August 20, 2021
“Why did you do that?!" The first words he fired when he entered my room. There's a disgusting expression of annoyance plastered on his face.
He's dressed in a formal attire that makes him professional, polished, and refined, but his atrocious manner failed to amuse me.
"Really, Archer?! You created a podcast about a dead girl and asked people to find her for you?! Are you out of your mind?!" Bryon continued while his blazing eyes were still looking into mine.
I was so full of him that my anger collapsed and made me throw away the joystick controller in my hands and balled my fists when I looked up at him in infuriating anger.
"What do you want, Bryon? Will a podcast ruin your name?" I scoffed in disgust, still trying to contain myself from bursting even more.
"Is this all your plan, huh? Bring back the old news that shocked and traumatized many people of Camden? For god's sake, Archer, it's been years! You need to move on! You goddamn know that I'm running for election as a mayor of Camden, then you have the guts to bring that case back to tell that it involved our name in that case?! For what Archer, to ruin me?!"
My lips snickered. I stood up on my bed and gave him my sharpest glare. "Shut up, Bryon. It's not about you. Stop pretending that everything I do revolves around you! And besides, you were all the reason I said nothing back then. I kept my mouth shut because you manipulated me!" His eyebrows knitted even more. "If people love you as their mayor, they'll vote for you even with or without issues tangled in your back. You're not getting younger. Maybe this is the time for you to take responsibility for what you did."
I gasped in furious, "So if you're done with your stupid remarks, leave and get out of my sight!"
I shoved him in the chest. And that's when he blew up. Out of his spur, he furiously grabbed my collar's shirt that forced me to raise my chin at him. He gritted his teeth as his dark eyes looked straight into mine. His anger makes him extremely wicked, as if the nerve in his forehead will pop out at any moment.
"You'll gonna regret this, and don't forget that I have warned you!" And just like that, he loosened his grip on me.
I can't help but clench my jaw as I nodded in mockery while fixing my shirt. He made his way on the door.
I laughed hysterically to annoy him more. After hearing me laugh, he paused and glared back at me again. His face is now serious as he stepped one foot inside my room.
"Your girl is dead. We both know that's the truth."
Those are the last words he said before completely disappearing from my view.
His last words left me on the track of madness. I don't know how his words can hit me like this.
I yelled in anger and pushed all the things on top of my accent table. Creating noises when it shattered on the ground.
I gasped in rage as I sat back on my bed and clasped my fists. I breathed heavily in a pattern to prevent myself from becoming angrier.
I don't know what he meant by that. Does he honestly believe that Sierra is really dead, or he just wants me to believe that? We both know that something wasn't right the moment that the news broke about Sierra's death.
It's freaking fishy how a garbage man saw Sierra's body inside a garbage bag floating on the lake. But after he reported that, he never came out publicly for interviews, he was just gone. I mean, it's reasonable if he wanted to keep himself out of the public eye. But disappearing completely in Camden Town after that incident is a freaking joke!
For all I know, he may also be an accomplice of the culprit. Or maybe my father paid him money for his silence. So the people of Camden will stop talking about the dead girl, so our town won't be the talk of the media anymore. He doesn’t want the Leviticus to be ruined or even get involved in any single havoc.
At that time, Camden Town's mayor was my father. I also explained to him everything about what happened to us that night, but instead of believing me, he dismissed my reasons and faked pity for me. He sent me to a psychologist to examine me with the reason that I was just traumatized and in a state of denial and grief. I spent three years of my life being forced to forget my memories of Sierra, in exchange for being freed from drugs and therapies. But what they did not know was I never stopped believing that Sierra was still alive.
I shook my head and heaved a sigh. My breathing is slowly going back to normal pace again. I turned on my side and there I saw the photograph of us in a frame that has been sitting on the top of my bedside table ever since the day we took it. It has always been there. Even when I heard the news about her death, I refused to put it away.
She was wearing a light pink dress with feather ruffles on the hem that goes down her knee. She was so beautiful in what seemed to be a cottage-core dress. In the photo, she's standing behind my back while holding a melting strawberry ice cream with a sweet smile on her face. I remembered being awkward and shy towards her.
That was also the day that I first met her.
"Where are we going?!" When the light from the lamp post crossed his eyes, I noticed how dark and horrible they were. I attempted to yank Archer's hand away from me, but he became quite violent."You fucking lied to me! And if you can't love me back, I'm going to get rid of you instead " There was no other man, no stalker, and a man with a face mask. It was just Archer and me. But before that happened, I called Emmy to the Meadowoods Library before Archer ever got close to me. When I asked for help for the third time, I told her that I would go with her since there's someone who's threatening to kill me. Of course, she was concerned.I had the entire plan written down before Archer did. But it was never my intent to drag Amalia under her grave."Calm down, Archer; we can talk this through." He was practically twisting my hands and tried to shove me inside his car while I was in pain. But I needed to buy some time because Amalia hadn't arrived yet."Why should we talk
Everyone in Camden Town knows practically everyone else, including the famous Mayor and his family. As I already stated, I did a great deal of reading and pondering before heading to that location. As a person who grew up in a bizarre and aberrant environment, everything must have a reason, or else your existence will be meaningless. My intention to kill myself was pure when I drowned myself, but after I was awakened, I gradually wanted to restart my life because of Jade and Everson, but my flesh was telling me that living a simple life was never for me. I knew Everson was friends with Archer; while I was going around Camden, I would see them together, and there was a whisper in my ear instructing me to do what I wanted to do. And it was to get close to Archer Leviticus. When I thought about him, I told myself that I needed to see a psychiatrist again since everything about me isn't normal anymore. I want to be good, but I also want to be bad. I started hatin
"Thank God, you're awake!" Jade pulled me back to life when I thought I had sunk to numbness. It was a terrible heartache, and I felt like Jade smashed my dream. I was already so close to dying. I was so enraged by her but something unusual happened to me that day when I witnessed a single tear fall from Jade's eyes. It was as if something struck my heart; it was the first time in years that I thought someone truly cared about me. And the fact that she was a complete stranger made me appreciate her even more. Someone risked her life to save a piece of garbage like me while I was alone in the vastness of the water. That day, I couldn't decide whether to be glad that He had kept me alive or angry because I knew that once I was living, something awful would happen in my life again. But now I already know the answer. Being alive is cruel to me. I didn't deserve to have a second life. It took me a week to finally respond to Jade becau
"She left us." I placed my hand on Amalia's shoulder to stop her from walking. "Let's just face it." I told her once again, and when Amalia eventually stopped, I closed my eyes in relief. She turned to face me, her eyes and entire face scarlet from crying. She knelt on her knees and cried even more, panting for breath. "Let's just say she's in good hands now—" "You can't rest assured! Allison, she's just thirteen!" She yelled at me. I looked around and noticed others stopping to stare in astonishment at us. I knelt down, took her hand, and pulled her up, but she quickly swayed my hands away from her. "How can you be so calm? Our sister has gone missing!" She yelled at me again, looking at me in utter disbelief. It had been a year; one day we woke up, Luisa was gone. I knew it would happen soon because Luisa kept talking about asking for help and what may have occurred to us only if we had gone with our sisters. So, I had the feeling th
"I fucking despise myself!" Amalia sobbed and smacked her head. I took a nervous breath and bit my bottom lip before taking Amalia's hand in mine and embraced her. She sobbed, burying her head in my arms to avoid looking at our sisters, who were being taken by the cops. While Luisa was sitting on the ground hugging her knees avoiding looking at our sisters. I watched them from a distance, hiding behind trees, as they were perplexed and puzzled of what was happening, their eyes wandering around, attempting to find us everywhere while they sobbed. We didn't have a choice but to leave them or turn them over; we didn't have the money to feed them any longer, and we all knew that keeping our younger sisters in our care wouldn't get us anywhere. The proprietor of the previous motel we were in was starting to get suspicious of us, first, we were just a bunch of kids, and he was perplexed as to why we only stayed in a room with one bedroom, and he probably also
Carrie was right the entire time because as I grew older, I learned that mama was more than just the mother figure we all want. She wasn't ordinary; she was above and beyond everyone else. She was observant and had finesse, and she knew how to bend straight lines without getting caught. She knew everything about evil, and she also taught me everything. Like Allison, I took Carrie's advice to gain Mama's trust. It wasn't easy, as she had warned me. I didn't know where to begin since whenever I approached Mama, all I could feel was nervousness, and she was always mad and strict with me. Facing her was like facing Satan himself. And what's worse was I had forgotten that I had once been Allison, and I had simply forgotten how to be like her. Allison, as I recall, was a crybaby who was always afraid but yet did things she was afraid of anyhow. But, as time went by, I grew accustomed to lying and became a professional, just like my mother. I felt like I had inherit