After the fail of getting any further than we were, we just abandoned the idea. It didn't really matter in the end, because officers were watching the family anyway. Sadly, no one was watching the most important piece to the puzzle.
"Are you sure?" I heard Mom say on the phone one afternoon as I lay doing homework, "Okay."
I could hear the concern her voice was drenched in as the conversation ended, and the slow steps she took walking to the bathroom. "What is it?" I asked just as she passed my door.
She came back, and stood in my doorway, "Anastasia is dead. They just found her body in a ditch under the highway."
"Are you serious?" I said.
"Yes. They're gonna put us on watch as well. Levi has been watched by the police, and there isn't a possibility that he could have done it. But, they're afraid the actual killer may come after us."
"So we can't leave the house?"
"No, we can, they're just gonna increase the amount of officers around the places they know we go."
"How will they know who's the killer though when they see people with us?"
"They won't."
And the conversation fell flat. She continued, and walked to the bathroom. I stood up, and looked out the window. No cruisers were there, but I knew that would soon be, I would live in the twisted reality show of murder, and how to escape it. I could see the blue tint of the air, and grey clouds which hung low to the dry ground. It looked like it was gonna snow how cold the temperature appeared to be. Just as I was about to walk away, a figure appeared to sink under the window's vision, and knocking on the door. My dad went to get it.
"Alexis," he called to me.
I walked down the stairs, to see the figure now in the house standing with Dad talking.
"Levi?" I said.
"Hey Lexi," he said.
"Oh, so this is him?" Dad said.
He held out his hand, with an emotionless face, trying to look as tough as possible with pajama pants on. Levi did as expected, firmly gripping his hand in response, and shaking it. The frosty wind blew into the house; I could see Dad shiver, his bare feet and open arms because of the T-shirt he wore catching most of the frigid chilling.
"Come in," he said to Levi, speaking excessively demanding.
Once again he obeyed, as I looked at my father with sarcastic eyes and an annoyed state of being.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Did you hear about Anastasia?" He asked, "She died."
"We already know," Dad interrupted before I got a chance to to talk.
He was shut silent; the silence thick and uncomforting, with awkward duration. Mom came into the living room and at least broke the silence, but let the feeling remain, "Oh, hello, Levi. What brings you here?"
"He-" Dad began.
"He came over so we could talk to you two about something," I butted in.
Levi looked over to me, his eyebrows confused about the meaning. My eyes told him to relax, but their glare was intercepted by Mom and Dad, whose eyes also caught my attention.
"I didn't go to Claire's house last night," I started, "I snuck out with Levi."
His eyes widened, fearful of what Dad's eyes said that he would do to him when they glared into his.
"And we talked to Anastasia before she died," I continued, "and I'm pretty sure she knew who the killer was. That's why she died."
"You did what?" Mom said.
"I found Alice's diary, and she talked about a boy that she was going to meet on the night that she died. Her ex-boyfriend was Levi's brother, but he was at home all night and under surveillance, so he didn't do it."
"Why didn't you tell anyone? You could've been the one that got killed!" Dad yelled.
"Because they weren't going to do anything, and if they did they would be forever. Come on, here's the diary."
I walked up the stairs, and motioned for them to follow me along. I pushed open her door, and stepped into the room. I fell to my knees, clenching my mouth while tears poured from my eyes, "O-o-oh my gosh."
My gasped, as Dad pulled us both back, "Go! Call the police!"
We stumbled over each other, and Levi grabbed hold of me and picked me up, as Dad vice versa did so to Mom. I pulled out my cellphone, and dialed 911.
"Erin Michigan Police Department, what is your emergency?"
"There's blood everywhere!"
Painted all over the walls of Alice's room, was the blood of Anastasia Romanov. The diary had been stolen, and everything in her room destroyed. No note, no signs, no symbols, no explanation, no evidence, no killer, no anything. Once again, they struck without trace for their path. We all sat in the police station, questioned about who it might have been, and who had access to our house. Of course Levi would be a center for attention, but he too was dismissed amongst us as ignorant to the crime. Because the scene was in our house, we were forced to live with another family for the time being, to ensure our safety. Our closest of relatives lived in Ohio and Indiana. I would have suggested Claire or Serena, but I didn't like them enough at the moment to consider they existed. We never took these things into consideration whenever we bought a new house or moved from one place to another, which would have been a great idea, so we were clueless as to where we would be welcomed.
"You all could stay at my house," Levi said to my parents, "my mom and dad wouldn't mind, we have an empty room anyway."
"That would be nice," Mom said, "but we know nothing about them, and nor do they, us."
"Well you all could meet," he said.
But his suggestions continued to go unnoticed, and unconsidered. We decided that our best bet would be to rent out a hotel room for the winter months, that would be paid for by the department. Originally, we saved money for our vacation; this would have to be its substitute. The only benefit was that my school was too far for me to walk to, and in the way of my parents' workplace. It was a freezing night when we first checked in. Levi went home after the police station visit, and we immediately went to our hotel. We didn't get released from the interrogation until nightfall.
At school the next day, everyone looked at me with wide, condescending eyes. Like I was sick, or a wounded dog that would be soon out down, and avoided me.
"I would hate to be her."
"I wonder if she'll die tomorrow."
"Can you believe it?"
My eyes remained fixated on the floors beneath my feet.
"You would think you had the plague," Dewy laughed at the table.
"Come on," Lily said straight-faced,"that's not funny."
"It's fine," I said.
"No it's not," Levi disagreed, "Dewy stop."
"Alright then," Dewy sarcastically chuckled, "buzz kills."
"You have no bit of seriousness in you," Sydney snarled.
"What? I was just trying to lighten the mood."
"Well don't," Damian said.
"Alright," he softly growled, getting up and leaving.
"What's wrong with him?" I asked.
"I don't know," Jasmine said, "I think him and whoever that girl he's screwing are having issues."
"I'm sorry about that," Levi said.
"Why? Everyone is just treating me like a victim, and I'm not!" I said.
The all went silent, and I got up in haste, and raced to the bathroom. In the mirror, I washed my face, and store into my blue eyes, watching as they leaked tears onto my cheeks, wetting my irises on the path. Why was this happening to me? Of all people on the planet, how could my life fly downward in ways I could never imagine? What was the cause of it? Why did it change so suddenly? There was a knock on the door, even though the bathroom was open.
"I'm coming out," I said.
I sucked up all that I could of the pain that wore on my face, and wiped the rest away with a wet paper towel. My eyes still appeared red, and my face had yet to cool down, so it was identifiable that I was crying, but not as easy to spot as it was beforehand. He stood outside the door, and I latched on to him, his hand comforting my head in his chest, rubbing my hair down in soft strokes. He leaned down, and kissed my forehead. It was all I needed.
To be told it was okay.
With or without words.
I looked up to him, and kissed his lips, and he hugged me around my back, and continued to hold me after our lips retracted.
It was okay.
* * * *
At home, what the hotel would have to be called for the time being, I laid in my room thinking about everything. How my sister died, my friends left me, my parents hated the boy I loved. It was impossible for life to have gotten any rougher. It was just a difficult battle of live, die, or go crazy trying to do either. The first snow fell that evening. Our thanksgiving was cancelled, so it was just as the holiday was skipped all together for Christmas. We had three days off of school, which meant even more sitting in depression, fear, and impatience. We all knew it was there. We were waiting waiting forever next punch to happen, the punch that would pull us down andvout of the game. We were waiting to die I thought.
They had proved they were untraceable, and had proven that our security meant nothing to their determination, so where were they? When were they to take us out?
I got enough motivation to stand, and exited the room into the hall. It was a golden hotel, pricey in nature with red velvet carpets. We wouldn't have been able to pay for it ourselves, so that was one thing to be grateful for. The rest destroyed the appreciation we muscled. I walked down the stairs to the main lobby, standing in the grand room, themed the same as the hall, with red furniture and the rest of the decor and painted walls golden with embroidered seems on the corners and the three-dimensional areas.
"May I help you?" The concierge asked.
"No thank you," I said
While it was a big hotel, it wasn't huge. It took about ten steps to walk from the back, where the elevators and stairs were, to the front doors.
This was my home.
If only temporarily.