۫ ּ ִ ۫ ˑ ֗ 𓏲˖ 𑁍 ࣪ ִ ۫ ּ ִ ۫ ˑ ֗
࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ  ✩◿𝓓𝓣𝓐◸ 🂱 ࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ
CHAPTER FORTY THREE—
you made me hate this city.

"Thank you for meeting with me, Sarah." Ainsley, a reporter that was putting together a section on the missing boys. "We have been wanting to interview you since the station confirmed the boys all going missing by the same man."

Sarah nodded as she sat infront of her, fixing the blazer she rented from a fancy little place not far from the Blake's. "I have been away."

"How long do you think you'll be home for?" she asked, clicking her pen. "For the record, I just want to say that if you say anything and would like to leave it out of the report, that's entirely up to you."

"Why exactly are you putting together a report? Is it for the newspaper?" Sarah couldn't sit still, squeezing her hands under her thighs and chewing on the inside of her mouth.

"Yes, and we'd like for it to be read by the news. We've interviewed the victims families, but the whole town speaks about you." Ainsley looked at her with bright, oddly terrifying green eyes. "We just wanted to ask you a few questions on things we've heard. We'd like to hear your side of things."

Sarah frowned her eyebrows. "My side of things? I didn't know there was more sides to a kidnapping case."

"Why don't you tell us how you knew the boys and what made you so close to them?" Ainsley suggested, changing the topic when she didn't know how to answer Sarah's question. "Would you like to start with Billy?"

"Um, we met the summer before went to eighth grade and he went to seventh." Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "We were best friends ever since then. We did everything together."

"Yes, so many people have said they rarely saw one of you without each other." she nodded and stayed looked down at her notebook. "Based off the police report, filed by your father, it said that Billy went missing on the way home from school. But, from what i've collected by others, the two of you always walked home together."

Sarah no longer felt safe here. She sat real still as she stared at Ainsley. "I had to stay after school that day. I was tutoring a girl in the library, it was my first day so I didn't want to be late."

Ainsley gave her a sympathetic look. "I can't even imagine what you felt after that. Did you blame yourself?"

Sarah was taken back as she stumbled over her word, laughing out of discomfort. "I-well-I don't really know what to say to that. I thought you wanted to interview me for a side to my story? What-What does if I felt guilty that my best friend was taken the one day we didn't go home together have to do with anything?"

"Because every single one of these boys lead back to you." Ainsley dropped the act as she looked at Sarah, dropping her pen. "Billy Showalter and you spend every day together, and he gets taken. Vance Hopper and Bruce Yamada were connected to your side at all times, then they both go missing. Robin Arellano, who had letters written and from you in his room then goes missing. I think that you know something that you aren't saying, but no one questions you on it because your family works in the station."

Sarah laughed. "Oh, is that right? You think I somehow have something to do with my friends going missing? You think everything I did was just to, what? Play the grieving card to get away with it all?"

Ainsley stared at her as Sarah rose her eyebrows. "You forgot one, by the way. Griffin Stagg, who I have only spoken with once in my life."

She stood up and grabbed her backpack off the ground. "Maybe get your facts straight and do a little more research before you fuck up peoples lives even more next time, Ainsley. Thank you."

She shoved the doors of the station open, storming through as she passed her Dads and Grandfather speaking at their desk. "Sarah!"

"I'm going back to the Blakes." she simply said over her shoulder, haven stayed there the last couple of nights.

"Sarah, wait." Her Dad begged. "It's about Vance's mother."

She paused, looking back with a hesitant look, a few blinks to her eyes. "Leslie?"

"She wants to speak with you." her grandfather spoke with a nod. "She got wind of you coming back into town, called the station just a few minutes ago."

"I don't-" Sarah was lost of words on that one. Leslie was such a kind person to Sarah, but that was like taking salt to a wound that had been open for over two years now. Vance left a gash on Sarah, one that would never heal properly but had been wrapped with many bandages over time. Seeing Leslie, speaking to her about her dead son that Sarah loved so badly, would just be...icing on the cake. "She wants to see me?"

"It's up to you, Sarah. But I think she just wants to feel close to him, and you are someone every single one of these boys knew. You had an impact on all five of them." Detective Write explained to his granddaughter. "People know you're home now, they're starting to talk. Since you've gone....there's been some rumors."

"So i've noticed." she rubbed the scars on her palms as she thought of the interview she just ran from. "I don't know what I can say to her. I just...What if she thinks the way some of these reporters think?"

"Do you think it would help you to see her?" Jason asked his daughter as he grabbed his keys. "It's getting late. Why don't you sleep on it, and let me know in the morning."

"No." Sarah said back as she inhaled. "No, lets go right now."

Detective Write gave her a look. "Are you sure?"

"Mr.Yamada said he felt better since i've started to visit him again." Sarah swallowed with a shake of her head. "Maybe it'll help her too."

"And what about you?" Jason questioned his only child with a narrow to his eyes. "Do you think you'll be okay to do this?"

She couldn't give him an answer.

"Thank you." Sarah thanked Leslie when she placed a mug infront of her. Sarah hated tea, she hated all tea. It never tasted good or maybe she'd just do it wrong. Billy and his mother had it every Sunday morning before he went to throw papers, on nights Sarah stayed over, he'd drag her to do it too. She took a sip, to be kind to Leslie.

"I am glad I got to see you." Leslie sat down. She'd lost her excitement in her words and high energy self, but she still had that look that haunted Sarah. Those blonde curls, bright blue eyes, dark eyebrows. She tried not to look her right in the face. "You left town so quickly after your accident last October, I never got to check on you."

"I really needed to get out of Denver." Sarah swallowed as she looked at her tea, seeing her reflection in it. "I'm really sorry I never came to see you after....when Vance went missing. I always wanted to, but I was just in this really bad headspace. And i'd go through these phases of forgetting certain people still existed, and then it was so hard to actually leave the h-"

"It's okay." Leslie reached across the table and held onto her wrist. "It wasn't your responsibility. I know you were hurting, I just hope that you found some way to heal."

She looked at the scars on her palms. Sarah saw the faint flashes of memories of her destroying her room, throwing her hand in glass, buying drugs, and sobbing everyday. She inhaled deeply and looked around to stop herself from seeing that infront of her. "I've...developed better healing tactics."

Leslie nodded as she rubbed her hand over her palm. "I, um....I am moving."

Sarah gave her a worried look. "What?"

"I'm moving in with my sister in Georgia. I-I just don't think I can stay here anymore." She laughed through her pain, but it was clear by her glossy eyes and broken voice that she hadn't healed one bit. "It's just been fifteen months and there hasn't been anything. I see my son in so many places, Sarah. It's starting to drive me insane, I don't think I can handle this."

"I understand." Sarah squeezed her hands tightly. "Leslie, that's exactly what I did. I stuck around after Billy, then after Vance, and it killed me more and more each day. All the loose ends, the not knowing, it drove me to do things that nearly got me killed."

Leslie gave a guilty look. "I just...I don't know how I could sale the house. It's the only one we've ever lived in."

Sarah swallowed hard. "Before Vance went missing, he had told me he wanted me fo take the scholarship at Saint Bellmont. I was suppose to start my sophomore year there, but I decided to stay here for everyone. He had told me he wanted me to go for the next semester, because he knew that's what I wanted so badly."

Sarah placed her free hand ontop of the one that Leslie was holding. "I think he'd tell you to what you wanted to do. After throwing a tantrum and probably threatening you ten times."

She laughed and cried at Sarah's words, nodding her head. "That sounds like him."

Sarah hated looking at her, hated holding her hand. She looked so much like Vance, this whole house was just a huge reminder. She didn't want to be here, Denver haunted her enough. Leslie pulled back to wipe her eyes. "I called you because I wanted you to take something from Vance's room. I've rented a storage building to put all of his things in, so I can still be near them but my sister doesn't have the room. When I had heard you were in town, I wanted you to have something."

Sarah seemed hesitant. "I-"

"You were the only person he ever cared about." Leslie cut her off. "You and the Yamada boy, but...."

Sarah looked down. "But you can't ask him."

Leslie frowned at the sight of Sarah's face, the way she was holding it together so hard as she looked at the table. "Vance never wanted to give anyone a chance. He hated everyone, but then he met you and I saw a better side of him. Not just with you, but toward everything in general."

Leslie took Sarah's wrist. "You were so good for him, Sarah. So, so good. I owe you so much for that. This is the least I can do."

Sarah had to laugh as she looked down at her lap, messing with the bandana on her wrist. She had a flash of the memory of when Robin had given it to her. "You don't owe me anything, Leslie. Vance was good for me too, even if no one saw it the same way I did."

She stood up with a small nod. "Come on. I want you to do this."

Sarah inhaled as she stood up and followed behind her as they walked down the small hallway. She opened up Vance's door, for some reason Sarah had expected to see him in there. Just for half a second, just for a half of a second when she got lost in the idea of Leslie leading her toward his room like she'd done before. But, no. No, he wasn't there.

Just his bedroom with a few boxes. "I've started to pack a couple things, I stopped when I heard you were back."

Sarah slowly walked in and felt her stomach start to flip around at an uncomfortable rate. Was it anxiety? Was it her dinner ready to come up? Was it old butterflies she'd felt from memories in this room?

"I'll give you a second. Please, take whatever you want." Leslie spoke as she gently pulled the door shut, leaving Sarah alone in Vance's bedroom. She hadn't came here since the last time she'd stayed here with him, well over two years ago now. Yet, the feeling was so familiar. The one she got every time she'd run in and he'd be slummed against his bed or looking around for something he misplace.

Sarah used the fronts of her shoes to get each of them off, leaving her in the red soaks that matched her flannel. She crawled onto Vance's bed and laid on her stomach, resting her head against his pillows. The room didn't smell like him anymore, far from it, but it was the feeling. The feeling of the times she'd laid right here and fried his brain with knowledge he ended up never genuinely needing anyways. Her eyes shut and inhaled, it was shaky, but she refused to open her eyes.

If she did, she was scared she'd never stop staring at the wall.

•

kylie speaks

meanwhile poor finney is being
snatched off the mf street