CHAPTER NINETY
SUSPECTS

The next morning, Kimmy found herself awake hours earlier than she usually would.

It was a Saturday morning, so she wasn't really up that early. But still, Aaron was still sleeping, and unless Kimmy purposely woke herself up with an alarm or something then he was always up before her.

Steve was at work, so it left Kimmy roaming the big house alone, not wanting to wake Aaron up for no reason - especially on the weekend.

So, because she had no one to help her, she was on the hunt for some painkillers. Opening every cupboard or drawer she could find in hope to find something to put the pounding headache that had woken her in the first place at ease.

Eventually, the girl found some. Sighing in relief as she patiently waited for the pills to work.

Kimmy had been a little distressed when she and Aaron arrived back at the Harrington household the night prior, however she'd done her best to hide her shaken expression from the blond boy, not wanting him to worry.

Seeing her father so abruptly had startled her. Kimmy did her best not to think about her parents and all that they'd put her through, but it was easier said than done.

She couldn't just forget, even if she tried to. No one wants to remember difficult times in their life, but it takes lots of time and healing to even get over a fraction of trauma.

Kimmy wasn't stupid, she knew she wouldn't just get over all she'd been through, but she had hoped she wouldn't automatically slip back into the fear that would corrupt her on the daily when she lived in her own house at the sight of the man.

It wasn't fair. Why did Kimmy have to suffer because of what someone else had done to her? Why was it that she had to undo any damage done to her that someone else had caused? Why did she have to fix herself when it was someone else who had beat and broken her?

It wasn't fair.

She'd be left with a life time of triggers and nightmares while her parents continued on with their lives stress free.

She'd be left with bruises and scars all over her body while her parents continued on with their lives without as much of a mark on them.

It wasn't fair, and it pissed her off.

Perhaps just pretending she hadn't gone through anything and that her parents hadn't done anything to her wasn't the way to be. Because while she did her best to ignore and forget it all, she was brushing it under the carpet and acting as if everything was suddenly fine when it wasn't.

They'd put her through hell her entire life, and suddenly her own father didn't even recognise her in the street.

She was left with his actions towards her plaguing her mind, and he didn't even know who she was.

Kimmy couldn't believe it. She'd been away from home for a matter of months and already, he didn't recognise her to pass her in the street.

Sure, he was drunk more often than not, but Kimmy was sure that he wouldn't even be able to point her out while sober. In his mind, he probably thought she was still nine or ten years old.

The man drank so heavily and Kimmy knew he had lengthy blackouts where he couldn't remember long periods of time due to this, Kimmy knew that would be why he wouldn't have realised who it was.

It puzzled Kimmy why people who were clearly not fit to be parents would have children. Never could she even imagine doing to a child what her parents had done to her.

Of course her parents hadn't always been the way they were now, but they were already drunk, unfit, unemployed adults years before Kimmy was born. Well that wasn't entirely true, her father wasn't necessarily unemployed. But he had always pretended to keep jobs longer than he actually had.

It was the same with Aaron's parents. Why they'd have children just to blatantly prefer one over the other baffled her to no extent.

Clearly, Aaron's weren't abusive the same way her parents were, but they still neglected him. The two adults made it perfectly clear that they didn't even like him.

Kimmy didn't know how parents could be so cruel towards their own children.

The brunette jolted in surprise when the household phone began to ring loudly, the girl instantly scrambling to get to it before it woke the sleeping blond.

The thought that it wasn't her house and that she probably shouldn't answer the phone didn't even occur to her, she was just focused on shutting the noise up before it woke Aaron.

"Hello?" The brunette asked in a heavy voice while she tried to catch her breath after running after the phone.

"Kimmy?" A familiar voice exclaimed in relief at the sound of her answering.

"Yeah?" She responded in slight reluctance, confused on how someone who was calling for one of the Harrington family members would know who she was.

"Thank god." Was the stressed response from the person on the other end of the phone. Kimmy suddenly knew who it was calling. "I tried calling your house but no one answered, figured you'd be at Aaron's."

"What's wrong?" Kimmy began to panic at the apparent urgency at getting ahold of her, although she did her best not to show it in her voice. "Are you okay?"

"I... can you just come over to Dustin's when you can? It's important." Max hesitantly answered, only worrying Kimmy more.

"Sure. Yeah, I'll be right over." Kimmy nodded, despite knowing Max couldn't see her.

The two girls rushed to say their goodbyes, Kimmy instantly rushing to the room where Aaron still slept peacefully the second she hung the phone up.

Aaron had slept in his own room that previous night, which was a rare occurrence.

However he probably would have crept down to where Kimmy slept if he'd known she was there. He'd fallen asleep while watching cartoons with Kimmy in the living room, and the girl had woken him and got him back up to his room while he was still half asleep.

Sure enough, upon opening the door to his room, Kimmy found that the blond was still fast asleep.

As quick as she could, she crept over to where he slept, reaching over and shaking his shoulder gently. However Aaron simply stirred, burying his face deeper into his pillow as he shifted away from her.

"Aaron, come on." Kimmy mumbled as she shook his shoulder once more, only a little harsher than before. "Aaron?"

The blond mumbled a string of complaints under his breath, however his eyes were still shut.

"Aaron!" The girl yelled as she shook his shoulder roughly, finally causing him to stir.

"What?" Aaron mumbled in a rough voice, his hand over his eyes as he shifted in her direction.

"Get up." She told him while backing out of his room, double checking to make sure he was actually awake. "We have to go over to Dustin's, apparently it's important."

"What- why?" Kimmy could hear the boy yell after her once she left, his voice cracking slightly from the sleep still fighting to overpower him. "What happened?"

"I don't know!" She yelled back as she began to walk away from his door. "That's why we have to go over, Max called, so something must be wrong!"

Kimmy could hear him mumble to himself but in the end said nothing. Leaving Kimmy to make her way down stairs to her own room.

...

"You okay?" Aaron asked Kimmy cautiously as they walked up the driveway to Dustin's house.

Kimmy raised her brows in surprise, turning her head to glance at him with a slightly taken aback expression.

"I'm fine." The girl shrugged calmly while placing her hands in her jacket pockets. "Just woke up with a headache."

"Should have told me, I'd have got you painkillers." Aaron was quick to tell her, a concerned undertone to his voice.

"It's okay, I found some." Kimmy assured him with a nod. "Don't think they really worked though- Aaron! What are you doing?"

Kimmy smacked the hand that he had already covered in his sleeve away from the doorknob and looked at him with a stunned expression. "We cannot just walk into his house!"

"Yes we can, he asked us to come over." The blond rolled his eyes at her, although he removed his hand out of his sleeve and didn't try open the door again. "He knows we're coming over-"

"Max asked us to come over." Kimmy reminded him with a pointed look. "We can't just open the door and walk in, just knock."

"It doesn't matter." He rolled his eyes half heartedly. "We can just go in-"

"Just knock."

"No, it's fine."

"Knock-"

"It's easier if we just go in-"

"Just knock, Aaron-"

"It's fine-"

"Knock."

"No-"

"Please?"

Aaron narrowed his eyes at her in an almost teasing manner, ultimately sighing and looking away from her, pulling the sleeve of his jacket over his hand once more as he went to knock. "Fine. If it means so much to you."

Kimmy smiled widely up at him, causing his lips to twitch in amusement before he did what she asked and knocked on the door.

The sound of footsteps rushing to the door were instantly filling the quiet air, the front door quickly swinging open to reveal a slightly frazzled looking Dustin.

"What took you so long?" He demanded as he dragged the two into his house. "Max called almost an hour ago!"

"We had to walk!" Aaron insisted with a wide eyed expression, despite the fact Dustin was no longer looking at the two.

"Yeah," Kimmy nodded as she followed Aaron and Dustin through the house. "And Aaron took about forty minutes to actually get up-"

"It was like ten." The blond scoffed while turning to face her with an exaggerated and teasing look while he walked. "Kimmy was the one who made us wait for forever outside because-"

"I didn't want to be rude!" She laughed while throwing her hands up in defence, walking over to sit next to the redhead girl upon entering Dustin's room.

"Whatever." Aaron mumbled in response, trying to put on a serious face and hide his amusement. "Was there a reason for dragging me out of my bed, or-"

"Yes, Aaron, there was." Dustin remarked with a stressed expression. "Max, tell them."

Kimmy had a worried look on her face now as she glanced to the girl sat next to her who was messing around with her hands, suddenly worried something had happened to Max.

"You know Chrissy- uh... the cheerleader. Chrissy Cunningham?" Max began anxiously, looking to Kimmy with an almost nervous look on her face.

"Yeah." Kimmy nodded with a puzzled look.

"She- she died last night." The redhead blurted out in a worried tone, watching cautiously as Kimmy's brows raised in shock.

The brunette could feel her heart drop. She knew who Chrissy was, but she didn't know her. With that said, the news of anyone passing - especially so suddenly and so young was enough to worry the girl.

Max's reaction to what had happened told Kimmy all she needed to know - that there was more to the story.

"How do you know?" Kimmy asked her friend in a quiet voice, almost dreading the answer.

Max looked reluctant to answer, as if she'd get in some sort of trouble or something. "I saw her."

"You saw her?" Aaron gaped at her, his brows furrowed as his mouth dropped open slightly. "You saw her dead body?"

"I- I mean, yeah!" Max panicked, going back to messing around with her fingers before snapping her attention off of Aaron and onto Kimmy, as if knowing she'd believe her. "She was in her cheerleader outfit, Kimmy. I know it was her. I saw her with Eddie last night and she still had her uniform on."

Kimmy nodded at her friend as if to say she believed her, and the slightest bit of nerves left Max's face. However Aaron spoke up before Kimmy got the chance to reassure her friend.

"Eddie?" Aaron remarked in an almost scoff, folding his arms over his chest. "Chrissy was with Eddie last night? The same Eddie that was prancing himself around the cafeteria?"

"Yes!" Max exclaimed in an almost frustrated voice while Dustin shook his head at Aaron's words.

"Did you tell the cops you saw him with her the night she died?" Aaron asked in a perplexed voice as he tried to understand what was going on.

"No. But... but I can't be the only one who saw them together." Max desperately insisted, shaking her head as she began to stress out once more. "They stood out. I mean... she was found in his trailer! They must have some sort of idea."

"Eddie the freak with Chrissy the cheerleader?" Dustin spoke like he couldn't believe what Max had told him. That there was no way his friend would or could ever be involved with something like the death of a girl he'd probably never spoken to.

"Yes!" Max repeated herself, more stressed than Kimmy could ever recall seeing her. "Eddie's name's not in the news yet or anything, but I guarantee you Eddie is suspect number one now-"

"That is crazy." Dustin instantly shot down with a firm shake of his head. "Eddie didn't do this. No way."

Kimmy hadn't realised how good of friends Eddie and Dustin had seemingly become. Especially since Dustin was just a freshman and Eddie was repeating senior year.

She knew they were both in that club Dustin was apart of, but she hadn't realised how close they'd truly become.

"We can't rule it out." Aaron shrugged, his words not helping the situation or Dustin's stress at all.

"Yes, we can!" The boy with curly hair exclaimed, offended that Aaron would think such a thing.

"Dustin!" Max rolled her eyes, as if to say that there was in fact a strong possibility that Eddie could have done such a thing.

"You guys don't know him like I do!" Dustin snapped, looking almost pissed off. "When we got to high school, Lucas made all his sports friends, and Aaron went and got himself on the hockey team. But Mike and me? No one was nice to us. No one except Eddie."

Kimmy watched Aaron as he rolled his eyes at Dustin's words. The brunette sent him a small sad smile of reassurance but also a look that told him not to say anything, despite knowing that knowing no one was particularly nice to Aaron either since the start of school, even if he was on the hockey team.

"Okay, well, they said the same shit about Ted Bundy." Max argued back, Dustin's face dropping into a look of utter dismay. "Yeah, he's a super nice guy, but then he's murdering women on the weekend."

"So you're saying Eddie is like Ted Bundy?" Dustin gasped in even further offence.

"No, I'm not saying-" Max sighed, trying to back-step and explain what she'd truly meant. "I'm saying that we can't presume anything, okay? But it doesn't look good for Eddie."

Dustin let out a huff and looked away from her for a moment, before snapping his head back around and looking to Max with an almost curious expression.

"Why haven't you told the cops this?" He asked in a firmer voice than usual.

"I... I don't know." Max stammered anxiously.

"You don't know?" Dustin retorted, sounding taken aback by the entire situation.

The redhead pursed her lips and looked away from the frustrated boy, instead choosing to look to her best friend who was still sat next to her.

"After I saw Eddie and Chrissy go in the trailer..." the girl trailed off briefly, trying to piece together her words before she spoke them. "Something else happened."

"What?" Kimmy asked the girl in as calm of a voice as she could, urging her to continue.

"Nothing that weird or anything. I mean... he just-" she cut herself off once more, trying to think on how to word her answer. "Eddie just drove away like a maniac. And then the power started flickering off- I mean, the power goes off at my place all the time, but... this morning, I started to think back, and... I don't know. The look on his face... he was scared."

The brunette was listening intently to every word spoken to her, all while doing her best not to let her concerned expression show.

"Really scared." Max elaborated with a slight fearful expression. "Maybe he was scared because, you know, he... just killed someone, or... maybe because..."

Max was looking to Kimmy with such a desperate expression that it had the brunette's heart rate picking up with fear.

Kimmy wasn't stupid, she knew fine what Max was trying to tell her.

"Something else killed her?" Kimmy whispered, her eyes growing a fraction at Max's slow nod.

"But... but that's impossible." Aaron spoke up, already looking and sounding the slightest bit fearful. "Right?"

"I don't know." Dustin mumbled, he too looking scared at the conversation at hand. "It should be. But only one person knows what actually happened."

Max looked as if she were to cry, a mountain of stress and worry on her shoulders as she replied. "Eddie."

"Have you talked to anyone else about it?" Aaron asked carefully, not wanting to cause anymore stress to the red headed girl. "About... Eddie?"

"No. I couldn't get a hold of Lucas, and I completely forgot that Mike's in California with El and Will." Max rushed to answer, clearly worried out of her mind with what she'd seen. "Only you guys know."

"Shit." Dustin mumbled, standing abruptly as he left his room, leaving the remaining three glancing to each other with puzzled looks. "Come on!"

With that said, the three scrambled after him, already worried about what they'd gotten themselves into.

...

I'm super excited for season 4 :p

Kind of a short chapter, but they will be longer!! This is just because we are at the start of the season!!!

Hope everyone is having a great day and enjoyed the chapter!!!! <3

-AJ :)