THE THIRTEENTH DAY - BOOK 1

River of tears

"Phoebe, why didn't you let me go after her?" Danny questioned.

"Cause that's not our Cass. I get that she wants to be a detective and all but she shouldn't do it at the expense of our lives," Phoebe said talking really fast which was something she only did when she was furious. She could not wrap her head around the fact that her best friend seemingly cared more about a case than she did her friends safety. With Phoebe's mother not being in her life and with her father hardly in her life, she had always looked to Cassie for stability, her only constant. Cassie's recent action made her question if she really had anyone she could count on forever.  

"You're right, the second we told her we were threatened she should have said she'll drop the case," Danny said, his tone laced with more concern for Cassie, than anger. 

"Yeah she's crazy," Tucker added.

"Watch what you say about my girl, bro," Tyler warned in a firm tone. "This is her lifelong dream, she's just conflicted. Cut her some slack."

"How? from our graves?" Phoebe blurted. "Someone freaking threatened to kill us," she said picking up her phone from the couch. "And you're asking me to cut her some slack?" her eyebrows were furrowed and she rolled her neck as she spoke.

"Woah Phoebes calm down," Tyler said putting his hand if front of him as a shield to protect himself from the enraged Phoebe.

While the whole ruckus was occurring in the living room, Matt was too consumed in his video game to notice or care about anything that was happening around him.

"You know the weird thing?" Danny asked, "Cassie had always said she wanted to be a detective from the first day we met, but it wasn't until a few years ago that her dream turned into this burning obsession."

"She changed in the seventh grade after she got back from a camp. She was weird for a while but she assured me she was okay whenever I'd worry about her," Phoebe said.

"That's odd," Tyler said, "Cassie hates camping"

"Actually, she used to love camping." Danny pitched in "but she started hating it after she got back from the camp she went to in seventh grade."

"Do you think something happened there that aroused her passion to become a detective?" Tucker asked.

"Aroused?" Danny asked questioning Tucker's choice of words "anyways you're right, something probably happened."

"Dude, aroused means other things too," Tucker defended.

"Not for you, it doesn't," Tyler laughed.

"If something happened I'll know about it," Phoebe said, "we promised to never keep anything from each other."

"Making a promise is the easy part, but keeping it, that's hard," Tyler said.

"You guys are reading too much into things," Matt spoke up, they all turned to him shocked that he was actually paying attention. "Cassie grew up and her passion grew with her, I doubt anything significant 'aroused' her interest," he said putting emphasis on the word aroused and they all laughed knowing he was mocking Tucker.

"I'm super scared of the killer and I don't want to die anytime soon, and since Cassie is being stubborn about dropping the case I'm going to keep my distance for a while," Phoebe said.

"You mean you're gonna abandon her?" Danny asked.

"If that's the only way to save my life then yes," she said adamantly, nodding her head.

"I love Cassie and all but Phoebe is right, let's give her her space and maybe she'll come back to her senses once she's had some time alone to think," Danny said.