Bloodied Secrets

Blood...

Blood everywhere.

My heart viscously punched against my chest, old memories racing in my head as I entered a scene of blood and merciless. Even though paramedics had placed a silver plastic over the body of the dead girl, there was still too much of her blood and body parts scattered all over the place.

"Stay behind the police tape! I repeat, stay behind the police tape!" The police women commanded the students who couldn't help but stare at the gruesome scene.

"Who do you think it is?" A girl asked curiously

"I'm not sure."

"It was probably a robbery."

"A robbery? I didn't know women were capable of theft."

"Do you think it's someone from our school, or just a pedestrian who was passing by?"

"I can't see her clothes, so it's hard to tell."

"I wonder who did this to her."

The voices of these girls were driving me crazy. I pushed passed them to get to the front to see the scene. The body was completely covered. I prayed it wasn't Anati.

"Officer!" I called out to the police woman, "Officer, who's body is it?"

The police woman didn't hear me due to the commotion caused by the girls. Just then, I felt a hand pull my arm from the crowd of girls.

"Thando, it's me! Come this side." Amara said

I followed her out of the crowd and onto the main road of the school, where Juliet was standing.

"Guys, what's going on? Who's body is that?" I asked them

"We don't know. The police are not telling us anything." Amara said

"I can't find Anati." Juliet whimpered, tears falling down her cheeks, "She's been acting strange lately. What if that dead body is hers?"

"Juliet, we can't make any assumptions yet." Amara said, patting Juliet on the shoulder

"How can I not? Anati has been keeping us in the dark. What if she's been in danger this whole time? What if someone has been threatening to kill her? I can't lose Anati! I just can't."

Amara pulled Juliet close and hugged her, gently rubbing her back.

"It's okay, Juliet," Amara whispered, "Thando, did Anati send you any text at all yesterday?"

I thought about the text she sent me this morning. The one that came after my phone's battery died.

Anati: There's danger coming. Very, very soon.

"Well?" Amara asked again

"No," I lied. I didn't want to scare them any further. "Everything is going to be okay. That body isn't Anati's. I know it isn't."

To my surprise, my phone vibrated in my phone pocket. Amara and Juliet's phones also rang. I quickly unlocked the pin and checked my notifications.

"Did our phones just go off at the same time?" Juliet questioned, typing on her phone

There was something that someone sent to all three of us. I truly hoped it was Anati. When I checked my messages, I saw that an unknown number sent me a message. Before I could open it, Juliet suddenly screamed, dropping her phone on the ground.

"Who the hell sent this?" Amara covered her mouth is shock, still staring at her phone.

I felt too scared to open the message all of a sudden, but I had to one way or another. I clicked on the anonymous message, and there I saw the sent picture. I couldn't believe my eyes. I couldn't believe anyone would send such a picture. I couldn't believe that someone could be so murderous.

"OMG! Someone sent me this gross pic!" One of the girls in the school exclaimed

"Me too! Ewww!" Another girl screamed

I wasn't just me, Amara and Juliet who received the message. Everyone else did. I couldn't bare to look at the picture any longer. It was clear that the picture was taken inside the school's gym hall, for I noticed the tiny bullet-sized holes in the wall. On one of the gym walls, someone wrote a message in big letters, making use of the blood that probably belonged to the dead girl or woman. The words read:

Who's next?

Beside the wall where the message was written were the other body parts of the dead girl. There was an arm and two feet, blood squirted from the red flesh. As I looked at the arm laying in the picture, I noticed that the nails were painted red. It was a red no one could ever forget since the incident during the dress-code inspection.

"Guys," I gasped, feeling faint, "Didn't Didi have the exact same nail polish as the hand in the picture?"

Juliet and Amara zoomed in the picture on their phones, and gave each other the same expression that I had.

"Didi? No, it...it can't be. It can't be Didi. It can be anyone but Didi. Just not Didi!"

"I'm just glad it isn't Anati." Juliet murmured to herself

"How could you say that, Juliet? Didi was my friend!" Amara yelled, her face flushing with red

"Look, I'm sorry, but I'm just worried about-- ANATI!"

Juliet ran the other direction, squealing with excitement.

I turned around and saw Juliet approaching Anati. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw Anati.

"Thank goodness she's fine." I said

"Mhm." Amara had her arms crossed, her eyes looking down to the ground

"Hey," I put my hand on her shoulder. She looked at me and I was met by her teary blue eyes. They reminded me of the calm ocean at Durban. "Didi was my friend too. I cared about her, a lot. We both know that she never deserved this."

"I know, but does Juliet know?"

We both turned to Juliet, and found her hugging Anati. Anati tried her best to get out of Juliet's hug, but Juliet wouldn't budge.

"Juliet is just worried about Anati. She's in love with her, remember?"

"Do you think Anati loves her back?"

I looked at Amara again. She looked really hopeful for my answer.

"I don't think so. I know so."

A smile appeared on her face, causing me to smile back.

Just then, Juliet and Anati approached us, Juliet holding on to Anati's arm

"Juliet, you can let go now." Anati said, struggling out of Juliet's grip

"But I don't wanna let you out of my sight again." Juliet pouted her lips, and tightened her grip. Anati rolled her eyes

"Good morning to you too." Amara said

"Oh, morning." She greeted, "Do you guys know why the police are here?"

"There's been a murder in the school." I said. Anati's eyes immediately widened with shock. She muttered something to herself, but I couldn't hear her properly

"Did you say something?"

"No, nothing. Did they reveal the body?" She asked

"No, but everyone received an anonymous message from the person who could possibly be the murderer." I took out my phone to show her the picture

"Don't show it to her, Thando! It's too gruesome." Juliet whined, covering Anati's eyes with her hand.

"Just show me, Thando," Anati insisted, recklessly pushing Juliet's hand away

I showed her the picture, and zoomed in so that she could also see the body parts of the dead girl. Anati swiped the phone out of my hand and looked at the picture as if looking at a ghost.

"It's happening." Anati whispered, breathing heavily in fear

"Wait, what? What's happening?" I asked.

"Do you know something, Anati?" Amara questioned, squinting her eyes at Anati

"Don't accuse Anati. She knows nothing." Juliet said

"I'm not ac-- you know what, nevermind."

Anati looked at all of us, fear clearly shown on her face. She wanted to say something, but none of her words could come out.

"I...um, I quickly need to speak to Thando." Anati said

"About what?" Juliet asked

"I need her opinion on my English Speech." Anati said, "Thando, come with me."

I followed Anati to wherever she was taking me. I turned and looked back at Amara and Juliet. They were as confused as I was. Though, I knew for sure that Anati was lying about the English Speech. I knew she needed to tell me something. Something very serious.