If We Could Make it There

Fakin' it

Caylie POV
What does she mean I'm not right? I saw Cheryl! Saw her with my own eyes! Of course I am! Ashlyn stares at me and make a movement as though she's hurt. I forgot about her arm. But she doesn't look hurt. She isn't acting as if she is. She slowly points to me, and then makes to movement again. Oh!

"Ow!" I say. Ashlyn scurries over to me.

"Are you okay?" She asks worriedly. I shake my head.

"It's my arm" I lie "It really hurts." Ashlyn pretends to look at my bandage and then says "Dang it! IT started bleeding again. Grace! Can you go get Kate? We need her expertise." Grace hurries off to go get Kate while I look at Ashlyn. Good plan!

"Thanks" she says "And no. It's not Cheryl." I look confused before she starts to explain.

"I think it's time for me to tell you what I saw." Ashlyn whispers. I nod at her curtly, ready to hear what I've been waiting for for a few days.

"So after you left, you know after we saw Grace grinning, I followed her back to her house because I thought she was up to something. Man was I right." she starts "So I went to her window and justed peeked in so she couldn't see me. I watched her in her kitchen, and she was reading a note. It was fairly big for all that was written on it, but I couldn't see what it said. But after that, I noticed she was opening a little brown package attatched to the note, with another note inside it. She read a sepparate note that was with the package aloud." she continues "It said 'Say name of wearer, then name of victim.' Thats when she started whispering. I couldn't quite hear who she said for the 'wearer' person, but she said... She said Cheryl for victim." She stops for a second before going again.

"I realised what she was saying it into. It was a little red bottle. The exact bottle she pulled out with the 'iodine'. I was really suspicious at that point, so I stayed for a little while longer, after she'd gone upstairs. The first note had fallen off of the table, onto the floor." She looks at me nervously.

"I had to read it " she explains "I needed to know what it said after seeing and hearing all of that. So I... I snuck into her house. I tried to be as fast as I could, so I ran in quietly, saw what it said, and ran out. But it didn't make much sense." She says. Wow. I didn't think of Ashlyn as someone who would go into someone's house without their knowledge.

"Well, what did it say?" I ask eagerly.

" 'We're doing it now.' And it had some weird signiture, but I couldn't tell whose it was. I ran out after that." she says. That doesn't explain why it wasn't Cheryl.

"And " Ashlyn continues quite pointedly "I know it's not Cheryl because remember when I told you not to drink the water? But you did it anyways? Well, when it said victim, it said Cheryl. That's why I'm thinking Grace gave her the extra water. And when you did drink it, then and only then did you see Cheryl going towards that woman, or who ever it was. I think it was some kind of potion or something. She must have given the good water to Cheryl because she probably didn't want Cheryl to see herself wandering into the forest when she new perfectly well that she was in bed in the campsite."

I stare at her for a moment and then say "But what if it really was Cheryl? What if it was normal iodine?" She shakes her head, looking a bit frusterated.

"I know it wasn't Cheryl" she states "Because I woke up too 'cause I heard a branch snap. I couldn't see who it was because of the hood. But I looked around and the first person I saw asleep was Cheryl, lying on the other side of the tree. Oh, and you also want to know why I said we should give Alex the good water instead of you." says Ashlyn reading my mind, now a normality.

"I didn't want Alex to think any of her friends were plotting against her when her brother was gone. Of course, I didn't think her friends were plotting against her at that point. It was just a precaution. I was much happier before all of this happened. " she finishes.

I sit, stunned at what I've just heard. I look up and say "So it was Grace who I saw go into the forest?" Ashlyn opens her mouth to explain something else, but is cut off when Kate and Grace run towards us. Ashlyn quickly prods my shoulder, which hurts unconditionally, but is probably to make it bleed like it's supposed to be doing. She says fussily "It just started to bleed again..."