Don't Lie by Sarah Jules

Author:Sarah Jules [Jules, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Three

Xander

When I returned to the caravan alone, the atmosphere was knife sharp. As I anticipated, nobody cared about me. My breath came in heavy sobs and my shoulders heaved as I tried to catch my breath, but nobody asked what was wrong with me.

‘Where’s Jude?’ Ellis said. He stood as he asked the question, towering over me.

I couldn’t answer immediately. I couldn’t find the words to explain what had happened. How Jude wouldn’t be returning. How he’d died, and it was my fault.

‘Xander, where is he? What happened? Are you okay?’ Katie’s questions came thick and fast, but Quinn remained still, staring into space like a psych ward patient off their head on meds.

‘Jude, he fell. I couldn’t get to him,’ I said. I felt like I was underwater. The words didn’t sound right. They were thick and full.

‘What do you mean he fell? Where is he?’ Ellis stepped towards me. His body was twice as wide as mine. If I hadn’t known better, I’d think he was trying to threaten me, but he wasn’t. Ellis struggled under stress. His go-to response was to be loud and overbearing, rather than to suffer in silence like most sane people.

‘I…’ I stuttered.

‘Where is he?’ Katie said, her voice erratic. You could see her pulse beating against her neck. This wasn’t part of the plan. Her ‘get back at Quinn’ plot was over now, because something serious had happened. What started as a prank had ended in death. It was over for her. For all of us.

‘We walked to the cliff edge, towards the coast, and we didn’t see that the rocks had fallen away.’ I took a deep breath, unsure of how I would tell them the rest without them losing their minds. ‘It was a sheer drop. The tide was all the way in, but his body hit the rocks on the way down.’

‘His body?’ Quinn murmured.

‘I could just about see him, with the moon, his neck had snapped all the way back. There was no way he was alive.’

‘What did you do?’ Katie asked. I tried to look past the obvious accusation, that somehow I was to blame for Jude’s death.

‘I couldn’t get to him. I managed to get through to the police. They’re coming, with an ambulance, but they told me to come back to you guys so that I could tell you what happened, and in case the man tormenting us really does want to hurt us. They’ll be here soon.’

‘Fuck,’ Ellis said, raking his hands through his hair. ‘Fuck! Jude’s dead?’

I nodded. My knees collapsed, and I fell to the floor. Ellis knelt beside me, his strong hand rubbing circles on my back, trying to calm me down. As much as I knew I shouldn’t, I savoured his touch.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.