It Started With A Run

~18~ Au Revoir!

Cameron POV
~Edited~

"In the middle of our sophomore year, Ellie and I met this girl named Tarah. She was an extremely sweet, but also extremely curious girl. That year we were still running this business. There were very few people in it and there weren't in school meetings at the time. We had just gotten started with everything, so the only people involved were my family and Ellie's family, though we were actively trying to recruit others."

Like my parents... so our whole relationship really was a lie.

"We didn't know how... the thing affected people at the time because we hadn't tested it on anyone. We had already all agreed that we weren't going to turn it over to the authorities. We had just found it. It was rare and never before heard of. If we turned it in, we probably wouldn't get anything for it."

Ellie cut in and took over the story for her.

"We had met Tarah's parents before. They weren't alcoholics or drug addicts by any means, but they smoked and drank now and then. We decided to use them as an experiment of sorts. We told them they could have it for free, that we were trying to get one of our family members clean and didn't want it anymore."

"Tarah saw us with the stuff a couple of times and was always curious, but always let it go after a little bit. One day, Tarah's parents called us saying that there must have been something wrong with the product we gave them and that they were considering seeing a doctor."

Elizabeth started talking again.

"We asked them what their symptoms were and they said that they felt more addicted to it than they have been to anything they've ever taken. They finished the whole thing and they said that they felt like they were going to pass out and it had only been a few minutes since they had last smoked it. They were extremely dizzy, and it was like nothing they had ever experienced. They weren't the type to take too much, so it was 10 times worse than what they normally felt like when they smoked."

"We lied and told them our parents were doctors and that they should come to our house. That it would be safer because the police might arrest them for drug possession. We told them to take a cab to our address. I guess Tarah heard her parent's side of the conversation because she followed them to my house. She watched everything go down inside the house. It... it destroyed her."

Ellie further explained what Elizabeth meant by "What happened in the house".

"When they got there, they basically had to crawl onto our porch and into our house. Lizzy's mom got them both water because she could tell they were going through withdrawal, but couldn't understand why because they had just had some about an hour ago."

"Suddenly both their bodies started shaking and jerking uncontrollably. Nobody in the room knew what to do, seeing as none of us were actually doctors. After a while they stopped shaking and when we checked, they had no pulse. Neither of our parents wanted to get in trouble for this, so we picked them up, took them to their house, and left the bag there to make it seem like an overdose. Sure enough, when the police found the bodies it looked like any other overdose, even though that's definitely not what it was. When they tested them the tests came back positive and the case was dropped like that."

Elizabeth took over again.

"When we got home, we found sweet little Tarah passed out next to our window. Luckily, she did have a pulse. It wouldn't have made a difference if she did or didn't because she wouldn't talk or eat or drink or sleep or anything. She was barely even breathing. We weren't sure if it was shock or what, so we just told everyone that we were having a sleepover and then we got the call about her parents and she just shut down. Everyone believed us since we were good friends with her."

"After a few weeks she started coming to school again, but she was extremely quiet. Still, she was talking more than she was that night. She wouldn't even look at us though and we were scared she would tell, but honestly, I think she was more scared of us. A few weeks after she came back to school we heard she tried to... kill herself. We thought she succeeded because we never heard from her again. She was living with her brother since he had a job and was a legal adult and even he vanished. That's why we're so nervous now. Do you even know why they might be coming here, Ellie?"

Ellie had her eyes closed for the last part and let out a deep breath.

"They think she has a severe case of PTSD and they don't think that it could come from just hearing that her parents died. They investigated her brother to see if maybe he physically or sexually assaulted her but came up with nothing. We're their next lead."

Elizabeth sighed. "This is bad guys, really, really bad."

"How do you even know all this Ellie?" A random person said.

"My parents work for the mental hospital that Tarah's at, but as secretaries. They saw her file and made sure to tell me so that I could tell Lizzy. They know Lizzy's parents probably wouldn't tell her until the last second."

"Alright guys, this meeting is over. I really can't handle playing Ping Pong with you people right now. I'll see you next meeting."

While everyone else filed out of the exit, Anna and I left through the same room we did last time, jumped into my car, and drove off before anyone could see us.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Both of us were trying to process what we just heard on the drive to Anna's house. The whole time Anna was holding the recorder like it was the most precious, but dangerous thing she had ever held in her entire life, which it probably was.

When we got to her house I finally said something.

"Does Tarah really have PTSD?"

"Yeah," She sighed. "Tyson knew it wasn't just because she heard about their death that she became the way she is now. She didn't hate her parents, but she didn't necessarily like them either. She lived and hung out with her brother most of the time. I knew her before and I agree that her parents' death would not cause that to happen to her. Right before she tried to... you know... she kept on talking about how she could see them and how lifeless they looked. She kept on talking about how much she didn't want to see those images every single day of her life, so she tried to end it." 

Anna's voice broke during the last few words and her eyes welled up with tears. I pulled her in for a hug. 

"You shouldn't be comforting me. You should be comforting Tyson, or even Tarah. On her good days," Anna paused with a smile, "she's herself. She acts how she did before everything happened, but she will immediately go back if you say anything that reminds her of it so you have to be careful what you say."

"Maybe I will go see her... after we get justice of course." I tapped the recorder with a smile. Anna laughed and said, "We still have to get them to admit they're selling the weed. They conveniently didn't say the word weed during the whole explanation."

I smiled at her while nodding my head, and for the second time, she kissed me on the cheek before jumping out of my car.

"Au Revoir!" She waved and smiled at me before walking into her house and somehow I already missed her.

I'm so screwed.

A/N
Hey guys!

I'm going to be double updating today so another chapter is coming in probably the next 5-10 minutes.

What'd you think of the big reveal? Is that what you guys were expecting?

Sorry I don't know all that much about weed -or PTSD-, but I did some research for this story so most of it should be accurate. Let me know if any of it is wrong!

I hope you guys liked this chapter :)

If you guys liked it I would appreciate it if you guys voted and commented it would help me a lot.

Bye loves~
Syd.