Chloe's Crime by Cassidy Shay (best ereader for graphic novels .txt) 📖

My life hasn’t been horrible. Actually, it’s been great? So why am I here? Why am I doing this?

Chloe sat at the base of a cliff. She could see the rough path that would lead her to the top. Is is because of my mom? No. She’s good. She’s always been there, always provided me with more than I needed.

She stood up and started to walk towards the path. It can’t be my dad, or my brothers. I had a great childhood, and I don’t know anyone who’s died.

“Yes you do, Chloe,” she said to herself. “You do know someone who’s dies. You watched with a smile on your face as the life slowly drained from their eyes.” Oh, that was nothing. I didn’t even know her! And it’s not like I caused it to happen. It wasn’t my fault.

“Yes, Chloe, it was your fault.” For a second, Chloe stopped walking. She was less than a quartr of the way up. Was it really my fault? Is she dead because of me?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was a regular Tuesday. Chloe stretched her arms over her head as the sun shone in her eyes. Almost summer,

she thought. It’s almost time for countless opportunities to sleep in and stay up late.

She smiled. Summer was one thing that she could always get excited about.

Chloe looked around her room before getting up. Her desk, with her brand new computer, was my her closet that was full of designer clothes. Outside the window sat the good part of town, the part that very few families could afford to inhabit.

But Chloe’s family wasn’t just wealthy. Unlike most of the families in her neighborhood, Chloe and her family were close. They ate dinner as a family each night and went to church every Sunday. Chloe told her brothers everything, and they trusted her just as much. Her parents had been happily married for almost twenty years.

Chloe knew that you don’t get to choose your family. But if she had to choose, she wouldn’t change a thing.

Chloe got dressed and ready for school, then went downstairs for breakfast. Her mom was still in bed, and her dad had left for the office only minutes before, so Chloe was alone with her brothers. But that didn’t bother her.

Jared was Chloe’s oldest brother. He was a senior, with black hair like their dad and green eyes like their mom. Isaac was the middle child, a junior. He had the red hair of their mother and brown eyes of their father. Both of the boys were on the football team, tall, and very handsome. They were very rarely seen without a girl on their arm.

The three of them ate breakfast and then piled into Jared’s pick-up. On the way to school, they stopped as three of Isaac’s friends hopped into the bed of the truck. Once they pulled into the school parking lot, everyone went their separate ways.

“Chloe!” Chloe looked to her left, smiled as she walked to her group of friends. “Are you ready for summer?”

“Of course!” she says. “Two more weeks, and then we will be free!” Spotting her brothers across the parking lot, Chloe sighed a fake sigh. “Well, as free as you can be with two older brothers breathing down the back of your neck.”

Chloe didn’t know why, but she always tried to hide her closeness with her brothers. While it was obvious that she was close to them, she didn’t want her friends to know that Jared and Isaac knew more about her than her friends did.

The bell rang, and the student body made its way into the building. Chloe went right to her locker, grabbed her books, and headed for her first period class. On the way there, she started to feel a little queasy. Great. Of course I’d get sick today.

She had three tests and a presentation that day.

By third period, it was hard to ignore the feeling in her stomach. She didn’t say anything to anyone though, because she hated having to make up work.

When she threw up in the middle of fourth hour, though, she had no choice but to go home. Her mom wasn’t home, and her dad’s receptionist said that he was on a lunch break. They called Jared out of class and had him take her home.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay at home alone?” he asked her as they pulled out of the school parking lot. “I wouldn’t mind missing sixth hour.”

Chloe just laughed. “I’ll be fine. I just need to take a nap. And you can’t keep avoiding her. You’ll have to face her sometime.” They were talking about Amanda, Jared’s ex-girlfriend. They had just broken up the Friday before, when he’d caught her with one of his friends at a party. He hadn’t talked to either of them since then.

“I do not have to face her. If I get through these last two weeks, then I’ll be fine and I’ll never have to see them again.” Chloe just snorted, but she dropped the subject. “Are you excited to be a sophomore next year?” he asked her.

“I guess,” she answers. “I just think that this year went by so quickly. It’s just crazy, you know?”

He nods. “Imagine how I feel. I’m going to graduate in two weeks. Doesn’t feel right.”

By that time, they were pulling into the driveway. “Don’t burn the house down,” Jared told her as she got out, and then pulled away.

She punched the code to open the garage door, and was startled to see that it wasn’t empty. Her mom’s car was gone, because on Tuesdays she always went to visit her aunt. But her dad was supposed to be at the office, and his car sat in the garage. And if he was at the house, why hadn’t he answered the phone?

She walked into the door and heard her dad’s voice coming from the living room. “…I just picked it up and I ran and ran…” Chloe recognized the story. It was one that he told everyone, about how he had scored the winning touchdown when his team went to state his senior year. But who is he telling it to now?

Quietly, Chloe moved towards the living room. “You should have seen the crowd that night. They all ran down to the field…” Sitting on the couch was her dad, his arm around a small set of shoulders. On top of the shoulders was a slender neck, and on top of that was a woman’s head, covered by dark brown hair. When she spoke, her voice was soft and sweet, with a hint of flirtation.

“That’s impressive,” she said. “But I bet my football team was better than yours. I was the star all four years.”

That made Chloe’s dad laugh. “I’ll be right back, ‘kay honey?” Honey?

he leaned over and gave her a quick kiss, then headed down the hall towards the bathroom.

Chloe walked from the kitchen, where she’d been watching the whole scene play out, to the living room. “Who are you?” Chloe asked her.

Startled, the woman looked at Chloe. “You must be Chloe. How… um… nice to meet you.” She seemed too nervous, even for someone who was destroying a perfectly happy family. Chloe looked down and noticed for the first time the large knife in her hand. How did that get there?

“What are you doing here?” Chloe felt herself take a step toward the woman. “What are you doing with my father?” The woman’s eyes reflected more fear than Chloe had thought was possible. She moved to the far side of the couch. “What are you doing here?”

The woman still didn’t answer. Chloe watched, unable to stop herself, as she brought the knife down into the woman’s stomach. Still unable to control her actions, Chloe raised the knife and once again plunged it into the woman’s body.

A few more stabs, and the stranger was dead before she could even scream. Chloe watched the blood hit the new carpet with a sick smile on her face.

She heard footsteps in the hallway, but couldn’t yet see her father. She looked at the woman again and hurled at the sight of all the blood.

“Chloe?” she heard her father say. “Chloe, what did you do?” Without giving him an answer, Chloe ran out the front door and down the street. She ran past the park, through the woods, to her favorite spot at the base of a cliff right outside of town.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Once she got to the top, Chloe simply sat on the edge and waited for them to arrive. It didn’t take them long. She heard the sirens, could see the blue and red lights at the park. When she saw them break out of the woods, she stood.

I guess I did kill her.

“Yes, Chloe, you did. You didn’t mean to, you didn’t know what you were doing. But you killed her.” I killed her.

“And now, Chloe, you must pay the price.” Then, she jumped.

Text: Cassie Hoene
Publication Date: 06-03-2012

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