The Inmate

by Freida McFadden

“I want to go.” I kick some of the books away. “Let me go.” “Brooke, you’re being crazy! You don’t seriously think I killed Brandon and Kayla, do you?” “I don’t know.” I push a few more books out of my path. “I just need to get out of here. I have to use the bathroom.” I try to reach for the doorknob again, but Chelsea is blocking it with her body. I raise my eyes to look at her round face, her black hair with the pale tips that I helped her bleach in the bathroom at her house, and her brown eyes that suddenly look like pools of blackness in the dim light of Shane’s bedroom. “Chelsea,” I say firmly. “Step aside. Now.” Her gaze zeroes in on my face. “No. You’re not leaving.” Chelsea had been searching the room for a weapon, but she didn’t need to search. She had a knife on her all along. The same knife she used to kill Brandon and Kayla. The same knife she’ll use to kill me. Except when I look down at her hands, they are empty. Where is the knife? Did she stash it somewhere? “Chelsea…” “You need to stay here, Brooke. You can’t leave.”