By: Pilena
“Hey! Come on let’s get some candy!” My friend Julie shouted at me. Julia, Cassie, Philena, Lucy, and I were in my neighborhood, Townland, to celebrate Halloween. We were going from house to house, when we realized that Philena and Lucy weren’t walking with us.
“Um… guys, where are Philena and Lucy?” I asked.
“Maybe she’s at home; let’s go back,” Julie said.
“Hey guys! What’s up? I just went to the other side of the neighborhood to go to the haunted house,” Lucy said as she was catching up to us.
“So what if she isn’t walking with us right now? She’ll be fine. Who cares?” Lucy said.
Since the last time I can remember, Lucy and Philena were always in a dispute. They always had a reason to be angry at each other. Lately, Philena had been asked to the Halloween Dance by the boy Lucy liked. They were still in a dispute over that.
When I tried to open the door, I couldn’t open it. That’s strange. We just got a new door. Is there something behind the door? Julie and I went through the back door. She was dead.
…
I immediately called the police, panicking. I was dizzy, almost ready to faint. When the police arrived they examined her. The police said she probably died of natural causes because there was no blood around her, and no fingerprints on her. I was very confused. What natural cause would make her die? Then, I looked closer at her neck. It was unhealthily red. The print on her neck looked like a handprint. However, if she died of natural causes, the red might have just been a reaction. It’s always worth it to ask, though…
“Um, excuse me…. What are the red marks on her neck?” I asked the police.
“It is the reaction of…” The police officer trailed off, closely examining the red marks.
“It is a hand shape,” he stood up, shocked. “She was strangled,” The police said.
I fell to my knees, accidentally knocking down the pizza we had earlier. Who would murder Philena? She was the nicest person ever. She stood proud through all of the mean comments. She was always polite. Whoever killed her must not have known her…. But, it was in my house. So whoever it was had to be in my house earlier. I had locked the doors before we left for trick-or-treating, and no one except family has a key, so who could it be? There was no shattered glass or any signs of a break-in. When I came in through the back door, I don’t remember trying a key to get in. I just walked in. Does that mean that the murderer came in through the back door? He or she didn’t leave fingerprints…. I ran over to the pantry. In the pantry was the box of gloves. I saw a tiny smudge of red. That means that either the person was in haste and accidentally got pizza sauce on the box, or it was one of our friends and she ate pizza, then got gloves. I stumbled backward in shock. What if it was one of the people in my house right now?
I walked over to the sink, to see if the soap or sponge had been used. I noticed red on the sponge. What is that? I walked over, and I realized that there were no blood marks because the murderer had cleaned it up. That means that she had been hurt, and that the police wasn’t very thorough. I looked closely looked at her arm. It was twisted in a bad angle, and it had tiny red circles. It was probably where the murderer had hurt her.
When I walked back to where my friends had stood, I was confused. It was totally one of them, but they had been with me the entire time. Wait… There was one time when I wasn’t with everyone… Who was it? Oh yeah! It was Lucy! She went to the haunted house! Time to ask some questions…
“So, Lucy… You went to the haunted house, did ya?”
“Yeah. Uh… It was terrifying. I screamed a lot!” Lucy said. It was clear she was lying.
“So, where was this? Also, when did you start liking haunted houses? Last time I remember, you were the only one who didn’t want to go on the merry-go-round because you were scared. And now you are going to a haunted house? Willingly?”
“Uh… I–” Lucy began.
“You didn’t go, did you? You came here, through the door, and strangled Philena, didn’t you?” I turned to the police incredulous over what I had just discovered. “Are you going to arrest her?”
“Uh… At this point, I can’t arrest her, because there isn’t sufficient evidence. Right now, we can only find her fingerprints on the glove box. But that doesn’t say much without any other evidence. At this point, she is under watch but not under arrest.”
Lucy flashed a smirk at me.
Lucy whispered in my ear,”Ha! They’ll never find out! She ruined my life forever, and now I ruined hers.”
She had a look of triumph and satisfaction. She had covered her evidence enough that the police couldn’t find a reason to arrest her! One day, I will get my revenge! One day….
DW Voice 