It Started With a Murder

Chapter Fifteen

Cathie:

I can't do it. I just can't do it.

It sounds silly and pathetic, after all I came home with him out of my own free will but I just can't. I could never sleep with Percy or do anything with him for that matter. Yet that's what he thinks we'll do as soon as I get out of this bathroom I've escaped to.

Maybe if I just explain how I feel to him, he'd be okay with it. But then maybe not. Percy scares me; I really don't want to get him angry. Maybe I could just sneak away or would that just make him even angrier. I really have no idea.

"Cathie," his voice calls out, accompanied by a knock on the bathroom door. "You alright? You've been in there awhile."

So much for sneaking away.

Slowly, I walk to the door and open it, peering out to look at Percy leaning against the frame. "Hey," I say, forcing a small smile. "Sorry, I was just... look, Percy, I can't do this."

For a moment Percy says nothing, his expression gives nothing away. Then he laughs. I stand still and silent, unsure of what his reaction means. Does he not believe me? Or is he just laughing because he thinks I'm really pathetic? As much as the latter option is embarrassing, I would choose it over the first.

"You really are... hm, you make me laugh." He pauses, leaning a hand on the bathroom door, the only thing that separates the two of us. "Do you think having sex with me would make you a bad person, is that why you're not going to?"

"Uhm, partly," I reply, edging further back into the bathroom.

"See, that's what's so interesting about you," he whispers, his eyes shining with a dangerous light. "You're morals, they're so stupid." Pausing he looks away from me, momentarily freeing my eyes from his frightening gaze. "Tell me, what do your morals say about murder? What do they say about murdering a friend?"

My breath catches in my throat and I fly backwards into the sink as I try to get away from this crazy boy. He's the murderer. He murdered Annabelle and now he's going to terrify me and then murder me.

"It's you," I cry, my voice weak. I stab a finger at him. "You killed her."

Percy smirks, his eyes once again trapping me. "No. It's you."

His words rocket through me, sending the room spinning. A pain erupts from the side of my head and my body drops to the floor, my eyes shutting out the light.

I wake in an unfamiliar place. My face is pressed into something damp, pushing myself onto my elbows, I look down to see leaves everywhere. I'm covered in them. Brushing the dampest ones from me I stand up and look around, confused.

"Hello, Cathie," a voice hisses. Spinning around I see Percy stepping out from behind one of the trees; my heart rate heightens when I see a gun clutched into his right hand. "Remembered yet?"

I'm frozen as he walks towards me, brushing his fingers casually along the gun as he moves. He looks relaxed; he's enjoying this.

"Do you seriously think I believe you?" I cry. "I would never hurt Annabelle, she was one of my closest friends."

"How about I tell you a story? Would you like that? Once upon a time, four teenagers got a bit drunk and decided to go and mess up there school a little bit. Now, like in every group you had the leader, let's name her Pearl. You had the girl who had had way too much to drink, let's call her Annabelle. You had the guy who just wanted to have some fun, he can be Percy. And then we had the girl who was only there because her friends had forced her, she's Cathie."

"I don't want to hear a story," I whisper, my head throbbing. "I want to go home."

"All in good time," Percy murmurs. "Let me finish my story. The four went to their school, intending just to have some fun. Cathie didn't really want to go but Pearl and Annabelle managed to bully her into it.

"So they were all at school. First they went to the English classrooms and chucked a load of assignments about. Then the maths. After the first few classrooms, Cathie began to get into it and was enjoying herself. They went to the drama studio after that and tried on loads of different costumes. Pearl wore a cape; Percy a summer hat and a fake moustache; Annabelle a pig mask and for a laugh Cathie wore a pair of leather boots and gloves."

A shudder runs through me. Wisps of memories begin to float through my brain. We were in the science labs, stealing a load of chemicals, stuffing them into a plastic bag we found on the floor. And then there was a man chasing us, too far away to properly see us or lecture us, just close enough to scare us away.

We ran from the school, laughing at our escape, thinking we were indestructible. I felt immortal. Stumbling into the woods, Percy whispered in my ear. He handed a bottle of beer and told me to hide. We were playing a trick on Annabelle. Just a trick.

"You remember," Percy states. "It's strange isn't it? You know, that you couldn't remember before. Some part of your brain is so freaking scarred by what you've done that it's tried to hide it from you because if you can't remember then really it isn't your fault. But it is."

"It was your idea," I breath.

"I handed you a bottle of beer!" he bellows, tears running down his cheeks. "You were supposed to spray her with beer. It was supposed to be a laugh, a joke."

My knees give way and I fall to the ground, the most twisted memory of all slicing through my mind. I was hiding behind the trees, following a little way behind Annabelle as she called for us. She stopped, lifting the pig mask from her face, letting it rest on her head.

That was when I did it. I let the beer bottle drop through my fingers onto the leaves below and grabbed a bottle out of the plastic bag. A chemical bottle. I don't know why I did it. Maybe I though it would be funny or maybe I just wasn't thinking.

Whatever the reason, I slipped through the trees and threw the liquid over Annabelle. A smile lit her face when she saw me.

I chucked the liquid.

The smile froze on her face. Her pig mask on top of her head began to melt down, trickling over eyes and cheeks, burning into her skin. She screamed in terror and pain, her hands reaching up desperately trying to rip the mask away from her. But she couldn't.

I should have helped her but all I could do was watch.

That's all I can remember before waking up the next morning and hearing that my friend had been murdered and having so much hatred for the person who had killed her.

It was me.

A/N: Just want to say a massive thank you for all the support so far with this story. Pretty big revelation in this chapter, I hope you like it. The next chapter is going to be the last one (though I may add an epilogue) so I hope you're all looking forward to it. It's about half written so it should be up within the next week!