Ever since Stacy had stopped coming to school, it had been impossible for Amy to enjoy her school life. To keep her mind occupied, the teenage girl had focused even more on her studies, which was seemingly the only good thing to come out of it.
During the lunch break, when Amy was eating her homemade meals, it always hit the hardest. Just a few days ago, she had still blamed Stacy for transferring away, believing that her best friend had done so to avoid her. However, after learning that she had died, the teenage girl couldn’t help but be depressed that their last shared memory had been of Stacy walking out on her.
Seeing her alone, some girls from her class did invite her over to come eat with them. In fact, even though he had still prepared her a homemade lunch, seeing as it was cheaper, today Gary had left her money on the table, so she could go to the canteen.
Amy understood that to be his attempt to cheer her up, yet she declined. Although she did seek some companionship in such a hard time, she also felt guilty about accepting an invitation out of pity.
‘It's time like these, that I wish I went to the same school as Gary… at least then I would have someone I know, and I could talk to. Should I go and visit Mum again, after school?’
Thinking about this, she thought back to Gary’s smile in the pool club. Her brother seemed to be unaware of it, but he smiled so wide when he was lying that his eyes would become upside down crescent moons. Amy was sure he was only trying to look out for her, but it still hurt knowing that he wanted to do everything on his own.
‘If only I hadn’t accompanied Stacy that day, then I wouldn’t have to worry about a gang being after Gary now… no, who knows what would have happened to her if she had gone on her own… Oh, just why did you have to agree to that day in the first place, Stacy?
‘Gary doesn’t seem to be too worried about it, though. Did he meet all those people, so they could protect him? Did he have some type of deal with them? But then I can't figure it out… why did she call him Boss.’ Currently, Amy was writing in a notebook.
She had written down all the clues she had gathered so far and was making a spider diagram connecting all the points she had in her head. Of course, she didn't write down exactly what they meant, in case anyone ever found her notebook.
Amy used acronyms and doodles so that it looked like nothing in particular. BC, which stood for ‘bloody clothes’ was connected to a doodle of a bird, representing Hawk, accompanied by a question mark. That one was also linked to a doodle of a music note, which symbolised the karaoke club, as well as GE, for the Grey Elephants.
She wasn’t sure about it, but then there was Stacy's death as well, shortly after they had confessed. ‘Was this perhaps the Grey Elephants doing? If so, then could they be after me next? But why would they go so far? They already have Gary's information, and they know what school he's going to? Do they know what he looks like? They never asked me anything like that.
‘But then…what did Gary do that day, after he found out about Stacy, coming back with his clothes full of blood again… is it all linked? Maybe I should pay a visit to Stacy’s new school and find an answer there.’ Any thought.
Since her brother wasn't going to give her a clear answer, then she was going to track all the steps and clear it up. Amy was worried that if she could figure everything out, there was a good chance that the police might be able to as well.
It was the end of the school day, and Amy stood there just by the school exit. Up ahead around 40 metres away she could see the gate where all the students would exit from. She just stood there in place, frozen. For some reason, it felt like her body wasn’t listening to her and was refusing to move forward.
‘What is happening to me? I know I had trouble after the attack, but I was able to walk home on my own plenty of times even after Stacy had transferred. Why can't I move now?’
After thinking about it, she came to the conclusion that there was one major change. Stacy had died, and it didn’t seem to be a coincidence. The longer the teenage girl waited, the more students would leave the school, meaning she would be on her own if she continued to hesitate.
Soon she realised that her breathing was getting deeper. Her surroundings were darling. Lifting her hands, she started to hold her shoulders, rubbing them.
‘I don't understand what's happening to me right now? Should I call Gary, ask him to pick me up?’ She thought, but instead started taking deep breaths one after the other, she knelt down getting lower, and eventually she started to feel better. She didn't want to bother him with something like this.
When looking up, though, there were only a few students left.
‘How long…was I like that for?’
Amy’s sense of time was off, even after thirty minutes there would be students hanging around the front gates. Still, she couldn't stay here forever and eventually started walking. Taking a taxi wasn't an option for two reasons.
One of them being that taxis weren't exactly safe in the first place. More and more horror stories were coming out, and Amy believed that was an easy way for her to get captured again. They didn't have a car, and no one that could even drive it to pick them up.
Finally, making it out of the gates, the high school girl felt somewhat relieved. It might have been a small thing for most of the girls at school, but for some reason for her today it felt like she had just climbed a mountain.
Still, she continued to walk and looked around constantly. Amy walked close to the wall, and away from the curb. Unfortunately, every time she heard the sound of a car driving past, she would freeze up, stopping in her tracks. Her heart would thump, and Amy was prepared to run at any second.
‘Come on… come on, I’m not that far away from home.’ The teenage girl encouraged herself. She continued and now was on a more pedestrian street. There were fewer cars here, so she was a little less panicked, but possibly even then a car had come down this street and Amy still stopped, but there was something else she noticed.
*Clack*, *Clack*
Amy looked around, but she was unable to see where it had come from. Thinking it must have just been her imagination, she started to walk forward again. At a traffic light, she stopped to tie her shoes, but then she suddenly heard it again.
*Clack*, *Clack*
This time Amy was sure that her ears weren’t playing a trick on her. Worst of all, it seemed to be nearby.