Page 7 of The Editor’s Choice

Opening the phone, I see that the calls and texts are from a familiar number. Dawson. How the fuck did he get this number? I literally just got the phone and didn’t give the number out to anyone yet, other than here for the apartment. I’ve just been using it for Facebook and a bit of YouTube at this point. The distance has kept me slightly sane.

Clicking on the messages, I notice they get more desperate as time goes on. Especially once he sent a few and didn’t get any response from me at all.

Jade, I need you to call me back.

This is important.

Jade, please! Call me back right now!

Fuck, Jade. Just answer the damn phone already! I really have to talk to you!

They continue in a similar style, the last one coming in just about an hour ago. I don’t even bother to check the voicemails before I type out a quick response.

What do you need?

Before I can even lock the screen, Dawson’s number is flashing on my phone.

“What?” I answer, trying to keep the venom from my tone.

“Emily is dead,” he states, not even bothering to lead into it gently. The silence stretches as I try to begin to process what he just said. Everything just feels blank though, like nothing is even real right now.

“What?” I repeat, barely above a whisper. When he doesn’t respond for a few seconds, I wonder if I said that out loud at all. “I’ll be at the house as quick as I can,” I say, ending the call before he gets a chance to answer.

Ten minutes later, I’m pulling up outside his house. Our old house. Shaking my head to clear the thoughts, I open the car door and make my way to the front door. I do my best to brace myself, not sure what to expect.

My hand touches the knob but the door is flung open, revealing Dawson on the other side. “Thank god you’re here. I’m freaking out and I don’t have a clue what to do,” he rushes, pulling me in for a quick hug, squeezing the air from my lungs.

I push back against him, freeing myself. “Slow down. What the fuck happened? What do you mean Emily is dead? Where is she? What are the police saying? Holy hell,” I word vomit, trying to keep my head from spinning. Feeling dizzy, I lean against the doorframe for some support. I’m barely remaining upright at this point.

“They’re not really saying anything. That’s the problem! They won’t talk to me at all! They asked a bunch of questions and then basically ghosted me,” he shouts, rage boiling to the surface now.

“Start from the beginning. Go slow,” I instruct, hoping to find some answers. Or at least get some clarity on what’s happened since I’ve been MIA the last few days.

“God, I really don’t know, Jade,” he rushes, nearly tripping over his words. It’s a rare thing to see Dawson so worked up. The whole situation has me feeling like my nerve endings are all on fire.

With a deep, steadying breath, he pushes himself to continue. “Emily had been staying here the last couple nights since you’ve been gone. We were both worried sick about you and hoping you would call or come home. We spent hours trying to figure out a way to find you and get everything sorted out. She didn’t sleep hardly at all.” There are tears in his eyes, rimming them red now. I fight the urge to roll my eyes so he will keep going.

“I must have fallen asleep at some point. I woke up to this insane pounding on the door. It scared the fuck out of me. I hopped up off the couch and ran to the door, praying it was you,” he pauses, giving me a second to respond. When I don’t, he starts again. “It was the police. They asked if I knew Em. I told them I did, so they asked to come in. That’s when they told me something terrible had happened. They had found Em dead.”

“Where did they find her?” I ask, urging him on, my head spinning. My subconscious refuses to believe this is happening, that this is my real life. No amount of details from Dawson or the police is going to fix that level of denial.

“A couple hikers called it in. The couple had noticed some broken branches or something. The area just seemed off, they said. When they looked a little farther, they saw a bunch of blood and then Emily’s body a little farther away. She was a little way off that tiny trail that goes to the overlook. Not the popular one. The hidden one that looks out over the prettiest part of the river,” he divulges. It’s like once he started talking, he couldn’t stop until it was all out or he would never be able to finish telling me.

I stop in my tracks. She didn’t even know about that spot. We were friends for over a decade and that spot was never mentioned. That was my spot. I swallow, trying with all my might to keep the contents of my stomach in their rightful place. My head is swimming and I can’t breathe.

It had to have been someone local. None of the tourists would know about that place. It’s not on any map and not many of the local people even know about it. That’s what has always made it so incredible over the years. Hell, from the way the trail is grown up, it looks like nobody ever goes up there anymore at all. And now my best friend was found dead there. Murdered.

I slide along the doorframe down to the floor, no longer trusting my legs to hold me upright. Hugging my knees, I lay my cheek on them, trying to focus on breathing. My entire world is crumbling around me and I can’t do anything to stop it.

“Do they have any suspects yet?” I ask, more to fill the silence than anything.

“If they do, they didn’t tell me that. They were just asking general information about her. Where she lived, where she had been in the days leading up to this, her social habits,” he shrugs.

“I can’t think of anyone who would have wanted to hurt her. Maybe it was just a weird freak thing,” I suggest, knowing in my gut that isn’t right. It just doesn’t sit right from the second it leaves my tongue.

“Yeah, maybe,” he agrees, not sounding confident in that answer either. “I’m sure the police will get it figured out. Murders don’t happen here, so they’ve got all hands on deck, I’m sure.”

“Let me know if you hear anything. I need some space,” I reply, standing shakily and dusting off the seat of my pants. “I can’t be here right now. Everything is way too overwhelming.” With that, I step out the door.