Love & Carnage✗Noah Foster [2]

Chapter Nine// Treasure

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"Do you have something you want to say to me?"

--Emma Duval

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I sat down on my bed, ready to go to bed, when my phone rang. It was... Unknown. "Hello?" I answered. "You'd better hurry before Audrey gets to see my treasure."

"Wait, wha--" But they had hung up. I stood up instantly. What treasure?! My phone made a BING sound. I looked down to see a text from Unknown.

Unknown:

Motel storage unit. On CLEARVIEW.

Storage unit. Great. Nothing creepy about a storage unit, right? I instantly changed. And pulled the braids I had in, back.

I snuck past my mom and dad, who were fighting. Of course. We all knew that this fake getting along thing would never last. "Kassandra, you're being ridiculous. Our daughter is having problems, and you're not going to be open to getting her some help?" Dad yelled at her. "She is a teenage girl! She's just stressed." Mom hollered back. I looked around me. Was Katherine just ignoring this...?

"Mom, I was her with this morning. Something's off." I heard Kat say softly. My mouth fell open as I listened to them. I moved stealthily towards the front door, where keys hung. I looked through them, eventually having to shine the light from my phone on them. "What do you mean by 'off'?" Dad asked Kat. "I mean... When she wasn't looking, I grabbed her journal thingy... she's having weird dreams, Dad. Like, creepy..." I should've said something. My sister stole my dream journal. "Do we call Dr. Martin? She's helped Arielle before." Dad suggested. My eyes widened as I heard the name. My parents had bought me a therapist when I was ten. My Aunt Sierra had died from Breast Cancer and I was really sad about it for awhile. I had nightmares that I don't remember. Dr. Martin was a nice lady, a little uptight but she told me that she liked me. "No, no, no. Besides, Dr. Martin is in New York." My mom scoffed. "So, another one?" Dad asked. Oh, no, no, please no. I looked at the keys again. I grabbed Katherine's car keys. I knew which ones were hers. She had a small Winnie the Pooh bear on her key chain.

I turned around and rushed past the doorway in the living room. I saw them all standing in different places of the living room. Mom by the fireplace, Dad by the TV, and Kat on the couch. They looked like a damn Soap Opera. I didn't want to hear anymore. I rushed through the hallway, into the kitchen and out of the back door.

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I parked outside of the fence that guarded the storage units. I got out of the car quickly, rushing towards the fence. I'm a good climber... I thought to myself. Okay, no I'm not. I hate heights. If I could avoid them, I would. Do it for Audrey. I decided I was going to jump this thing. Audrey could be hurt... or worse. I put one foot into one of the holes in the fence, and kept on doing that till I reached the top. I swung my leg over, and before I knew what was happening... I fell. "Oh, fuck!" I whispered, looking up at the dark sky. Audrey! I thought suddenly, getting up. "Ow, ow, ow!" I whispered to myself as I began to hobble towards the units. There were, like thousands of them. How in the hell was I gonna find Audrey. I rushed through them, feeling like I was going in a circle. I heard something loud. Like a garage door being opened. Except... I knew it was a storage unit. I ran towards the sound. Near the end of the storage unit rows, there was a person, wearing all black, rushing into the unit. That could be the killer, Arielle. I told myself. Too bad. I had to get to Audrey. I ran/ stumbled towards them. Once I got there, I instantly regretted it. It stunk. That's what I first noticed. Then it was the car fresheners that hung around in the big unit. The last thing I noticed was the hunched figure. Hunched over another body. I walked in, trying desperately to hold my breath. I got right behind the small person in front of the... dead body. I nearly cried. I couldn't exactly see who it was, so I turned my flashlight on my phone on. The body had its guts spilled, dry blood was everywhere. It stunk like crazy. Jake. The dead body was Jake. The person immediately turned around. It was Audrey...

"Audrey?" I whispered. "Arielle." She stood up and ran towards me. I put my hand out to her, backing up. "Don't come near me!" I cried. "Arielle, do--you think I did this?" Audrey asked, pulling her hood from her face. "I don't know, Audrey. I get here, and you're right in front of Jake's body. Our friend's body!" I sniffled, trying to wipe my tears. "Arielle, I promise you I did not do this!" She told me. "How can I trust you?"

"You know me, Arielle. You can trust me. I was led here, I found him like this. It's a setup." Audrey explained. "A setup? I got a call... telling me that I needed to come here before you found the treasure first. I thought he was going to hurt you." I cried. I grabbed Audrey's shoulders and pulled her in for a hug. She wrapped her arms around my waist and laid her head on my chest, as she was shorter than me. "Wha--is it happening again?" I whispered to Audrey. "Yes." She said truthfully. I sighed deeply. "This is impossible. Piper is dead." I pulled away from Audrey. "She obviously had an accomplice. Just like Noah suspected." Audrey sighed. "Wait, does Noah know about this?" I asked. "He doesn't know about Jake... he interviewed the motel clerk tonight at Crescent Palms. Piper stayed there. He told Noah about this unit, and Noah's coming back here tomorrow morning." Audrey said without a breath. "He--he's gonna find Jake." I whispered. "Yeah, and this note." Audrey guided me towards Jake's body. On his chest, there were small pieces of paper, each stuck to him with a tack. See how I finished the job for you, Audrey?

"Audrey... what does that mean?" I put a hand to my nose and mouth, as it smelt terrible in here. "I--" Before Audrey could answer, her phone rang. She looked at me, and I urged her to answer it. She answered it, quickly hitting SPEAKER. "Hey, killer. You get my message?" The distorted voice said. "I don't--" Audrey stammered. I touched her back, trying to comfort her. "How could you... how could you do this to Jake?" She raised her voice. "Gonna call the police? Oh, that's right. You can't really, can you? Got you in a nasty place, I guess." With that, he hung up the phone. Audrey looked at me with fear. We both looked back to Jake. "We'll just take the tacks out." I said, feeling the tears stream down my face. "Okay. On three..." Audrey said cautiously. "One... three!" I said, grabbing the tacks as Audrey did, too. "Let's go!" She held her hands out to me, and I placed the small pieces of paper in her hands. We both stood up and rushed towards the exit, Audrey slamming the garage door down in anger. "Come on!" She called to me, already running towards the fence.

Once we successfully climbed the fence. Again. Audrey got close to me. "We do not say a word to anyone. Understand?" She said. I nodded slowly. "Yeah, but Audrey..."

"No. Nobody can know. He'll find a way to frame me. I just know it." Audrey looked down. "Okay. I won't say anything." I whispered. "Good. I'll see you tomorrow." With that, Audrey rushed away from me, to her car. I walked slowly back to my car.

I got in and stared straight ahead. I had no intention of going home. Jake... he was dead. I had just saw him. Not even two days ago!

You could've saved him. A voice inside my head said. I blanched. Something's off, I heard Katherine's voice say. She's having weird dreams. I began to cry harder. What do you need to escape from? Eli had said.

You think I did this? I heard Audrey now. Glad you're okay, came Brooke's voice. I put my hands to my ears and winced. All the talking. It hurt so much. I grasped the wheel in anger and held on until my knuckles turned white. And the voices seemed to calm down. They seemed to be stopping. You're already dead. I heard Piper's voice now. Loud and clear. I couldn't take it anymore. I stopped all of my movements and let out the loudest scream I could manage.