Undone - Chapter 6: Brandon

“Shit! What happened?” I woke up with a stinging pain in my jaw. “Annika,” I whispered almost immediately. A few hours ago, I’d probably break down and cry. I’d probably scream to the skies and ask a bunch of questions that I wanted the answers to, but I’d never find because I would have been too much of a wimp. That would’ve been the case a few hours ago, but now I was angry. Ann killed the one person in the world that was even slightly important to me. She would pay for that. I unnecessarily almost killed the accused murderer of Naomi all because Ann was a stupid liar that couldn’t seem to come out and tell the truth. And just an hour ago she was telling me she loved me and that if she didn’t love me enough, she’d lose me. How long did she think she could go with this lie?1

I stood up, and almost fell back down. I was still dizzy from the blow to my face. How could one girl throw a punch harder than anyone else I’d ever met? I stumbled out of the graveyard, heading towards my house, then realized something.2

Ian always acted weird around Ann, like he was pissed at her for some reason or the other. Whenever I mentioned her coming over or something, he’d make an excuse to leave. It’s been like this since his little sister died. I’d assume it had something to do with her death, and it probably does, but he only acts this way about Ann. Ann killed Naomi so…3

I had to talk to Ian.4

“Brandon? What’re you doing here so late?” Ian asked wearily.5

“I need to talk to you about your sister,” I replied solemnly, all friendliness gone from my tone. He must’ve understood that this was important because a) this was about his sister and no one ever asked to talk about his sister and I was practically glaring at him.6

“Come in then,” he whispered, closing the door behind me after I stepped in. We walked into his living room. I sat down on the couch while he sat with his legs folded under him on the armchair. He stared at me, not sure what he was supposed to say, but looked at me expecting me to break the silence.7

“About Arlene…” I started, but Ian interrupted me.8

“Look, I’m through trying to convince people that she was murdered, okay? I’ve accepted that she’s just dead. I don’t need someone else telling me that time’s going to change my mind and get these illusions out of my head.” His voice was shaking, like he didn’t want to say it but he had to. It sounded like he didn’t believe in what he was saying, like he was lying.9

“Ian,” started, taking a deep breath and letting it out; it gave me a few more seconds to think about how to phrase what I was about to say. “Was it Annika?”10

I watched his reaction as old memories played through his head. There was a horrified look on his face. He buried his face in his hands, digging his fingernails into his skin. Whatever he was seeing behind those eyelids, I didn’t think I wanted to hear about it.11

“Dude…I’m sorry, man.” I almost regretted coming here. I stood up to leave when I heard him say, “No. Stay.”12

“Are you going to talk?” I asked, turning my head to face him. He nodded, so I sat back down.13

“It wasn’t Annika. It was Samantha. But Annika was there that night.” He wasn’t looking at me. More like the floor in front of me. I couldn’t understand his facial expression. There was definitely pain and disturbance there, but something else. Anger? “I followed Arlene to the park. I knew Sam had planted shit in her head to make her fight with mom. So she left the house really upset and naturally, she went to Sam. Sam was talking to her, and she said something to Arlene her hug her. Just then, Sam…” He stopped, choking on his words. “Sam pulled her off and did something to her. I’m not sure what it was, but they told me afterwards that her heart just stopped pumping blood and it was too late to clear it up. Arlene just started shaking, like she was drowning and trying to breathe. She was clawing at Sam, and only landing one blow across her chest. It tore her shirt, and you could see her bleeding. Funny thing was, Ann was just standing there, watching. No facial expression on her face, just standing there watching with no intent to stop the madness.”14

The whole time I was sitting there thinking, Sam did it? That little girl? How was it even possible? And where did she learn to hit someone hard enough to kill them?15

“Look, I know you’ve got a lot of questions, but answer mine first.” Ian said, breaking through my thoughts. “What the hell happened to your face?”16

“Ann hit me,” I said stubbornly, not wanting to admit it.17

“You got hit by a girl?! Dude, what happened?!” He started cracking up.18

“Ann and I went to the cemetery because today’s the day that Naomi died. I went to buy flowers and when I came back, Ann was telling Naomi how she was glad she killed her. Then she realized I was right behind her. I think she thought one blow to the head would knock me out and make me lose my memory, but I guess she’s not as smart as Sam.” I was filling with rage as I said it, but the last sentence made me laugh.19

“Wow, dude. So Ann killed Naomi, and Sam killed Arlene. They’re perfect for each other. Both criminals undercover as teenage girls sweeter than life,” Ian shuddered as he spoke,” but I never really did like them.”20

“Nobody ever listened to me,” he said. “They called me delusional and told me I was making shit up because I was traumatized or in shock. I got sick of it so I just stopped telling them what happened and pretended that I accepted it but I know, and I always will know that Sam murdered my little sister, and Ann was there to watch, yet she did nothing about it and…neither did I.”