Pure ≫ h.s. (Under Revision)

Chapter 18.

Revised 04/21/20

Harry

Red and blue lights flash from outside my bedroom window, waking me up. Curious, I get out of bed to pull my curtains apart so I can look outside.

I watch as Juliet walks out of her house down the street, her head down and her hands behind her back. A squad car sits out in front of the driveway and my eyes widen when I realize this is where the officer walking behind Juliet leads her to. Quickly, I run down the stairs and book it out of my house, not caring about only having socks on my feet as I race across the street. 

I skid to a stop at the sight of paramedics wheeling a gurney with a black body bag on it out the front door. Breathing heavily, I don't give myself time to think about what's happening before my eyes zero in on Juliet again.

One of the back squad car doors is opened by the officer, who then helps Juliet into the vehicle. I find myself running over to the car before the officer can close Juliet in.

"Juliet!" I call, gaining the attention of her and the officer. Instead of leaving the door open, the officer rolls down the window, then shuts the door.

"Harry, what are you doing here?" Juliet asks me, tears ready to spill out of her eyes at any second.

"I think the better question is why are you getting arrested? What happened?"

"I-I didn't do it, Harry, I swear." Juliet stutters, tears now falling from her beautiful brown eyes.

"You didn't do what?"

"I didn't kill him!" She exclaims. "I didn't kill my dad, but no one will believe me."

My eyebrows furrow in confusion. Her dad is already dead, isn't he? I look around, eventually spotting the ambulance as the paramedics load the gurney into the back. What the hell is going on?

"Harry, you have to believe me, please," Juliet begs.

I look back to Juliet. She doesn't look the same anymore. Instead of the dark locks of hair that I was used to seeing, Juliet's hair has been dyed back to an auburn red with bangs cut straight across her forehead. Her face is thinner, no longer round. Her collarbones were jutting out, her pajama tank top not doing much to cover them, bringing my attention to just how thin she was. In the few seconds that it took me to look away, Juliet had become her fourteen-year-old self again.

None of this was making sense.

I groan as my body makes contact with the living room floor. My face is buried into the stringy tan carpet, the blanket my mother or Gemma covered me with tangled between my legs. I must have rolled over in my sleep, sending me off the couch in a tumbling mess with a crash land that has my arm going numb underneath my body.

I don't attempt to move, trying to remember the dream in full before the memory can get away from me.

Clearly, it had taken place on the night Juliet's father died. However, that is easily what made the entire thing odd. I didn't live here when he passed away, I didn't even know about the scandal when it happened as the news never reaching Holmes Chapel. Though I assume that with Juliet looking a few years younger in the dream, it made sense if she was only supposed to be fourteen. 

My heart starts to ache for the young girl, recalling how she screamed about not killing her father in the dream.

The doorbell chimes, bringing me out of my thoughts. I huff, pushing myself up off the floor. As I pass the kitchen, I take a peek at the clock on the stove and find it to be a little after school is due to get out. I sigh, not willing to talk to Louis. I'm not nearly finished picking apart the dream, and I can't continue to figure out its meaning with Louis around.