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“Do you need any other help before I leave?” I asked my friend Julie. We had just had a dinner party with everyone from our street. This time it was at Julie’s house and I stayed, to help clean up more. But that, in addition to our constant chattiness, caused what time I’m now leaving at, to be later than intended.
“You’re good Percy. Thanks for the help!” Julie responds with a smile. With that I grab my items. Walking out the door, I take a deep breath of the cool air and start walking up the semi-steep cul-de-sac to where my house is situated near the top. Strolling on a cool night like tonight is one of my favorite things to do in this weather.
When I’m a couple houses away I hear the faint sound of a scream. I whip around to see that the only house that still looks awake is Julie’s. I run to her door and push it open with only the briefest thought of why it’d be unlocked, unless she didn’t lock it after I left of course. I run through the house until I get to the dining room where I see a terrible sight. The image, probably going to stay in my head as I have to take a step back for a moment out of shock. Before I know it I’m screaming.
And there lies Julie, her throat slit. I ran over before dropping down by Julie’s side and using my hands to put pressure on her neck. I then pull out my phone with one hand and dial 911.
I start to see Julie's eyes flutter close for a moment.
“Bru-” Julie starts to say something before coughing up a bit of blood and her throat letting out more for a moment. “They- They were brunette,” Julie just manages to croak out before her eyes start to close again, this time for longer, before she reopens them.
“Hey- hey, Julie. No need to talk. Just stay with me okay. Can you keep your eyes open for me darling?” I softly talk to her before the first responders pick up.
“Hello, what can I do for you?” A voice from the other side of the call asks.
“Hi, I’m at 2048 conch street, Kansas City. My friend is bleeding out,” I rush out. I hear the soft clicking of a keyboard in the background, it starts to fade as I start at Julie’s face. The pressure of my hands on Julie’s neck. The wetness of her blood as her wound continues to leak despite my best efforts to staunch it. The sound of my own breathing. The murmur of the 911 responder getting fuzzier. I feel my mouth moving, I know I’m talking but I’m too far in my own mind to know what I’m saying. I feel something wet on my cheeks and with the situation I assume it’s just blood, sliding down my face despite knowing that it’d be hard to get blood on my face from how all the blood was pooling around Julie’s neck and my hands. But after a moment I watch a clear liquid fall down onto Julie and I realize that it’s not blood. It’s tears. I’m crying.
Next thing I knew there were flashing lights and people gently prying my hands off of Julie as they took her from me. “No- no. She needs- I need to make sure- Her neck!” I start to reach out for her. She needs help. I then feel arms envelop me in a hug and gently hold my arms by my chest. I start to melt in the embrace. The world around me becomes fuzzier by the second until it’s just darkness.
I blink my eyes slowly as I’m shaken awake. Swiveling my head to see that I was still in the arms of the same person from earlier, this time wrapped in a blanket from the coldness of the autumn air. It takes me a moment before the events of earlier had caught back up to me.
“Will Julie be okay?” Frantically, I ask to any who will listen..
“I can’t promise you anything but the doctors will do their best.” One of the paramedics told me. “Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No, just Julie,” I shake my head and look down. “I’m okay, physically at least.” I then letting out a pathetic chuckle. After a quick checkover I was sent off and restarted my trek up the hill to get back to my house.
I stretched my hands out as I woke up. I checked my phone to see it was around 9. I quickly sat up worried I was going to be late for my job. Trying to center myself I go over things I know.
My name is Percy. I am 23. I go to work. My best friend is Ju-
Oh god, what happened to Julie?!
No, she’s at the hospital, she’ll be fine.
But what if she isn’t??
What if I could have don’t more but she may die because I was too incompetent to help.
No, she’ll be fine. I have to stop being so mean to myself.
Everything will be a-okay.
Who’d do such a thing though?
With how emotionless Reyna is I’d bet she would.
It’d be nice to have Quinn here. She’d know what to do. He’s such a huggable person, he couldn’t hurt someone to this caliber.
After my mental debate and sudden reminder of the incident with Julie, I all the previous adrenaline of being late starts to fall away. I lay back down and curl up in my blankets again. I consider pushing through it but decide it’d be good to have a nice rest.
I put myself up and crawl towards my side table, leading over not wanting to leave my bed. I take out my favorite candle, warm vanilla sugar from bath and body works, and light it to help soothe my mood. I then unplug my phone, taking it with me as I crawl back towards the center of the bed. I open my Spotify and play my favourites playlist. As the song, Hungover in the City of Dust by Autoheart starts to play I lay down, wrapping myself in blankets.
It’s too quiet in my room but adding more noise would make it too loud. The whirring of my ceiling fan, the soft sounds of my music, the birds chirping outside. Too much, yet not enough.
I scrolled through my phone for a bit, trying to find something to peak my interest, but to no avail, I couldn’t find anything. Welling in my self-pity I notice that my stomach hurts with hunger. I don’t feel like getting out of bed. The only thing I have to eat is my sad chocolate. This seems like a perfect moment to have some. Sitting in my bed, curled up with no energy to do anything; thinking about one of my best friends in the hospital, the person who assaulted her, free. Not yet caught, probably never with my luck.
“At least I have my candle, not sponsored,” I say aloud for no reason but to hear myself over everything else. I let out a wet chuckle. In confusion I touch my face to feel a wetness there and it reminds me of Julie… Oh, I’m crying again huh. That’s a shame.
I finish my sad chocolate and start to fall asleep, letting myself be taken by the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.
After an hour.. or so... of just mindlessness I start to feel hungry again and decide this time not to ignore it as I had earlier. When I get myself to trudge to my closet I open it and decide on the most comfortable things I have. I take out my Comfy and pull it on after taking off my clothes from yesterday. I then put on some soft sweatpants and pull my hair into a bun before putting on my headphones and popping my hood on top of everything.
Heading downstairs I walk into my kitchen and pour myself a cup of cinnamon toast crunch and fill a water bottle up with water. I then sit down in the hearth room on the carpet in front of the coffee table. Realizing that I had neglected to turn on my music despite having everything ready for me to, I play a playlist that’s mainly just a compilation of random songs that I like depending on my mood. I put it on shuffle landing on Love Me Dead by Ludo and I start to hum quietly as I turn up the volume until the music is blasting in my ears.
Picking up my cereal cup I pour some into my mouth and start crunching over the music. With the loud music and louder crunching I start to think about my life and my friends.
I’d do anything for my friends. Anything. I’d kill for them. I’d live, or die, or them. They’re my pride. My joys. I’m nothing without them. Like one of my favorite pieces of media,
“What would I be without you?”
“Yourself.”
They’d be themselves without me to influence them. To be completely honest with myself, they might even be happier, better off, without me. It may also be worse though. Julie would have died tonight probably. But she only moved here following me and our dream of living in a suburban place instead of the busy city or too quiet rural areas. She’d’ve been safe back home. This wouldn’t have even become a problem that now we all are worrying about.
With that last self-deprecating thought I think as I tune back into the intro of two trucks before quickly skipping it with a wet chuckle. I lean back on the couch behind me as I tip the rest of my cereal crumbs into my mouth, the cinnamony goodness warming a spot in my heart only reserved for food. I took a large gulp of water from my water bottle and stood up to put my cereal cup in the sink for me to wash later.
When I get back to my seat I start to think of a to do list for me to accomplish.
Talk to the following
Persephone
Villi
Reyna
Colder than stone, could def kill a person
Quinn
Quinn is as harmless as a fly he could never hurt someone
Call in leave for work !!!
After constructing my list I started to plan a route of where to go to get to everyone most efficiently. After that, I decided to get started a bit early with the remaining amount of daylight I had left. So I dress myself in a white shirt and a flowy tan trench coat and navy pants before redoing my bun.
Starting on my journey to figure out the culprit that’s apparently a brunette. I firstly head to the closest brunette to me who just so happens to be my neighbor. I walk up to their porch and take a step back after knock, knock, knocking on their door. I wait a moment until a feminine person opens the door. They’re light skinned with long, wavy, toffee colored hair and green-hazel eyes. They’re wearing a light grey off shoulder sweater with black pants.
“Hello, what ever do you need?” They ask.
“Hi-” I give a small smile, “I live just next door and last night my friend was… got hurt, Julie. She lives just down the street from us. I was wondering if you’ve noticed anything unusual as of late; or as kids might say, ‘sus’,” I try to crack a joke and despite the seriousness of my words I see their shoulders bounce in stifled laughter.
“I’m so sorry for your friend, but I don’t know anything, sorry.” Their eyebrows draw together in concern and I shake my head understandably as I tilt it downwards in sadness.
“It’s fine.” Right as I’m about to leave and they close the door I say, “Hey, so sorry for bothering you again, it seems I can’t remember your name, what is it again?”
“Persephone.” They say with a small, unmalicious smirk. Then both of us look further into Persephone’s house when a small child runs and grabs their leg. I then give a farewell smile and lift my hand in a goodbye before turning and leaving Persepone to their child.
On the walk to the next house I see what appears to be a small child in the woods behind the homes. I consider going over before thinking about how I shouldn’t pry into things that don’t concern me. The child’s guardians are probably aware and I shouldn’t bother someone’s kid if they aren’t actively doing anything dangerous or harmful to themselves or others.
I brush off the urge to go to the child and just keep walking with my path in mind and the determination to find out who hurt Julie. Considering that I’m just asking people if they’ve seen anything unusual and everyone having the ability to lie about anything, I start to question whether it’s worth it or just a waste of time and effort that I could be spending with Julie or on my job because despite my no good negativity, Julie will be okay. She’ll survive and she’ll be happy and she’ll have a tremendous recovery. She may end up mute or have to be in the hospital the rest of her hopefully long life, but it’ll be fine because I’ll be by her side the entire time. She’ll be a-okay.
Before I know it I've reached the next house in my journey and I’m knocking on the door. “Hi Percy, what do you need?”
“Hi Villi. I’ve just been asking around if people have seen anything out of the ordinary recently because Julie was hurt.. badly yesterday and I’m trying to figure out who did it.”
“How bad was it? Is Julie going to be okay?” Villi’s brows furrow in concern.
“It was pretty bad. She’s-” I stifle a sob thinking about Julie, “She’s in the hospital, they’re doing their best.”
“How are you holding up, I know you both were close.” Villi reaches a hand out to my shoulder and pulls me into a hug and I melt into her arms. She then leads me inside and to onto her couch before pulling me into a hug again. In a moment of vulnerability I start to cry in their arms. I feel as Villi pulls away from me and gets up before watching her go and making sure the front door is locked before heading into the kitchen and out of my sight.
She’s gone for a moment before she’s back with 2 mugs of eggnog. She sits down next to me. “It’s getting late and I’m not having you walk back home like this. How about you stay the night, okay?”
“Okay,” I tentatively agree. We proceed to sit curled up drinking our eggnog and we talk about everything and nothing until my eyelids start to feel heavier and heavier until I’m asleep..
In the morning, I see that Villi has put away our mugs and layed a blanket over me in my sleep. I push myself up as I wake up. I then look around and seeing how Villi is probably still asleep, I decide to walk out, shutting the door behind me. I then go back home and take a shower before changing into a new pair of clothing and getting ready to go back to my search.
The next person on my list to question is Reyna. As I start to walk to Reyna’s house I think about how she always seems to be very attentive to Julie and at her house often. I also think about their random yoga sessions where they must be pretty good at it, with how they seem so sore afterwards and their flexibility. They’ve always seemed pretty close so I’m not sure if it’d be so that Reyna could hurt Julie, or if it was just a really close, physical friendship.
Due to the closeness of Reyna’s house, it doesn’t take long for me to get there. To be completely honest with myself, Reyna… kinda scares me. She always seems so stoic and it gives me this nervous energy when she looks in my direction, like I’ve disappointed her in sorts.
When I approach her house I ring her doorbell before taking a step back so as to not be so close to her door for when she opens it. I’m trying to school the anxious expression on my face when the door swings open.
“What do you need?” She says exasperated before looking down at me and I take a deep breath before talking.
“Um.. hi Reyna. Julie was hurt the other day and I was wondering if you’d by chance know anything that may help me find the perpetrator. It’s just I know that you and Julie are close and maybe you may know something that can help further me in my journey,” Rushing my words out in fear of Reyna’s reaction, I tilt my head downwards almost in a prayer position without the hands or belief.
“Is she going to be okay?” Reyna’s voice was unusually tense but I brushed it off as concern for her friend, or the possibility that it was Reyna and she was worried that I’d caught on.
“I don’t know,” I say with genuine sorrow dripping from my words. “Anyways- back to the topic at hand, do you have any knowledge of sorts that may help me?”
“No. Sorry. I, um, I actually have to go. Umm, bye.”
“Bye?” I confusedly responded with a meek voice as the door was shut in my face. Wha- I then hear a muffled shriek and understand that Reyna seems to be processing the news. Nodding my head slightly in understanding, I turn around to start heading home. As exhausted as I was, I could finish my list tomorrow.
On my journey home I noticed a rustling in the woods. This time too tired to fight the urge of not going towards the unknown figure in the woods. Realistically I knew that this was a bad idea but I still followed due to an urge and also a selfish want to know more about the woods. The sun was starting to get covered by the trees but I’ve come this far so I might as well continue into the woods. The trees seemed to stretch taller towards the sky, getting wider the deeper you go into the woods. From the outside, it almost seems the patch of trees were more contained but now they’re thicker and larger deeper in the woods.
Being this deep into the woods spooks me out a bit. I continue to follow what seemed to be a small figure. Eventually, all my chasing in an almost hypnotic daze leads me to a clearing. Once there, I look around me, there seems to be a multitude of small (child-sized) treehouse-things that hang around the edge. I can finally see the sun with the lack of trees blocking my view. I then feel a tug at my shirt to see a small child. They have short, fluffy, brown hair and a mushroomed themed outfit with their white shirt and brown pants with a large red with a white dotted mushroom hat to match their red with a white dotted cape. They look up at me and I notice their gold-rimmed tea shades and cognac coloured eyes.
“Hello, what is your name?” I timidly ask as I slowly lower myself into the criss-cross applesauce sitting position.
“Hello. My name is Cernunnos, you may call me George.” The small being said and gave out their hand to shake. I gently shook it and look around me again making sure to know where I entered and hopefully will leave.
“I’m Percy.”
“I know.” The bei- George, gave a small smile. “You, need to go visit Quinn.”
“I was planning to, in the morning,” I say with a small tilt to the end of the phrase almost making it seem like a question.
“Yes, yes. But you need to do it now. As soon as possible, as you people tend to say.” George says before starting to shoo me off from the way I came. Confused, I went along and retraced my steps back out of the woods. I, some way or another, end up across the street from Quinn’s house despite not entering close to there.
When Quinn comes back with a cup of hot chocolate, I’ve curled up on his couch with all the blankets in the vicinity. We sit next to each other on the couch as we just talk, my conversation with George forgotten. I’m running my fingers through his soft chocolate brown hair when I get a call.
“Hello, is this Percy Moulin,” A male voice asks.
“Yes? How may I help you?”
“This is the Pineapple Clinic and Hospital. I’m sorry to inform you that your friend Julie Katz has passed away earlier today. I’m sorry for your loss, we’ve done everything we can do to make sure she was comfortable in her final moments.” I gasp as my eyes water and Quinn takes our mugs and sets them down on the coffee table in front of us. He then wraps me in a hug as I hang up. Silent tears start to stream down my face.
“What’s wrong darling?” Quinn whispers into my ears and I melt into his arms.
“Julie’s dead.” I turn in his arms and sob into his chest. I feel him stiffen beneath me, I know that they were also friends but not the closest, so I just chalk up how much he reacted to him knowing how much Julie meant to me.
“What am I going to do without her?” I continue to wail into Quinn’s chest. Not before long, I’m just dry sobbing, having cried all my tears out. I slowly start to regain my breath and with everything out, I feel a bit numb. I randomly remember George’s words to me about talking to Quinn.
“Hey Quinn, why did this… person named George tell me to talk to you?” I asked softly.
“It’s probably, um- uhh, nothing. Nothing, don’t worry about it.” Quinn tensed even more, which I didn’t even think was possible, and his voice started to sound more stressed and scared.
“Quinn… what did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything! I didn’t, I swear!” Quinn’s face was filled with panic as his eyes widen.
I soften my voice, “Quinn, please tell me what happened,” Cupping his face, I continue, “at least then I’m able to help you with whatever you’ve done.”
“Fine, it was me! I did it! I killed Julie! I’m sorry-” Tears started to well up in Quinn’s eyes. “I swear it was an accident! It really was! I’ve been low on money, and- and- I was- I’m just trying to find ways to help. I was just doing to take some things. Just a couple things to sell to get some cash to pay rent. I could then save more, and try for a better job.
She came out of nowhere! I didn’t mean to hurt her. I panicked so I swung and she was right there and she was bleeding and I was so afraid. I wasn’t planning on hurting anyone, I swear! She was just there and so was I. Then she was on the ground and I was running. I was so scared. And now you’re going to take me to the police and my life is going to be ruined. To be honest, Percy, I’m so so so sorry for hurting Julie, I know y’alls were really close and now I’m a killer I’m so sorry I swear to you Percy.” Quinn had been rushing his words and by the end, his voice was choking up and despite what appeared to be his best efforts, tears started streaming down his face.
I stared at him in shock. It took me a good moment to comprehend what he’d just confessed to, I was flabbergasted. I didn’t know what I should say. I could assure him it’d be okay but I didn’t want to lie. Should I not tell the cops because he killed one of my best friends but I didn’t want to lose the other one. He’d go to jail and it’d be on his permanent record forever. It was just an accident, I couldn’t report him, losing more friends left and right. I could just not tell anyone and it says between the two of us, three including George.
I don’t think I should tell anyone, the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. The bonds we make are more important than the bonds that have been forced upon us without choice. I could save my friend, but doom the other because of my duty as a citizen and report him to the police. Realistically, I don’t think I’d have the gut to turn him in. He’s now my closest friend and the only actual friend that I have. I know It’s selfish but I’d rather have my best friend. It wasn’t his fault he couldn’t control that she died.
At least I know who did it. And I feel terrible about it daily, how I know who killed my best friend but not being able to turn him in because of how much I care for him.