Stone Cold Kids

10. Tears

Sunday, 18th March
I sat upright, but immediately regretted it as aches and pains emerged from my skin. My dad had said I'd slept through the whole of Saturday. Haley was now gone. The second to be murdered. The 'liar' of the group.

I tried to piece together the sequence of events that happened that night. But no matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn't remember anything. Fading sections of sentences and bright lights and colourless liquid whirled through my mind, half-formed scenes of drunken misery.

I ignoring the texts from Jon and Quinn and Riya and everyone. It was the same shit, but a different reason. I got up and locked my door, closed the windows, and drew the blinds. I just...needed to be alone.

The only thing I remember next is silently sobbing myself to sleep again.

Monday, 19th March
No one spoke much today. Haley's permanent absence seemed to have a more profound effect on us than Dylan's. It's not that we didn't love Dylan as much...but rather the fact we knew any one of us could be next.

The police don't give a fuck. They've told everyone it was a suicide, and poor Haley was going through a 'dark time' in her life. As they say: "two's a coincidence, three's a pattern." Well, what about the nine of us?

Haley's parents are distraught. Of course they'd believed the police and their lies. Mr Eriksson is beating himself up over the fact that he failed to recognise the apparent signs of Haley's so-called depression.

Amelia's taken it the worst. Haley's been her best friend since they were kids. Amelia came into school today with runny mascara and huge puffy eyes. And Jon tried to comfort her, but to no avail.

"Babe. Look. It'll all be fine in the end. I promise." he tried. "We'll find out who did this! We'll catch the bastard, I swear."
"No. We won't." she said. And I had a feeling she was right.

Wednesday, 21st March
Despite the fact that Haley's death lingered high up in the air, the rest of the school carried on as normal. The school held a shitty assembly yesterday with shitty messages and shitty reasons to explain her 'suicide'. By far, the most ludicrous one was that "Haley was deeply saddened at the loss of her boyfriend, Dylan Sanchez, which further contributed to her terrible state." It's even more ridiculous when you find out that Haley and Dylan were never even a thing. It's always been her and Lucas.

I'd started to carry a packet of tissues to blot up tears if they ever trickled down during class. I was losing my best friends, one by one. You never realise how much you take them for granted until they're gone.

I was meeting Riya, Lucas, Jon and Amelia at the Shake Shack to discuss this hell of a situation. I'd ordered and sat down at the table when Riya spoke, quietly but seriously:
"We're the only ones who can do something now. Everyone else is a fucking asshole." I sipped my crimson concoction and replied with a nod.
"Yeah but...what do we do?" Jon inquired.
"I'm gonna leave now," said Amelia. "I need to be alone."
"I'll escort you back. Stay here, Jon, and make sure nothing happens, okay?" Lucas said.
Jon knew it was pointless to try and protest, so he just acquiesced and let them go. As soon as the door shut, Riya started to speak, but she seemed so distant, so far out of reach...

"Dylan was a druggie. An addict. Everyone knew that. Haley was...a compulsive liar.'
"Wait, what?" I blurted, nearly choking on my smoothie. This hurled me back to reality.
"Kiers, it's true...She had a tendency to lie a lot." Jon answered.
"But like...we all lie! How bad was it that she had to go and get herself killed?" I demanded.
"She falsely accused a 20 year old guy of assaulting her so she could sue him for damages or something. Haley and her family won about half a million, and the poor guy killed himself cause of debt." Riya explained.

"Oh shit..." I murmured.

"But don't you think it's kind of fitting how the killer made Haley's death look like a suicide, just like the poor man? I mean, as far as we know she was the happiest girl on Earth!"

"I agree Riya, and it's high time we discover what happened that night." Jon said. "Step one - we have to go to Amelia's."

"I can't today. My parents are expecting me home. Physics test tomorrow." Riya rolled her eyes.

"Well, I can come with you, Jon. Besides, you can distract her and I'll do the searching." I offered.

And with that, our minds were set. We were going to find the killer before someone else got killed.

It was time to hunt the hunter.