I wake up some time later. It's dark and cold. I feel a shiver going down what I think is my spine.
Is this what death is? I would have thought it would be much more painful and horrifying. This is the complete opposite. It's quiet and painless. Where am I? Will I go to heaven? Probably not. Most people say it depends on how you have been from your time on earth. Others say it's your faith in God. I don't know if I believe any of that. All I know for sure is that I'm not cut out for heaven. The trip to hell would have been more painful, or at least, that's how I've always pictured it.
I try to test out my body, to see if it's still there. I move legs first. They won't go anywhere, but I can still feel them. I think they are roped together. I try my arms. They too don't go anywhere but I can still feel them. I know for a fact that my arms are bare because I can feel something rough on them. I don't know the texture very well but it is harsh and ucomfortable. My core is inmovable as well but, like the rest, I am able to feel it.
I feel around my body. Everything seems to be there. Then I open my eyes. Everything is still dark but now I can see. I am sitting on what I think is a chair. My legs are tied to it with a thick and prickily rope. From my stomache all the way up to my shoulders are all bundled down to the back of this chair as well. My arms are behind the back of the wooden chair. I can't turn my head around but I can feel. My wrists are still in a tight knot but this time, rope and not duct tape.
The room I am in has a very high roof and is very empty. There are racks on all of the walls but other than that, there is nothing else but me inside. The room is quite big as well. Bigger than the first floor of Richelle's house - and that's saying a lot. There aren't any lights in this room nor windows so I am in complete darkness. I know I'm not dead, I am quite alive.
A door opens from behind me. From the sound of it, it is big and heavy and metal. The room echos the footsteps as this person walks towards me. I get nervous.
I'm supposed to be with Eldon and confronting Amanda for murder. I don't know where Eldon is anymore and I'm alone in a room, completely vulnerable with someone who can potetially kill me. But what else do I have to lose?
"Well, well, well. Look who's awake." A fimiliar voice says from behind me.
"Who's there?" I say. I'm shocked I can still talk.
"Emily." The person says in a very soft and taunting voice. Where have I heard this voice before?
This person walks in front of me. I see her face and my jaw drops. It's Chloe.
"Chloe! What are you doing here? Amanda's going to come any second! Wait. Before you go, can you untie me? Who told you? Was it Eldon?" I ramble on. How did Chloe find out.
My friend seems unamused. She backs up a bit so I can see her full body. She's dressed in black with a slick ponytail. She seems completely fine, despite what she told me about being tired this morning.
"Why would I untie you if I spent half an hour chaining you to this chair in the first place?"
Chloe's rhetorical question takes me by shock.
"What?" This is making me nervous.
"I mean, Amanda isn't who you're trying to chase down, I am." Chloe says.
I take in a deep breath. Is Chloe telling the truth? Amanda is really innocent? Chloe has been killing everybody. She killed my sister. She knew everything she was doing to me and she didn't say anything. I feel like strangling her right now. I would if I weren't bounded to this stupid chair.
"You? You. You!" Each time I saw the word, it becomes more confident and fierce.
"I was me." Chloe says in her ever-so taunting voice as if it were a praise.
"But, wait? What? Why!" I scream through my gritted teeth.
"Oh, I'll explain." Chloe says.
"You better start talking." I mutter then my - not-so - friend starts to pace left and right.
Chloe starts to talk.
"Emily. You consider me as your best friend right?" She asks.
"Not anymore." I mutter.
"I'll take that as a yes." Chloe starts again, "Well, you think you're such a good friend, well, how much do you really know about me, huh? Do you know what my grade point average is? Or what my parents' jobs are? What are my after school jobs and can you name all of my ex-boyfriends?" I shake my head, "I didn't think so.
"My life isn't a dream world, Em. If you think your life is bad, take a look at mine. You know my car? It may be old and drives about as fast as a tractor, but it's mine. I pay for it. Every drop of gasoline and every dent that needs to be fixed, comes from my bank account. I work three after school jobs to help pay for the electricity bill at home and one of them is at a blood bank - that's where the blood in your little friend Richelle's school came from, if you were wondering. And you think my parents don't care. They do, but they can love me more. To them, I'm just another mouth to feed and a person to say 'I love you' to at night. It's rough Emily.
"And to add on to that, I've done some pretty bad things that people know about. For instance, Eldon."
"Eldon?" I stop her sob story, "What did you do to Eldon?" I growl at her.
"Oh stop your worrying. He's completely fine. Eldon, can you come here for a moment." Chloe calls in her musical and flawless voice.
"Sure." I hear someone say from behind me. Then a door opens and closes with a big clang and I see someone who I would never have wanted to see here: Eldon.
He walks in then grabs Chloe's waist. My best friend stands up a little taller to meet Eldon's lips. They kiss is a very gross and show-offy way. I cringe. Did our kiss mean nothing to him?
"Hey Emily." Eldon copies Chloe's taunting voice.
"How can you do this to me?" I cry out in pain.
"I'll let Chloe explain," He flashes me a smile, and not his charming and mysterious smile. This is a teasing smile.
"I love you." Chloe says to Eldon then he kisses her again with more passion and strength. It's much more than when he kissed me.
Once their make out session is over, Eldon walks out of the room and it's just Chloe and I again.
"What did you do to Eldon?" I growl.
"Oh Emily, don't be ire. I didn't do anything to him. Just listen this time." She instructs and I raise one eyebrow, telling her to continue, "Going back on the money issue. My parents had me working for people at a young age. I had to take any job that offered money. No matter how low they pay or how bad they job, if my parents saw an ad, it would be mine.
"In the ninth grade I was sent to a mental hospital a few hours out of town. It was creepy and scary. I had to ride a bus to get there because my parents couldn't afford the gas. I had to work there. I would get files, talk with patients, give them food, helped in art class, anything. And they pay wasn't the best either. But I met this guy there and he caught my eye."
"Eldon." I know what the answer is going to be but I just can't bear to hear it.
"Yes. It was Eldon. He was there since the age of ten and there wasn't any hope of him getting out. I saw what they were doing to him. It wasn't a facility where they were helping him, they were killing him with every pill they gave him and every therapist session he attended. It was horrible. I couldn't just stand there and watch them slowly kill him so one day, I broke him out.
"It wasn't in this town so no one felt the need to check here, and because this town is so small, no one decided to put up posters. Of course there was the news but just a few dabs of concealer and hairspray and you can never tell the difference. Granted, I did have to do some illegal stuff to get him ID and stuff but I think it turned out pretty well.
"That's where Riley comes in. She knew. She knew everything about me. Every boy I've kissed and every secret I had. Every lie I told, everything. But then, there was my criminal offense I commited by breaking Eldon out of jail. That's when she thought I was worth her time. She dug into my past then followed my every move, capturing everything into that little journal of her's. I became her favourite toy and she would manipulate me because she had the power to. That's when everything started to get even worse. She took away the one and only thing that was perfect, and mine."
"Eldon?" She lost me.
"No. Daniel."
My eyes widen, then I make the connection.
"Daniel cheated on you?"
"Yeah. For Riley. She got everything she wanted and yet, she still couldn't leave me alone. She would threaten me with my mistakes and make me do something that I wouldn't want to do just for her own amusment."
"She was in control of me Emily! And everyone thought I was the bad guy. I had jobs to mantain and a future to look out for. I'm not much to my parents and if I were to go to jail, then I will be even less. If I didn't do what she asked, then all of my secrets would have been leaked.
"Everything was gone. The only thing I had left was Eldon and yet, she threatened to take him away from me.
"That's when this plan came together. Trust me Emily, this isn't something I'm proud of.
"Do you have any questions?" Chloe smirks then lets me talk.
"You framed Amanda for all of this?" I have a lot of questions I need answered. After Chloe popped up instead of my suspect, my theories have all been proven wrong.
"I knew she would want to help solve this and I knew you wouldn't trust her. I thought I would take advantage of that."
"How come you killed people?"
"Tell me, would you have done this with such energy if people's lives weren't at stake?"
"No." I mumble.
"Yeah." Chloe mouthes with a smile.
"So you just stood there and watched all of this?" I ask.
"Emily. Did you hear your name at all in that story I just told you? I'm trying to get Riley. You just happen to be a bonus."
"And did you tell Eldon to hit me with the car?"
"Would you have felt the same way if I were to hit you?"
"Amanda was right. She was innocent." I mutter.
"Yes. If you just followed her lead, you might not be here right now."
"How does Daniel know so much?"
"He was my boyfriend and he is Riley's boyfriend. He dated both sides of this war and I guess he put two and two together."
"And did you try to burn my hand?"
Chloe smirks and I take it as a yes.
"What about Richelle?"
"I've never intended for her to go this far but I underestimated her. She's smarter than the average middle schooler."
"How do you know her?"
"I had a part-time job at her dance studio. I watched her, as well as Michelle and the rest of her friends. Richelle had more...let's say, potential. She was headed in great places, I didn't want to be the one to turn that off but she ruined it the second her friends started to die."
"And Amanda?"
"Oh, she knows about as much as you know. She's better at hacking computers though. And for who she was talking to, you can deal more than just drugs. I don't know what your sketchy "friend" was doing but I can tell you that she wouldn't have known so much without help. Who she was talking to is a question you need to ask her."
"What about the journals?"
"Oh those things. You were right to assume Amanda had them, but for the wrong reasons. She stole them from you to keep you safe, I took them from her."
"Were you the one that took Riley out of that janitors' closet? And the microphone?"
"I took her out but it was Daniel's idea to stick a mic on her. I geuss he thought people would know his "beloved,"" Chloe winces when she says beloved, "girlfriend was in danger is they could hear everything."
This is a lot of information to process in just one talk.
"How come you chose those exact people to die? What did they do to you?"
Chloe sighs dramatically then starts,
"I could have destroyed people you cared about more but would that have motivated you? It would have only made you angry. Those dancers were completely innocent from what I know. My choices were very well thought out and everything has a reason."
"What about Richelle? Couldn't you have at least did something to her other than leave her a crazy mess?" No matter what Richelle has done to me, I will still think of her as a best friend, a sister.
"I told you, I never intended her to go this far. I saw potiential in her. She could have become something amazing, I didn't want destroy that."
"Were you the one in Michelle's car that night when I got out of the police station."
Chloe nods again.
"Did you put me in that hotel room?"
"Oh hell no. That was Eldon."
"Were you two the ones talking in the halls?"
"Emily, I don't know what you're talking about. If you didn't realize, I wasn't there with you. Sure, I was up on the cliff but Eldon took you somewhere."
"Was everything he told me a lie?" I saya s tears start to well up in my eyes.
"Not everything. Most of his stories were actually true. I think-" Chloe stops then wipes her eyes. She never finishes.
"Were all of your stories a lie?"
Chloe nods.
"Except for one," She adds in quickly, "Yesterday. I promise you, all of what I said about leaving this town, is true. It's so true. I do want to go somewhere new and just start over."
"I'm not in the mood for your personal life Chloe." I say.
"Fine. Then what are you interested in?" He voice is hard and flat.
"Riley. How could you kill her and pretend to be so upset? How could you just watch me?"
"I didn't kill her." I can't read Chloe's stone hard expression.
"What do you mean? I saw her. She's dead." I can't believe I just said that.
"I didn't, she," Chloe points to a glass window in front of me with curtain over it that blends in with the wall, "is right there."
On cue, the curtain falls and behind the wall is Riley and Eldon. My sister. They are inside but the wall that is seperating us is made out of a glass-like material. She is still alive. But she is tied to some sort of contraption that holds her up by only her wrists. Eldon is by her side. I want to murder him.
Then I remember something Richelle told me. Noah died by being hung by his wrist. I try to lunge forward but I don't move anywhere because I am still sitting in a chair with ropes tying me down to it.
That makes me think. If Riley's still alive, who did I see on the road?
"Wait! Who was...that person...Riley!" I stumble to find the right words to say.
Chloe waits patiently for me to stop babbling then she says:
"Have you see Richelle lately?"