Chapter 2 Wren Hale/Lauren Everfrost

Lauren’s POV

9:21pm

‘Why did you enter the laboratory Miss Hale?’

‘What time did you leave the ballroom? Miss Hale.’

The questions all came from somewhere across the Head of security's office but none of them seemed to reach me.

For now, all I could see were my hands and the blood beneath my fingernails.

I had washed them twice but it didn't matter, it was still there, making it harder for me to close my eyes for even a second.

Serena's silver dress and her hair across the floor. the knife beside her and her empty expression and the note and flashdrive still crumpled within my grip.

The thought of it made my stomach sick.

"Miss Hale, are you even listening to me?"

I finally blinked back to reality

The Head of security, Mr Frey, was staring at me from across his desk.

I could tell his expression had softened, but his voice remained professional.

“I'll take that as a no.” He readjusted. "You said you entered the laboratory because you saw a trail of what you initially believed was paint."

I nodded slowly.

"And then?"

"I touched it." My voice cracked slightly. "I… I thought someone had spilled something and then I smelled it and… then I.. I just followed it and found Miss Whitmore." My throat tightened as my fist closed around my dress.

Then came the question that finally pulled me completely back into the room.

"Did you kill her?"

My head snapped up. "No." I replied sharply. "I didn't kill her." Even though I felt my voice breaking, I swallowed and continued."I didn't even know she was there….”

He held up his hand to stop me. “In case you don't understand what's happening….. Serena Whitmore is dead and the school’s reputation cannot take this.” He studied me plainly "So you understand why I have to ask thoroughly?"

My fingers curled tighter around the note and the flash, was this Serena's last joke to me? Including me in her suicide note so I would never know peace?

I should give it to them as evidence but I couldn't bing myself to open my palm.

"I didn't do it." I said.

He sighed, leaning back towards his chair and gave off a stiff smile. "Of course you didn't. We have reviewed your academic and disciplinary records." He paused."You've maintained a record since arriving at Ashford. No disciplinary incidents. Excellent grades. No history of violence."

I almost laughed.

Apparently being miserable and overworked had finally paid off.

"We're going to conduct further investigation," he continued. "Until then, you are not to leave campus without permission. This doesn't mean we are done questioning you though."

My heart sank. "I'm not in trouble, am I?"

He hesitated "No." Then opened a drawer then gestured. "But I'll need you to wait here for the statement form."

I nodded as I went over towards the bench the second he stepped out and seconds later the other door leading to an inner office opened and a familiar figure walked in.

Tall, dark haired and perfectly composed despite the chaos surrounding the school.

Zarek Whitmore.

In a few words he was, Serena's fraternal twin brother, Ashford’s golden boy, future Alpha of his pack, Captain of the school's basketball team and the president of the arrogant combat club that always ripped off the fundings for my science club.

The bad boy practically every girl in school wanted but was famously known as a cronic playboy.

He adjusted his gala suit before taking his seat beside me.

"Wren Hale, right?” his deep calm voice asked.

I should be flattered that Zarek Whitmore and I were in the same room and sharing the same air but even better, he knew my name.

Wow Wren.

Of course everyone knows your name now.

You found Serena's fucking dead body.

"Mhm” I replied.

"What an interesting way to meet then.” like we haven't met countlessly in the principal's office fighting for who's club needed the most funding.

I brushed that off.

I wondered if he knew about the note and the flash.

"I didn't kill her.” I said almost immediately, like I needed so many people to believe me.

He paused. “I know."

My head snapped towards him immediately. “You do? Oh my gosh.. yes, I mean yeah I didn't..

Almost like he chuckled.

How could anyone chuckle after their sister had been found dead a few hours ago.

"The lockback knife they found wasn't exactly beginner-friendly plus, chemistry and biology aren't exactly going to teach you how to handle one."

I frowned.

Like he was talking gibberish.

“If you were taking special classes, you'd know.” he added

I almost scoffed.

Was that a jester since he knew scholarship students don't take special classes.

But then there was something about the way he spoke that made me feel like he'd already figured out more about me than he should have.

Maybe making jokes was a coping mechanism considering that no sane person would make a jest when their sister was dead.

I shifted in my chair. He gave me a look."Yeah."

I looked away. "I'm sorry.”

Everyone knew they had been together.

At least, everyone who paid attention to school gossip did.

“It must be hard losing someone you care about." I added.

He sighed. "You sure have a lot of compassion for someone who bullied you the second you arrived at Ashford.”

I pressed my lips then watched him glance at his watch before rising up.

"Well, at least Serena made sure the two people she gave a damn about would remember her. She left us both as suspects in her suicide”

Murder?

How the fuck…

I watched him leave, closing the door behind him.

I remained seated for another moment.

A few seconds later, the head of secuity returned with the statement form and I took it and left.

The moment I stepped into the hallways, I knew something had changed.

People stopped talking when they saw me and then started again once I passed.

"That's her."

"That's the girl who found Serena."

"Look at her, she is covered in blood, must have killed her out of spite."

“If I was treated the way Serena treated her, I'd do the same."

"But who even are her parents?"

"I've barely noticed her before."

I kept walking.

My fingers tightened around the fabric of my clothes

What should have been the greatest night of the school turned into a disaster.

I didn't care what they thought.

At least, that was what I told myself.

I walked past the hallways and towards the quiet locker section.

The clothes I had changed out from were still in my locker.

As I opened my locker, the inside was covered in fresh black paint.

My heart stopped as I stared at the four words scrawled across the back wall.

YOU'RE GOING TO BE NEXT,

And beneath it, in larger letters:

MISS LAUREN EVERFROST.

The world immediately blurred like I was seeing through cracked lenses.

My fingers slipped from the locker handle and I stumbled to the floor from weak knees.

It had been sixteen years since anyone had called me that.

I've always been Wren Hale and that name had been buried with the girl I used to be, the girl I barely remembered and tried to hide everyday with this moon bracelet.

My head snapped up at the numerous eyes staring down at me.

If this was a prank then I was no longer seeing it as such.

Was I now their target like Serena said?

And who the hell was ‘they’?

Who knew the life I escaped from sixteen years ago?

It didn't matter, not until I found out whoever wrote this.