Part 7
[Present-Lara]
The classes went on as usual. Lara looked up at the clock and noticed a boy glance at her from the front seats.
It was Lucas Hayman, a tall dude with a strong personality and built muscles. He was good looking with brown hair and blue eyes. Beside him was Michael Mason, equally good looking if not more - with dark hair and green eyes. They were sort of best friends, the former more into sports and the latter more into books. After the class ended, Lucas approached her.
"Hey um... Lara?" he asked and she looked up at him. He was pretty tall. "Yes?"
"Do you have a boyfriend?" he asked straight out and she shook her head. He sighed in relief. "Thank goodness. Anyway there is a party at Nora's house this weekend, would you like to come?"
"I would like to pass. I'm not really that into going out and having parties," she said politely.
"Michael said the same thing!" he exclaimed. "Well you both would make a great team to be honest. Just come. It will help take your mind off of things for a while. After what happened with Maya..."
"Will she be there?"
"Yes she will be. Nora confirmed it," he informed her. "Would you come?"
"I will try." She thought about the excuses she could make and then Michael's voice cut into her thoughts. He had a soft, unique voice which suggested he wasn't used to speaking loudly. "It would make me very happy if you could come, Lara."
He seemed shy and the sort of person Lara was afraid of hurting. "I will come then."
*
Lara stood by Michael's side feeling so out of place. She hated gatherings with too much people but her entire college life was passing by and she had to do something to make it memorable, right?
Not to mention the fact that the attack on Maya had her constantly thinking about Lucien.
She shook her head. She refused to think about him today.
People were laughing and drinking and dancing. It was messy but the place surprisingly seemed cozy. "Would you... like to dance?"
She looked at Michael who was wearing a suit and had his hair styled. He was overly dressed and blushing but Lara thought it was cute.
"Yes I will." She let him lead her into the dance floor and then he whispered shyly in her ears, "I can't dance that well so forgive me if I step on your foot."
She smiled genuinely and his expression softened. He seemed like a genuine nice guy and all she wanted to do was enjoy this moment with him. They danced for a while but then they were both tired. She gulped down a glass of punch and then bumped into Lucas on her way to where Michael sat on one of the couches, playing billiards. "Nice party, right? Nora's so filthy rich it makes me sad."
Lara smiled. "I like it. Thanks for inviting me."
"Yes of course," he said. "But speaking of Nora I don't see her anywhere. Can you do me a favor?"
"What is it?"
"Can you find her and tell her that her boyfriend there-" he pointed to a guy kissing a girl at the far back, "is cheating on her?"
"Um-"
"Take Michael with you, he can help you search for her," he looked at the speakers from which music blasted out. "I need to change the song."
Lara nodded as he vanished into the crowd. She reached Michael and he smiled at the sight of her. "I need to go find Nora. Her boyfriend is cheating on her at her own party and she is nowhere to be seen."
"Doesn't sound like a smart plan to me," he said, looking concerned. "There are bad people here - can I come with you?"
"I can help myself, I think," she said. Being groped was the least of her problems anyway. "I will search upstairs can you search down here?"
"Of course," he assured her. She walked up the winding stairs and her eyes locked on the numerous bedrooms. Lucas wasn't wrong, she seemed rich as fuck. She kept opening doors at random but she was nowhere to be found. "Did you find her?" she heard Michael's voice behind her.
"Not yet, I have one more room to look into," she pointed at the one in the back, painted pink. "Let's try it."
She opened the door and the sight stopped her breath. There laid a body propped against the headboard of the bed. And with words written by blood on the wall read the same thing -
Found you.
The skin on the body's face was falling off and from the hair and getup she realized it was...
"Nora," Michael's voice came out in a whisper. "Oh my god."
"Call the police, quick!" Lara ordered and he quickly went out dialing 911 in the process of doing so. After calling the police Michael screamed down the floor for Lucas and his scream was loud enough to be heard over the music and the DJ noticed the urgency in his tone was why he stopped the music. "LUCAS! COME HERE!"
Lucas ran as fast as he could and when he reached Michael the latter pointed to Nora's body and his mouth hung open. "No way."
The police arrived and everyone was told to not move from their spot. They took her body away and her parents who were abroad at the time were called. They were all college students drinking wasn't illegal for them anyway so they really had nothing to worry about. Michael sat at the couch with hands covering his face. He was too shaken up by the sight of Nora's face.
"Who could do such a horrible thing to her? She had never even hurt anyone," Lucas was shaken up, too. "She was the nicest person ever. To think this happened in her own house amongst so many people..."
"Who found her like this?"
"I did," Lara spoke up. "With Michael."
She was the only one at the party who looked unbothered by the entire thing. It had broken her from inside because she knew the killer was still in this very room. Nobody has left and the knowledge made her knees go weak but she knew she couldn't appear to be weak.
"We need you both to come down to the station," one of the officers said. "We will search the rest of you and speak to you, too."
They were taken and questioned thoroughly but every single time the same answered were being repeated. When they were done with questioning they brought Nora's boyfriend in and began interrogating him. Michael was allowed to leave and so would Lara have been had Officer Andrews not walked into her. "Why are you here?"
"Someone was killed in the party I was attending and I was the one who discovered the body," she informed. The phrasing of the sentence immediately sounded suspicious so he asked her to stay back. They were once again going through the details of that evening was when his assistant walked in. "I have found some information on..." she stopped as she took Lara's presence in.
They were sitting in one of the secluded rooms made entirely for interrogation purposes with glass on one side which was partially reflective. Lara knew at this rate she would become one of the prime suspects but she had no idea what she could do to get herself out of the situation.
"Her," Miss Wilson finished her sentence. She pushed a file into Officer Andrews' hands and his eyes scanned the document in his hands. His brows furrowed as he read it through.
Her mind went through all the information they could have discovered. The amount of murders she had been witness to and the torture Lucien made those poor girls go through - she could do nothing but watch. Even after his death she was too afraid to go to the police and confess about the things she has witnessed. It was amazing that even when he was gone from her life he still continued to be a constant reminder of the things she had lost.
She had lost her innocence, her humanity, her mind and her heart to him.
And he had planned exactly that. All he wanted was for her to remain drowning in misery even when he himself could not inflict it directly on her anymore.
She sat up straight in her seat and tried to calm her anxious mind. Even if they did discover evidence of her involvement in the crimes going on in her boarding school it didn't have anything to do with the present case they had at hand and she was already aware of the fact that the local police had no idea who or what was causing the deaths of so many children in their school. There was no way they could ever know about her involvement.
Being an accomplice of Lucien made her equally guilty and she knew it.
"It's alright, we are questioning her anyway. Let's get this over with, Ria," he said and Miss Wilson nodded. "A girl died in the party she was in and she was the one to discover her dead body."
"I know what this looks like," Lara said quietly.
"But we don't blame you. We won't until we have proof anyway but if you keep hiding things from us, how can we help you?" he said. "Anyway call me Parker and call her Ria. It's alright, unlike others we don't mind people calling us by our actual first names. So Lara," he leaned into the desk in front of him, "Who is Lucien Lethar?"