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2024-10-29 19:42:56Anonymous: Before Justice gets killed
The hotel room is medium-sized and definitely not shabby at all. Everything is decorated with calming hues of beige. The gauzy brown curtains are on every side of me. There’s a long glass cane table at the centre of the room, chairs that are positioned facing each other giving me the intimacy I crave. I avoid the windows in the room because they are too enormous, too wide and disobey discretion to the fullest. The roman wall clock directly above the four-inch telly tells me she’s late. She’s always late, as though she hasn’t the care or regret for being so. As if I’m not someone she needs to rush over to. I stifle a sigh as I wait for her arrival and the minutes tick by till there’s a notification on my phone.
At best, she’s apologetic and at worst, she’s an hour late. Moving over to the door, I unlock it and return to my seat. She prefers to sit on the bed
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Ava: Before killing JusticeI’m leaning toward my bathroom mirror trying to remember what the girl in the YouTube video I watched earlier said about twisting buns. Holding a lump of my natural hair it looks almost futile now. There’s nothing a little gorilla snot won’t fix.Every weekend I surf through the internet looking for new styles to torture my short hair with so I don’t look boring at school. Most people wait to see what I’ll look like all seven days of the week. I can’t disappoint; it’s just not in my nature to. Standing back in Arden Academy’s virgin white uniform, I look perfect to the eye. If only people could see the small monster sitting at the back of my mind just waiting for me to set her free, they’d be wary of me.I’m finishing up with my lip gloss when an abrupt banging of the door startles me. My little sister’s voice fills my ears. &ld
Killing Justice Chapter 10
Skylar: After killing JusticeI’m not a fan of superstition, but if these staggering photos are anything to go by, I’ll say this is definitely a bad omen.The pictures splayed on the floor tell us we were being watched that night. The realization makes my skin crawl. If we bury Justice’s body, that’ll give whoever has decided to mess with our heads the perfect opportunity to take another picture. One so incriminating the police won’t have to even question us on if we killed her or not. And if we don’t, we’re still in trouble. So we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t. Perfect. Just frigging fantastic.“We can’t bury her here in Fox Park.” If no one will say it, I will. Thana makes an audible gagging sound behind me and I retch myself from her, afraid she would vomit anytime soon.“She stinks,” she mumbles behind
Killing Justice Chapter 11
Ava: Before killing JusticeWe make it to school in a nick of time, precisely an hour or so before the first bell rings for the first period. I’m leaning against my locker, fumbling in my knapsack for Justice’s padlock while she fixes her hair in her compact mirror. I haven’t gotten used to knowing she’s cut her hair to her shoulders and curled the tips. She said she would rather die than have short hair, but here she is, raking her fingers through it. Cece is ranting on about this online novel written by an anonymous romance writer at school. I find it irksome that Cece of all people gets to have a juicy exclusive every Friday when it takes me days to get something eligible for the sports section for the school’s paper.“How do you get the chapters to even publish them, anyway?” I ask her reluctantly and hand Justice her padlock.Cece is all smiles, sugar and spice and everythin
Killing Justice Chapter 12
Skylar: After killing JusticeI’m living in the house of a dead girl, but no one knows this. Her name was Kayla Tacki, KayKay, to her friends. Not that she had many and mostly when I saw her in the corridors of Arden Academy she was always keeping to herself. Or latched onto Thana’s brother, Nabil like he was her lifeline.I remember when Justice, Jasmine, and I were in Year Seven when the Tackis moved into The Circle. They weren’t posh or sparkly as they parked in their new driveway. No Range Rover or Land Cruiser in sight, just their old Benz that coughed out smoke every time Mr Tacki revved the engine. Most of the time, I stayed clear from their path when I saw their car, afraid my lungs would get clogged with carbon monoxide. Her family had the same dream everyone in the Circle had when they first moved here: “Maybe things will be different in The Circle. Maybe we’ll be happy here.”Unfortunatel
Killing Justice Chapter 13
Ava: After killing JusticeYellow crime-scene tapes. Blue and red lights blinking in the distance. Familiar words are written on those peculiar long tapes. Do not cross. Crime Scene. And just when we’d thought we would go back to normal, this had to happen. I can’t say I didn’t expect it. The moment we saw those pictures splashed around in the Crimson Hideaway, I knew the world I was living in had ceased to exist. The lines between right and wrong have blurred out of existence. Who’s to say, we didn’t cause this? That by Skylar speaking to Mr Paps we already signed his death certificate in advance for him. Now more than ever we have to find out who killed Justice and Mr Paps.“How’d he die?” I ask Skylar who’s to my right standing in the chilly air in her usual blue hoodie and black jeans. Somehow strangely I know the answer before she tells me.“Stabbed to deat
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Thana: Before killing JusticePayback tastes sweet until you get a feel of the aftermath. That’s what I should’ve hammered into my head that day in the washroom after Skylar, Ava, and I discussed faux-killing Justice. It felt good to plan it, amazing to imagine it even, but afterwards, all I was left with was fear, guilt and shame. It wasn’t worth it. I would give anything to see Justice alive and walking down the corridors of Arden Academy like a shiny bullet soaring through the air. I don’t know how the others tell it—that Friday morning or afternoon Justice did something to hurt us. But she’s been making me bleed ever since Kieran made my family move to The Circle last year in September.I was new that year. Fresh meat, Justice said. I thought she meant it as a joke and it’s weird how happy I was that she had noticed me, that she had even spoken to me. I’m used to being invisible to my dad a
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Thana: After killing JusticeDeath is inevitable and comes in many forms. The first being my mother’s, Mary—that’s what I call her now, not Mum like Nabil and I used to—died from pulmonary embolism, that’s what my dad told me a few hours after he got an out of the blue call at a quarter past midnight. Then came Kayla’s death. A hit-and-run that left her broken, her stomach sliced open, blood oozing from the wound. Another form was Jasmine. The fall didn’t kill her, apparently; it was a blood clot that shot straight into her brain.And now Justice but no one knows this, but all the same, by Monday morning, news of Justice’s disappearance has spread throughout the school like wildfire, seeping into every chat room, creating new hashtag posts every minute someone clueless gets a whiff of the gossip circulating.Normalcy has become a thing of the past. Chaos and fear have desce
Killing Justice Chapter 16
Thana: After killing JusticeMiss Spellings must sense I’m uncomfortable with the way the conversation has steered toward me because she says, “I think that’s enough questions for today. Wouldn’t you agree?”The detective’s face remains expressionless. “One more thing.” His eyes slide to mine. “When was the last time you saw Justice?”This time I don’t lie. “Friday,” I say simply.He sighs, disappointed in my answer. His partner, who I’m trying to devise a name for in my head, notes it down. I feel oddly queasy about being evaluated this way. “Did she behave out of the ordinary?”From Miss Spellings expression, I know he’s already asked this before. “Normal, she seemed normal.”“Can you elaborate?”“I mean as
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Thana: After killing Justice The next day, I wake up with panic blossoming in my chest. It’s Monday, I realise, but it takes a while for my brain to remember school is out till they tell us it’s not. I moan into my pillow. All the crying I did last night takes its toll on me. My head is pounding. Kieran comes in seconds later, making me know she must have had her ears plastered to my bedroom door. I scootch to make room for her. “How are you feeling?” she asks, pressing her cold icy hand to my temple. A shiver racks through me and I whimper. “Oh dear, you have a fever.” I kind of figured it out when everything, including my bed, felt like a block of ice. She orders me into the bathroom while I strip my pyjamas and wrap a towel around myself, collapsing on the tiled floor. She returns with a bucket teeming with hot water and readies a bath for me while I wail about how much they must hate me now. “Who hates you?” Sh
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Chapter 52
Thana: After killing Justice When we don’t say a word, he starts pacing. I watch as he applies pressure to the space between his eyes, one hand on his hip. “At least explain to me why you broke into a hotel room at Circe Creek.” After a long beat, he probes some more. “Girls, c’mon. I know it’s in your nature to cover for each other. Lie for each other. I have nieces, so I’m well aware. What I don’t quite get is why you’re going along with this.” It takes me a moment to realise he’s talking to Skylar and I get the same free-falling effect of someone diving out of a twelfth story building. He’s trying to rip us apart and pit us against each other. “You don’t owe these two anything, especially Ava Hernaez. She’s Justice’s best friend. You don’t run in the same social circle. In fact, you all are the oddest group I’ve ever encountered.” “Are we suspects?” Skylar cuts him off, finally showing some ounce of the same fear zapping through me.
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Chapter 51
Thana: After killing Justice “Row, what on earth are you doing with those two?” “They’re my friends,” I say defensively. “And I need you to promise me you won’t mention what Justice told you.” “Why?” “It’s complicated. They’d know I lied to them. That I’ve been lying this whole time.” His ringtone interrupts us. We both look at the phone balanced on his lap. Kieran’s caller ID flashes on the screen. “Hold on.” He holds up a finger. “She’s been calling me nonstop. I wonder what she wants.” Nabil walks over to the other side of the space, stands in front of the gaping square where a window should be. I plop down on the slabs, watch as Skylar and Ava, their backs turned away from me, pull out their own phones. Apprehension creeps up my spine and buzzes intensely when Nabil walks back and hands me his phone. “She wants to speak with you.” The fear evi
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Thana: After killing Justice Now, looking at his stunned expression, darting eyes searching for an escape from us, I’m pondering over what this means for him, for us. My brother is an exceptional artist with words that are meant to make you, not break you. I can’t imagine those fingers that have deftly moved with a pencil on a page, wrap around a knife and stab a girl seven times. Twice in the throat without remorse and three times in the chest without a second thought. “What are you staring at?” Skylar snarls. “You’ve got some nerve looking at us after what you did.” Nabil blanks and takes a step back. “W-what are you talking about?” he stutters. He’s rehearsed somehow because he looks stoic and confused like he just can’t place his finger on why Skylar is fuming. If she were a cartoon, I can only perceive the amount of smoke billowing out of her ears and nose. “Did you think you’d get away with it?
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Chapter 49
Thana: After killing Justice Afterwards, I curled up into a ball and cried my eyes out, hating myself for hitting send. Hating her for her silence after the double blue ticks appeared on my screen. Hating her even more for blocking me. Maybe she deleted the messages too, but I can’t be too sure, so I say, “We can use it. If we hand it over now, we won’t get the answer to why. Why us? Why blackmail us into burying her? You know once we give it up the cops, they won’t disclose any information and we’d be left in the dark.” Skylar leans in. “So what you’re saying is, we get him to meet us? Isn’t that dangerous?” “It’s really not. It’ll be three against one. There’s not much damage he can do.” Ava’s eyes meet mine. “I think it’s smart and we could even get a confession out of him.” And just like that, all’s forgiven. I will not make them doubt me again. She delicately picks
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Chapter 48
Thana: After killing JusticeI don’t ask what Skylar means when she says this. My eyes are fixated on the blackened screen of Justice’s phone, my thoughts whirlpooling: Ava has had this since Friday. Could she have gone through it? Does she know my secret? Did Justice ever delete our chats like she erased the very existence of me? I jut my head to the phone. “Have you gone through it? Found anything?”“Nope. I can’t seem to get past Justice’s stupid password,” she says in defeat. “I’ve tried her birthday. Mine. Victor’s. I even tried Patience is a dead cow, something Justice loved to say all the time and nothing. It’s like I don’t even know her anymore.” Her eyes have gone glassy and I want to ask: If you cared so much about Justice, why make that plan? Why hate her for some meagre title like Head girl? There’s got to be more than Ava’s letting on
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Chapter 47
Thana: After killing Justice Skylar smirks at me as if she knows I’m lying, but finds it amusing that I’m terrible at it. Ava, however, is oblivious and gives me a pitying look. “Sorry, but this couldn’t wait.” Her eyes scour the place before she speaks again, which is overly dramatic considering there’s no one here but us. “We’re here to sort of compare notes and figure out what went wrong.” She makes it sound as if what we did was right and some anomaly just entered the equation and messed everything up. Then what she says next sends shock pulsating through me: “Skylar found out my dad was the one booking the room at the hotel.” After a long beat of silence between us, I ask, “How?” If I look in the mirror right now, I’d see the ugly mask of confusion on my face. “How did you find out?” I ask. My eyes land on Skylar. “I went to the precinct yesterday.” A pause and then she frowns. “Does it
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Chapter 46
Thana: After Killing Justice They send me a load of texts telling me to meet them at the community library, ordering me to be there before noon. Don’t be late, Ava texts emphatically in caps. Instead of feeling annoyed that my Saturday morning was going to be spent at a library I didn’t even know existed, I’m glad. I’m being summoned. It’s good to feel like I belong. My phone isn’t a black nothingness anymore. But there’s a dark voice whispering to me that it won’t last for long, not with how much I’m keeping from them. I’m not the kind of girl to hoard away her secrets. Most people know them before I can even confess. If Ava and Skylar know what I know, they won’t look at me the same way. My murky past must stay in the dark, my real reason for wanting to get back at Justice along with it. The invitation staring back at me on my phone inspires me with a new sense of valiance I haven’t felt before. So I go in search of Nabil and when I do
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Chapter 45
Skylar: After killing JusticeWhen she rises from the bed, the protruding baby bump is the only explanation I get. Stupidly, I blurt out an oh but there’s no indication that I’ve offended her. “Dad’s been sneaking out of the house around this time. I know since I hear him every time he leaves.” She’s all business now. “That’s why we’re going to track him using the app I downloaded today. It’s called Spyic. He won’t even know we’re tailing him.”I give her a wry look. “How do you know all this?”She shrugs. “Where else but Google? There’s like loads of info on there you just have to know where to look.”Beside me, Ava rolls her eyes. “What now?”“We wait for him to leave,” Asia says.Ten minutes later we’re shut inside Asia&
