It was like time stopped. I mean how could Abby's be gone? Who would want her body? This was just too weird.
"How is her body mi-miss-missing?" Neo stammered
"You know how we chose to have a closed casket right? Well the body was there when they set it up, but when they went to bury it later… it was gone" Chang explained.
"Why would someone want Abby's body?" Jon asked.
"I'm not sure, but this is getting weird" Chang said.
"Did you guys ever think that… that maybe the fire wasn't an accident? That somebody might have started it?" I asked
"It's not possible, if someone started the fire, they would have died in the fire" said Neo.
"Not if more than one person was doing the job" Jon mumbled.
"Don't tell me you believe her too, Jon" said Neo.
"Well it makes more sense to me; I mean what could have started the fire? We didn't have anything cooking and you don't have a fireplace. Nina and Abby went to get the food remember? The way I see it, someone had to intentionally start it" Jon explained.
I could tell Neo was stumped, so he remained silent. So was I, because Jon made a good point.
"What if somebody was actually trying to kill me? But instead Abby died? For all we know her death could be an accident that way" said Neo.
"Whoever it was could've been after you or Abby for all we know, it could have been any of us" I insisted "It's no ones fault Neo"
"Can we stop talking about this? Can we talking about something else please?" muttered Jon.
I saw that Jon felt very uncomfortable, because he was wringing his hands. I remembered he would only wring his hands when a subject came up that he didn't like talking about. He did that when he told me about his father…
It was a hot July day, and my friends and I just finished our freshman year. Jon and I decided to go swimming at the lake down the street form Jon's house. This was the first time I ever swam with Jon since sixth grade. All the other times Neo, Abby, and I wanted to go swimming he would make up some excuse or just not come at all. I figured if Jon was swimming with me, that this was a big step for him. I had changed into my red bikini and waited by the lake. Then Jon came out from behind the tree and I gasped.
There were scars all over his body, and I saw bruises sprinkled all over. The mark that really stood out from the rest was the one towards his hip bone; it looked as if he had been stabbed or something. I walked closer to him, and I gently turned him around. I saw the branches of belt marks melted into his back, I carefully touched the scars, and I felt Jon tense up. I turned him around to face me so I could see his chest again, I brushed my fingers against the deep scar at his hip. I looked up to him, with horror.
"What happened to you?" I whispered.
I saw him begin to wring his hands, and he finally said,
"My family is pretty messed up, well at least my father is. He beat me throughout my seventh grade year. He beat me, whipped me, and he stabbed me in the summer. I was two years ago, but these scars remind me that the past is real. I try not to think about it, but I can't go hiding myself for much longer. That's why my dad left in eighth grade, because we finally out him in jail.
I immediately felt the need to hug him, to comfort him. Even thought it happened two years ago, I still asked,
"So your mom just let this happen?"
"He did stuff to her too, way worse than that he did with me, it was a little bit more… sexual" he said blushing.
"Oh. I wish I knew what to say. Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"Because I was afraid. I was afraid that you would think that your boyfriend wasn't as tough as you thought he was. I was afraid to tell anybody. I couldn't go swimming because people would see the scars. You're the first person I've told because well… I love you Nina"
I remember that memory always because it was when Jon was serious with me, the first time he told me he loved me, and it deepened our relationship. Everything was so much easier back then, before Jon started drinking, before Jon because more depressed, it was before Abby was murdered. I decided it wasn't an accident, someone had started that fire. I just wasn't sure who. No matter what the others say, I still don't think it was an accidental fire.
"I just don't get how Abby's body is missing or why someone would want it" Neo stated.
"That is what doesn't make sense, the body is so messed up anyway" Jon mumbled.
"Who would want a burned up body?" I asked.
"All I know is, it's got to be some psycho" Neo stated "I mean that goes to a funeral and steals the body right from the casket?"
"Someone with a good reason, and the right motive" I replied.
"I can't think of anyone who would hate us that much besides Lindsay, but I don't think she would kill Abby or even take her body for that matter" said Jon, frowning "She's the craziest person we've pranked"
"She did make me fall, and I landed on the ground pretty hard" I said, frowning at the memory.
"We never pranked her that bad. If we did, Abby was never with is. She always stayed behind, because she didn't like Lindsay. Lindsay always made fun of her because she was so quiet and never pranked" Neo said "If Lindsay killed her; she really is screwed up because Abby never did anything to her. Abby was more mature"
"We could just talk to Lindsay about it, we could be talking about this all day, but we will never know if we don't ask" Jon murmured.
Neo and I just nodded in agreement; we all walked out of my house and across the street. Neo's house was still in ashes, they haven't bothered to clean it up yet. We walked up to Lindsay's door and knocked, the door creaked open, but no one was there. I slowly walked in and the guys followed. We had only been in her house once when we were in sixth grade because Lindsay told her mom about the prank we pulled on her, but we never got in trouble. We quietly walked up the stairs to Lindsay's room and knocked on the door. No one answered the door so I knocked again, a little harder this time. Lindsay still didn't answer. Neo slowly opened the door, we heard no protesting. Jon went in first and Neo and I followed. I saw her at the computer, sitting in a chair.
"Lindsay, what the heck? Why didn't you answer when we knocked? Are you even listen- oh my god" I gasped.
I had walked over to face Lindsay to see if she was listening to me, when I saw her morbid face.
The long slit in her throat had caused the front of her shirt to be a dark horrifying red. The deep cut on her forehead caused her flawless face to be soaked in her blood. Her dark hair was caked to her face. I slowly touched the blood on her cheek, and it was almost dry. The one thing that really caught my eye was the message on her computer screen. "Secrets can kill, secrets can be deadly, and secrets can cause trouble. How much she longed to have her fingers going through his dark red hair, how much she wanted to tell him that she was falling for him. He didn't know because she kept it a secret. Look what happens when you keep secrets from people"
I was suddenly dumbstruck and very confused. Who was Lindsay having secret conversations with? Then when I read it a second time, I realize who the message was talking about. I looked over to Jon and he rubbed the back of his neck. I stared at him for a minute or so, looking into his eyes and I saw sadness.
Taking my eyes off of Jon, I looked at Lindsay's desk and saw her cell phone. I picked up her cell phone and want to her call log. As I looked at her dialed numbers and received calls, only one name showed over and over again: Jon's. I went to her text message Inbox, and saw loads of texts from Jon. I set her phone back on the table.
"Neo, can you umm drag Lindsay's chair toward her bed? I need to see something on her computer" I said motioning to Lindsay's corpse. Neo obeyed and hesitantly moved her to the bed. I grabbed the stool in the corner and sat at the computer desk. Conveniently her email site was open; and just like her cell phone, Jon's name appeared numerous times. I scrolled down to the bottom of the screen, to see that they started emailing each other last year, I scrolled back up to the most recent and I saw an advice forum confirmation email confirming that her topic " complicated friendship with someone I shouldn't be friends with" has been posted. I clicked on the link and it advanced me to her post. I read "I have a serious issue. This guy and I have known each other forever, and well for about five years, all him and his friends did was play pranks on me. This last year or so he and I have somehow been talking nonstop, because we can just understand each other. The only problem is he has a girlfriend, a girlfriend who he's been with for eight years. The more I talk to him and hang out with him, the more I seem to fall for him. His friends and his girlfriend really don't like me but he just likes me as a friend or maybe more. What should I do? I just cant seen to stay away from him and I know he feels the same about that at least" I exited out of it and looked at Jon, and he seemed to be nervous.
"Dude, what's going on?" Neo asked.
"We were just friends, honest. I just didn't know that she felt that way about me, I didn't cheat, I swear" Jon said.
"Why didn't you tell us? You could have told us instead of sneaking around with Lindsay" I said, calmly as I could.
"I really didn't think you guys would've understood. I just remember about a year ago, we threw a bunch of shaving cream filled balloons in her window. While you, Neo, and Abby were laughing, I looked at Lindsay look out of her window with the saddest look in her eyes. Her hair and clothes were covered in shaving cream and it looked like she was about to cry. So when we went home, I drove back to her house. I entered her room to see her room was massacred by shaving cream, and I saw Lindsay sitting on the floor in a little ball. When she noticed I was in the room, she looked up but then quickly covered her face again. Even though I only saw her face for a few seconds, I knew she had been crying. So I sat on the floor with her and I apologized to her. She started to cry again, but I calmed her down and she forgave me. After that night we just couldn't stop talking to each other and we became good friends" Jon explained.
"I still don't get why you could've at least told us after a month or two" Neo pointed out
"We all know you guys would've gotten mad and wouldn't be happy with it" Jon replied "Lindsay went through a lot and what we were doing to her was just making it worse"
"So all the times I called you, and you were busy at "work" you were with Lindsay?" I said, crossing my arms "So you lied to me?"
"Yeah I did, but think of it like a Romeo and Juliet situation but instead its forbidden friendship. That's the way I saw it" Jon said looking at his shoes.
"Guys, it shouldn't matter now. Lindsay's dead and you guys aren't together anymore, it's in the past" Neo ordered "Just get yourselves together, the police are probably going to question us"
Neo called 9-1-1 and explained what happened and when the police and ambulance got there, they took us three to the station.