“Karla was pronounced dead last night” the doctor said once he walked in the light yellow room we were in, his eyes filled with remorse and sympathy.

My eyes widened at his statement, the statement that fractured me.

Karla, our best friend, the one that kept us together at our lowest, the one that stayed with us through thick and thin, the one I trusted with all my heart…gone…dead…

Just like that?

“You…you can’t be serious!” I found myself yelling out, “s-she’s alive…and this is a joke…right??”

He only shook his head, closing his eyes as he did. “I wish I was joking kid.”

Stacy squeezed my hand, her expression unusually..calm, despite what we were just told.

How could she be calm, knowing our best friend is gone forever?

“Could you tell us how she died?” She asked in an also calm tone, like it was a mere acquaintance that just died, like she didn’t even feel anything from this.

He nodded, before going into detail about it. “Poisoning” he started, “we’re unsure of what kind, but it was consumed days before the incident.”

“H-How many..?” I managed to ask.

“How many days ago? Two, from what we could determine as of now.” He answered.

Two days ago?

Me, Stacy, and Karla went out to eat two days ago, and she stated that she didn’t have anything to eat or drink beforehand, since she was so distracted from a work project.

So did someone poison her while we were there, or did she do this herself?

I looked over at Stacy, and she still had that calm, apathetic expression on her face. I still couldn’t understand how that was possible, to be told that your best friend will never be by your side again and not look affected by it.

Does she know something?

As I asked myself that, the doctor spoke again, “we could also determine that the poisoning occurred at around 6:30pm.”

So it was at the restaurant, and specifically when me and Karla went to get her purse from the car. That realization raised a lot more questions for me that I might never get answers to.

How did someone manage to poison her?

Why would someone want to poison her?

Does Stacy have anything to do with this?

Stacy’s eyes snapped to my bloodshot, tear filled ones with that same apathetic feeling as everything else about her right now, before looking back at the doctor.

“I think that’s enough, could me and Lily have some time to ourselves?” She asked, which in response got her a nod and him walking out of the room.

Her eyes went back to mine, a sick, fake, small smile on her face, one that didn’t reach her eyes, or the rest of her face for that matter. “You don’t look as heartbroken and devastated anymore, you look almost…nervous. Why is that?”

I felt myself take a few breaths and heard words come out of my mouth in an almost yell, my tone being surprisingly being free of its grief, and now more filled with anger.

“Why are you being so apathetic about this?? We were just told our best friend is dead and you’re sitting here like it’s normal, like it doesn’t affect you!”

“Well, we have to let it go eventually, and I’m choosing to let go of it before it affects me too much.” She said in a calm tone.

“Did you not see anyone put anything in her food or something??” I yelled out.

“I saw no such thing, maybe one of the chefs could’ve messed up her food,” She replied.

“That’s a lie! I remember trying some of hers and look at me, I’m not _dead!_” I said, slapping my hand on my upper chest where my heart was located.

“Maybe you had a good piece then.” She said.

“They said she was poisoned when you were the only one at the table!”

“What are you getting at?” She asked, cocking up an eyebrow at me.

“ _You_ poisoned her, didn’t you??? That’s why you’re so calm about this, because it means whatever twisted plan you had worked!”

She was silent after that, before her smile widened slightly and she clapped, slowly and condescendingly, like I had just finished a child’s puzzle.

“I must say Lily, I never took you for a detective,” she said after sighing a little, “but you’re right, I did. I did and I didn’t regret it in any way, shape, or form.”

I was stunned silent, my mouth agape, eyes widened, breathing cut short.

“How…How could you…?” I asked once I gained my everything back.

“Envy.” She said rather quickly, like she had this whole conversation rehearsed.

“Envy…? What could you possibly have been jealous of her for..?”

“Everything. She had everything, y’know? Big house, lots of money, lots of people that would do anything for her, it just gets to you.” She replied with a shrug, her eyes reflecting the look of pure, sinister insanity.

I quickly got up from my seat to get away from her, my breathing and heartbeat growing quick.

“I…I can’t let you get away with that!” I yelled as I backed up towards the door.

She got up too, her motion quick yet rehearsed. She hung her head low and started laughing, low and insane-like.

Her gaze went up to me again, a crazed smile that went ear to ear plastered on her face.

“If I ever get caught for this, you’re next. You’re next and I’ll make sure your death more than a simple poisoning. Just remember that for me, alright?”

I looked up at the camera in the corner of the room before nodding to her and running for my life out of that door.

I ran down those hospital stairs until I could barely feel my legs, until I could only hear the pounding of my ears and heart and not the sound of confused doctors yelling for me.

I ran until I almost tackled a security guard at the front doors, begging them to get her, for her to be locked up until she rots like Karla did.

The only things I could hear before I passed out was the sounds of guards running in almost every direction looking for her or the camera room, and the voice of Stacy in my head saying I was going to die for this, that I was going to end up like Karla for telling someone what she did.

I hope I’ll never have to pay that price…