DELICATE / Brandon Darrow

twenty five

twenty five
the fire
FIRST PERSON

IT WAS LATE AT night and Elisia called us over to meet her at the church. We all ran in to see her hanging over the chair.

"What happened?" I asked her.

"King Cobra sent me a video," Elisia answered. "I saw who set the fire at my parents house. It was Nicki."

"Show us the video," Rowan said a little comfortably.

"You don't believe me?" Elisia questioned.

"Why would she lie about that?" I said rudely but it was the truth.

"I screen-grabbed it," Elisia nodded, pulling out her phone.

It was a picture of Nicki.

"That doesn't prove anything," Rowan stated.

"The Zoo could make fake videos, remember?" Hailey reminded her. "Edit tricks."

"It makes sense," Elisia ignored her idea. "Dunbar blackmailed Nicki, used the sex video, made her set my house on fire to punish her for the Romeo reject video."

I was worried of what she was going on with her rant.

"That early post said five girls," Elisia concluded. "That's why he didn't tag her in the shot gun video. He'd already made her pay."

I nodded slowly. "She's not wrong," I agreed.

Maybe I did a little too soon because right after, Elisia grabbed a gun out of her bag. All of us gasped.

"Elisia, where did you get that?" Rowan asked her.

"I'm gonna make Nicki admit it," Elisia declared.

"She didn't do it," Rowan breathed out.

"I knew you would defend her," Elisia whispered sadly at Rowan. "Hailey, Cynthia, come with me."

"Let's just wait until the morning," Hailey told her. "And we'll go see Nicki together."

"I believe you, Elisia," I began. "But Hailey's right."

"It was my parents!" Elisia screamed.

Elisia grabbed her bag and left.

I got too much anxiety from this altercation so I just ran out of there to get air. I went outside and decided to walk home. I was on my phone when I saw something across the street. I looked and it was someone wearing a giraffe head. I just ran and didn't look back.

♡

I woke up from a call from Rowan telling me to meet her at Nicki's house so I ran there. When I got there, I saw ambulances and people surrounding her house.

Nicki was dead.

I found Rowan and Hailey and ran up to them. They engulfed me into a hug. We let go and just stared at the ambulance.

"I keep hearing everyone say it was a suicide," Rowan told us.

"I don't believe that," I shook my head. "It all just seems too sketchy."

"She promised me," Rowan stated.

"Last time we talked, she gave me a lecture on my overdose and how selfish it was," Hailey added. "Do you think it was King Cobra?"

"Or Elisia?" Rowan questioned. "She honestly believes Nicki killed her parents."

"Don't say that," I gave her a look. "Elisia could never do something like this."

Then all of our phone's rang. We all pulled our phones out and I saw a message from King Cobra.

KING_COBRRA:
CANT RUN AND AND HIDE ANYMORE.

"Guys," Rowan called us.

We both turned and saw what she was looking at. It was three people in bird masks. Rowan pulled us both and started to walk us away.

♡

We all went to Stingers and were trying to figure out if Nicki's death was really a suicide. Stinger found a letter that Nicki wrote to Elisia. It was apologizing about burning her house down.

"Do you think Nicki killed herself because she felt so bad about Elisia's parents?" I suggested in confusion.

"No, no. It stops mid sentence," Rowan turned down my idea. "Why wouldn't she just finish it?"

"What stopped her?"Hailey asked.

"Or who?" I countered right after her.

The topic of suicide weighed on all of us and it seemed to make everyone emotional. I kept it together because I hated to cry in front of people but Rowan and Hailey weren't that afraid to speak their feelings.

"I just want to say that you guys aren't anyone to me," Hailey told us sadly. "I don't want you guys to feel like you're just anyone in my life because I love you guys so much."

Then we all hugged each other, not wanting to let go.

"I got a reply," Stinger interrupted our contact. "It's from King Cobra. It's your message about your request to meet, he refreshed our memory. "Dear Staghead— by the way I changed Deer to Staghead because– you know what, I don't know," he shook his head and continued, "dear Staghead, wanna meet? Sure. If you prove your loyalty. Kill one of the girls."

"Where's Elisia?"

♡

We called Elisia and told her about everything that happened.

"So, Nicki was killed by King Cobra, but it was meant to look like a suicide?" Elisia questioned.

"Or she actually killed herself," Rowan concluded.

Elisia explained what happened at Nicki's house and how she had nothing to do with Nicki being dead.

"If King Cobra can do this to Nicki, then he needs to be stopped," I stated in a serious tone.

"I have a plan," Rowan told us. "Stinger, can you build us a bomb?"

"Your sister did not give me a proper heads up about you guys," Stinger shook his head.

"Elisia, we need to make it look like we killed you," Rowan said. "Cynthia will be the one in the mask, so she can meet up with King Cobra."

"Why me?" I asked a little too defensively.

"'Cause you're the strongest out of all of us," Hailey stated confidently.

I sure didn't feel like it but I didn't question their beliefs and just nodded. We all went to get ready for the night.