Dirty Little secrets

Prologue

They both stood still as they surveyed the scene below. The cute, perky girl with the long golden hair now lay at the bottom of the cliff. Her mangled body drowning in a pool of blood. Her smile twisted and faint. Sickening it was, but what could they do. She was dead and all they could do was walk away.


Chapter 1

Jamie Highland’s long sandy blond hair blew wildly in the wind as she sat in the back seat of Chris Calaway’s new BMW. She stared at the reflection of his crystal blue eyes in the rear view mirror. She’d known him since she was 6, but back then he just seemed like Craig, her older brother’s, best friend. Fun, goofy, Chris. However, now that she was 16, he seemed to be the one guy she was interested in.
“This you’re stop?” he asked, pulling over. Jamie nodded and gathered up her flyers as she stepped out of the car.
“What are those for?” he asked.
“Our school dance…hey are you coming over later?” said Jamie. Chris took a look at his watch and shrugged his shoulders as he drove off. Jamie strode into the library and sat down with Stacie Katers. Her long time best friend with dark locks and pale skin.
“So how was the drive with Chris?” asked Stacie. Jamie slightly blushed but didn’t say anything. Stacie took the hint and began talking about the dance.
“So I'm thinking we make it, you know, like a cool icy setting ya know!” said Stacie.
“Yeah! That’s good. Oh, and guess who’s coming back today?” said Jamie.
“Alan!” Alan was one of the guys that hung out in Jamie’s Brother’s group. He left for the states a while back.

Jamie and Stacie packed up their stuff and caught the next bus back to Jamie’s home. It was a typical autumn morning. Bright brown leaves littered the streets. The girls stepped off the bus and stared at Jamie’s home. Chris’s car was parked out front and her brother’s 4X4 was in the garage. Her eyes then wandered to the silver Porche in the drive way. The girls walked into the house. Craig was standing in the doorway. His blond hair was wavy and gave off and appealing look about him. Jamie smiled at her brother
“Is Alan here?” she asked. Craig nodded. Jamie rushed inside and threw her arms around Alan. She always had a close connection with Alan. He was like another brother to her. Alan bronze coloured hair and hazel eyes delivered the calmness about him, which Jamie loved. He and Chris had been friends with her brother for over 11 years. Alan’s face lit up when he saw her.
“Hey! How’s about we go for a drive to see my new apartment?” asked Alan. Jamie smiled. Stacie went with Chris and Craig and Jamie drove with Alan. The road was empty and silent. The drive was unbearably silent, when Alan broke the ice
“Jamie…don’t you think it would be better if you came to live with me in the States for a while?” asked Alan. Jamie looked at him in shock.
“Alan….NO! My brother, my friends, my life. I can’t just leave it all.” Said Jamie, still trying to adjust to the shock. She the caught the glare Alan threw at Chris through the mirror. What was going on? Jamie began to feel uneasy. Finally they pulled up at a block of flats. Everyone followed Alan in. the flat was beautiful. Antique furniture roamed around the room with thick shag carpeting. Jamie wondered into the flat alone. She slowly peered down the passage and opened a door that lead to a room that seemed to be isolated from the rest of the flat. It was so different. It was dark and gloomy, with only a blazing fire in the corner to provide a dim light. Jamie walsed over to the antique cupboard in the corner. It wasn’t locked and she couldn’t contain her curiosity. She opened the cupboard. Every inch of it was lined with pictures of Alan and a young girl with blond hair that Jamie had never seen before. In the corner was a small book. Jamie dusted the book and took a look at it. She then opened it up. It was a diary entry, only one. Jamie sat cross-legged on the bed and began to read it:

I loved her, I loved her so much. How could she be gone? He didn’t want her, not the way I did. He never loved her. He never deserved her.
He did this. I hate him. I want him to feel pain the way I feel it. But she’s not coming back.
She’ll never come back.

Jamie finished reading and shuddered. She stood up to put the book back when a piece of paper slipped out.

BODY OF A YOUNG GIRLS FOUND AT THE BOTTOM OF CANYON CLIFF
Police believe her name is Lisa Cloroy.

Jamie stared at the picture with disgust. She then looked at the pictures in the cupboard. That was Lisa and someone murdered her.



Chapter 2
Jamie sat isolated in her cold dark room. Her thoughts were drifting from the article she read to the diary entry, then to Alan. How long exactly did she know him? Why was he acting so weird? She jumped as her cell phone rang.
“Hello!”
“He tried to take her away…and now she’s gone…I wont let him take you away!” said a dry raspy voice at the end of the line. Jamie went cold with fear. Her voice was still. The line cut but Jamie still sat there petrified, praying this was just a dream. What had just happened? Who was that?
The phone then rang again. Jamie hesitated before answering it.
“He-Hello” she stuttered.
“Jamie, its Stacie.” Said the voice on the other line. Jamie felt at ease
“Oh, hi! What’s up?” she asked.
“Well, the dance is tomorrow tonight and I thought we can spend sometime after school sprucing it up.” Said Stacie.
“Sure! But I’m not coming in today. I’ll meet you in the gym at 4pm!” replied Jamie.

Her brother was in the kitchen with a cup of coffee in his hand.
“You okay?” she asked, “Can I have a ride to the school?” Craig stood and grabbed his keys from the counter and made his way out

The school hall was filled with buzz of excitement and cheerful laughter. Jamie wasn’t feeling like herself after the terror call that morning, how could she. A cold hand then fell on her shoulder.
“Hey, you feeling all right?” asked a voice. Jamie spun around and saw her best friend Bradly Carlen. It was strange, she felt so awful a minute ago, yet when she stared into his dark eyes and smug grin, she felt so warm.
“No! I got a call this morning, a scary call!” she said. Bradly looked at her with concern. He then began to scratch the back of his head as took hold of her hand.
“Um-well I know it’s kind of late but I was wondering if you would go to the dance with me?” he asked. Jamie was taken back. She then thought, the dance didn’t seem like a big deal to her anymore. But she could never say no to him.
“Sure!” she said. Bradly smiled. She liked it when he smiled, there was something about his smile that could make everything okay.
They walked out of the hall together into the warm light. Bradly put his arm around her. She told him about the phone call and about what she saw in Alan’s flat. He was more astonished then understanding.
“Maybe…it’s just an idea for a novel.” He said. That was typical of Bradly.
It was getting dark and she had to get home.

Alan’s footsteps echoed in the empty streets. He shivered and clenched his jacket tighter around him. He closed his eyes and tried to seal out the rest of the world. He turned into the alley. The only image in his mind was Jamie. He couldn’t leave her here; he knew it wasn’t safe for her. He wouldn’t have forgiven himself if anything happened to her. The silence was interrupted by gentle breathing. Alan stopped and turned around. He saw nothing but darkness. Alan turned his head and carried on walking. He heard the sound again, now it sounded like a light whisper. He felt nervous. His walking pace started to speed up. He then heard something hurdling towards him. He turned around and saw a crate. It smashed into his head. Alan fell to the floor. His head was throbbing as blood dripped down is forehead. He could move, he couldn’t stand. He then saw his pale reflection off a sharp blade. He closed his eyes as the blade pierced into his ribs. He lurched forward as the killer placed its lips close to hi ears and whispered
“I won’t let you take her away!”
He felt his last breath leave his body. And his last thought was Jamie.

“C’mon, I’ll give you a ride home!” said Bradly. They walked slowly through the dim street. The silence was disturbing. It was getting darker. Jamie could barely see anything.
“We’ll be walking around circles all night. We have to go through the alley.” Said Bradly. Jamie felt the cold evening wind brush against her face. She held tighter onto Bradly’s arm. The alley was creepy, old pieces of junk piled on other pieces of junk. Jamie recalled a movie where they found a body here, she shuddered.
“It’s just around the corner.” He said soothingly. However, that didn’t take her shivers away. She felt blind, helpless. Suddenly, she kicked something. She felt herself let go of Bradly as she fell. Her entire body crashed to the floor, her knees scraped the gravel.
“BRADLY!” she screamed. Bradly swung around and switched on his torch light that he carried with him. Jamie was first blinded by the light before she saw the trace of laughter in his face.
“Are u-” he started. She saw his face go pale with fright. The expression of complete terror on his face. She followed his gaze and saw what she had in fact tripped on. It was legs, legs of a dead man! She screamed and scrambled to her feet. Bradly fell over still gazing at the body with shock. Blood running down its shirt covering the ground. Jamie adjusted her vision. She recognized the shirt it was wearing. She let out a gasp. The body she tripped over was ALAN! She rushed over to his lifeless corpse. Terror on his ice cold face.
“ALAN!” she screamed. Bradly put his arms around her and cradled her head. Trying to block the terrifying image.
The police arrived in 5 minutes. Bradly and Jamie sat huddled together in the corner. The picture of Lisa’s mangled corpse worked its way into her mind. She then saw Alan’s face, that smile, those eyes; she would never see it again. What was she going to do? He was gone…He was DEAD

Chapter 3

Finally, the night arrived. Jamie sat in the passenger seat of Bradly’s black BMW dressed in a blue silk dress with silver trimmings. She never normally saw Bradly dressed so formally and he looked good. They pulled into the parking-lot. The music was faint in the eerie silence of the night. Jamie held onto his hand as they walked into the gym. The music echoed through their ears. The light swung back and forth around the room that was lined with icy decorations. In the corner Stacie was dancing with Rob Turner. Jamie put a smile on her face; this was after all the dance she was waiting all year for. Bradly wisped her onto the dance floor. She held onto him as they moved to the slow beats of the music. She rested her head on his shoulder; she didn’t want to think about the call or Alan.

Bradly couldn’t believe he was here with Jamie. To her he was just her friend, but to him she was the one he dreamed of. He held her tighter. His face pressed against her head. He couldn’t think straight after last night’s ordeal. He never could have seen anything scarier than that, not even in his nightmares. His mind was racing, how was he suppose to help her now. Yes, that’s all he could do, try and help her. Bradly the saint. He sighed.
Stacie parted from Rob and watched Bradly and Jamie. She was really worried about her. What was she going through? And it all started that day we went to Alan’s flat. She poured juice into a cup.
Jamie couldn’t handle his anymore. All she could think of Alan. Tears began streaming down her face. Bradly lifted her face and escorted her outside.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, wiping the tears away from her face.
“He was like another brother to me! And now he’s gone.” She said.
“Well I know that you’re not just gonna sit here and sob!” he said
“You’re right! I have to find the guy who did this. I-I think that it was the same person, you know, the person that killed Lisa 5 years ago killed Alan.” She said.
“Well we could go to the police and speak to my cousin, Adrian. He works in the cases. He might know something.” Said Bradly. Jamie felt a little better and followed him into the car as they made their way to the station.

“Hi, can I see officer Cane?” asked Bradly. The tall, dark and nothing else, police officer opened the barricade and Jamie followed Bradly in.
They sat opposite Adrian, a man in his late 20’s. He went through Lisa’s case in silence as they waited.
“Nope! Nothing suspicious.” He said.
“Any suspects?” asked Bradly.
“Well one. And he got off. You see, we only found one piece of evidence. A button off his jacket. The court said it wasn’t enough and let him off. We couldn’t look for finger prints off the body, cause it was too messed up. Anyway the one guy was him, Christian.” Said Adrian pulling out a picture of Chris. Jamie placed a hand over her mouth trapping the loud gasp. She couldn’t believe Chris was tied in with this.
“So there’s nothing else?” said Bradly.
“Nope! But I have a thing for know who the killer is before they investigate him, and no matter what the court says, I know it was him. I saw it in his eyes, he was hiding something.” Finished Adrian.

Chapter 4

The next few days were terrifying. Bradly and Jamie receiving strange looks from everyone. Jamie stayed at for a couple of days.
It was a normal Monday morning, she at the dining room table, and even though hr life seemed bad, she was really worried about her brother. He was really struggling to get over Alan’s death. She really didn’t know how to help. It felt as if her entire world was crashing down on her and she didn’t have anyway of stopping it. She strode down stairs and saw her brother standing in the balcony. She walked over to him and hugged him. Craig felt warm in her embrace. He was always so close to her, since they were kids. They never split apart at anytime.
“I’m leaving to go see Stacie, we’re gonna work on our project.” She said. She felt him go hard. She knew that he would rather have her here. She let go of him and walked out the door.

Bradly, Stacie and Jamie sat under a tree and tried to do the project, but they couldn’t. It was just so hard to think. Jamie’s mind was still wondering to her struggling brother, Bradly couldn’t stop thinking of Jamie and Stacie couldn’t stop thinking about both of them. The silence was cut by the sound of Stacie’s cell phone ringing. She talked on the phone for about a minute before telling them she had to leave. She stood up and walked away. Bradly moved closer to Jamie, who seemed to be lost in her own thoughts.
“How’s Craig doing?” he asked.
“I don’t know… it’s like he just turned off.” She said.
“So what are you going to do?” asked Bradly. Jamie shook her head.
“How’s about we go for a midnight stroll in the park, it will help take your mind of things!” said Bradly. Jamie really didn’t want to go but she couldn’t say no to him.
“Fine, pick me up at 9pm!” she said

Jamie was dressed in a long pair of jeans and waited for Bradly to pull in to the drive-way. Her brother was sitting in front of the TV.
“Hey, Craig, I’m going to the park with Bradly.” She said. He didn’t answer. She felt scared. Normally, he’d ask which part of the park we were going or what time we would be home. Bradly pulled into the drive-way and Jamie slipped into the car.

The park was cool and quiet. Jamie leaned on Bradly as they strode through it. So peaceful. The moon rose high above them providing a dim light that shadowed the rest of the park. Jamie was getting weary and rested with Bradly on a bench. Bradly stared at her for a little while before he pulled out a silver box from his pocket. Jamie opened and stared at the gold chain with diamond edges with amazement.
“Surprise!” he said. Jamie flung her arms around Bradly. It was just a moment after, when they both looked deep into each other’s eyes, before they shared a long kiss. Bradly felt Jamie slid her hand along his neck as he held her tighter. Bradly then heard something rustle in the bushes. He pulled away abruptly and looked around.
“What’s the matter?” she asked
“I heard something!” he replied. They heard it again. Bradly grabbed Jamie’s arm and began walking very fast back to the car.
“Bradly, you’re scaring me.” She said. Bradly didn’t hear. He stopped and looked around in the darkness. Jamie then saw the moons reflection of something shiny, it was moving towards Bradly. IT WAS A KNIFE!
“BRADLY GET DOWN!!!” she yelled. Bradly ducked immediately as a knife dug into the tree. He stood up fast and opened the car. They both slid in and Bradly tried to start it. It guzzled for a few seconds and the switched off
“It wont start!” he yelled.
“What!”
“C’mon!” He pleaded. But it was no use. He killed the engine and pulled a dagger out from under the seat. There was complete silence for a few seconds before a hand busted threw the window and pulled Bradly out of the car. Jamie scrammed as it dragged Bradly away. She looked around the car and found the dagger. She opened the car and ran out after Bradly.
“JAMIE!” he yelled. She grabbed onto his hand.
“I’m not going to let you go!” she said. He then drove the dagger into the killer hand. It let out a cry and loosened its grip on Bradly. Jamie helped him to his feet and went back to the car. She then started it again and begged for it to start. The killer staggered closer to them. The car kept switching off.
“COME ON!” she yelled. The car jerked forward and started. Jamie pressed the accelerator and sped out of the park. She pulled the car to a halt and examined Bradly. His leg was bleeding. She took out the first aid kit and bandaged his leg. Bradly drove the rest of the way and dropped Jamie off back home.
She took a warm shower and began to think. This person was after someone. It killed Alan, and it almost killed Bradly. She had to find out what it was.

Chapter 5

The next day, Jamie snuck into Alan’s flat. It was hard to be there, she held back her tears as she crept into the room that was sealed off from the rest of the flat. She opened the cupboard and pulled out the article. She read the article several times, but couldn’t make anything out of it. She then examined the picture. She looked carefully at it. She recognized this place. Craig and her use to come up here for picnics. She then saw something faint in the picture. It was a car, a car she had seen many time before, a black BMW. Bradly’s car. That meant that Bradly was there that night. Bradly was hiding something from her. Jamie called Bradly and told him to meet her in the school hall in a couple of minutes.

Bradly parked his car in the school parking lot and made his way inside the school hall. It was dark, all except for a dim light in the corner, where he could see Jamie. He ran over and hugged her, but she pulled away. Bradly stared at her with concern. Jamie then pulled out a gun and pointed it at him. Bradly went pale.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I looked at the article of Lisa’s death, and guess what I saw, YOUR car was parked in the bushes. So you’d better start talking and start talking fast.” She said.
“OKAY! I was there. I saw everything. I saw killed her. I was just to afraid to tell you that it was…” said Bradly
“Me!” said a voice. Jamie spun around and saw the dark features of her brother.
“Craig, what are you talking about?” asked Jamie.
“I KILLED LISA! I pushed her off the ledge. This ring on my finger. It was hers. I killed her because she wanted to leave me!” said Craig.
“But then, you killed Alan.” She said.
“YES! He tried to take you away from me! I couldn’t let him do that. And there is one more person who is trying to steal you.” He said.
“I cant believe your going to kill me!” she said
“NO! I will never lose you.!” He said. Jamie recalled the phone call, it was him. He lifted his gun and pointed it at Bradly. Just then, a dark figure jumped out of the shadows and pushed Craig. It was Chris. Jamie watched in horror as her brother rose the gun to Chris’s head and pulled the trigger. The gun shot echoed through the hall and Chris’s motionless body fell to the ground.
“NO! You are not my brother. My brother wouldn’t do this.” She yelled. Craig was astounded. His mind was racing, adrenalin running. He then looked into his sister’s eyes. Pools of tears. What had he done? He had lost his sister. Craig rose the gun to his own head.
“I’m sorry!” he said. A tear fell from his eye as he pulled the trigger. Jamie ran to her brother’s side. He was dead, she gently closed his eyes.

Bradly sat by the fire with Jamie next to him as he began to tell the story of what he saw that night.
“I knew Lisa was Craig’s girlfriend. But she was seeing Alan at the same time. I knew Craig was a bit possessive so I tried to warn her, but she didn’t listen. Then that night. I followed Craig and Chris. The followed Lisa and Alan to the top of the cliff. They all over each other. That’s when Craig freaked out. He hit Alan and he pulled the ring off Lisa’s finger. The ring said “A + L” he then kissed her before he pushed her off the cliff. Chris ran up to him and began yelling. Craig just hit him. He then said that if he or Alan told anyone, he’d kill them. I knew something would happen when Alan came back to town.






Epilogue.

Bradly and Jamie sat peacefully on the beach, feeling the warm tan touch their skin as the waves crashed onto the shore. It was all over. Their lives were back to normal.
Bradly lowered his head and kissed Jamie softly on her lips. Jamie smiled. She then looked into the clouds and saw the face of her brother. All his hatred for so many years. He was finally at peace, finally able to rest. Free of his dirty little secret
END