T- End

Chapter 6

It's been a week since the fire. Kristen has still been living with me. She has changed. More and more every day she becomes less attached to reality. She speaks of life and death without regard. She treats me more and more like a child. Monitoring everything I do and say. Where I go and whom I'm with. I will not lie it scares me to the point that I have stopped fighting her. My room, once my safe space is no longer mine alone. I share it with her now too and she never wants to leave. The truth is I feel safe nowhere now.

The police has even been looking for her and her sister but every time the police comes knocking at my door, I have to lie. We only go out at night now and if we do during the day, she would hide her face with a scarf or hoodie and sun glasses. She has become worse as well. If I didn't listen to her, she'd lose her temper easier and faster each time by either breaking me down to nothing or lately punching me in the face or kicking me when I'm down.

I don't know why but the worse she got the less I wanted to leave her. She's like this black hole I've been sucked in to and now that I'm in, I don't ever want to leave again no matter how much it hurts.

Besides that, the feeling of the town has changed as well. It feels colder and darker. Like a thick cloud of smog hung over it. It's funny to think that a week ago it was so warm in our small town.

After the fire they found Zac's body in the backyard. It's been 3 days since that discovery and police have been more active than ever. Everyone in the town have been on high alert. Zac's parents came back right after the fire. I wish, I could go to his family and apologize and admit that it was me that caused all this but Kristen would not let me. She doesn't want to lose me after just finding me now.

Things are changing in my small town and the people are changing too. They've started building fences and locking their doors. Fear fills the streets now. Fear of who maybe next.

This Friday morning, I have my best black suit on with a loose tie, an unbuttoned collar and red sneakers. Standing on the football field with a stage in front of me and a couple of teachers, police and Zac's parents sitting on it. A large picture of Zac in a frame with flowers laying by its feet on the far left of the stage. There was a microphone on the podium at the centre of the stage.

I sat at the front because I was considered one of Zac's closest friends and right next to me sat Ethan. These were one of the rare occurrences where Ethan would actually leave his house for something.

I slouched in my seat and looked ahead as first teachers would go up to speak than his parents and finally a police detective. His name was Bradley. Something about him called for my attention.

I straightened myself up in my seat and rubbed back the hair that fell in my eyes. I watched him closely as he spoke.

He had a western inflection for some words as he spoke. "Good day everyone. I'm detective Bradley and I'm here to tell you that I will catch the killer of this fine young man. I'm aware of what you have heard on the news. That this is just a string of murders that has been happening now for a year but I am here to ensure you that this will not be the case for your town." It seemed like he was making direct eye contact with me before speak. "I will work day and night without rest till the killer is caught."

His speech received a warm welcome from a very gloomy town. He broke eye contact as he went to sit down again.

'What does he know?' That's to say he even knows anything. It could have been just a random glance my way, nothing more.

After a moment of honour, the memorial for the school was over. Zac's parents really moved fast on this memorial thing. I figure it was to get the formalities out of the way and get back to the investigation at hand. I got the feeling that Zac's parents were the kind of people who believed in the saying, "an eye for an eye" but in this case "a life for a life". That life right now was mine, if you could even call it a life anymore.