You're Mine

Chapter Eight: Winter Break

          Once I finish with the police, I head inside and lock the door. It locked fine just now. I twist the handle to be sure it is locked. I then turn and look at the mess in front of me. "This is going to take a while," I mutter as I begin the search for my trash bags to begin picking up everything.

          Nearly two hours later, I have the majority of the mess cleaned up. I got all the glass swept up. I got my books back on the shelves and stacked in alphabetical order. The notebooks and papers are picked up along with the food. The hardest part of everything was just flipping my furniture back over by myself. The bathroom was untouched thankfully, and my bedroom I just shut the door. I'll deal with that mess later. As far as I could tell, nothing was missing or misplaced. It's like he just went room to room, throwing everything or broking anything glass. The whole ordeal just leaves me confused and not to mention paranoid. I look at my phone as I try to decide to call them or not. I don't want to bug them, but I also don't want to be alone. It's not because I can't handle myself in a fight. It's mainly because I don't know if he has friends who are coming back to finish the job. I sigh and pick up my phone. I send a quick text to our group chat just asking if they want to come over and spend the night.

          A later, they're both in my living room looking at me in shock as I explain what happened. "So yeah, he's probably going to jail, and I don't know if he has friends or not. So, do you guys mind being my back up?" I ask them sheepishly.

          "Cassie, I'm just going to put you in a bubble. I swear I don't know what we're going to do with you." She says while throwing her hands up. "We left you alone for a few hours and you get robbed."

          "We'll need to make it a bubble-wrapped bubble or some kind of padding in there, so she can't hurt herself either." He tells her as he shakes his head. "Eerie Erin did this? I have to say I'm shocked. I mean we all know he's creepy, but I had no idea he had the balls to do this."

          "I didn't think I pissed him off that badly in the hallway to lead to this." I flop onto my couch. "Guess I do have bad luck."

          "Honey, bad luck is spilling something on your white shirt, or you tripping over your feet. You're cursed," She says.

          "Gee Kara, just kick her while she's down why don't you?" He says as he sits beside me, "I will say I'm glad you're not staying here alone during break anymore."

          "Maybe I should since I'm such bad luck," I say as I look at Kara with a slight glare.

          "Oh haha, you must be crazy if you think I'm leaving you here now," She says as she sits on the other couch facing us.

          I turn and look at both of them. "So serious question," I say.

          "Which is?" He asks me as he plays with my hair.

          "Do you guys just want to skip tomorrow?" I ask them as I look at my hands. "With how crazy everything has been and how badly rumors spread now. I just want to stay home and maybe sleep late for once."

          "Is she running a fever?" She asks him.

          He places his forearm on my forehead. "No, are we dreaming?" He asks her.

          She pinches herself. "Nope, we're awake which means she's an imposter."

           "You guys must think that you're so funny," I tell them. "So yes or no?"

             They grin as they agree to us skipping. So while I cleaned up my room, they were on the task of doing a snack and movie run for tonight. I finish by the time they get back. We all get in our pj's and huddle up on the couch. We watch some comedies and romances to just help us stay in a good mood. I'm actually glad they didn't pick any horror movies since it feels like I'm already living one. Once we grew bored with movies, we played a few games like truth or dare and the guessing game. It's late by the time we fall asleep, but we're all in good moods which makes me happy.

           Come morning, however, our good mood immediately shifts to one of shock as we see the news. Right there in big, bold letters we read, killer found. It came as an even greater shock when we learned who the police had identified them as. It was none other than Erin Michael's aka eerie Erin. We found out that a partial print had been found on the card and knife. When he was getting booked, and they took his prints a match became found. It's just too crazy to believe, but the evidence doesn't lie. He killed Kayla and refused to answer why he did it. All we knew was that the killer had been found.

          The campus's mood had shifted from uneasiness and woe to one of jubilancy. We just couldn't believe that the reign of terror was finally over now, and we could rest easy knowing that the killer is about to be put away for a very long time. The time of celebration lasted a week before stressed entered everyone's mind. Finals were here and all we could do is pray and hope. When the grades came out though that last week of school, we could all tell who failed and who would be seen again. It seemed that things were finally looking up. Kara and I are packed and got ready for the break along with Ash who kept talking with her about dresses to put me in for the party. Everything seemed good until the news came of Erin killing himself and me getting a phone call to come to the station happened.

        I'm sitting in the break room waiting for someone to tell me why I'm here. I fiddle with my fingers as I patiently try to wait. My nerves are getting the best of me when I finally see them, Detectives Boyd and Summers. They take me into a small back room and look me dead in the eye. "Ms. Evans, you already know that everything we are about to tell you can never leave this room. The only reason you are even being told this is because it involves you," Mr. Boyd tells me.

         "What involves me, sir?" I ask him as I look at the folder on the table.

           He opens it and reveals two pictures to me. "This is why it involves you, Ms. Evans." The first picture showed Erin laying against a wall covered in blood. The second picture showed a message:

You got the wrong man. See you soon Cassandra. -M

            "We told the public that he killed himself, but that wasn't the truth. He was murdered and whoever did it is still at large. We're sure it's the same person because the handwriting on the wall and card match this one," He tells me.

          "They have made it clear that they are coming for you, so we have already taken the measures needed to get you somewhere safe." Mr. Summers tells me.

             "So you guys didn't catch the killer, and he's been after me this whole time?" I ask them as I stare at the picture with the message.

             "We're afraid so Ms. Evans," He tells me with a grim expression.