Chapter 8

When I arrived home, my heart learped in my chest upon seeing a police car in front of the house. My first thought was to turn around and come back when they were gone, but my more rational thought that followed it briefly scolded me for thinking of doing that, and realized that the police were probably there because they were questioning everyone in the neighborhood. That was to be expected. Not showing up would be more suspicious than just talking to them.

So I walked inside like I knew nothing and hung up my coat on the coat rack. As I took off my wet and worn shoes, Dahlia called my name from the living room. "Jayden! Is that you?"

"Yes," I said.

"Come here!"

I set my backpack down next to the stairs and walked into the den. Sitting on the couch were Dahlia and a police officer, and sitting on the recliner was Jared, a newspaper rolled up in his lap. I narrowed my eyes slightly. "What's up?"

Dahlia spoke first. "This young officer is here to ask you some questions about...about Hannah. Your girlfriend, she was?" She spoke carefully, definitely recalling how I reacted to the news of her death coming out.

The officer nodded. "Yes, that's right. I'm just talking to each of Hannah's friends, getting a good idea of what happened in the events that led up to her death and if any of you have any information we could use to help figure out what happened to her."

I remained standing in the doorway. "What's your name?"

"My name is Evan Shaw. I'm sure you already know my son, Darren. I just want you to know---"

I groaned. "Oh, you're Darren's father. Fuck you, Evan. I'm not talking to you."

Dahlia sat up in surprise, frowning at me. "Jayden!"

Jared looked at me with that nonchalant and oblivious look in his eyes. He never really knew what was going on. "At least have a seat, son. Give the man a chance."

After a moment of hesitation, I sighed and sat down on the coffee table. "Alright, what do you want?"

Evan and Darren shared much resemblance. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that Darren would grow up to look exactly like his father, and I wouldn’t even be surprised if he picked up the same profession. His jawline was sharper, and he certainly had more facial hair than Darren did. His hair was styled, the dark curls pushed to the side with hair gel, and more care put into his appearance than Darren ever would've thought of.

"So, just give me the general rundown of what happened on Friday. That was the last time you saw her?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I dropped off Daisy at her friend's house, it was like twelve, and then I got back to Hannah's house around twelve fifteen. Hannah let me in, Darren, Lucas and Nancy were already there. We chilled, ordered some pizza, watched a few movies while smoking..." I ran my tongue across my dry lips, remmebering to omit just exactly what it was we were smoking. "I fell asleep and woke up around nine something, I'm pretty sure. When I woke up, Lucas and Nancy were passed out, and Darren and Hannah were in her room together. I got home around nine thirty and went to bed right after."

"Were there any arguments or altercations that took place at this get-together?"

"No, everyone that was there are friends."

Evan looked back down at his notepad and scribbled something down. "Do you know of anyone else who would want to hurt Hannah for any reason at all?"

I shrugged. "Not really. People liked Hannah." As true as that would be. There was also a good portion of those at the school that thought she was a shallow bitch who was full of it. People on both sides of the coin were equally as right and equally as wrong.

"What exactly was your relationship like with Hannah?"

I pulled a hand through my hair. "Fine. Nothing remarkable. We weren't particularly close, but she was nice enough."

Evan frowned slightly. "But you were dating, right? How were you not close?"

"Only because Nancy dared her to ask me out once. If anything, she was more of a friend that I kissed a couple times." I crossed my arms, considering once again Hannah's choice to stay in that relationship with me. If she really was so horrible, she would've dropped me after the first date, but decided to stay with me. Out of what? Pity? And she was never all that rude to me afterwards either.

He sighed. "Alright. What do you know about her relationship with her friends?"

"She was definitely a lot closer with Nancy and Darren. They were always together. And she wasn't super close to Lucas, but she was still nice. Anyone who didn't like her didn't really spend any time around her." And then I thought of Avery, and her brief encounter with Hannah. And while I considered mentioning it, the better part of me decided not to. It was better that she wasn't involved.

"Do you know if she ever went out at night? Met with some people outside of school?"

I shook my head. "No, she didn't really do that sort of thing. All of her friends went to our school and she didn't really hang out with anyone else, and I always walked her home."

Evan wrote something else down before looking at me again. "How would you describe your opinion of Hannah?"

I hesitated. What did I really think of her? If I'd been asked this question a month ago, I would have immediately thought to answer that I hated her. But with the time we spent together, I wasn't sure that was the case anymore. "She's fine, I suppose. I don't have any strong feelings when I think of her. She was just nice."

He flicked his notepad shut. "That's all I have to ask for now. Thanks for what you've told me, it will be helpful."

"By the way," I said, clearing my throat, "What did the others say happened?"

Evan tilted his head slightly. "Well, their stories seem to line up with yours. It's all about the same time frame and Darren said he saw you leave when you said you did, and same with Nancy and Lucas."

"And...Do you know what happened to Hannah? Like...how did she die?"

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "We're...Not sure yet. There wasn't anything left behind that could be considered a murder weapon, it seems the only thing the killer left was a bunch of bird feathers. All we have is a rough estimate of when she died: which would be about two in the morning on Saturday, hours after all of your friends left her house."

I almost sighed with relief, but held it in as I remained in front of him, remembering the screwdriver that I'd left behind. I already knew they'd be considering the signs of forced entry, and with a screwdriver in the room where she died, there would be some collection of that evidence. "Alright. I see."

Evan stood up, patting me on the shoulder. "Thanks again for taking the time to talk, Jayden. I appreciate it."

"Sure."

"If anything comes up, I'll be sure to let you all know," he said, heading to the front door.

Dahlia stood up hastily. "Let me walk you out, Officer," she said, leaving Jared and I sitting alone in the den.

I looked at him for a moment, and it seemed he hadn't even been paying attention. His eyes were trained on the newspaper in his hands, likely mindlessly reading through the daily columns. That was how I always saw him. He was either at work or in his study most days, and I couldn't remember the last time I had a full conversation with him.

Dahlia came back into the room once the officer was gone. She smiled at me. "I promise this will all turn out alright, sweetheart."

"Yeah, I know." I stood up and walked past her to the stairs. "Goodnight."

"Don't you want dinner?"

I walked up the stairs without answering her, and then stopped on the landing when I spotted Daisy peering out of her room. "What was the policeman doing here?" she asked in a nervous, high pitched tone.

"Nothing you have to worry about," I muttered. "Go talk to Mom."

She watched me for another moment before silently complying, heading past me and down the stairs.

When I walked into my room, the window was wide open, and Krieth was sitting on my desk. I shut the door quietly and walked over to my bed. He watched me without saying anything as I changed out of my uniform. "Where do you go?" I asked. "When you're not following me around?"

The crow tilted its head. "I'm always watching you. You just might not always see me."

"Can you not do that?" I tossed my white button up into my closet. "I'd rather be able to see you. And to talk to you whenever I need to."

"Sure."

I pulled a t-shirt on and a pair of sweatpants and collapsed onto my bed. "You'll just do everything I say?"

"As long as you feed me, yes. You're more powerful than I am."

I turned my head to look at Krieth. "Really? How?"

Again, that extended breath of silence before he said, "You'll see."

I scoffed."Not that shit again." But still, the more that Krieth refused to say, the more I was starting to wonder what he was referring to. Whatever it meant to no longer be human. "So why Hannah?" I asked. "Why did we kill her?"

"Because she hurt you."

I sat up. "She hurt me?"

"With that boy, Darren."

I stared at the crow looking back at me. "But that doesn't---fuck---that doesn't mean she deserved to die," I hissed.

Krieth watched me for a moment before fluttering into my lap. "Whether or not she deserved it doesn't matter. If you think too hard about who does and doesn't deserve to die, sticking to that pathetic human moral regime, we'll both starve to death."

I didn't have anything else to say. I leaned back against the wall and stared at my curtains, blowing in the wind. As much as I hated to admit it, Krieth made sense. It was too late to go back to my normal life, and I sure as hell didn't want to curl up and die. There were things that I needed to let go of and stop caring about, as much as I resented the idea. The reason I had been chosen no longer mattered. The fact of the matter was that I had been. And now I had to deal with it.

I sighed. "Fine."