Silence by Rebekah Shimer (summer books TXT) 📕

crazy when he found out Audrey and me were dating each other. I know Audrey didn’t really know what to think when I told her that Tom was found guilty. How will she react when she finds out that Emily was also killed? That was the only reason they had found out that Tom was innocent.

Apparently, while they were transporting him to the local jail, they had gotten a police call saying that someone had found Emily’s body near the spot where they had found Delilah's. They said that Delilah's cause of death was a serious blow to the head, but Emily was a different story. Emily had bruises all over her body and had multiple cuts in her arms, almost like fingernail cuts.

Emily’s death was definitely by someone who knew what they were doing. There was no trace of anything from Delilah in anyone else’s house except for Tom’s. Of course Tom’s house was the only one that they had searched, since he only lived on a street with families on every side of him.

They were still looking for traces of Emily’s DNA in the surrounding area, just to be sure that there wasn’t a trail leading to somewhere, but I really don’t think they’ll find anything. If this killer was able to murder Delilah without anyone else finding out about it, they certainly would’ve been able to do it again with Emily.

I know that Audrey hadn’t really gotten along with Emily, but I really don’t know what her reaction will be. She might feel regret, or maybe a bit of fear. I don’t really know sometimes with her. She was always a little unpredictable. I know I have to confront Bruce and comfort him tomorrow, if he was in school tomorrow.

I don’t think he will be, but he might surprise some people. He is stronger than people think. Sure, on the outside he is physically muscular, but he is also really strong on the inside. I know that I am going to have to talk about Logan sometime just to get him to talk to Bruce about what’s going on with him.

Only Logan would know Bruce’s pain right now. No one else would be able to comprehend Bruce’s pain at this time in his life. I don’t really know how I’m going to tell Audrey tomorrow, but part of me is hoping that someone else tells her before I see her tomorrow. I don’t know. I want to be there with her when she learns that Emily’s gone too.

I want to be able to comfort her like I’m supposed to. I want to be there for her like any person should. I really hope Logan comes back to being friends with Audrey. I hate to admit it, but she needs him. He was another person that makes her feel welcomed in our school. I don’t care if it takes Logan and me and really long time to become friends again.

I just really hope that he gets it together enough to be there for Audrey when she needs him. Us. I know I’ll be there for her. Will he?

Friends?

Logan

 

I didn’t expect Edwyn to come to me during lunch at school. We hadn’t really talked since I had made his nose bleed. Just the thought of that night made my hands clench into fists at my side. Edwyn walked up to me and nodded at me awkwardly.

He said slowly, “We need to talk.”

I shrugged and dumped my tray nonchalantly, “Why?”

He seemed really impatient as he said, “It’s about Audrey. Please.”

Something in his voice made me look at his face, which was twisted with pain and guilt.

I nodded my head and said slowly, “All right.”

We walked out into the front courtyard of the school and Edwyn stopped in front of me. He turned around sharply and ran his hand through his hair.

He said slowly, “Please make up with Audrey. She needs the comfort of knowing that she has friends right now. Please.”

He seemed really sincere about me making up with Audrey.

I asked him, “What’s in it for you?”

“Nothing. I just want her to feel safer than what she is right now. I don’t care if we never become friends again, just please. Do it for her.”

“For her? Not anyone else?”

He shook his head and I knew that it killed him to talk to me about Audrey. I sighed after a while and nodded. He let out a deep breath and I could tell that he was relieved that the conversation hadn’t ended in fighting.

I asked him as we walked back into school, “How is she?”

“She didn’t really react when I told her that Tom was taken in. Her reaction when I told her about Emily was the same. She just kind of stared at me for a few seconds before saying that she had to go somewhere. I think she’s really freaked out about this whole thing.”

I nodded and let it all sink in. Audrey needed me; well she needed friends, but still. That included me. We walked back into school and got a few weird stares from the other kids that had seen us walk out together. Almost everyone in the whole school knew about our little fight, so this must have seemed like a weird phenomenon to them. Edwyn and I walked back to where Audrey was sitting and by her look of surprise when we sat down together, she hadn’t really noticed that we had even left the lunchroom.

I sat down and said, “What’s up?”

She looked at Edwyn for a second before she realized that I was trying to make amends.

She said, “The usual.”

I smiled and she seemed to become happier, compared to before I had sat down. I knew that I had to make amends to Audrey sometime before it was too late. By the time the bell rang for the next class, we were laughing like the fight had never even happened. I walked to my next class carefree, feeling happier than I had ever since the fight had happened. I hated being cut off from Audrey and, even sometimes, Edwyn. The class after lunch was boring as always, which I didn’t really expect much of a change in the class. The teacher was an old-school kind of teacher that didn’t like doing things differently.

When I walked to my next class after that, I was thoroughly surprised. Bruce was sitting in his usual spot on our lab table. I walked up to him and he nodded awkwardly at me. I sat down without really saying anything to him, but I knew that I would try to talk to him about Emily soon. He had to know that someone had gone through the same thing that he was going through. When the bell rang, he stood up quickly, almost as if he knew what was coming.

I asked him, “Hey Bruce? Do you have anything after school?”

Bruce shook his head and I continued, “Can you meet me over by the park benches by the track?”

He nodded sadly and walked out of the classroom. The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur and before I knew it, I was waiting for Bruce on one of the park benches by the track field.

I heard him behind me, “What’s up?”

I said while still looking at the track, “Nothing much. How about you.”

He sat down wearily and said, “Oh you know.”

I looked at him and said, “So how have you been doing?”

He shrugged his shoulders and said, “It hasn’t really hit me yet I guess. I mean I cried. Of course I cried, but it still hasn’t hit my core yet. I don’t know.”

“That’s kind of how I felt with Delilah. I really don’t think it has all hit me yet but most of it has hit me.”

He nodded and we both stared out into the track field.

I said quietly, “I know what you’re going through right now. If there's anything you want to tell someone, but you don’t know if they’ll understand, you can always come to me.”

His lips formed into a tight line and he started to shake his head.

I said, “Really man-“

“Look. I know you’re trying to comfort me and everything, but you don’t know what I’m going through. Everyone experiences things differently so you don’t know what I’m going through.”

He stood up angrily and walked back towards the parking lot. I shook my head and wondered what kind of damage I had just done to our friendship. I made up my mind after a few minutes that I would go over to his house and apologize to him about the way that I had acted after practice. I got off of the park bench and jogged the way to the locker room.

Losing Sanity

Audrey

 

I walked through school numbly, not really noticing all of the looks and glares that I was getting from everyone else. Emily was gone. Was she just killed randomly or was the killer actually picking their next targets? After school was done, I walked over to my car and got in slowly. I drove to my block, not really paying attention to my surroundings. I walked into my house after I had shut my car off and noticed that the whole house was quiet. My mom wasn’t home, which meant that I had to fend for myself. I looked through the kitchen to see what was in the house for snacks, but I didn’t find anything.

I walked into the living room and turned the TV on. The local news station was on and it was showing a picture of Emily. The reporter was sadly reporting that Emily was found dead in Lake Titan last night and that the killer was still not found.

The reporter said, “The killer was believed to be Tom Adler, but police quickly learned that Adler wasn’t the killer they though he was. While he was in custody, Emily Wale was found in Lake Titan, almost exactly where Delilah Locke was found last week. Tom Adler was released from custody earlier this morning and police are still on the search for the real killer of these two young girls. We’ll have more on this story as it progresses.”

I shut the TV off and wandered up to my room. How was this killer picking its victims? Was the person just targeting random people, or did this killer have something against the people that they had killed? My heard beat started to accelerate as I tried to think if I had wronged anyone lately.