“AND NO ONE WILL HAVE ANY GOOD MEMORIES OF YOU!” a voice shouted.
John turned around. Brad and I stood stunned.
It was Marie! Standing several feet away from John as she pointed a gun at him!
John in turn raised up and pointed both guns at her!
“C’mon now, you two. Put the fuckin’ guns down and let’s all talk about this,” Brad suggested.
“Shut up, Brad!” Marie said as her hands shook as she still pointed the gun at John. “I heard everything you said about why you killed Natalie, you son-of-a-bitch! And for you to damn her in death like that makes you the coldest motherfucker that I’ve ever known! You are gonna go down hard for what you did to her and I’m gonna see to that! She was my best friend, you fuckin’ asshole! And you took her from me! How could you have done that?!”
“Because she knew I didn’t want any kids! I was not gonna have a fuckin’ kid ruin my life before it really began! She was an ignorant bitch who constantly threatened me with paternity suits and shit and was set on ruining my life! I was not gonna be forever bonded to any bitch, period, let alone one that I was seeing in secret! There was a reason why I was seeing her in secret! I had no intentions on ever having an open relationship with her like Marc had — she wasn’t worth it!” John said.
“She was worth something to me and all of those who loved her! THERE’S NO EXCUSE FOR WHAT YOU DID!” Marie shouted.
“I DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT NATALIE, BITCH! I DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOU, OR YOU, BRAD! OR YOU EITHER, VANESSA! MY LIFE IS THE ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS!” John shouted at us.
“NOT ANYMORE!” Marie shouted, and then fired two shots into John’s chest!
I screamed as Brad held me as we all watched John collapse to the ground!
We all ran over to him.
Brad put his hand under John’s nose to see if he was still breathing; he didn’t wanna touch him. “He’s dead,” he told us.
Marie burst into tears as I held her. “I had to do it! I’m so sorry, you guys! I couldn’t help it! You heard what he said about how he didn’t give a fuck about any of us! You could see it in his eyes that he was damn serious about it! He had no conscience about what he did to Natalie!”
We looked at her; we didn’t know what to say.
“No, he didn’t have a conscience — that’s true. How did you know he was here?” I asked.
“I followed him here,” Marie said as she wiped her eyes. “I’ve been watching him and following him constantly ever since you two told me that he was the one who killed Natalie.”
“He did, Marie. He admitted that he was the one who did it — not sure if you heard him or not,” Brad informed her.
Marie gasped! “No, I didn’t! Oh, my God!”
Brad and I continued to stare at John’s body as we shook our heads.
Marie wiped her eyes as she continued to cry. “I had to avenge Natalie’s death somehow — I had to!”
Brad and I looked at her.
“Marie, look at me,” I said.
Marie looked up at me as she was still crying.
“We want you to go to your car and go home. Nothing happened here today, okay? This will be a secret that will forever stay between the three of us,” I told her.
Brad nodded. “Let me see your gun,” he said to Marie.
I looked at him as Marie gave it to him.
Brad took it from her, as well as picked up John’s gun. He opened up John’s gun and shook his head. “It’s fully loaded. I think he really did come here to kill us, Vanessa.”
“Oh, my God!” I said as I hyperventilated.
“Looks like you quite possibly saved our lives, Marie. So yes, this secret of you killing him will stay between all of us.”
We all looked down at John’s body.
Brad picked up his gun, opened it and put it on its safety mode, and then put it in his pocket. “As you see, he broke into my car and stole my gun. I was lucky he didn’t shoot any of us with it along with his own.”
Marie and I nodded in agreement.
“What are we gonna do about him?” Marie asked.
“We’re gonna leave him here. But I’m gonna get rid of his gun and yours, Marie; I know where to dispose of them,” Brad replied.
“Thank you. Thank you, both,” Marie said.
Brad nodded. He then went over to my bag and got out the plastic bag with the soda can in it. He took the can out of the bag with a napkin. He dropped it next to John’s body and then put the napkin in the plastic bag, as well as the guns. “If his body is ever found, they’re gonna test the can for DNA to see if it is his or his killer’s. When they find out that it’s his, they’re gonna test it to the DNA that was found on Natalie’s body since he went to our school and was the only one who never submitted his DNA, and it will match, so at least her family will have some closure in knowing that it was him who did it, even though he’ll never serve any time for doing it. I know that they’ll wonder, though, who killed him, but of course, that’ll be our secret between the three of us. So go on home, Marie. If anyone asks you about him, just say that you don’t know anything.”
Marie nodded as she still cried. “Can you guys walk me to my car?”
“Yeah, we will,” I said, and then went back over to where the cover laid at and picked it up and put it in my bag.
“Oh, and another thing, Marie. I’m gonna get Natalie’s phone from Marc and mail it to Natalie’s family anonymously — I think they deserve to have that, at least,” Brad said.
Marie nodded with a smile. “I think so, too. Thanks.”
“No problem,” he replied.
We all took one last look at John’s body, and then began to walk towards the path out of the woods. Once we reached the lot, we looked around closely to see if anyone was coming down the road to the parking lot. Marie got into her car and left first, and then Brad and I got into his car and left as well.
While on the road, we both remained dead quiet. The blue sky was now clouded up with a mixture of white and grey clouds as the sun was completely covered in them, making the sky look dark and grey. I looked at Brad as he drove straight ahead in a zombie-like state.
“I’m gonna drop you off at home first, and then I’m gonna dispose of these guns,” he said, as he still stared straight ahead.
“Brad, I am so sorry for cheating on you with him; it was the worst mistake I’ve ever made.”
“We all make them, Vanessa. I knew that you’d eventually tell me when you were ready to,” he replied. He then stared at me.
I got a sick feeling. “Um . . . Brad, what do you mean?”
We were at a stoplight.
He continued to stare at me as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. He looked through it, and then pressed something on it, and handed it to me.
My hand shook as I took it from him. I gasped! It was a picture of my car being in John’s driveway, the day that I cheated on him! I let out a huge sigh. “So you knew all along.”
He continued to stare at me.
“Brad, I’m so sorry. It was obvious now that Natalie took this picture and sent it to you—”
“No, Lisa actually sent it to me — but she didn’t tell me who sent it to her. I guess she wanted to pretend like it was her who took it, now that we know that Natalie was the one who was sending you the secret texts and sent you one that day when you were over John’s. Most people would’ve known that you weren’t over there just talking to him,” he informed me.
I sighed again. “That sounds true about Lisa. But yeah, you’re right . . . and Natalie was right. I cheated on you with John that day, and I regretted it seconds after I did. I’m so sorry, Brad.”
He stared straight ahead as he continued to drive down the street. “And I might as well confess something to you.”
I looked at him. “What is it?”
“That when I got that picture, I did go over to John’s — but you were gone when I got there.”
I gasped! “Brad! Oh, my God
!”
“I was actually on my way over there while I was talking to you on the phone, so I lied about being at home watching TV, and you sure as hell lied about doing homework,” he said.
I sighed. “Yeah, I did.” I continued to stare at him. “Uh . . . what would you have done if my car was still there?”
He continued to stare straight ahead. He sighed. “What do you think, Vanessa?”
“I actually don’t wanna think about it,” I honestly replied.
“Then don’t,” he replied. He sighed again. “Well, that’s all in the past, anyway. John is dead and like Natalie, there’s no way in bringing him back. So let’s forget about any other secrets including the ones that have just been confessed — this is the secret that we’ll forever be bonded together with. Can you live with this secret?”
“It’s gonna be hard, but I’m gonna do the best I can. We’re not the ones who killed John, but still, we were there. And I believe he did come there to kill us and he could’ve done it even after we gave him the soda can that was the evidence. It was the fact that we knew that it was him, and we still could’ve gone to the cops with what we knew. I believe Marie did save our lives by ending his. This is gonna haunt me for the rest of my life.”
“Me too, just like seeing Natalie dead on that floor in that storage room,” he replied with a sigh.
“Can I tell Ava, at least?”
He looked at me. “Do you think she’ll keep it a secret if you do?”
“She’s not my best friend for nothing.”
He looked at me and nodded.
I got my phone out, and then held on to his hand as I waited for Ava to answer. He looked at me and smiled; I smiled back. “Hey, Ava. I have something very important to tell you, and you’ve got to keep it a secret . . . .”
CHAPTER 6
The sound of the crashing thunder woke me up out of a deep sleep. I sat straight up in my bed as I wiped my forehead to rid it of sweat, even though I had my fan on. I got out of bed and looked outside of my window as it continued to rain, and it’d been raining off and on for several days. It had also been several days since John had been killed by Marie, and neither Brad, Ava, and especially Marie, had been able to get a good night’s sleep — I was no exception to this, either. That thunder that woke me up was a strong indicator that I would never sleep good as long as I carried the secret about Marie killing John. Marie had called me every day since this had happened, so I knew that even though she hated John for what he did to Natalie, she had some conscience about killing him. I told her in turn that I’ve had constant nightmares of his body still being out in those woods and I knew that it still was because I’d been checking the news constantly and no one had reported finding a body out in the woods. Brad, Ava, and Marie also said that they’d been watching the news way more than they ever did for the same reason.
I walked over to my desk where my computer was and sat down and turned it on. I stared at my desktop screen as I thought about how I was gonna get through the rest of the school year, as well as the rest of my life, knowing that Marie killed John. I just didn’t know if it was the right thing to do to keep it a secret, but I didn’t want Marie to get in trouble since to me it was a revenge killing because she would’ve never did it if he didn’t kill Natalie. But I did wanna tell Natalie’s family that it was John who had killed her, but then again I knew that they would asked me how did I know, and then they would find out that John was dead and I wouldn’t have known how to explain what happened to him because I didn’t want it to look like I killed him because of what he did to Natalie because I didn’t. But what I did wanna do was go back out to those woods and at least get the can with his DNA on it and drop it off anonymously at the police station, but I just didn’t know if Brad, Ava, and especially Marie, would think it would be a good idea. And since it had been raining off and on since Marie had killed him, all the DNA evidence that was on the can linking him to being Natalie’s killer was more than likely all washed away — but he wasn’t, so even if the can wasn’t there anymore he most certainly was, and they would be able to get DNA from his body no matter what kind of condition it was in.
I went online to browse a high-end designer website as I tried to take my mind off of what had happened about a week ago. It was very weird not seeing John at school knowing that Brad, Ava, Marie, and I were the only ones that knew he was never coming back. But what I couldn’t get off of my mind was that no one had reported him missing, and his parents hadn’t called any of us about his whereabouts. By now, I would’ve thought that they would’ve since he was their only child, so I knew they had to of been worried about where he was . . . or were they?
I looked at my clock on my computer — it was two o’clock in the morning. Suddenly, my phone rang; I jumped because it scared the shit out of me — it was Brad. “Hey, baby.”
“Hey, love. I see you sound wide awake. Couldn’t sleep either, huh?”
“No, Brad. I haven’t been able to sleep since Marie killed John.”
“Neither have I. You know we have to pretend that we don’t know what’s going on. I know it’s been over a week, but we’ll get used to not seeing him at school.”
“Brad, has John’s parents even called you about his whereabouts? It just seems weird that they haven’t talked to the cops, media, or anyone about him missing.”
“No, they haven’t called me or anyone. I asked Marc, Ken, Zac, and a few of John’s other friends, and they told me that they haven’t heard from him or his parents. You know I had to do that to show some kind of concern since we’re the only ones that know he’s dead besides Marie and Ava.”
“I know you did. But this seems so strange, Brad. It’s almost unexplainable. I would think that they would be worried enough to at least ask around about him; it seems like they don’t even care that he’s missing.”
“They’re sort of weird, Vanessa. They probably think he’s just with friends or something and will come home when he wants. He even told me when he was alive that his parents said that he could do what he wanted since he was now eighteen, as long as he did good in school and didn’t give them any trouble — but they’re gonna feel differently about that when they found out that he’s dead and that he killed Natalie.”
“That’s for sure, Brad. And I really don’t think they’re gonna expect to hear that he killed a girl that was pregnant with his child and he was killed by her best friend because of it. They’re gonna regret letting him do whatever he wanted regardless of his age, and I know they didn’t mean that killing someone was a part of letting him do whatever he wanted.”
“True, Vanessa, I definitely agree with that.”
There was another big crashing sound of thunder; I screamed!
He chuckled. “Yeah, I heard that over here — it scared the shit out of me, too!”
“Brad, I’m so fuckin’ jumpy about everything, and this weather being the way that it has been has made me even more unstable. When was the last time that it has rained off and on for about a week here? It’s been a long time. Is it any coincidence that it’s been like this since Marie killed John?”
He chuckled again. “What are you trying to say, Vanessa?”
“I don’t know, Brad. The weather can have an effect on so many things. I know this sounds crazy, but I feel that it’s not gonna clear up and be nice and sunny and warm again like the way it usually is as long as we hold this secret about Marie killing John, and knowing that he killed Natalie. There’s always gonna be dark and rainy days, just like this dark secret that we have.”
“Vanessa, c’mon, baby. It’s gonna be okay. I know this is crazy. We never thought anything like this would happen — but what’s done is done. We have to learn how to live with this secret. I’ve been having a hard time for these past several days trying to pretend like everything is normal. Everyone is still on edge about Natalie being murdered because in her case, only very few of us know that John did it. Now if people find out that John was murdered then it i
s just gonna send everyone into absolute chaos. Being the school’s president, I have to try and keep the school in order. If they found out that another student was murdered and by another student at school, all hell is gonna break loose. Rosemont will have a rep that it’ll never be able to get rid of.”
I sighed as I nodded. “That’s right. There’s no way our school will be able to get rid of a rep of having two murders, regardless of why the murders happened. Murder is murder, and both victims went to our school. We’re fuckin’ screwed, Brad.”
“Well, Vanessa, that is why we just have to keep all of this a secret the best way that we can because we all agreed on it so there’s nothing more that we can do about it. John and Natalie are dead, and there’s no way in bringing either one of them back.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I just hope there’s not a copycat killer.”
“Please don’t say that, Vanessa.”
“Well, Brad, it’s possible that it could happen again.”
“I know, and that’s what I would be afraid of,” he said, and then yawned. “Well, baby, I’m getting tired again; I had to take another sleeping pill. I’m getting some extra-strength ones that are by prescription only because I need them — maybe you should do the same.”
“I’m going to, Brad. I need to get some more since I ran out of mine a while ago, and I need them just as much as you do and now more than ever. I’m still wide awake but I’m gonna try and get back to sleep. Luckily, tomorrow is Sunday. I’ve been pretty much sleeping all day and staying up at night. My parents are even asking me what is wrong, but I told them nothing is.”
“Okay, baby. Try and get some sleep.”
“Okay, honey. You do sound like you’re getting tired so I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Good night, baby.”
“Good night,” I said. I hung up the phone and shut down my computer since it was still thundering and lightning outside. I got back in bed and stared up at the ceiling. I started to cry. I knew that this was gonna be harder than I thought about keeping this a secret. But my mind still wondered why John had not been reported missing yet. No parents who cared about their child would go this long without reporting them missing — it was something that I couldn’t fathom if I had a child and didn’t know where they were at. I knew that it had to be all a matter of time when John’s parents would report him missing — I felt that he had been out in those woods long enough.
School, Sex and Secrets II (School, Sex and Secrets #2) Page 4
