The Carter Hollow Murders

Lily Le - Task One

User: FindTheSilverLining

The infirmary was too white. The brightness of the clean bed sheets, the cabinets, the tiled walls reflecting the white florescent light, it all hurt Lily's eyes. She put a hand to her forehead to massage her headache. The teacher in front of Lily seemed to towered over her slouched form. He was probably talking to her since his mouth was moving... maybe he was trying to ask her a question? She couldn't quite make out his face yet or the gibberish sounds coming from his mouth. The only face she could see was the one that was clearly pictured in her mind.

 She didn't even know the boy. At first, he didn't look dead. His skin was still pinkish which made her think he was alive. But of course she had made an error.

 Lily was only passing by That Room. There was another girl ahead of her by a couple of steps who had been heading there. Lily couldn't help but think that the girl was rather pretty. But she was looking for someone else that day; A goth girl she met at the school's open house which her parents had forced her to attend to. But at that moment, she was a bit thankful that her parents had done so. Clove, thats the name the girl had given to her. At least now she had someone to talk with. She doubted that she'd be able to make any friends once everyone had settled into their social groups.

 The girl turned and walked into The Room. Lily heard the girl attempting to choke out something only moments after entering. Lily thought nothing of it. Maybe the girl had something in her throat. Then Lily herself passed by the room. The first thing she saw was the girl's back. In front of the girl was a boy, sprawled on the floor.

 Her first thoughts were: Teenagers are awfully strange. What is he trying to accomplish anyway? He's not even funny. And anyway how long is he going to act that way. Isn't the floor uncomfortable? Wow, I mean I really don't-

But suddenly things became clearer. Around his body was blood. At that very same moment, the girl let out a spine chilling scream. Lily wasn't very sure what had transpired after that, for she was too shocked. All she knew was that she had been staring at the body. A sudden rush of warmth came down her cheeks, which ran along her jaw and dripped from her chin, and she felt her rapidly beating heart jump into her throat. But it didn't register to Lily that tears had begun to fall from her eyes. Or that she had been crouched on the floor, trembling silently until a teacher- the same teacher that was with her now- came and helped her reach the infirmary. For a long time, Lily was so shocked and afraid, she didn't budge from her spot. It took some time before the teacher convinced her to get to the infirmary. By then, there were teachers barricading the crime scene classroom, and rumours began to spread. Once she was at the infirmary, Lily was recovered enough to rinse her tear stained face with some cold water and recollect her memory.

A...re...yo....u...Ok..ay? Can...you....tell me what you saw just now?

 Suddenly, Lily's chain of thought was broken and the teacher's seemingly annoying gibberish began to sound more like defined words.

 The teacher spoke again. "What happened back there? So far everyone believes that the incident was an accident. Would you like to add anything?"

 Lily remembered the intense fear that had washed over her vulnerable form and the sinister aura which radiated from the dead boy's body. How the girl in front of her screamed and ran like her own life depended on it. Somehow, it was the way that the body lay there in its own bright red blood, the way the boy's facial expression was twisted that made you know. An expression of a shock that could only be caused by the realization that another man had just murdered you. And then Fear. Terrible, painfully crippling fear emanated from his face as well. The fear that was trapped behind his now glassy, lifeless eyes. Fear of Death.

 Lily felt it too for her own life. She looked up, into the ignorant eyes of the teacher, apparently Mr. McGraw, and there was a long, empty silence. There was no way that anyone could truly believe that it was an "accident". After what felt like a few minutes, hours, or maybe even days, the stress was finally too much for her and silence was broken by Lily's loud and hysterical laughter. Laughter that made her throat raw and heart ache because of the knowledge that anyone on campus could be next. Her hands began to tremble. Lines of etched itself onto the teacher's face as this continued. Once the laughter had ceased, Lily clenched her hands into fists and replied.

 "Yea. Funny, right? Everyone says one thing, but obviously mean the other. So I'll just say it. I think he was murdered."