“No no no!” Gracie shouted. “Not again! I can’t lose someone again!”

For the first time, Willa looked at Gracie with a bitter stare, but Gracie didn’t understand. Where was all of this coming from? Was she living in the Twilight Zone? Why now? Why her?

Willa felt the sting in her chest as she said the words, “You lied to _me_.” Her face felt hot. “Me! The one you claim to be your sister! How could you! You claimed we were inseparable and yet you had the audacity to talk about me like that behind my back!?”

Gracie sobbed harder not holding anything back. “No, please. I wouldn’t! Please just listen to me for two seconds—.”

“I’ve heard enough,” Willa snapped. “All you have to do is tell the truth. Just admit your wrongdoings and maybe things can get better.”

“Let me talk!” Gracie yelled.

Willa shook her head. “Don’t you dare raise your voice at me! You’re the one in the wrong!”

“For what!?” Gracie cried harder, making it almost impossible to understand her. “I was accused of cheating on my boyfriend, which I’d rather die than do that. Then I got asked by multiple people I hardly knew if I was out sleeping with their boyfriend, and now no one in the house will even talk to me! I don’t understand what’s going on! Why can’t you just communicate with me?”

Willa rolled her eyes. “You know what you did. You _know_ what you said.”

Gracie looked at her confused and shook her head. “Stop speaking in riddles!”

“This is stupid!” Willa threw her hands in the air. “I’m done with these mind games! We’ve all decided you need to be out of the house by the end of the week. Go back to your parents or find a new place. Live on the streets for all I care! I never want to see you again!”

The air between them went still. Even though they were breathing heavily, one might think that they were both shot right in heart, ending it all forever. It might as well have though.

Willa Lee, the one Gracie considered her ride or die since the 7th grade, had just implied that she didn’t care what happened to her. They were there for each other through every break up or death. For the stress of finals or first dates. The times when one would have a nightmare and the other would come over with a chocolate shake and watch romcoms to soothe them. This was the end of it all.

All because someone had started a nasty rumor… and one was manipulated so much that there was no coming back from it.

Gracie stormed out of the room, down the stairs, opened the front door, and slammed it shut.

__________

(Flash forward to present: Lyra POV)

“And that was the last time I saw her alive…” Gracie held back her tears the best she could, but they started to overflow the moment she finished talking.

“I never saw her when she came by to pick up her stuff,” Will continued through tears, “I think she waited until all of us were at school.”

I nodded along as I wrote this down in my notebook. Even a tear was brought to my eye. I heard the remorse in her voice. She knew now that something bigger was at hand. That this was a setup for the killer to get Gracie alone. Which left a bigger question; why? Gracie was the only one with an elaborate plan to isolate and murder her. Everyone else had clearly been for fun. Whoever it was had a clear motive to only kill Gracie, but got such a rush that it grew into something more.