Aurelia

"Honey, you can't go. You're sick," her mom says.

"I don't fucking care if I'm alive or I'm dead, sick or not sick, have the bubonic plague or not. I AM GOING!" Aurelia screams.

Her mom gave up. Then, the police arrived at the house.

"You," the officer pointed to her mother, "go contact the parents."

Her mother left the room.

"We need you to help identify the boy," the officer said.

They all start searching in the forest, with the main officer in front. They searched the coordinates. They had no luck.

They all had the same thing in mind, "Who is gonna find a missing kid in the middle of the night?"

"YOU!" the officer screamed, "hands behind your back."

Three boys scatter to run away from the police. The police start chasing them. Within 5 minutes, the police had caught them all.

"Take me to the base or you will feel pain," the officer said.

"No," the boss said.

The officer squeezed his shoulders together. The boss winced in pain.

"Fine," the boss said, "this way."

They walked for 30 minutes into the forest until they came up to a treehouse.

The officer is crying and staring into the distance. She runs up to a body lying in the grass.

"Edward!" she screamed, "my boy."

She sat there and mourned the loss of her boy. She realized with fear and anger that he was strangled.

"You did this," she screamed, "you killed my boy. You will pay."

Aurelia watched in fear. She couldn't help but wonder. Was Jordan here? Was he killed too? But, his body disposed of?

She started climbing up the rickety treehouse. She saw duct tape lying on the floor. "He had to have been here." she thought.

"Hey," she screamed, "can we test this sample?"

The officer looked up.

"Duct tape?" she questioned, "let's see!"

One of the officers had brought a body bag just in case. They put Edward's body in it. They walked back to the sheriff's office and put the duct tape in a scanner.

"It may take a while." the officer said.

They sat there in silence. The officer's eye started to tear up.

"I'm sorry, about your son," Aurelia said.

The officer gave her a hug.

"I'm sorry about your boyfriend," the officer said.

She let a tear roll down her cheek. Just then, a BEEP went off.

"It's ready!" the officer said.

The officer stood there in shock.

"Three people touched it," the officer said with a pause, "the sticky side was Jordan. The non-stick side was one of those boys. The corner has Edwards print. But, it looks like he was ripping it off."

They both made a sigh of relief. They sat in silence for a moment.

"To the woods?" Aurelia asked with sadness and hope framing the edges of her words.

"It's getting late," she said, "I have to call your mother."

Aurelia took a seat in the sheriff's office. She waited in despair.

"I can't just leave him," she thought to herself, "What if he needed me. They had evidence on where he was, they could investigate the area, look for prints. But no, I wait here, hoping that my boyfriend isn't dead."

Her mom later showed up to pick her up.

"Any luck?" her mom said.

Aurelia sat in silence then said, "yeah, well kinda."

Her mom looked confused.

"The sheriff's son was found dead," she paused, "we also found a piece of duct tape. It had three fingerprints, one was Jordan, the sticky side. One was a boy that we caught on the run. And the last one was Edward, the sheriff's son. It was on the edge, so obviously they made friends."

"Wow," her mom stated, "that got deep."

They went home. Aurelia went straight to her room. Her mom sat in her room to comfort her. Both her mom and Aurelia jumped with fear. When they heard a noise.

Screech! Bang! Bang!

Aurelia immediately knew who it was. She ran to the window, punched through the screen, and kissed a black shadow outside.

"What are you doing?!?" Her mom screeched.

Aurelia pulled the shadow into her room. Thin black hair with a purple bloody neck which follows down to emerald green eyes.

Her mom went in to hug him, "JORDAN! You're alive!"

Jordan backed away embarrassed. There was an awkward pause.

"Well," her mom stated, breaking the silence, "I need to call the police department!"

"Good idea," Aurelia barked, "meanwhile you need to tell me everything!"

"Well," Jordan said with a sigh, "right after you hung up, this car pulled up next to me. They said they'll be back. I didn't believe them, but they came back with baseball bats."

Aurelia gasped and hugged him tight.

"I ran into the forest," Jordan pressed on, "bad idea, but it was that was the closest. I ran all the way to the river. I heard them getting closer so I swam through it. I lost my phone there. They eventually caught up to me and the big dude started choking me."

Jordan pointed to his neck. Aurelia now almost squeezing Jordan to death started crying.

Jordan didn't notice, so he pressed on, "eventually he stopped. They tied me up, and took me up the treehouse. They left me with Edward."

He paused and a tear rolled down his cheek. He still didn't notice she was crying.

"He was a real friend," Jordan said with sadness framing the edges of his words, "he let me go. I pleaded for him not to. He wouldn't let me. He knew he was gonna die. He made me climb in a tree and wait for him to die. I sat there and watched his body lie there lifeless. I gave him one last kiss, to let him know he was loved. He risked his life for mine."

Jordan is now balling his eyes out. Aurelia's eyes were red, but she let him cry.

He looked down on her, wiped his tears, and said, "Don't cry my dear, it's over."

"I'm sorry I was so rude earlier," Aurelia choked.

"It wasn't your fault," he said wiping her tears, "it was nobody's fault."

"But, I was the one who made you come over!" Aurelia shouted.

"No," Jordan firmly stated, "my dear, don't blame it on yourself."

There was a break of silence. Aurelia laid her head on his lap and motioned him to lay down.

"Please stay for the night," Aurelia pleaded, "I can't risk anything bad happening to you."

"Ok," Jordan finally said, "I will stay."

They both got up, got under the covers and Aurelia held on to him really tight.

Aurelia's mom was outside the door eavesdropping on their conversation.

"I'm glad my daughter has such a good boyfriend," her mom thought to herself.

She walked away.