's home for the troubled. Basically the place for insane people. After Jamie was gone, everyone thought I'd killed her. The night she died I was supposed to be at my friend's house for a sleepover but I never went.

'I'd simply gone to a party that one of the girls I liked at the time had organised. I think her name was Nat. Everyone was going, including my friend.' Julius sighed. 'Nobody knew I was there but I stayed all night, returning home like nothing had happened in the morning. When the police tried to confirm my alibi, my friend denied having seen me at all that night. So did everyone at the party. They weren't letting Nat down.

'So they thought I killed Jamie and sent me to Roseweed and Oakway's for 3 and a half years. I only got out six weeks ago and I've spent so long trying to adjust but I can't. The people there were horrible. My fellow inmates would get me up at 3 in the morning by completely beating me up. One time they tried to cut out my tongue. Luckily, the only person who realised I was innocent saved me.'

'Good,' Robyn pushed herself further into his side. 

'Her name was Kenzie. The thing is, I was innocent but she wasn't. She had killed and she had blood on her hands. Everyone was scared of her, but even the fiercest of people needed a friend. And that friend was me. If it weren't for her they would've killed me. Then there were the people who worked there. They'd beat us all every day, using ancient torture methods. The amount of times I had to crawl and drag myself into my room after being whipped was terrible.