ECHO [Rewritten - NaNoWriMo '16]

Chapter 14: She was in London

16 March 2016

Phoenix, Arizona

Wren

As we were heading home, Echo suddenly stopped. She looked at me, arching her brow. She unlocked the door, "Get out."

"Hmm?" I looked at her curiously. But she didn't respond and I had a feeling that it was just best not to argue with her. And so, I got out, and began to walk along the curb. It was then that I noticed Luke's car was in my driveway. I paused, looked over my shoulder to see that Echo was nowhere to be found. She always had her reasons, even though half the time I didn't know why.

Luke was standing by my front door and simply dipped his head in greeting. "Wren."

"Luke," I unlocked my door. "What're you doing here?"

"What was your sister's name?"

I stopped and looked at him with narrowed eyes, "Pria...why?"

"Well, I know that she just kind of disappeared. She was never really on social media, but she just sort of disappeared a year or so ago. But do you think that perhaps there was a reason as to her leaving?" Luke asked, not unkindly.

"Why would she do that?" I asked, anger bubbling into the tone.

"I found a picture that – while blurry – shows Scarlet leaving an airport inn London. As expected her name wasn't on any found ticket. She popped up on another surveillance from a store that was five miles from an apartment with a resident going by the name Pria Alise."

"Just because the girl has the same first name as mu sister, doesn't mean that it is her," I snapped.

"Here," Luke passed a stack of photos to me. I took them in hand, and began to flip through them. There were indeed several photos of a girl that looked similar to Echo. Her makeup was thicker than I had ever seen, making her eyes almost appear like black holes in the bad quality photos. But my attention didn't stay too long on any of those. No, I was too interested in the photos of Pria Alise. There was a picture of her driver's license – which wasn't the greatest quality either – but I could still see it. I could see her. It was Pria. Lighter hair, but definitely Pria.

I felt my heart tighten as I looked at the photos that Luke had found of her. In the mixture of the photos was paperwork showing where Pria had lived. I flicked through and noticed that she had a roommate. A roommate that went by the name Gia Banwart. A chill ran down my spine. The name of her girlfriend. I looked up at Luke, "You have something else. What is it?"

Luke shook his head, "You don't need to see this."

"Just show me," I held out my hand.

Luke handed over another stack of papers. But this contained a couple clippings of news articles. Their headlines were "Brutal Homicide of Wealthy Girl" to "Blood Stains Luxury Apartment". The descriptions were of a beautiful Indian girl having been mutilated. But there was no public photo of her face, or the crime scene. And her roommate was never found. But of course Luke had reached out, and he had gotten the crime scene photos.

There she was. She was tied to a chair with chains, naked. Her forearms, and her shins had been nailed into the wooden chair. All ten of her fingers had been broken. Her feet were completely covered in burns from cigarettes. There also appeared to be burns on her temples, but even the close up photos didn't reveal what could have caused the burns. Her throat had been slit; blood covering her front, and spilling onto the floor.

I let the stack fall onto the table next to me, knowing some of the papers slid off the side. I looked up at him. Pity colored Luke's features, "I'm sorry. But I figured you should know, the time stamps on the surveillance shows that Scarlet was there on the day that Pria was murdered."

It was Echo's work. What did this mean?

"Bravo," a voice said. We both turned to see Echo leaned against the wall. She clapped her hands slowly. There was something different about her. Hatred made her eyes ice, she seemed to tower over the both of us. Paiute weaved between her legs, his eyes the same as hers. She smiled, baring her teeth, "You sure do know how to make a show, Claw."

I glanced at Luke to see that the soft features of a determined, young detective had vanished to be replaced by...I recoiled. While his eyes were still blue, his pupils were red. And when he spoke all of his teeth were as sharp as knives, "How long have you known?"

"That you weren't who you said you were?" Echo shrugged. "The moment you stepped within this threshold. That you were Claw? When I discovered that the case in which started the hunt for "Scarlet" has miraculously been solved."

I blinked.

She chuckled, "He didn't tell you? And yet, here he is trying to show you as to why I am the killer. But not the killer of dear Solozzo, no of your sister because he wants you against me. You haven't wondered why the station hasn't called you in, have you? It's because this one has used his 'gifts' to wipe away your existence. J warned you about me using you, but this one is the one who will use you. He traps you within a bubble, and when he is done, he tosses you out. With nothing."

Lu – Claw – began laughing. "You are your little vendetta. When are you going to get over it?"

Echo snarled, "When you are dead."

"Good luck," Claw growled. "I am the apprentice of Viper, I have the blood of Loki coursing through my veins. I am your end. She never should have allowed you within the walls."

"Why? Because I am so much better than any of your children?"

"No, because no simple human should be alive. Yet, you are nothing but human." Claw said. I backed away. The overwhelming rage was suffocating. I backed right into a body. I flinched and looked to see Howl. His handsome face was set tight. I looked back to see a wolf next to Claw. Claw advanced a step, "You may be my brother's protégée, and he'll pitch a fit when I bring back your head. But he can join you in the depths of Hel!"

Howl grabbed my arm and yelled, "Hold on!"

There was a piercing screaming, and the world tilted violently.