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2024-10-29 19:42:56Max | Before
I'm drowning. Water is filling my mouth as someone pushes me further under the surface of the cold and murky waters of the sea outside Rosewood. Panic fills me just as quickly as water as I struggle against them, trying to scream.
The hands fall away and I list my head above the water again, gasping for breath. In and out. In and out. In and out. But then they're back. They're back and this time they aren't leaving. It was a trick. A cruel, cruel trick. Letting me think of live just to kill me.
Before I can scream, I jolt into consciousness.
"I'm fine," I whisper to myself, hugging my knees to my chest. "I'm fine. I'm fine."
"Max? You okay, mijo?" It's Dad, in a dark T-shirt and shorts at my door.
"I'm fine," I repeat for the dozenth time. "I'm fine, okay?"
"What was the dream about?"
&nbs
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Who Killed Grace Chapter 10
Violet | After"What are we doing tonight?" Zeph asks, crunching on a bag of chips that seem to have materialised out of thin air."Prefect stuff," Max answers, shoving a book into his backpack. "I'll be busy till dinner.""Violin lesson and then dance practice," Kaci adds. "I'm out till dinner too.""I'm doing this club with the Year Sixes," Carlos says."Please don't say you're booked too, Violet." Zeph turns to me pleadingly, holding out the chip packet. "I'll split these with you.""Actually, I'm free," I answer, extracting a chip from the packet.Zeph grins. "Great!""Aw, Zeph's found a new best friend," Max says, nudging him laughingly.It's the first time I've seen him smile, really smile. Usually, they're forced and pained. He has a nice smile, warm and friend
Who Killed Grace Chapter 11
Grace | BeforeI pretend not to notice Tristan trying to get my attention during the assembly. He's sitting right behind me to my annoyance and kicking my chair gently every now and then, trying to get a reaction. I'm tempted to nudge Max and whisper that Tristan's irritating me knowing he'll go all protective. Big brother mode as Kaci would laugh. But knowing that he'll do that causes a warm feeling in my chest, one I cling to desperately."No we can't." I begin walking away fast towards Physics."Grace, come on," he protests, following me. "I need to talk to someone. I feel like I'm going insane.""Get in line."My shoes clatter as I jog up the stairs towards the classroom, towards Ms Fields who makes us sit in silence for the first five minutes as we do the starter activity and the register. Suddenly, Physics seems welcoming compared to talking to Tristan. Bu
Who Killed Grace Chapter 12
Max | AfterSeven minutes isn't much, but it's enough. I've already wasted three in switching my school uniform for a T-shirt and jeans. I drop down onto the floor myself and pry up the floorboard with a red stripe on it. It's hardly noticeable since Carlos the neat freak hasn't, well, freaked about it. I pull out my video camera, set it to record and start talking."This is week two of Max being a lunatic," I announce. "Can you believe I thought I could do this shit every single damn day? I mean, I have a life, you know. Unbelievable, but true. I have a life and I can't talk to someone who doesn't exist every single day.""It's been an okay week. I mean, okay as it can be. Grace is still dead and I'm still here and life is still mean."I talk fast about my last week, starting with the assembly. Grace's portrait, Officer Davidson, Tristan, Vivienne, Dr Summers and her grief counsell
Who Killed Grace Chapter 13
Violet | After"That was interesting," Kaci remarks as we slip out of the Boys' Wing and up the stairs to our room."It was," I agree. "This is much more interesting than I thought England would be.""Rosewood might just be an anomaly. It rains here a lot, much more than it should so south.""What do you mean?" I ask, turning the corner."Well, the further south you go in the UK, the better weather you get," she explains, opening our door. "That's why Wales is so great. But up in Scotland, you have the mountains and it's so beautiful all the time so don't put off going there.""My parents live near Scotland. They sent me an address last week for our next break. Don't think I'll go though.""Why not?" she asks."We aren't exactly on the best terms right now. Stuff happened and let's just s
Who Killed Grace Chapter 14
Max | After"Utterly unacceptable!" Mrs Elliot almost shouts angrily.I haven't been listening much until this point, basically just drowning her out by singing songs loudly in my head but this snaps me back to reality."We will find them," Keely says. "Ali's doing some tech thing to check the printers."I glance towards Ali who's sitting in the corner with a laptop. The sticker of the Rosewood crest— a rose with a raven in the middle— in the top right corner marks it as Rosewood property. His dark eyes are still tired like they were during breakfast, less than halfway through his cup of coffee. All of us are tired, not just me who got up at an ungodly hour to have a murder squad meeting in a graveyard. Elliot pulled us out of breakfast to Zoe's annoyance. Unless you're Mrs Elliot, you can't interrupt Zoe's breakfast and get away with it."This
Who Killed Grace Chapter 15
Violet | AfterI'm sitting on my bed with wet hair hanging down and my sketchbook balanced on my lap. I finished all my homework before my shower and since I have an Art lesson tomorrow, I may as well brush up on my skills. I flick past the sketches of graveyards and ghosts and boys in football jerseys and girls in Harvard hoodies that I did on the plane and after getting out of Everly to a fresh page."Well, we're basically done finding the suspects," she tells me, flopping down on her bed. "Me and Carlos talked to people, hacked into his Mum's Insta and found alibis for every teacher and student not at the party except one.""Who?" I question. "And did you say you hacked into his mom's Instagram?""His mum was friends with Mrs Elliot when they went to school and she follows Elliot's private account so Carlos logged into hers and found a post from the night Grace died. She was at the ann
Who Killed Grace Chapter 16
Max | AfterI'm sitting with Davidson again, in a science lab this time because they're closer to the changing rooms. I'm already in my football kit since I always change in our dorm instead of taking my clothes to the changing room. The officer hasn't changed at all. Same haircut, same clean shaven face, same questioning techniques. Just a small follow up, he promised."Some of my guys went north to the Covey House," he tells me. "We found this in her room, still in the Amazon box. It arrived on the day she died."He pushes a plastic evidence bag across the smooth tabletop towards me. I pull it towards myself with my index finger. Inside is a book— And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. I remember mentioning to Grace I wanted to read it just before Carlos said that he wanted to watch the TV adaptation. Grace told him that he didn't have a Kindle to make his shelf look pretty.<
Who Killed Grace Chapter 17
Violet | AfterThe bell tinkles above me as I enter Robinson's Art. Sitting at the front counter is a young woman in her late twenties with long, blonde braids and a magazine. She looks up when I enter and hastily shoves the magazine under the counter."Hi," she calls. "I'm Anna. Here to help you with all your arty needs. Need help with anything specific?""I'm just going to look around if that's okay?""Sure," she answers, shrugging. "It's pretty quiet today.""Everyone's excited about this soccer match up at the school," I tell her, making my way to a shelf displaying sketchbooks."Everyone's excited about this soccer match up at the school," I tell her, making my way to a shelf displaying sketchbooks.Anna laughs. "Rosewood always gets excited about football. Are you American?""I am.
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Chapter 32
Violet | After "Who was that?" Scott asks me as we walk into the kitchen. "A friend," I reply. "Do you want something to eat or drink?" "I'm fine," he says. "He's an attractive friend." "He's also recently broken up with a girl I'm told he was crazy about and a total mess," I say bluntly. "Why are you here, Scott?" "To see you. Isn't that obvious?" "You haven't called or texted for weeks and you show up here out of the blue," I point out. "And how did you even get the address? I didn't give it to you. I didn't get it myself until I was at school." "I called your sister. And technically, I'm on a business trip with my dad. Today's my last day and I thought I'd come see you," he says. "Don't be so surprised, Vi. I wanted to call, but I didn't think it was the right time. I wanted to give you space."
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Chapter 31
Max | After My first thought is quite shallow. What the hell does Ace see in him? This is Harvard, the boy who can make her blush without even doing anything. The guy we used as an excuse when she searched Keely's room. The guy who's stopping her from going out with another one. The mere thought of him makes all other guys inferior by comparison. But I just don't see it. The dark reddish brown hair is ordinary. His eyes are a normal green. He isn't particularly memorable. But she isn't blushing now. She looks stunned and quite horrified. He shrugs. "Dad's on a week long business trip, school got shut down because of scorpions and I'm here now. It's my last day and I thought it'd be nice to see you." "Should've stayed at school," I mouth to her. "Well, this just got awkward. If you want to work more on the project, you know where to find me, Ace." "I'll come with you," Nikki
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Chapter 30
Violet | After I approach the counter after finishing my fries. The guy who owns the place is called Logan as he told me and he's really nice. Asked me where I'm from, where I'm going, if I have my train ticket in order. Caring, like a dad. "Can I have a vanilla milkshake please?" I ask. "To go this time." "Sure," he replies with a smile. "But, kid, I just saw you drink a chocolate shake and too much milkshake ain't good for your health." "I know," I say, pulling out my money. "This is for a friend." When I meet Max back at the station, he gives me a weird look as I try to balance holding the shake and taking my suitcase onto the train. He sighs and takes my case, letting me carry his shake in peace. "What's that, Ace?" he asks as we take our seats. "This is for you." I hand it to him. "It won't get s
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Chapter 29
Max | After As soon as I'm far enough away from Violet, I pull out my video camera from my backpack. There has to be a church with a graveyard here somewhere. Thank God it isn't a Sunday and people probably won't be going to church. It's the perfect place to shoot the next instalment of my video diary of hell, also known as Max being a lunatic. "Found it," I mutter, seeing the sign informing me that this is the church. And right there is a graveyard. I consider going into the church just to see if a priest is there. Maybe I can go into confession. I sure have committed a lot of sins and admitting them to some guy I don't even know might help. But I shake the idea out of my mind and start walking through the graveyard. The graves near the front are new, not get covered with moss or overgrown grass with still fresh flowers laid on top. The gravestones are new, like Grace's, fr
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Chapter 28
Violet | AfterMax furiously takes a drink of orange juice, glaring at Carlos who he seems to be having a staring contest with. Things have been tense since breakfast started, the two of them not talking to each other while Zeph, Kaci and I are in the dark about why."Alright, let's stop this childish nonsense," Kaci says. "What happened?""He knows what he did," Max spits."I don't!" Zeph wails. "I want to be in on the secret! You're making me feel left out!"━━━━━━━━Max furiously takes a drink of orange juice, glaring at Carlos who he seems to be having a staring contest with. Things have been tense since breakfast started, the two of them not talking to each other while Zeph, Kaci and I are in the dark about why.Violet | After"Alright, let's stop this childish nonsense,"
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Chapter 27
Max | After"Come on, Max!" Carlos sighs. "We need to leave now!"He throws a packet of sweets to me as I look up from my laptop. I have a horror film ready to watch on. Netflix, all I have to do is press play and lose myself in a story that doesn't seem nearly as scary as my own life."Do I have to?" I whine. "Vivienne's going to be there and I haven't really talked to her and—""Max, let me stop you right there," he interjects. "Vivienne is not the only girl in the world and you probably won't have to talk to her all night. You are going to find someone who accepts how insane you are and loves you for it and you can't avoid her for the rest of your life.""Max, let me stop you right there," he interjects. "Vivienne is not the only girl in the world and you probably won't have to talk to her all night. You are going to find someone who accepts how insane
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Chapter 26
Violet | After"How are we going to look through her desk?" Kaci wails, flopping down on her bed.I look up from the email Mom forwarded to me from Everly. It's been almost six months since I've been released to civilisation and they think it'll be good if I talk to someone about how I'm doing. I'm to see Dr Summers next week. How lovely for me, right?"I think my mom just solved the problem," I say. "She wants me to have a session with Dr Summers next week. I can have a look then.""I have an idea to get her out of the room." She picks up her phone. "Tanya and Lexie, they'll do Max a favour, right? They can distract get with something while you look for anything on—"There's a brisk knock on our door, cutting her off."Who is it?" I call."Police!" a female voice responds. "We need to searc
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Chapter 25
Max | After"Excuse me?" My voice is shaky as Tristan gestures for me to sit down next to him. "What do you mean, Rosewood legacy?""Your grandmother's mother was actually one of the first girls to attend this school," Benedict Trudale replies coolly. "One of the first students, in fact. Your grandmother attended this school and then your father and now you. You're a legacy.""And what are you two doing? Did you put those notes all around school?""You're an absolute idiot," I tell him. "You terrified the shit out of most of the school and if Elliot finds out, she will murder you. And then your parents will murder you for it. So you'll be dead twice.""Three times because Vivienne will kill me too.""But you have done very well," Benedict adds. "The Rosewood Alliance has surpassed the Raven's Guild on this occasion."
- Who Killed Grace
Chapter 24
Grace | Before"You think it looks okay?" I ask Mum as she twists part of my hair into a slim plait."It does," she replies. "You're going to steal all the boys' hearts tonight.""Is Max here yet? Or Carlos and Zeph?""Max and Carlos are," she says. "They're helping with the tables. So sweet, those two."I smile. Carlos? Yes. Max? Carlos probably guilted him into pushing tables around. He doesn't like pushing tables around, he prefers to watch with his feet up on one."Your dad's here too," she adds. "He's fixing himself a sandwich before the party since he missed dinner. Did you miss him?"I'm frozen. If Dad is here, he'll want to talk. He knows that I've met the rep from the Raven's Guild. He'll want to ask me what I think of it. He'll ask me how I feel about the sixteenth of July.
