The Disappearance Of Will Black / REWRITING /

⸢ xv ⸥

A/N: sorry guys, this is kinda short but also overdue, so enjoy x (as usual, pls point out of you find some grammar mistakes.)

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"I would do anything to unsee what I saw," I argued with my interrogator, a sharp and young looking police officer who sat with a pen in one hand and a clipboard of papers in another. "I'm not capable of this...this murder."

My voice came out all weak and pathetic. I sounded like a bad liar. I willed my voice to regain some strength, but the whole police ordeal and smashed head was overwhelming.

Right after seeing the unpleasant remnants of the body and being caught at the wrong place and wrong time, I was cuffed and sent to the station in a wailing police car. They treated me like a prisoner. A killer.

The officer sighed in frustration and dropped the clipboard onto the table. He eyed the handcuffs that imprisoned me to the table. "You're wasting your breath. I'm not asking if you're guilty, I just want to know what you saw."

I lifted my handcuffed hands a few meters above the table, as far as they would let me. "Then why is this necessary?"

"It's a standard protocol. You were seen at a crime scene. You are at the top of our suspect list. It would take a hell of a lot more than a good lawyer to get you out of this mess, Miss Black," he responded harshly. "You may be young, and maybe the worst you could go through is Juvie, but this is an adult matter. It's not a game."

I despised his patronising tone. I twisted my hands as the cuffs uncomfortably rubbed against my wrists. "You have no right," I shot back, feeling distraught tears welling in my eyes. "My-"

I was interrupted by a female officer that opened the door on us. "Do you have a minute, Harrington?"

Officer 'Harrington' exhaled and shifted in his seat. "I'm kind of in the middle of something, Leah."

"You'll want to hear this," she said and fixed her wary stare on me. I could tell under her badly composed face that she was disgusted by the sight of me. It scared me to think of how they saw me: a brother-killing, knife-stabbing murderer.

The police officer that interrogated me stood up hastily, taking his papers, and walked out the door. Leah shut the door loudly.

I couldn't hear any muffled voices behind the dark and opaque glass, but I could feel the hot glares of people watching me on the other side. I wanted to shrink down my chair in horror, the image of the indecipherable head under the large rock piercing my thoughts. I could only guess it was my brother. I shivered.

How did I end up here?

The woman was right. Two minutes later Officer Harrington returned to his seat in front of me. He lifted his police cap and threaded his fingers through his hair quickly, as if this were a stressful tradition. It revealed the shade of his dark blonde hair before he dumped the hat back on his head.

"Okay, Miss Black. Why were you in the forest?"

I froze. I couldn't tell him that I was looking for Will after reading his letter, and I didn't want to drag James into this. Staying silent was a horrible idea, but I couldn't come up with anything after making eye contact. This guy knew what he was doing.

"You got nothing to say, Black?" He raised a bushy eyebrow. I swallowed.

He scribbled something else on the paper and shook his head. I prayed for a miracle to happen.

"Is he really dead?" I dared to whisper. How would Dad react? By taking his drinking to the next level or move on to something more fatal? Would Mom blame me? What would they think of me?

The officer looked at me as if he were trying to decide wether I was trying to cover up the crime with false curiousity or was genuinely concerned. "Who are talking about?"

Did he even need to ask? "My brother," I snapped.

The officer didn't answer immediately. He still had that look of figuring me out. It made me squirm in my seat.

Finally, he spoke. "What makes you think it was your brother with a rock for a head?"

I frowned at his crude word placement. "The handcuffs? The 'drop your weapons'? My presence here?" I responded, my voice dripping with sarcasm. I was starting to sound like my old self.

He continued to squint at me.

"What?" I snapped. "Did he survive it?"

"It wasn't him." Harrington dropped his pen for effect.

I let his words sink in. "What?"

"We aren't sure who the victim was, but it was just confirmed that it was not William Black." He leaned forward, his warm breath spreading all over my face. "So you have a lot of explaining to do."

I stared at the officer. There was nothing I could explain. The horrid feeling that was laced in my mind was replaced by a small sense of relief.

"I didn't kill him," I whispered, stretching my eyes open.

If he didn't feel frustrated then, he was now. Officer Harrington gritted his teeth and picked up the pen again. "Then who do you have in mind?"

I desperately scanned my memories for some clues or hints. "I can't think of anyone, but it wasn't me!"

"You were shown the voice message that William recorded allegedly before he died from either extreme cold or from the impact of the bullet wound. The second victim suffered the same fate after being buried under mounds of snow and forced to record a very similar message.

"I don't know how the murderer managed to get them both onto the same doing, but they knew what they were doing. We have the right to believe the same killer went after the body you...discovered at the woods not long ago. We have a strong alibi against you as suspect." His face was impassive but clearly serious.

"I was at the party when he disappeared. I saw him walking away with the Eric guy a mile away, ask my friends. I was nowhere-"

"Hold on," Officer Harrington stopped me. "You saw them?"

I feel bile rise up my throat. I never mentioned that part to them after the scene came back to me days after the party. Will met my eyes just before the countdown to a new year ended across the entire field, side by side with Eric. Then they vanished behind the Ferris Wheel - and that's probably when the murder event began.

"Yes, kind of- not really," I stammered, wanting to punch myself.

He raised an eyebrow. I was fooling no one. "Am I supposed to write 'yes, kind of, not really'?

I sighed, defeated. "About a day after you questioned me the first time, I got a flashback. I was drinking during the party-"

"Underage drinking-" Officer Harrington pipped in.

"Underage drinking during the party and a bit came back to me in school. I remembered seeing my brother and Eric walking into the woods by the Ferris wheel. That's it," I told him, leaving out the part where I made strange eye contact with Will.

He wrote down the new information. "I don't think you understand the effect this small detail can have on this investigation. The delay of not coming to us earlier could possibly add to your charges."

I sighed again for drama. Harrington glanced at me from beneath his cap, still writing.

"So who's body was the one I found?" I inquired.

"You should know, Sara. You were the only person found at the crime scene. You also need to explain the weapon you had. The body had multiple stabs across the ribcage and was scratched along the ankles."

I gasped at the image formed in my mind. "You mean my kitchen knife? It was clean. I'm sure you know that.

"Yes, it was. But get this, Miss black," Officer Harrington said and leaned in scandalously, "we found a gun at William's crime scene, where his body disappeared next to Eric's."

Someone about the way he looked at me made my blood run cold. "And?"

"And we found your fingerprints on it. So, how do you plan to get out of this one?"