Jessi

I Wouldn't Be Standing Here if it Weren't for You

The last thing I would have expected on October thirty-first was to find Adley Morgenstern dead in a cemetery.

But then again, Adley seemed to have a way of ruining everything.

After all, right when she was going to pay for her crimes, Adley had decided to go and off herself. Now, a month after her death, I was forced to sit through her funeral, listening to people praise her as if she hadn't been a cold-blooded murderer.

"–and I know that Adley is in a better place now. I bet she and my sister are already up to no good," Ethan Landers laughed softly from his spot behind the podium at the front of the church. I watched as he wiped a hand under his eyes. Anger bubbled inside me rather than sympathy.

Ethan shouldn't have been wasting a single tear on his sister's killer.

No one should have been.

Switching focuses, I looked toward Adley's brother, Caleb – who had been away at college until recently – and Adley's mother, who were standing to Ethan's right. Ms. Morgenstern was leaning against her son's shoulder as if he was the only thing keeping her upright. She sniffled into a light blue handkerchief, while Caleb stared into the distance, his face unreadable.

Would they still feel the same if they knew what Adley was?

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't notice Ms. Morgenstern calling my name until my dad nudged me in the shoulder, gesturing toward the empty podium.

Whatever, I thought, feeling people's eyes on me. I slid out of the pew that I was sitting in, then made my way to the front of the church. I've got a free pass for being weird. I'm supposed to be devastated and all that.

Once I made it to the front of the church, I looked out at the sea of people. I suddenly felt a little dizzy as I glanced around the church – the sense of déjà-vu was overwhelming. In place of the red roses that had adorned the building during Anna's funeral, there were now white carnations. Anna's photo had also been swapped out for Adley's so that instead of an angel's face, a murderer's stared back.

I looked back at the audience, feeling the familiar urge to chew my nails. But I wasn't about to let a speech at Adley's funeral make me nervous.

So, instead, I gripped the edges of the podium and took a deep breath – more to calm my anger than anything else. "What is there to say about Adley Morgenstern?"

Would this be considered "burying my problems?"

I watched as the last shovelful of dirt topped off Adley's grave after we exited the church at the end of the ceremony. I now stood awkwardly, sandwiched between Ivy Blackthorn and Nate Tucker, who kept exchanging these strange, sly glances with each other.

Looks like Karma caught up to you, huh, Adley? I thought as I looked down at Adley's headstone – a light gray stone with a few simple designs chiseled on it.

Adley Sofia Morgenstern

Loving Friend and Daughter

May 13th, 1999 – October 31st, 2015

Slowly, everyone then began to disperse, either staring warily at the gloomy sky or trying to comfort Adley's family. Without trying, I could hear people whispering about "the poor Morgenstern family" who had lost two people in only a few years – both Adley and her father.

"Unfortunate, isn't it?" Ivy asked flatly from beside me. She glanced down at her sharp, black nails.

"Like either of you care," I muttered, continuing to stare at Adley's headstone.

"She was our friend," Nate protested from my other side, crossing his arms over his chest. "We cared so much about her."

"Oh, please," I laughed sharply, rolling my eyes. "Cut the sappiness. You're gonna make me puke."

Nate shot me a glare as he tugged at his black tie. "It's not like we wanted her to die–"

"Well, you don't really look too sad about it." A smirk appeared on my face, and I laughed cruelly. "But then again, did you ever care about Adley? You two were hooking up together before Adley and Nate even broke up. You know I sadly saw you guys together the night of Nate's party."

Ivy narrowed her eyes at me as she stepped closer. She then whispered, "When you confronted us two weeks ago, you said you'd keep your mouth shut."

"And I will – it's not like anyone would care now. But I'm also reminding you that I have the upper hand now – and that you should really work on your acting skills."

"I could say the same thing about you, Short Stack," Ivy responded, leaning away from me and plastering a look of boredom on her face. "You don't look even close to sad. Though, if I were you, I would be more worried than anything."

"And why is that?" I hissed, putting my hands on my hips.

"Haven't you heard that bad things come in threes?" Ivy asked, a smirk pulling at her glossed lips. "First Annabeth, then Adley..."

"You are probably gonna be next," Nate chuckled, filling in the blank as his hazel-green eyes narrowed at me.

I scoffed at his attempt at a warning. "Is that supposed to scare me?"

"No," Ivy answered simply, straightening the sleeves of her black blazer. "But it might make you think twice before you do something stupid."

"Adley killed Anna," I whispered to myself, leaning, shell-shocked, against the banister of Adley's staircase on Halloween night. "Adley killed Anna."

Part of me wanted to scream, part of me wanted to pound Adley into the ground, and another part of me wanted to puke.

Adley killed Anna...

But she's not going to get away with it–

Someone sprinted past me, slamming into my shoulder but not stopping to apologize. I looked in their direction and noticed that it was Ethan, who was running so quickly that he was tripping over his feet. He flung open the front door and ran out of Adley's house.

Curious to know what the hell was going on, I followed, my shock-numbed mind seeming to forget that I had more important things to worry about besides Ethan's whereabouts. I trailed behind him as he darted down the dark streets, wishing that my legs were longer so that it wouldn't take so much effort to chase after him.

When Ethan finally slowed his pace, we arrived at the cemetery. Without a moment's hesitation, he shoved his way through the front gate and resumed his insane sprinting.

A graveyard. In the pitch dark. On Halloween.

You've got to be kidding me, Ethan.

I could barely make out Ethan's silhouette in the inky darkness, so I focused on following the sounds of his footsteps in the damp grass.

Where in hell is he going–?

Ethan's footsteps halted, and I ducked behind a nearby gravestone. "Adley?" Ethan's voice called. "Adley, it's Ethan!"

He's looking for Adley? Adley's here?

But if Adley was in the graveyard, she clearly hadn't heard Ethan.

"Adley?" Ethan shouted again, his voice sounding slightly more panicked now. "Adley, where are you?"

I saw a flashlight click on, illuminating a small patch of grass–

A horrible choking sound, somewhere between a sob and a scream, sounded, and the flashlight fell from Ethan's hands. "Adley!" he screamed, dropping to the ground. "Adley, answer me!"

In the dim light of Ethan's flashlight, I could make out the horrifying scene in front of us: Adley, in a short red dress, lying crumpled against Anna's gravestone. Her head was surrounded by a pool of blood, and an empty pill bottle lay beside her.

Adley's... dead.

I must have made some sort of sound because Ethan turned his head toward me, tears running down his cheeks. His face twisted into a mess of horror and pain. "Don't just stand there!" he shouted, making me jump back. "Do something!"

I opened my mouth but couldn't seem to form any words. I felt rooted to the spot as if my feet were glued to the ground.

"Do something!" Ethan repeated, his voice breaking. "Please!"

Somewhere in a haze of shock, I called the police. They showed up a few minutes later, slightly annoyed at first – I seemed to be a well-known pest amongst the Ember Falls Police after being interrogated more than once. But when they spotted the scene in the graveyard, everything escalated.

I mostly remembered bits and pieces from there onward.

How the police tried to pry Ethan off Adley's corpse.

How Adley's dead body looked cast in blue and red lights.

How the little, transparent, orange pill bottle rocked back and forth in the breeze.

How Ethan's flashlight got crushed underneath an officer's leather boot.

Then, there was the news report that aired the next morning, which I couldn't forget, no matter how hard I tried.

"The death of Ember Falls teenager, Adley Morgenstern, was confirmed early this morning, ruled as a probable overdose based on the evidence present at the scene," a brunette news anchor stated, staring blankly ahead. "The head injury present on the victim was attributed to the trauma that she would have sustained when she hit her head on a headstone after she collapsed. This event marks the second death in the small town of Ember Falls in less than six months." The news anchor took a deep breath, then added, "I'm Rachel Roberts, and you're watching the Channel 8 news."

I hated watching news reports since they made everything feel so real. It was the reason why I had avoided all television screens during the week following Anna's death.

This time, though, the reports only reminded me of the terrible fact that Adley had committed suicide.

God, what has my life become? I wondered as I forced myself out of my riptide of memories. A bitter laugh escaped my lips. Anna's dead, Adley's dead, and for all I know, I may be next.

Tired of watching everyone cry about Adley and her devastating death, I took off toward the forested area behind the church, where I fell upon a decent-looking tree to climb. I pushed a few strands of my messy, dark cocoa-brown hair – which I had recently dyed and allowed to grow past my shoulders – out of my face. I then grabbed a branch and tried to find myself a good foothold–

"Ow!"

Alerted, I pulled back my foot, looked at where I had stepped, and found a hand. "Oh, God. I'm so sorry," I apologized, embarrassed. I looked up from my foot, hoping that the person wasn't too mad–

"You really need to start being more careful," Ethan groaned, shaking his hand and wincing.

"Ethan?"

"The one and only," he responded, though his joking tone lacked anything remotely happy. He looked at his hand, bending his fingers as if to check that they were all still working.

"What... What are you doing up here?" I asked tentatively, pulling myself up onto a nearby branch and, this time, carefully avoiding Ethan's hands. He and I hadn't spoken much since Halloween – and that conversation wasn't even the friendliest.

Ethan shrugged, looking down at his dangling feet. "It's nice up here – away from everyone."

"I won't argue with that."

Ethan glanced over at me, his face questioning. "No colors today?"

I looked down at my funeral outfit – black blouse, black pants, and black ballet flats – and shrugged. "Didn't feel right."

Ethan didn't say anything back as he stared at his hands. They were – unsurprisingly – slightly stained black with machine grease, meaning that he had been tinkering, once again, as if it would make things better.

I hated how devastated he was over Adley.

She killed your sister! I wanted to scream. She's the enemy!

But I couldn't do that.

Ethan probably wouldn't believe me and would assume that I made up a lie about Adley because we had hated each other. He would then hate me even more – if that was still possible.

But if he did believe me...

Anger burned in my chest. Why is this all so complicated?

"You know," Ethan said, bringing me back to reality, "I'm not sure I believe the news."

My eyes widened in shock, and I almost choked on my saliva. "What do you mean?"

"I... I don't think that Adley, you know... killed herself."

"Ethan, you know that she did."

Anger blazed in Ethan's eyes, and his hands formed into fists. "Something doesn't make sense, though! Why would she do that?"

Because she was a murderer, and I caught her.

"I don't know, Ethan," I lied, looking away from his eyes. "But she's gone now."

"No one's even trying anymore! There was an investigation for-for Anna–"

"Though it wasn't like they ever brought that killer to justice. After Ivy was let out of jail because my father proved that she had nothing to do with the murder" –I tried hard not to roll my eyes– "the police called it an 'unsolved case' since they had no other leads. They closed it to focus on an odd bear attack."

I knew that I could have said something. I knew for a fact that Adley had killed Anna since I had overheard Adley state it aloud to Damion on Halloween. But then again, if this Damion guy wasn't insane and what he said about this supernatural world was true... the police would definitely think that I was high.

Besides, it wasn't like I had any evidence against Adley. I only had suspicions and a conversation that was heard off the record. It was better to stay quiet until I found more proof.

"Ethan, if they couldn't catch a killer, do you think the police would drop everything to investigate something that was clearly a suicide?"

Ethan looked at me with wide eyes as if I had slapped him. "But-but Adley couldn't have. We-we were–"

"Ethan, Adley killed herself," I snapped, not able to hold it together anymore. "She's dead, and she's never coming back. You just have to accept that."

Ethan glared at me, his eyes shimmering with tears. Without speaking, he leaped off his tree branch. Before walking away, though, he looked back up at me. "Something else happened that night, and I'm not going to stop searching until I find out the truth."