Haunted by the Past (Original)

Chapter 15

The chair Eli had found me actually wasn't that bad after all. He'd patched the leather with duct tape for me, but it was otherwise quite comfortable to sit on. I just prayed there wasn't some hidden horror crawling on it. The last thing I needed was bedbugs.

Eli opened on his big computer screen our old virtual murder board, which I was surprised he still had. It was both nostalgic and depressing to look at. We thought we had so much, but really it was so little. What we had were photos of the first four victims and Meredith, taken from the previous year's high school yearbook along with their names, when and where they supposedly went missing and how they were found. We then did the same with their friends in an attempt to find a connection between all of the victims because the problem was there was no connection, well, aside that we all lived in Raven Hill and we went to Raven Hill High School together.

"Give me a moment. I haven't updated this since..." he trailed off, acting as if mentioning Heather's death was a giant taboo.

"Eli, it's ok," I sighed. "If we're going to avenge her, we can't tiptoe around her death."

"All right but let me know when it's too much. Like I've got her crime scene photos, but you don't have to look at them if you're not ready to," he emphasized. "Death is something I've come to be more accustomed to, so you'll have to tell me your limits."

I let out a small laugh, "I already have her crime scene burned into my memories."

He shook his head, "It's not the same. Trust me."

"Oh? You mean she wasn't actually sipping her tea while complaining about my tardiness?" I mused.

"Dani...," Eli turned to me speechless. I could see the internal struggle in his eyes as he tried to work out what to say about my madness.

"Forget I said anything," I shook my head.

"Look, Dani, our guilts play cruel games with our minds, but you never were and never will be responsible for her death," he insisted. "Trust me, I know these mind games. I have my demons too. I know how hard it is to push them out even though you know they're not real."

"Demons?" I frowned. "Maybe yours are."

"They wear the faces and speak the voices of the people we know, but they're not them, you have to remember that. They feed off of our grief and our guilt, saying all the things to make us hurt more. However, they only have as much power as you allow them to have," he explained.

I narrowed my eyes, "You sound like a grandfather."

"I might be repeating what he told me," he gave me a sly smirk. "You know Heather would never blame you for what happened."

**

"Heather? You know class starts in like two minutes, right?" I frowned as I glanced up at the school clock on the wall. Mrs. Gretchin glared at me from her desk, gesturing that I had until the bell rung to put my phone away.

"Yeah, I know, that's why I am calling. I am not going to be at first period, or second period, and probably not third period either," Heather was trying her hardest to sound positive, but there was a serious undertone to her voice. "I don't want you to panic. I'm fine."

Strange screeching sounds stopped me from responding, "What the hell was that?"

"Oh, I'm, uh, I'm on a bus," she responded meekly. "You know how old the buses are."

"What? Why?" I pushed.

"Because I was up all-night thinking about Meredith and the other victims. It's not right that you and Eli go out late at night doing all the investigating. So I decided I needed to step up and do something investigating too," she explained. "For Meredith, you know."