Paranoia

Chapter twenty

Bellie’s point of view

“Get up, Bell.” My mom woke me up softly. “Ah, there are my baby girl’s perfect brown eyes. How’d you sleep?” She was smiling at me softly.

“Fine.” I grumbled as I sat up.

“Listen, honey, I know you’re still upset that your father and I wouldn’t let you see your friends all weekend, but it was for the better. You understand, right?”

“Yeah,” The truth is I wasn’t upset about the fact that she wouldn’t let me see my friends—I needed time off from all of them—I was upset that I had to go back to school.

“Alright, well get ready, you’re leaving soon.” She kissed my forehead softly and walked out of my bedroom.

            I took a few shaky breaths as I got ready. I wasn’t ready to go back to school. I don’t think any of us were. We all just went through a really rough time—especially Dade. Poor Dade. He was going through the most out of all of us.

            I entered the crowded school and suddenly the usually booming noises that filled the halls faded away. Everyone was deathly silent and stared at me. I felt someone touch my arm softly, and I hadn’t realized Violet and Maddi were next to me.

“I guess everyone knows…” Maddi whispered, but everyone probably heard because of how quiet it was.

            I shifted uncomfortably and continued walking with them. Our shoes were the only noises that filled the hall for a few long, long seconds. After everyone was done staring at us they started to bombard us with questions.

“What happened to Ashlinn?”

“Did they find her yet?”

“Did Rylie really kill herself?”

“Is anyone looking for Ashlinn?”

“Why were you at the house in the first place?”

“Do they have a search party for Ashlinn? We should look for her!”

“Why would Rylie kill herself? Was she depressed?”

“Rylie shouldn’t have killed herself…that’s so selfish of her.”

            My eyes widened at the last remark I could hear over the loud noises that surrounded me. All I could think was thank god Dade wasn’t here, because he would freak out. Then another thought occurred to me.

“Where’s Dade?” I asked once we were away from the other kids.

“He’s not coming today.” Violet answered.

“Why?”

“Because he’s still pretty fucked up.” She rolled her eyes.

“How did you find out?” Maddi asked.

“Because he told me.”

            Why did he tell Violet? She was a bitch. Why didn’t he tell me? He slept with me twice. He likes me more. Why didn’t he tell me?

“Oh.” I responded and walked away from them to my next period class.

            I sat in my usual seat and waited for all the other seats to fill in. The class poured in and all eyes were on me.

“Bellie! So glad you’re back!” Some girl with curly blonde hair smiled to me—I couldn’t recognize her. How did she know my name?

“Thanks…” I gave her a cheap smile and looked down to my notebook.

“Hey…so what happened with Rylie and Ashlinn?” I looked up to see her eyes glowing with excitement. Glad to know my friend’s deaths are entertaining to others.

“Ashlinn ran away and Rylie was so upset that she killed herself.” I said monotonously.

“Really?” She gasped. “I never pegged Rylie as the kind of person to kill herself.”

“Well she did.” I sounded agitated, but the blonde haired girl didn’t notice.

“That’s horrible.” She frowned.

“Enough gossip, girls.” My teacher spoke up, but then his eyes moved to me. “Ahh, Bellie, you’re back.”

“I am.” I gave him a small smile.

He nodded. “So—“

“Want me to tell the story?” I cut him off before he could finish speaking. He gave me a small nod, and I started to tell the class an entirely made up story about Ashlinn’s disappearance and Rylie’s suicide.

            The whole school day seemed to take a break to hear about the tragedy that happened in the Safe House. In every class I had I was asked about what happened. I was stopped in the halls to be questioned or for someone to hug me. People I didn’t even know. Everyone knew me. I was famous in my school. I loved it.

“Dade texted me and told us to go to the Safe House.” Violet said once school let out.

“He didn’t text me…” I mumbled.

“Cool story.” Violet rolled her eyes. “Come on. Are we going or not?”

“Yeah,” I answered.

            We all walked to the Safe House to find Dade already sitting inside by himself. He sat on a blanket in the middle of the floor—where we started the game.

“I want to continue.” Dade said in a plain voice as soon as we walked in.

“Continue what..?” Maddi spoke carefully.

“The game. I want to continue playing. I want to play how we played the first night.”

“By killing someone?” Violet’s eyes widened.

“By killing me. Whoever has me…please, please kill me.” He looked up at us with desperate eyes. “Please…”

I had Dade.

Suddenly I was faced with a hard decision.

Do I let the Dade suffer…or should I kill him like he wants?

(A.N.-Sorry for the late upload!
Thanks for reading; we love you all!<3
~Cassi   )