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"What...what...?" I stammered. Ashley was holding my hand, looking serious with a hint of amusment. I didn't like the expression he had on his face.
"I'm sorry, Holly, I truly, seriously, am." I could tell he wasn't being serious. His eyes hardened.
"You don't believe me?"
What? How did he even know what I was thinking? I frowned.
"I don't understand why you did it," I said. My eyes filled with tears. Ashley had admitted something which was just unforgivable. Ashley stroked the side of my cheek. I shrank back. Who does he think he is? He knows I'm in a relationship with Stefan. Ashley stared at me.
"Sorry," he said casually, shrugging, as if he had accidently spilt water or something, like it was no big deal. Anger surged through me. Anger, hate, sorrow.
"How dare you!" I shouted, standing up. I clenched my fists.
"You stupid, stupid man!" I screeched, fighting the urge to punch him. I raged into a frenzy, screaming and swearing. He just sat there, a little smile on his face, his arms crossed, looking amused. He didn't care one bit. Screaming at him wasn't helping. I breathed out, and sat down, hugged my knees to my chest. I felt as if someone had stabbed me in the gut.
"Finished?" Ashley said spitefully. I didn't look up. Just felt tears running down my face.
"I have to go to the police Ashley," I said, quietly.
"What?" he snapped. I took a deep breath.
"I have to go to the police," I said, loudly. Ashley's face darkened.
"No you won't." I looked straight at him. He looked so threatening and angry I couldn't hold his gaze.
"I have to. Expecially after you just admitted it."
I stood up quickly, and began to walk over to the house phone.
"No!" Ashley said. I felt his hand grip my arm, holding it firmly. I turned back and glared at him.
"Let go!" I shouted, twisting and turning my arm. He wouldn't let go.
"Help! Someone! Hel-mm!" I tried to shout, but Ashley shoved his hand over my mouth. He dragged me back to the sofa.
"I can't let you tell the police, Holly. I'll go to prison!" Ashley shouted. No shit, I thought. I fought angrily, my emotions giving me strength. Ashley swung me suddenly, and I was flung across the room. I remember hitting my head agaisnt the wall. Pain flooded through me. I groaned, and everything went black.

Ashley wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Holly was lying unconsious on the floor, a bit of blood coming out the corner of her mouth. Eurgh. We wasn't meant to knock her out, but what the hell. Ashley dug into his jean pocket, and took out his phone. Dialled her number.
"Yeah hello? Hi. Yeah. I just told Holly. Not very well. I had to knock her out. She was going to tell the police! I didn't mean too. Yeah. Anyway, I need you to take her away. Well, do you want to see me in prison? I thought you were my bestfriend?" Ashley stared out the front window.
"Thanks babe. You're a diamond. See you in a bit. Bye." He hung up quickly. He breathed out. He hurridely shut the curtains, and walked out the room. Out the front door.


Alex glanced at the kitchen clock again. Half 9. Ashley had been gone for almost an hour. Alex bit her lip. Perhaps Ashley was cheating on her?!
No, Ashley wouldn't do that. Would he? Where was he? Well, she knew where he was, but why wasn't he back? He said he'd be about half an hour, an hour ago. She didn't want to ring him, but soon she was going to have to eat dinner on her own. Just as she reached out to pick up her phone, she heard the front door open.
"Hello?" she heard Ashley say. He sounded tense.
"Hi," Alex replied. She heard the front door slam, and then Ashley was there, in front of her.
"How was Holly?" Alex asked, kissing him and hugging him. He seemed really tense and distant.
"Fine," he said, coldy. "I'm starving, what's for dinner?" Suprised by his attitude, Alex took a step back.
"There's soup for starters, and then chicken with cassarol, and then treacle pudding for dessert," Alex said, with pride. She had spent ages cooking and preparing it.
"Really?" Ashley said. "Why can't we just eat a takeaway?"
Alex stared at him.
"What?" Ashley was glancing around, not looking at her. His eyes darted around the kitchen, this way, that way, always moving.
"What did you say?" Alex said, loudly. Ashley stared at her, for once not looking at anything but her.
"Well, I don't know, Alex. You've gone to all this trouble, when it's pretty late in day anyway. I'm just saying, why don't you scrap that lot and we'll have fish and chips or something?" He looked serious. Something snapped inside Alex.
"I spent fucking ages preparing that meal, Ashley, and you're not even the least bit grateful! You piss off round to Holly's for ages, you don't even say you're sorry, and now you can't even be bothered to have a simple meal with your so-called GIRLFRIEND. You've changed, Ashley, and NOT in a good way. I'm sick to death of running around after you, clearing up your shit. I've had enough, I really have. You selfish, inconsiderate..." Alex never finished her sentence, because Ashley reached out and slapped her.
"Shut up!" he shouted. Alex reeled back, clutching her cheek. Ashley stared at her.
"You have no idea what I've been going through," he said, scarily quiet. "All you do is chase me around all the time. I've had enough. Maybe we should end it." Alex felt tears spring to her eyes. The chicken was burning, she could smell it from the oven. Ashley stared at her still.
"See you." He turned on his heel and walked out, not looking back, once. The front door opened and then slammed shut.
Alex sunk to her knees and let the tears fall down her face, finally, the tears she had forced away for days on end.
Beep Beep.
Oh god, she thought, not wanting to check her phone. A sorry text from Ashley? She reached up to the kitchen counter, checked the messages.
"Hi, it's Stefan. You seen Holly? I came home, she's not here. Blood on the wall. Worried."
Alex's eyes widened. Didn't Ashley just go and see Holly?
Suddenly she knew.
Suddenly everything that had happened made sense.
Suddently she understood - everything fell into place.


Emily read the text again, confused.
Holly? Missing?
She got up from her table, in a bit of a daze. She sauntered out into the street. It was getting pretty dark. The rain was still pounding down fiercly. Emily sighed, watching her breath steam out in front of her. Pulling up the hood on her coat, she swiftly walked down to the carpark, where her car was parked.
She quickly pulled out her keys and opened up the car. She heard a muffled groan come from somewhere. Looking up, she peered into the corner or the car park. It was so dark, and the rain was pounding down, but she could just make out the shape of someone dragging something along the ground. Suddenly, lightning split the sky, and just for a moment, she saw a women dragging another women across the car park. She reconized the women dragging the other, but the sky suddenly darkened again before she could suss out who it was.
Opening up the car door, she slid into the car. Fumbling with the keys, she shoved them in the ignition and turned on the heating. Emily turned on the window-wipers too, squeaking on the window. She peered out the window again to see if she could spot the two women, but there was only thunder this time. Sighing, Emily tried to turn on the radio, but it fizzled and went really static. Weird.
Lightning flashed again - Emily glanced up - just in time to see the women who was dragging the other women into a car. Now surely that was weird? Another bolt of lightning, a fork of static blue electricity. The women who had dragged the other women was now walking away, towards her car. Emily began to panick. What if it was murderer or something? The lightning dissapeared, and Emily was plunged in darkness again, no longer able to see where the women was. She began to panic. She quickly turned on the headlights, but all she could see was ahead of her. Lightning again - and Emily screamed.
The women's face was pressed up agasint her window. The women screamed as well, hasitly retreating. Emily gasped. She reconized that face.
"Ellie?!" she shouted, as Ellie turned on her heel and began to walk swiftly away. Emily jumped out the car and grabbed her shoulders.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Ellie was pale, and looked frightened. She was shaking, drenched from the rain.
"Come on, I'll take you home," Emily offered, guiding her towards her car.
"No!" Ellie cried, struggling. Emily gripped on.
"You're coming with me. You have to explain why the hell you were out at this hour, dragging a women into a car, okay?" Ellie stared at Emily, rain water dripping down her face. She blinked.
"How did you see?" Emily raised an eyebrow.
"I think you have some explaining to do," Emily said, seriously. Ellie remained silent as Emily put her in the car, got in, and drove away.


Alice arrived with Dru at Holly's house. Knocking politely on the door, it opened almost immediatly to Stefan standing, his face hopeful - but falling when he saw it wasn't Holly. Dru stepped forward, and embraced Stefan, who looked miserable. Alice shook the rain water from her umbrella and stepped inside.
"Awful weather," she said. Stefan barely glanced in her direction.
"Don't worry about your shoes," he said blankly. Alice bit her lip. Dru followed Stefan to the sitting room, where he discovered Natalie and Alex sitting, looking awkward, mugs of tea in their hands. Their were a lot of mugs of tea on the coffee table, some looked cold, some still steaming.
"So, someone explain?" Alice said, standing behind Dru. Stefan sighed.
"Holly texted me to ask to come round at half 9. I came here, she wasn't here. There was a blood on the wall," Stefan said, pointing to the cream wall beside the sofa. A tiny splatter of red was just a the bottom.
"No one was in here apart from Holly," Stefan continued, "So I reckon that's definatly her blood. Also, she left this," Stefan picked up a small crumpled piece of paper, with rushed, sloppy writing on it, smudged slightly.
"Sorry for such short notice, I can't stay. I am in love with someone else, sorry. It's over. Your not the one for me. From Holly," Alice read out loud over Dru's shoulder.
"Thing is," Stefan said, "She wouldn't just leave. At that still doesn't explain the blood on the wall, does it? So I don't know what's happening. I don't want to call the police, they'll probably think it's a set-up. But I can't tell if that note is a fake or not." Stefan put his head in his hands. Alice bit her lip, following Dru as he sat next to Stefan. Alex picked up the note. She frowned.
"Hang on," she said, looking closely. "I don't think this is Holly's handwriting." Everyone looked up at Alex. She pointed to the note.
"Look. This person has spelt Your wrong. It should be You're, not Your."
"A common mistake," Stefan said, looking forlorn. Alex shook her head.
"No. I've known Holly since Nursery. She would never make that mistake." Stefan shrugged.
"Well I still think it's a fake," he said.
"I don't think it is," came a voice from the doorway. Emily was standing there, soaking wet from outside. She must have let herself in. Next to her stood Ellie. Hardly anyone had heard from Ellie for ages, so it was a bit of a suprise to see her standing there. She looked a bit red, perhaps from the cold. She wasn't looking at anyone, just staring at the floor.
"Emily?" Stefan said, "What do you mean?" Emily raised an eyebrow.
"Ask her," she said, pushing Ellie forward. Ellie took a deep breath and sat down quietly. She breathed out slowly.

"It started off with Joe. Some of you may know already, that Joe used to buy drugs off Ashley. This caused all sorts of problems between them, like Joe oweing money to Ashley, not paying him back, ect, ect. Anyway, on the night of the party, before it started, Ashley and Joe had a massive, and I mean, MASSIVE, argument. Ashley was so angry with Joe, for not paying him the money he owed him for too long. He did something stupid. He spiked his drink with a light substance of this sleep drug thing. It was enough to make him drowsy but not actually fall asleep. Anyway, Ashley thought he could blame Dru if the spiking of the drink was even found out, because he knew Dru was planning to spike everyone's drink that night, but just for a laugh. Also, Ashley had a reciept from his recent purchase of drugs, and didn't want anyone suspecting anything or finding something, and so slipped in into Natalie's coat pocket, which explains where that came from. Anyway, when Joe left, Ashley knew Holly wouldn't drive him back because she had drank too much, and would get angry, so when she shut the door on Joe, Ashley offered to give Joe a lift. He drove him to the top of the hill, and whilst distracting him, took some kind of tool, I don't know what, and hit Joe across the head with it, twice, explaining the little dent marks Joe had in his forehead, if Holly hasn't told you already about that. Ashley, realizing he had actually murdered someone, called me, and asked me meet him there, to make sure no one saw me, no one suspected anything. I met him, confused, saw Joe, and felt like running away, but Ashley blackmailed me, threatening he'd tell everyone that it was my fault, if I didn't finish the job. He paid me a wad of cash for doing it, but I didn't want to, I swear. Anyway, Ashley cleared off, leaving me with Joe in the car, dead. I was so scared, I really was. I took off Joe's seatbelt, and pushed the car down the hill. It wasn't meant to collide with the other cars - but on impact Joe crashed through the mirror. I knew Ashley and my fingerprints would be found so, as instructed by Ashley, dragged Joe back into the car, and took the spare petrol out the cars and poured it all over the cars, making sure everyone was dead before doing so. I luckily had a lighter on me, and so I chucked that on the cars, making them explode. Suddenly my phone went off; It was Ashley.
"The money's in his shoe! The money's in his shoe!" He was screaming at me, and literally forced me to take off Joe's burning shoe, take out what was left of the money, and put it back on. But it didn't work like that - the money was already half burnt and hurting my hand, and now the shoe had my fingerprints on it, so I had to get rid of it. I panicked, not wanting Ashley to ruin my life, so I snuck into Alex's backgarden, luckily the ladder was still out, and threw it up into the tree. I was hoping it would disintergrate - but the bird or wind or whatever must have blown it down through the higher branches into eyesight. So that explains the shoe in the tree. And Joe's death. For a while now I've been looking after Ashley's drugs, he's met up with a few times to give them to me to look after, so no one would suspect anything, which is why I havn't been around as much. Um... I think that's all to say really, but...I'm so sorry everyone, please, if you can, forgive me."

Silence.
No one said anything. Stefan had gone quite pale. Alex looked shocked. In fact everyone was in some sort of trance, all looking alarmed, confused.
"We'll deal with that later," Stefan said in a whisper. "Where is Holly?" The little bit of colour that was in Ellie's cheeks drained. She cleared her throat, her eyes stinging.
"She asked him to come round here, tonight. She had finally worked out that it was Ashley who Joe was getting the drugs from, with a bit of your help too, Stefan. Ashley knew he had to act, fast. He came round, and ovbiously told everything to Holly, and Holly tried to call the police but Ashley knocked her out, explaining the blood on the wall. He called me up again, forcing me to deal with it. I came round, and, because it was dark and raining, no one was about, so I dragged Holly round the car park just over in town, and dragged into Ashley's car. That was the plan, except, I accidently bumped into Emily here...And Ashley drove off, with Holly. I-I think he's planning on killing her."
Stefan's eyes widened. He jumped up.
"We have to find her, NOW. Where is she? Where has he taken her?!" He grabbed Ellie's shoulder and shook her violently. "WHERE?!"
"Edge of town," Ellie croaked. Stefan let go and ran out the door, grabbing his keys from the peg on the way.
"Stefan! Stefan, no!" The others were shouting, after him. He had to do this. Reveresing the car, he pulled out, and sped away, towards town.



"Wh-what? Where?" I woke up, dazed. My head was pounding. I rubbed my eyes, slowly sitting up.
"Ouch!" My head connected with a window. Slowly, as I regained my conciousness, I realized I was sitting in the drivers seat in a car. I rubbed my head, blinking at the sudden light. I could hear rain patting down outside, the occasional squeak.
"It's okay," came a voice. I looked round - Ashley was sitting in the passenger seat, staring at me. The memories flooded back. I shrank away, fumbling with the door. Locked.
"Please. Please, let me go. I won't tell anyone, I swear." Ashley laughed.
"You were going to tell the police. Luckily I was there to stop you, eh?" I put my hand on my forehead.
"You remember the whole story I told you? Except this is not a story. It's real, what I told you is the truth. You were right all along. Joe's accident wasn't an accident, it was a murder." Ashley smiled, as if he had made a particular funny joke. I stared at him, not feeling anything, no anger, no sadness, just horror and sickness.
"You're a monster," I said. Ashley laughed again. I reached out the stroke my cheek.
"There, there," he said softly. I didn't dare move, in case he head a knife or something.
"You're in a bit of state, aren't you Holly?" he said, still stroking my cheek.
"Get the fuck off me," I said angrily. Ashley laughed.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist," he said, taking his hand away. "You're so beautifullll..." he said, rolling his eyes. Stefan had said that to me the night we had sat watching movies.
"Yeah," Ashley said, his expression darkening, "I heard you two alright. I heard what Stefan said, the fact he basically told you that it was me Joe dealt drugs with. It was his own fault really. Leaned on his phone, which called me. I was clever enough to stay silent. But he couldn't keep his big mouth shut." Ashley slammed his fist on the dashboard, his face the colour of beetroot. I noticed the car keys swinging from his pocket.
"All that effort, and that carefulness, wasted. Because of HIM!" Ashley smacked the dashboard again, but I was just staring at the keys. Slowly, very, very slowly, I creeped forward, and BAM, got the keys!
"Huh!?" Ashley said, whipping round, but he was too late. The keys were already in the ignition, the engine roared into life.
"NO!" he shouted, diving for me, but I slammed my foot on the pedal. Speeding we were now, faster and faster Ashley being forced back into his seat. The terrible ringing noise I heard the first day I had learned of Joe's death filled my ears painfully. All the emotions came flooding to me - anger, pity, sorrow, dread, guitly. I had felt so guilty for his death, blamed myself - when all this time it was Ashley. I pushed the car on faster and faster, feeling myself being pushed back into my seat. No sound apart from the ringing filled me. I could barely hear Ashley shouting and screaming at me.
Faster and faster.
I remember when Joe had kissed me on the night of the party.
I remember when we laid under the stars one night and talked out our childhood.
I remember when he had sung to me, he had such a beautiful voice.
I screamed, pushing the car on. Not far off, I could see a huge tree rapidly coming towards us.
Hit it.
Do it.
Kill it.
I could barely move, breathe, think.
Do it.
NOW.
I plunged towards the tree.
The car smacked into the tree.
I remember seeing Ashley, purple with fear, screaming his last scream. I saw glass shatter around us, the pull of my seatbelt saving me.
Then,
Nothing.