Chapter 3

After all, she allowed her friend to enter their house- a teenage boy of all things and now he was dead.

Maybe it was because of everyone’s words that had finally got to her parents and it was what encouraged them to slowly stop believing in her.

"Why you had to bring that boy here Chloe is beyond me! Now look his dead and you’re being branded as a murderer!" Her mother screamed at her.

The same day that the media started to spew new theories and comments about what happened that night causing her parent’s friends to stop talking, eventually distancing themselves from them.

This in turn made it very clear to them that even their friends wanted nothing to do with a suspected killer or her family.

"Rumours Chloe! They’re spreading rumours about us as well, saying we were in on it and it’s all your fault!” Chloe’s mother screamed at her angrily in the kitchen.

“Why did you have to be so stupid and let him in?!" Her mother’s shrill voice still continued to sting causing Chloe to fall into a state of depression.

To make it worse even Chloe’s counsellor, someone who was supposed to not be biased was also trying to make her doubt herself.

He even went as far as to say that if she would finally confess what she did, it would then be all over and done with so everyone could get on with their lives.

For she right now was being very selfish and unfair by hiding the truth.

This in turn shock the horrified girl who had started to slowly trust him, thinking that he was on her side only to realise that he was just like them.

Leaving her with the only option to leave and never go back to see him again.

Sadly this didn’t sit well with her parents who then started to get angry at her once more, that was until she explained the reason for her sudden ‘outburst’ towards her counsellor.

Her parents that day were shocked and horrified to see their own flesh and blood- their daughter crying without any means of stopping.

Screaming at them that she didn’t do it, yelling that she would never hurt her friend.

She had no idea know why his face got disfigured the moment he leaned close enough to kiss her, she couldn’t even explain to them why anything happened since she was also confused.

Plus who would believe her about the constant whispers that continued to plague her since she was a child.

At first she had assumed that it was because she had been lonely that time, that she had her own imaginary friends to keep her company when no one was around.

Back then it had caused her parents at that time to think that it was cute, that she had ‘friends’ to play with and left her be.

Only now the voices themselves terrified her for they never left her alone making her realise that they weren’t imaginary, that they were not in her head but if they were then there must be something wrong with her.

However what troubled Chloe more was that at times the voices occasionally spoke in a different language that she could not understand.

There had been one time when she did try to ask a language teacher about this strange language due to curiosity when she had developed in secondary school, only instead of a positive response she had received a funny look from the teacher.

“You dare mock me with such gibberish?! The nerve of you Chloe and I expected better from you!" The teacher had exclaimed in anger before giving her detention and then immediately sent her to the head teacher’s office.

Complaining about how Chloe was ‘mocking’ her and was making fun of the different languages.

This in turn earned her a disapproving look from her headteacher as he looked at her.

"I had expected better from you Miss Wilona” was the head teacher’s response before she was made to apologise to the language teacher for the distress she caused.

To Chloe’s dismay the language teacher refused to accept her apology and demanded that she received a severe punishment.

However to Chloe’s relief the headteacher, he had denied the language teacher’s request and instead just gave Chloe detention and forced her to write a letter to the language teacher.

Writing that she was sorry and would promise to never upset or mock her again.

To which the troubled girl did without complaint, even if she was scorned by said teacher and was made to endure the teacher’s anger in class.

Instead of complaining about how cruel the teacher was being, she had kept her nose down in her books until Harry had appeared out of the blue after class ended.

Immediately taking her out of her dismal mood by doing something that ended up making the girl smile, leaving her feeling more grateful to have such an invaluable friend.

He at times had listened to her woes and was there for her, even if he didn’t know about the voices.

~

What surprised the family was that their bosses, even though they listened to the news were in fact parents themselves had went to visit to their home one day.

Knowing Chloe for a while thanks to occasional gatherings, the families would vouch on the fact that she would never be capable of murder at all.

What surprised Chloe and her parents a lot, was that both bosses and their spouses had asked Chloe questions that were not relevant to her story.

“How are you fairing through all this though darling?” her mother’s boss’ wife asked as she could see how stressed and upset Chloe was as she looked distant, almost out of touch with everything when she was in the room with them.

All three women at that moment could see that Chloe was on the verge of falling apart.

It had gotten to the point that it was hard to watch her break down in such a manner, concern now etched on their faces as they looked at her.

However, Chloe remained grateful that someone was willing to lend her an ear by asking her how she was.

It wasn’t every day this happened and it left her unable to respond to the sudden question.

Just hearing that question had completely shocked Chloe to the point of tears, making both couples feel their hearts go out to her and her predicament.

Meanwhile her parents were left stunned and filled sick feeling in their stomachs.

Now realising that they had been oblivious to her pain the whole time and never thought to care about how she was taking the whole situation.

Instead of asking more questions as they could see that she was anything but alright, the couples had all came to a silent mutual agreement to help the troubled family out.

Even if other people who worked with them were not so keen to work with the parents of a suspect.

Sure things had been tough during those years but Chloe had hardly complained, even when her parents cracked a few times and had lashed out at her because of the media’s cruel words.

In truth they still loved her dearly enough to try and keep her safe.

Yes, they made an error by allowing Chloe to see a counsellor who had done anything but make things worse but it was something to learn from.

Yes, they didn’t like how the media and the people around them portrayed Chloe in the way that they saw fit.

But they knew that without a doubt Chloe had not murdered anyone.

In fact there was no blood on the teen’s fingers let alone her nails nor did she had a murder weapon on her when they arrived and according to the autopsy report he had died half an hour before they arrived.

So what happened was known and seen only by Chloe, and if their daughter said that she didn’t kill anyone then they believed her.

Even if though they were confused as to how he died.

All she knew was that her friend was leaning towards her and then his face was slashed multiple ties by something she could not see.

Witnessing him blindly land on the glass table resulting in the destroyed table they had come across the moment they entered the house.

Hearing her side of the story had shocked her parents a lot for it was something that they could not see happening, however despite all that they had agreed to keep the first part quiet.

Given that it sounded ludicrous and impossible but on the other hand, there was no explanation that they could come up given that they had not been there when it happened.

Chloe meanwhile was the sole witness to what had happened, so they all agreed to keep it to themselves to avoid backlash.

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