Chapter 2

“Geez!” Mia whispered to her friends as they left the room hours later. “They wanna know much or what?”
“No-one told, right?” Lucy asked when they were out of earshot of the two detectives. The eight girls each looked at each other, shaking their heads. “Good, I don’t think we should just yet, you know?”
“Not really-”
Ahead of the group loomed the hall once again. The students had all been sent home by now, school was cancelled, and when the girls were certain it was clear of teachers and cleaners, they walked up onto the stage and sat together in the corner.
For a few moments there was silence, which was only broken by breathing, and the air in the hall moving around slowly. The girls thought of what to talk about, without bringing up the day’s incidents. They soon found that it was impossible, and Jo voiced what they were each thinking.
“That mark… on her wrist, it was kind of, sick, hey?” She laughed uneasily.
No one else spoke; they were all too busy, deep in thought, remembering the last thing they had seen, just before leaving the cops’ presence:
The cold, empty sick bay, or at least, almost empty, for on the sterile white bed was the small, pale figure of Felicia, covered by a slim sheet, but still obviously her. They had been slowly moved to the bed, and Damien had lifted the sheet, just so that the girls could see Felicia’s wrist. In black ink, which contrasted greatly with the girl’s pale skin was a heartbeat that slowed and stopped, and underneath the words: “You know too much, DIE NOW.”

* * *

“I’m not sure we should have shown those girls her wrist, Dam,” Carla said slowly, as the car pulled back into the police station.
“We needed to see if they knew anything about it,” he protested.
“We could have shown them a photo!” Carla rebutted angrily. “And wasn’t it you who only this morning complained that the doctors hadn’t moved the body out of the way earlier?”
“This is different,” he replied, but couldn’t seem to point out why. The two entered the building, and moved to their floor. “Did any of the girls you talked to seem to think anyone would have a reason to kill her?”
“No, they all seemed really shocked at the question, too,” Carla said.
“Well,” Damien said solemnly. “They are kids; they shouldn’t have to go through this sort of thing at this age.”
“But they are, and we have to find out why,” Carla nodded. “Did any of the girls you interviewed seem at all… nervous, or, I don’t know, unsure of what they were saying?”
“…hmm, I remember one that did,” Damien said, and held out a folder he was carrying. “All their stories and anything about them that I noticed is written here.”
* * *
“We really have to do something, you know,” Mia said, the silence between the group being once again broken.
Each of the others looked about to respond, then hesitated, and remained silent. Lucy got up and paced around the stage. It was Valerie who finally answered:
“I think we should tell them, and I’ve thought that all along.”
“We CAN’T” said a few forceful voices in unison.
“Why NOT?” Argued Valerie, this time supported by Rebecca.
“Because we don’t have any evidence,” Mia said softly, staring at the ground. “Who was with her last night? Did anyone of us know before this morning that she… she fell?”
“No, we thought she went home early,” Yasmine said, shaking, “We didn’t think she might have stayed.”
“Did you find anything last night?” Mia asked hopefully.
“None of us would be in this mess if we’d found something!” Lucy cried.
“It was just a question,” Aleisha said. “So what did we decide to do?”
“We didn’t,” Celia replied. “But I think we should come back again tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow night?!” Jo exclaimed. “All of us?”
“All of us,” Was the answer.

* * *
“Here it is,” Damien said, pulling out a piece of paper. “Let’s see, when I asked if any of the students at the school didn’t like her, Rebecca seemed a little, for want of a better word, hesitant to answer.”
“Did all their stories check out though?”
“Well, yes,” Damien replied. “The stories were all basically the same, but there were slight differences, times and stuff, nothing too big. But I get the feeling that they aren’t telling us something.”
“Yeh, they did seem to be a bit too defensive,” Carla agreed. “But what could they possibly not want to tell us? Anyway, we should keep an eye on them, just in case.”
“That brings us to the next question, can the school re-open tomorrow?” Damien asked. “We have the rest of the day to check out the area, and the principal said we can rope off around where the girl fell, and continue throughout the week.”
“Okay, as long as he can promise no-one will interfere.”
* * *
Mia yawned; science was not her most favourite subject. Next to her, Marilyn Bower, one of her class friends, also sighed, drawing a random pattern on a piece of paper. The bell rang, and she murmured “finally”, under her breath.
The two picked up their bags and walked slowly out of the room, turning left and heading towards the sporting fields. Felicia had been in their class until ‘the accident’ the day before, and they both sorely missed her.
Arriving at the change rooms, the two got into their sport uniforms, and walked back to the soccer fields. Their teacher, Mr. Kale put the class into teams, separating the two, and the game started. Mia stood alone, rarely going for the ball, the boys never pass to the girls anyway, and she guessed Marilyn was doing the same. Both girls knew that had Felicia been there, she would have been trying hard to play, and that would have given them reason to try, but as it was, they saw no point.
Mia suddenly felt a burst of energy, and ran for the ball, kicking it hard, and seconds later, she regretted her decision. A shout from just in front of her told her the ball had made contact with someone. She saw someone lying on the ground, and realised it was Marilyn.
“Oh god.”