THE GUARDIAN 彡 the society

ELEVEN

"Who shot my sister?" Allie questioned, tears forming in her eyes as she glanced around at everyone at the funeral.

"Why did you do it?" Allie's voice started to waver, as the pain shown in her voice. Will started to get up and go to Allie.

"We needed her!" Allie cried out, just as Will came to grab her, "I needed her!"

Will gently lead Allie off the stage while everyone watched in silence. All eyes immediately latched onto Charlotte as she suddenly stood up and made her way to the stage.

Everyone watched with frowns as they caught sight of Charlotte's appearance. She was wearing an oversized hoodie with sweatpants, and her hair was put into a high ponytail but she looked like a mess due to her bloodshot, puffy eyes — from crying so much — and her tired expression.

Charlotte glanced down at her hands before looking up at the audience with a blank look. "I was the last person to talk to Cassandra. I was on the phone with her, talking to her like it was any ordinary night. But," Charlotte inhaled shakily before continuing, "I heard the gunshots and that's when I knew that Cassandra was not okay."

Charlotte rubbed at her face for a moment, while everyone watched and stayed silent.

"I know Cassandra wasn't liked by everyone, but she was the best person to lead us to survival in this new town," Charlotte's soft tone suddenly turned deep and pissed, "But one of you fuckers had to go and shoot her."

Everyone noticed that Charlotte was clutching tightly on the sides of the wooden box that she stood behind. Her fingers were starting to turn white from the lack of blood going to her fingers.

"Why would anyone want to murder someone? Huh?" Charlotte muttered lowly, as her eyes scanned everyone's faces. "Everyone knows how much Cass meant to some of us, me, and everyone knows that Cass was the one to keep us in line, to prevent chaos from starting, so whoever did that to Cass will regret their actions big time." Charlotte's eyes turned sharp, making everyone still.

"They will regret killing Cass, which ruined the system we had progressing, and they will regret pissing me off."

Charlotte scanned everyone's face one last time before glancing over at Cassandra's covered body. She walked over to her body and placed a hand on the top of her cheek, over the cloth.

"It's time you finally rest, Cass. I'll still be waiting for that milkshake, just like you promised." Charlotte muttered quietly as the boys came forward to move Cassandra's body.

➖

"What Will is trying to say is that the system that we had going on is turning to shit and that we need a new leader to keep this system running." Valerie spoke up, taking a sip from her mug of coffee. She felt very drained from the current events; the whole idea of murder in this town and that there was a murderer amongst themselves made her scared and worried. Coffee was her number one go to.

"Who then?" Kyla questioned.

Will looked at her with a knowing look, "I think we all know who."

Kyla shook her head, "Char's not in the right state of mind right now to take over."

"What do you mean? She's the best option that we've got," Will furrowed his eyebrows, "She was practically co-leaders with Cassandra."

"Right," Valerie cut in, "And now Char feels like she was the one responsible for Cassandra's death."

"Why would she feel responsible? She didn't know that that was going to happen," Will muttered.

"Char was practically Cass's bodyguard but also the boss of Cass, so she feels like it was her fault since Cassandra was Char's responsibility." Kyla informed.