Accused (Hunted book 2)

Chapter 1

I had barely arrived at school on Monday when Mandy approached me. She was almost running and she looked angry. Sasha was close behind her, trying to convince her to stop.

"Mandy, you have to stop! If you make her mad, you'll get hurt!" Sasha tried to grab her arm, but Mandy pulled away. It hurt that she thought I would do that.

Mandy reached me and screamed in my face, "How could you, you b****! We f***ing let you live and then you went and threw that mercy back in our faces!" I noticed then that Mandy was crying. Her eyes were red and her cheeks were tearstained.

I was too shocked to say anything for a moment. Then I stammered, "W-what did I do?"

Mandy looked like she wanted to kick something. "What did you do?! You killed him, you monster! You killed my brother!"

My eyes widened as her words sank in. "Nick's dead?"

Her voice was dangerously quiet. "Don't do that. Don't pretend like you don't know."

"I wasn't—"

Mandy took a shuddering breath and closed her eyes. "You're dead, you know that?" Then she turned and stormed away. Sasha gave me a worried look, then turned and hurried after her.

I stood there, shocked and upset. I knew they hated me, but I hadn't thought they really thought I would kill someone. And Nick of all people. Whether Mandy knew it or not, she was my friend, and I would never do that to her.

~

Mandy wasn't in drama. She wasn't in health either. I knew she was at school because I had seen her that morning. She was cutting class and the teachers were turning a blind eye because she had just lost her brother. I considered the possibility that she was only missing classes that I was in because she hated me that much. It didn't make sense, though, because Sasha also missed drama, and maths as well. She was probably with Mandy, wherever that was.

I asked Mr Hanner for a hall pass and he grudgingly gave me one. He probably also thought that I had killed Nick. I walked once around the oval, checked all the girls bathrooms, and stuck my head into a couple of empty classrooms. Nothing. I also looked through the slats in the locker doors to see if their bags were still there. They were. On my way back to class, I heard voices behind the gym.

"He's dead, Sasha," Mandy sobbed. "I'll never see my brother again!"

"Shhhhhh," Sasha soothed. "It's going to be okay. We're here for you."

"Thanks," Mandy sniffled.

I inched up to the corner of the gym and subtly peered around it. Sasha and Mandy were sitting on the pavers behind the gym, Mandy lying with her head in Sasha's lap and crying.

Sasha gently wiped a tear from Mandy's face. "Nick wouldn't want you to be miserable. I know you don't want to hear this, but life's going to go on, and so should you."

Mandy sobbed harder.

"But you don't have to do it right away," Sasha said quickly. "Take all the time you need."

Mandy sat up. "You're right, Sash. He wouldn't want me to be miserable. He would want me to get back that manipulative little wolf-b**** for what she did to him."

Sasha's eyes widened. "I don't know if that's the best idea. She killed Nick easily and he's been doing this a lot longer than us. It wasn't even a full moon. We wouldn't stand a chance."

"Maybe not just us, but if everyone, all the people who cared about Nick, tried to get her, we would succeed."

"But Mandy," Sasha said reasonably, "we've tried that before. It didn't work. She lived, remember?"