The bright sun shone down hard on us. Even bending my head towards the grass, I could feel the intense rays piercing through my eyes. Unfortunately, that wasn't my biggest concern. 

"Maya!" A man in his late 40s screamed as he pushed past the crowd. The cops and a few other locals held him back by his shoulder. 

"Let me go!" he screamed. "I need to see her"

That must be her father. I wondered as I looked at the man, and then back at the body. It was hard to see. The girl looked no more than 2-3 years older than me. Her body was covered in blood, and her face was swollen.

I suddenly felt extremely nauseous and walked, well, more like ran away from the body. Seeing my distress, Olivia handed me a bottle of water. But to be honest, it didn't help too much.

From a distance, I heard my parents and the other founders discussing something.

"We can't keep giving them the animal attack crap," My mom said.

"What do you want us to do, Ruth? Tell them that we have no idea what's happening?" Mrs Campbell countered.

"She never said that," Mr Boneville chimed. "But the townspeople are developing doubts. We can't keep lying to them." 

"Maybe it's time we reveal that these aren't animal attacks" my dad suggested. "Then we can hold real investigations about this."

"We've already tried that, Harold" Mrs Boneville entered the conversation. "But we haven't found anything"

"With public support maybe..." my mom bit her lip.

"Perhaps," Mr Boneville agreed. "But for now we need to arrange a funeral for that girl. Once that's done, we can... proceed." 

"Mr Windward," Mrs Campbell said, turning towards them. "Can we trust you and your wife to make the speech?"

The couple looked at each other, then turned back and nodded.

"It's settled then," my mom said before the crowd split up.

Well, that wasn't refreshing. I'd had a nagging suspicion about this but never gave it much thought. It was surprising that police had no leads since the murder seemed pretty contact. In this sense, there must've been physical contact between the killer and the victim. The government had the fingerprints and DNA of all residents stored in a database.

But I was no detective, and I had my own problems to worry about. My dad had hauled me here in the middle of my investigation, for I'm not sure what reason. 

"I'm having a headache," I said, which wasn't even a lie. "Can I go to the car?"

"Sure honey," my dad said, handing me the keys. I went inside the car and tried to push the day's events out of my head.

I was not a founder or a police, so this was none of my business.

I opened my phone and clicked on the link in my messages. The connection in this area was low, but I had to work with it. A tiny blue circle spun around for a few moments before redirecting to another window. 

I felt my heartbeat rise up as I waited for the page to load. I really hoped this would work. After all, the link had been sent five years ago. There was a huge chance that the link would be invalid now. Maybe that's why it's taking so long to load. The link isn't valid anymore.

All my worries were shattered when the link opened and took me to a group chat titled "Secret Chat".

This is... promising.

The latest message had been sent two hours ago, which said 'Tysm babe <3' by some random number. This meant that the chat was still very active. I went to the search bar and typed in the date I'd received the link to look at messages only during that period.

However, I was met with disappointment. The group chat had some kind of disappearing messages feature. The latest I could see was up to sixty days ago. 

Shit.

Well, on the bright side, I still have the email from the police station. Perhaps I'd find more from there. 

I opened the email and scrolled through the files that were attached. I found an interview with Axel. 

That's when I remembered. 

When we initially started the investigation, I'd caught Axel lying to me. I'd been too afraid to confront him then, but I'm sure the police wouldn't be. This interview might have something relevant since Axel had seen me leave Denise's house.

"Alright, shall we start?" 

"Sure," Axel said.

"State your name and age, along with your relationship with Irene"

I recognized this voice. It was the same man who'd interviewed Denise.

"Axel Vandenburg, sixteen years old, a friend of Irene"

"Friends... How close were you?"

"We've been in the same class since fourth grade" Axel replied.

"Alright, let's cut to the chase here. Where were you last night between 12 to 1 AM?" 

"At home," Axel said.

"How convenient. Was anyone at home with you?" 

"I was alone that night. My parents were... busy" 

"So, when did you last see Irene?"

"At school. She was leaving with her friend, Denise, I believe" he said.

"Who's also your neighbour" the cop pointed out. "So, you were at home, the whole night?"

"Yes," Axel confirmed.

"And yet, you didn't see or hear anything? You didn't see anything out of the ordinary?" 

"If Denise, who was in the same room as Irene that night hadn't noticed anything, how would I, her neighbour sleeping in another house see anything?"

"And would you say anything weird about Irene's behaviour over the past few weeks?"

"We haven't spoken much outside school lately. But in school, she's pretty normal. As normal as someone in her situation can be," Axel replied.

"Well, that's all for now. If you find anything that you feel relevant, don't hesitate to come back" the cop said.

"Of course, I want Irene back safely just as much as you do,"

With that, the interview ended. 

I'd known from the start that Axel had lied to the cops, but I never would've expected him to throw Denise under the bus. He and Denise weren't 'friends' in any sense, but they'd known each other and lived next door to each other for years, that had to count for something.

While it was ultimately wrong for the police to try and put the entire blame on Denise, the way Axel had framed his sentence, it was as though he wanted them to focus on Denise, and not him. I never blamed Axel for not going forward to the police. Considering his situation back then, it would be a fool's move to go, but did that make it right for him to do what he did?

I sighed. 

Perhaps, I should just let it go. It happened five years ago. Denise seems happy now - away from Crystal Falls, dating a seemingly nice guy and a good job - like she's always wanted. She's moved on. Yet I'm still clinging to the past.

Axel too has seemed to move on. Any guilt he might've felt is also washed away now. 

My focus should be on finding the old woman. Finding out why I'm getting these visions. I shouldn't let myself be swallowed into the tangled web of lies and deceit that followed my coma. I picked up my phone and browsed through the remaining files I'd received from the police station. 

I needed to continue my investigation.

But something didn't feel right.