I turned off the smoke machine. Instead of usual ingredients, they had some drug put in there, that had knocked them all out. They were all lying on the floor unconscious – four boys and one girl. I checked their pulses, which were really weak, but it seemed we got there just in time.
Twenty minutes later we were nervously sitting in the ER waiting room, hoping to hear some news. At least I was nervous... Seth was his usual calm self, which was totally creeping me out, because I had no idea, what he was actually feeling. He just loved doing his poker face.
"I told you, they can't handle themselves," said Seth like what happened was my fault. How could he be so blind?
"It didn't have anything to do with that," I explained. During our way to the hospital I had time to think about what happened. It was actually pretty obvious.
"What do you mean?"
"It was done on purpose."
"You mean they wanted to knock themselves out?" He asked with disbelief.
"Not them, Kendra. She is the one with drugs. She knows how much kills." I didn't understand, how he couldn't figure it out himself. He had been with them this whole time.
"Why would she..." Seth was interrupted by a doctor.
"You were the ones, who called the ambulance, right?" asked the doctor.
"Yes," answered Seth.
"And how do you know these people?"
"We're their upstairs neighbors. We saw smoke coming from the apartment," he lied.
"I see... Well you should know, that they are all waking up. You got to them just in time. Were you close with them?"
"Not really," said Seth.
I bet the doctor read something else out of my eyes, because he said: "The girl's body was full of markings indicating repetitive sexual assault, you wouldn't know anything about it, would you?" He was looking at me. I couldn't pretend not being worried about them, especially about Kendra. I actually didn't really care much about the boys, but I didn't want them to die either.
"No," answered Seth, before I could say anything.
"We are having the men checked. If it turns out they are responsible for it, they could go to prison for some time. The police will also be here shortly to take your statement." So they even got the police involved.
We nodded and sat down as the doctor left.
"Can you figure out now, why she would do something like that?" I asked Seth furiously.
"Why do it now?"
"Maybe she finally had enough. Or she just needed you out of the house, so you wouldn't be there to stop her. The others are clearly dumb enough to not realize, when they are being killed. Probably the same thing happened to Jake and Ryan."
"You think Kendra killed them?"
"I'm pretty sure she did. She didn't have me to back her up and you were just ignoring everything like usual, so she had to stand for herself."
"I wasn't ignoring everything."
"Did you know, what they were doing?"
"Yes, but I told them not to, even beat them up once. I couldn't get into a fight with all of them all the time, that wouldn't have solved anything, they would have just turned against me. Besides if I had just constantly fallowed around Kendra to protect her, then I wouldn't have done anything else and the guys would have found some other way to cause trouble. She provoked them too. You know, what she's like. She hasn't been in her right mind pretty much never." I seriously wanted to kill him right now, but the police came in from the door with the doctor, who had spoken to us before.
The doctor pointed at us. One of the policemen came to me and asked me to walk a bit away with him, probably to make sure, that we didn't lie to them.
"Could you please tell me your name?"
"No." I didn't want my parole officer to find out about this. I was going to be in so much trouble, if he did.
"Why not?"
"Because I don't have to."
"Alright... Could you please describe what happened?" he asked.
"We went in the building. We saw smoke coming from the apartment. The door was opened, so we went in. I opened the windows to let the smoke out. Seth called the ambulance. We found the smoke machine and I turned it off. Then I checked their pulses to make sure they were still alive, which they were. Then we stayed there until the ambulance came and then we were told to come here, which we did. That's it." I hated explaining things, but I tried to do my best to avoid any further trouble. I already had that chemistry lab thing hanging over my head.
"And why were you in the building in the first place?"
"I came to visit Seth."
"And who is he to you?"
"An old friend," I said with disgust.
"And where does Seth live?" His tone indicated, that he knew I was about to lie.
"What do you mean?"
"We went to the building and talked to all the neighbors. They were all there, which means Seth doesn't either live there or he lived in the apartment, where the victims were found. I would appreciate, if you would tell me the truth. There is nothing to be afraid of." The police usually don't involve themselves in things, that happen in "that" neighborhood, why would they start now? It wasn't the first time something like this had happened.
"I'm not afraid, I just don't understand, why you are investigating this. It was just some young people getting an overdose. Happens all the time."
"And how do you know they overdosed? You yourself don't look like a person, who is into drugs. That is why we are investigating this, because there seems to be more to this story and you two seem to know the most about it." I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't need them to dig up my past. I was getting kind of jumpy from all the hate I had towards Seth, what happened and those questions, but I tried to calm myself down.
I thought this over for a few moments and then decided to tell the truth. That cop seemed nice enough. "Fine... I've never done drugs, but I used to know them, okay... It was a long time ago... I went with Seth to find out how they were doing after all this time... Clearly not so well."
"So why now?"
"I happened to have some free time." I was getting sarcastic.
"What about the girl?"
"Is there even a question. Those guys were like this, when I left and they haven't changed." I had to remind myself to stay calm, to stop myself from raising my voice.
"And Seth?"
"What about him?"
"Is he one of those guys?"
"No, he is just a jerk." I didn't care, if my story made him a suspect or not, I was so angry at him. Also I wasn't actually sure, if he was one of those guys or not. It definitely wasn't like him to be like that, but it had been almost five years now, so who knows.
"I see, well if there is anything else you remember, then let me know." He gave me his number.
I walked to Seth with the policeman, when we all heard a terrible screaming and racket coming from the emergency room. After a few moments, it past and everything quieted down, really down. I had never been in an ER this quiet.
Shortly afterwards a doctor came out and walked straight to us. His cloves had blood on them and his face was filled with horror. I thought doctors were supposed to be good at making a good face in a bad situation.
"What happened?" asked the policeman I had just been talking to.
The doctor wanted to speak to the policemen privately, but I protested, so he told me and Seth too.
"The girl woke up and once she realized, where she was, she got up, grabbed scissors from the table and stabbed herself in the neck. She was so fast, that nobody managed to stop her. I'm afraid she is dead."
"What?!" I asked in shock. "Why do you keep scissors in a place, where she could get them?!" I was totally freaking out. I wasn't even friends with Kendra, we pretty much hated each other most of the time, but now hearing, that she was dead... I felt like my best friend had just died. I couldn't breathe.
"I need fresh air," I said and stormed outside. It was already getting dark and the air was quite chilly. The street light above me was flickering, which kind of made the situation much more horrifying.
I couldn't believe, that she would do something like that. Those boys must have driven her so mad, that she thought the only way out would be death. I wish she would have just come to me. Why did she let them do that to her?
I slid down the hospital wall and cried. I don't think I had ever been so sad before. Usually when something bad happened, I just got angry or shoved it off, forgot about it and moved on. This hanging out with a superhero and being good had made me soft.
"Since when did you start caring about Kendra?" asked Seth leaning himself against the wall next to where I was sitting.
"This is all your fault!" I told him getting up from the ground.
"Quiet down, the police are still here."
"Like I care! I hate you and I never want to see you again."
"Cassy, come on. What about your money?" I think he was trying to make me feel better. It certainly wasn't working. How could he be so calm, like nothing happened?
"I don't care about that. I don't care about you. Just stay away from me! All you do is ruin my life." I quickly walked away from him, hoping that he wouldn't fallow me.
I had to walk to stop myself from going back to full panic mode. It was close to midnight, when I got back into my room. Even though I didn't actually see Kendra killing herself, I still could imagine it in my head – I was certainly going to get nightmares.
"What happened?" asked Aurora. "I was really worried." I couldn't stop myself from crying again. Aurora put her hands around me and hugged me tightly until I calmed down. Then she asked me again about what happened.
"An old friend of mine committed suicide today," I explained while wiping off my tears.
"What? Why? That's horrible."
"I got out from my old life, but she didn't. She thought the only way out would be to die. So now she is free and I feel like I'm stuck." I just stopped trying to stop crying.
"You are not stuck. You are doing so much better. And you have me and Alice and Patrick always there for you. Don't ever forget that."
"I'll try." She sure knew how to make me feel better. Although I really doubted that Alice would be there for me.
"So what happened to Seth?"
"I left him for the sharks. I don't really care what happens to him anymore."
"I'm glad you finally came to your senses," she said with a smile.
"Me too." I smiled back.
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Sorry it took me so long this week.