The Lies We Tell

Lie of Denial (p5)

Where the subject flat out denies claims or allegations.

03 November 2015

Tuesday

00:30 a.m.

Moonlight poured in from the wall-length windows but the hallways still retained their eerie darkness. Emilia slid under the yellow caution tape and pushed open Elowen's door. The room she'd visited, slept in, laughed in, cried in looked lonely without its previous laughter and chatter. Her room was quite pristine for something that had been thoroughly searched by inspectors. 

Or had the Dean lied about that too?

Emilia closed the door behind her and locked it. She pulled the surgical mask off her face and the beanie on her head followed. She knew this was a terrible idea but she was submerged too deep to swim out. 

The beam of her flashlight scanned the room. A room Emilia had been to a thousand times. She could close her eyes and be able to tell which thing was where but now she wasn't so sure. What had instigated the killer to kill both her and Charlie. She knew Elowen wasn't the best of people but Charlie? He was always good to his peers. 

Emilia let out a small sigh and began searching. She ruffled through the clothes hanging in Elowen's closet making sure to check each pocket for anything. She knew that the inspectors were here first but there are places only she and the gang know about. 

Their secrets weren't meant for just about anyone and she knew she had to come here before the other girls otherwise her one shot at proving them all innocent would go down the drain. She didn't trust the others as much for all she knew they'd hand over all the evidence to the police who might hold the rest liable for lying to them. 

She pulled her pocket knife out and punctured the cracks in the wardrobe walls. Emilia recalled a drunk Elowen telling her something about a secret compartment somewhere in her room. Elowen mentioned something about puncturing the cracks till the tile gave away. Emilia prised the tile away, careful not to make a sound. 

And just as she expected a small cupboard was behind it. Her hand stopped mid-air as she thought about the possibility of each dorm having a secret compartment. A false bottom in their drawers, a secret passageway. Their school might be built on a cemetery decades ago but ancient people always had secret passageways and the school never got a permit to redesign the structure. 

Pushing her thoughts aside, she pulled the tiny cupboard open and a bunch of letters spilt out. She flipped through them, a number of them addressed to Rosé whilst the rest were addressed to Charlie. Emilia found it strange that her best friend wouldn't even address a single letter to her and what did these letters contain?

A dark secret?

The possible perpetrator?

Emilia hastily shoved the letters into her jeans pocket. She regretted not carrying a bag with her but disposing of all of the items would become a hassle. Her fingers brush against a photo frame; a picture of the five of them at the pool before high school. 

Her jaw clenched as she took in their carefree smiles and awkward poses. But then they didn't care. No one cared about how Clare and Astrid looked at each other, no one cared about how Emilia's thighs had stretch marks around the corners, no one cared about Rosé's frizzy hair. They didn't care if their wardrobe was up to date or if their poses were cringy. They only cared about each other. 

Emilia put the frame back where she found it. Her eyes fell on the jar filled with candies. The sweetest but terrible toffies. Elowen said that it had too many calories and would cause you to break out. Emilia chuckled eyeing the jar of toffies, she slipped two into her pocket.