Jason sat on the uncomfortable metal chair in the interrogation room with Scotty and Kat. Jason stared at the blank wall. Scotty paced back and forth while he kept his eyes on the guilty man.
"Care to explain why you lied to me?" Scotty finally spoke.
"About what?" Jason said, didn't make an eye contact with him.
"About that night." Scotty stopped and leaned over the table, his hands were on the table. "You said you took care of it. You kept it under control but you lied. You actually were out of control and took your rage out on her."
Jason sighed angrily, can't take accusation from him anymore. "Why are you always picking on me? I didn't do anything!"
Scotty ignored him, "You caught your sister kissing your girlfriend. How did you react? You admitted that you were shocked, right? No. Or you planned to kill her for vengeance?"
"This—" The image exposed a young Jason with an enraged glare, "This is bullshit! I never do anything to hurt my sister!" Then the image changed back to older Jason.
"I love her." Jason almost sounded croaked.
"Then where were you when she was killed?" Scotty said, didn't give a crap about him. He walked around the table to stand beside him.
"I told you, I was at home!" Jason yelled.
Scotty brought his face closer to his. "You lied to us about what happened that night! Twice! You beat the crap out of her. Your sweet little sister saw you."
"Who? Lucy?"
"No, it was Cindy Lou Who. She hopped out of that bed because she was thirsty. She was going downstairs to get a glass of water but she caught Grinch who stole Christmas instead." Scotty said sarcastically, "Yeah of course, it was Lucy. She caught you beat her up."
"You lied." Kat looked at him in disgust.
Jason didn't say anything.
"Huh?" Scotty spat. "I don't care how old you are. I will put your ass in jail. Tell me the truth. Don't give craps about those stuff."
Jason chewed his lower lip hard before he spoke, "I did hit her. Not kill her. I swear…"
The doorbell rang as Jason made it to the top of the stairs.
He didn't bother to answer the door. He let someone go open the door. Once he took a small peek over his shoulder to see who was at the door.
Haley groaned as she slowly stood up to her feet. She limped over to open the door.
"Hello, Haley." It was Bryce.
Jason didn't bother to listen to their conversations. He went to his room.
"You saw Bryce that same night Haley died?" Kat inquired.
"I believe so." Jason marked.
"What made you think Bryce killed her?" Scotty said.
Jason moved his dark eyes to Scotty's eyes, "Bryce was the last person to see her alive."
Scotty held his gaze for a long time. Kat stared icily at the back of Jason's head.
"But I was like no way that he could kill her. I mean he was too small for his age. He was too short and skinny. How was that even possible?" Jason said, his eyes swelled up with fresh tears.
Both detectives watched his face carefully, making sure he wasn't acting.
Jason sniffled. "Do you know what Haley said to me that night before she died?"
"What is it?"
"She said… love won't kill. Jealousy does kill."
Scotty said nothing. He was right. He was right about who killed Haley. So he stayed quiet.
Scotty threw a bunch of papers down on the table near Bryce. "You lied."
They were in the interrogation room. It was almost dark, but there was a dim under the ceiling.
"W-what? What are you talking about?" Bryce stammered.
Scotty slammed his fist in front of him. "You didn't ever tell me that it was your last time to see her alive at her house."
"What?"
"That night!"
"They said you were the last person to see her alive." Lilly said. She sat on the chair next to the end of the table. Her arm rested on the table.
"I-I was at home." Bryce responded.
"How can you prove it?" Scotty sat down in front of the table across Bryce.
Bryce said no words at all. He looked stiffened and bald. No more longer black curly hair.
"Right, because you had a false alibi. I called your step-sister today and she said she remembered seeing you snuck out of the house. But you were lucky that she didn't tell your father." Lilly almost sounded taunted.
Bryce still said no words.
"Oh, I got it." Scotty let out a dry scoff.
Bryce glanced at him with a blank expression.
"You actually liked her. You had a crush on her. That's why you snuck out to see her." Scotty answered. "Who would sneak out of the house past midnight at thirteen years old?"
Bryce said nothing. His expression didn't change at all.
"You had a crush on her because she treated you with her kindness. Everybody didn't. She was the one who was nice to you." Lilly said.
"You were in love with her." Scotty answered.
"But you found out she was in love with Jillian. She told you, huh?" Lilly said.
Bryce's nose flared hard, looked like he was going to cry. His chin quavered.
"And you hate her. You wanted her to be dead. You beat the life out of her. You wanted to crush her skull." Lilly spoke for him.
"You were really lonely." Scotty said softly.
"And you were in great pain. Haley got all the attentions. You didn't." Lilly said.
"They treated you like an invisible kid." Scotty added.
"Haley now was the one of them who treated you like invisible." Lilly agreed.
"You were angry…" Scotty took a turn.
"Because she ignored you." It was Lilly's turn again.
"You were angry enough to kill her." Scotty's voice suddenly got cold. He flung a dozen of pictures across the table to Bryce, the pictures of dead Haley.
"Look at it." He pointed it out. "Admit it, you enjoy looking at it."
"No!" Then the image exposed a young Bryce with his teary eyes, "I didn't mean to do it!" Then he was back to adult Bryce.
"Then tell me what happened that night." Scotty cocked his head, seeking answers from him. "Huh?"
"What happened?" Lilly said impatiently, can't wait for him to ponder and hesitate to make a confession.
"Tell me," Scotty demanded.
Bryce's trembling mouth finally moved, "I was just—I was just having a talk with her."
"What happened that night?" Scotty pushed hard enough to get him into telling the truth.
"I didn't mean to kill her. Just wanted to talk with her. That's it. But I didn't mean to kill her…"
The two teenagers, Bryce and Haley walked down to the lake. A silver moon beamed through the dark water. The night was so pitch-black. No clouds. No white stars. Nothing.
Bryce stopped and whirled around with a concerned look, "Are you sure that you are okay?" He looked down at the spot where Haley clutched her stomach.
Haley tried not to show that how much she was in pain, "Yes, I'm fine. Bryce."
"So… um, I need to talk to you." Bryce sounded anxious.
"What is it, Bryce?" Haley said in a low voice.
"I know it sounds crazy but…" Bryce fell silent.
"W-what is it?" Haley's voice was shaking as if she felt threatened by him.
"I like you." Bryce blurted out.
Haley blinked hard as if she felt nothing after someone slapped across her face.
"I mean, I do like you." Bryce took a step forward. "I know it sounds crazy but you are the sweet girl in the world. I admire you. You treat me like I'm a human being. You ever didn't care about what anybody think. I do want more than friends."
"Um Bryce…" Haley hesitated, looking uncomfortable.
"It is a truth!" He sounded like a little innocent child after he claimed that he didn't do anything wrong when he got in big trouble.
"Bryce… I'm sorry but…"
"But what?" Bryce looked crushed all of a sudden.
"I-I like someone else." Haley winced, looked like she was afraid to see Bryce's reaction.
Bryce blinked, his eyes began to flood with angry tears, "Who?"
Haley took a deep breath, "Jillian…"
"Y-you like Jillian?" Bryce asked in disbelief. His tone sounded he was disgusted and shocked at the same time.
"I'm sorry. Please don't freak out."
"You like girls?!" He practically shouted.
"Bryce, shh… not so loud."
"Since when!" He yelled. He didn't care how loud he was. He didn't care how loud enough to wake up anybody.
"Bryce! Keep your voice down!" Haley hissed.
"How could you?" Tears running down his cheek, Bryce gasped with a choking sob.
"I know. I'm so sorry. Please don't hate me."
"Hate you?" He let out a disgust scoff, "Have you hear me? I am falling in love with you since we were in third grade!"
"I'm sorry, Bryce. I-gotta go."
"Where are you going?" Bryce demanded.
Haley flinched at his tone, "I-I got to go."
"Don't leave!" He barked.
"Bryce, you are scaring me."
"I'm not finished talking to you!" Bryce screamed. But Haley turned around to walk away. He felt a fume of rage spurted inside him, his blood boiling. His heart was pounding hard. His forehead was throbbing hard. His brain was sparking everywhere with rage. He was sick of being neglected by everybody. He hated being ignored. He hated it. Everybody ignored him and didn't even listen to him. Everybody laughed at him like he was a joke. Everybody treated him like an invisible child. Now Haley was one of them who treated him like that.
His brain exploded. He let out a frustrated scream. He grabbed a heavy branch out of nowhere, ran toward the girl, and bashed her head. THUD! He heard a sickening sound as he cracked her skull. She collapsed down to the ground hard. Bryce smashed her head again. Hard.
He hit her over and over and over until Bryce realized what he did. He stopped and dropped the branch down to the ground. He looked at her body. She didn't move. He let out a terrifying gasp. It can't be happening… He must be dreaming.
"No…" Bryce sobbed. "Haley…"
But no sounds returned back to him. Her lifeless body still didn't move, just stayed and still like a stone.
Bryce fell down to his knees and buried his face in his hands.
A silver moon fell back behind the trees. The whole world went black.
The door opened.
In slow motion, Lilly led Bryce out of the dark interrogation room. Bryce had his hands in handcuffs behind his back.
As a police officer walked past him, showed him as young Bryce. He was so small and walked around filled of shames and guilt. His black curls bounced and fell onto his eyes. His blue eyes already were filled of tears. As people walked past him, he changed back to adult Bryce, looked stiffened and empty.
Lilly was behind him, marching him to the cell. She said nothing. Then she saw Haley's siblings stood, held each other. They were shocked and crying when they found out Bryce did it. He was a truly family to them. They couldn't believe he actually did it.
As someone walked past them, revealed the teenage Jason stood tall and strong with a firm look on his face while his younger sister leaned her head on his waist level, looking scared.
Then they were back to adults, they wept and held each other. Lucy rested her head on his chest. Jason clutched her hand tightly. When he saw Lilly looking at them, he gave her a thankful nod.
Lilly nodded back in welcome.
Meanwhile, Jenye Scott approached up to her eight years old daughter who sat in her desk, working on her family tree project. She looked up at her mother as Jenye glanced down at the blank name in the small white box. She grabbed a pen and filled Haley's name in cursive into the box. Her daughter smiled at her.
Back to the storage, Kat wrote across the top of Haley's box with a black marker. Closed. She handled it over to Nick.
Nick placed it on the shelf. Then he looked at her, gave her a comfort smile. He patted her on the back before they both exited slowly.
It was a bright, shiny afternoon, a warm sun was glowing on the lake. Jillian wandered around through forests to the lake where she and Haley used to spend a lot of times together. That place looked exactly same as before.
She stopped and gazed down at the spot where Haley died. She kneeled down, touching the ground. She felt a wind blowing against her skin, her white-blonde hair fluttered around. She realized there was a young girl stood beside the tree. Jillian slowly stood up.
Haley smiled. Her dark eyes were filled with warmth and love for Jillian. Young Jillian's beautiful face almost looked like she was going to cry. She gave her a sad smile. She was glad that she finally saw Haley. It was her last time to see her in person.
They held a gaze for a long time. They spoke nothing.
Haley lastly gave her a goodbye smile before she slowly faded away…
Gone.
Forever…