Accidentally On Purpose (ONC Entry)

Chapter Three

      A set of dead eyes stared back at her. That was all Dev could see. She tried with every ounce of her effort to look away, but her gaze remained locked at the horrendous sight in front of her. The corpse's arms hung over the limbs, its body slumped against the trunk. The skin had turned a sickening shade of blue from the cold and its hair and eyelashes were frozen over. Her knees weakened beneath her and she fell to the ground, pushing herself away from the body.

"That's not funny," said Casey. "That's really sick, you know."

She shot him a glare, but the movement worsened the pounding in her head. Her stomach twisted and she dropped her eyes. "I'm-I'm not—"

"Oh my gosh . . ." Ignoring the nausea, she spun herself around. Ryan was standing in front of the tree, face ghostly white. "Dude, she's not joking."

She stood, brushing the snow off of her now-cold, soaked pants.

"We need to go," said Casey. He took her arm and began to pull her away from the clearing.

She twisted out of his grasp. "What? No, we have to call the police. We can't just—"

"Call the police?" Lukas blurted, an eyebrow arched upward. "We can't call the police!"

Dev rolled her eyes. It felt as if this boy was the epitome of everything she disagreed with. "Why not?"

"Because my dad is the police! By being here, we're already suspects. What are we supposed to say as our alibi? 'Yes, officer, we were trespassing on private property. I swear we're innocent'," he snapped in return. His tone was dripping with mockery.

She stepped forward, eyes meeting his. "Better arrested for something like that than suspects for a murder."

If her family found out that they were in jail, she didn't know what they would do. But if they found out that she was a suspect for murder, she knew exactly what they would do — shun her.

"My dad would kill me if I was arrested at all."

"You act like it'd be any better to leave a dead body unreported," she snapped back in return, eyes flitting swiftly over his face. "If anything, that'd make us more suspicious."

He snorted. His expression was so angry it almost looked calm. "How would they know we're here?"

"How wouldn't they?" She motioned around her. "We're leaving footprints everywhere."

"Then what's the point of calling in?" Lukas took a step toward her, challenging her stare.

"If we call in, we look innocent. We are innocent. No harm, no foul."

"Except my dad finds out what I do in my free-time and I get grounded for life or sent to military school," he put his hands on his hips, gaze meeting hers. Something flashed within his hazel eyes and he glanced suddenly at her brother. "Casey," he said a little too loudly. "What do you think?"

Casey put his hands in front of himself placatingly. "I don't think I want to get between you two right now. But for the record, even if we wanted to call the police, we couldn't," he held up his phone. "No service."

Ryan perked up with wide, round eyes. "We can find a place that has service and make an anonymous call."

She raised her eyebrows, impressed, then turned back to Lukas. "What do you say?"

He rolled his eyes, but she could see the tiniest hint of a relieved smile underneath all of his sarcasm. There was a part of her that was satisfied by his expression. With one final glance over her shoulder, she left the clearing with the others and headed to town.

•••••

They made the phone call as soon as they received a signal. By then, it was nearly eleven o'clock and Dev was sure her aunt would be worried sick about her, but for once it didn't bother her.

That would be the least of her worries tonight.

It felt good to finally get out of the house and go on an adventure, even if that adventure meant breaking the law and discovering a dead body. She had met people, and in a town like Garber, that was a start.

The group dispersed after the call and went home. Dev had expected to be grounded when they got there, but as they walked up to the house she realized that everyone was asleep. Her aunt and uncle hadn't even bothered to call them to make sure they were alright. She was both relieved and confused, but didn't question it.

She climbed the stairs to her room and plopped onto her bed, a sigh escaping her lips. When she closed her eyes, the dead girl's face flashed in her mind. If she listened hard enough, Dev thought she could hear the whaling of police sirens in the distance.

She wondered if Casey and his friends were listening, too. She wondered if Lukas was listening.

There was something about him that made her curious. Maybe it was the way his eyes glowed even when the sun wasn't hitting them or how he could see right through her with one glance. Maybe it was because of the lopsided half a smile he wore when he said something clever. Whatever it was, it hadn't been there any other time she'd seen him. They'd never truly spoken before, maybe a nod of acknowledgement at most, but he and Ryan came around to pick up Casey often and they had exchanged looks several times. He was a self-righteous jerk who also happened to be very cute. There was no harm in being attracted to him as long as she didn't do anything about it. At least, that's what she told herself.

Dev thought back to the mangled body slumped against the tree. It had bruises and dry blood trailed down from its chest. She hadn't had the heart or the stomach to examine it further. This wasn't her fault, Dev could do nothing, yet it still nagged at her, gnawing away any sense of clarity she had when she left the clearing. She knew this was far from over. Somehow, someway, she would be forced to get involved with this again. Her winter break would end and begin with the dead girl in the tree.