Lisa walked into Mark's house, her heels clicking against the tiled floor, though none of the two people in the house seemed to wake up. Her thin brows were upturned in dread, so much so that she'd resorted to contacting her ex-husband about her worries.

She sauntered up the staircase, trying to push herself to get to the man quicker, though her skinny heels warned her from going any faster than she already did, threatening to twist themselves. The redhead finally made it to the second floor hallway, fast-walking to what was once a shared bedroom between Mark and herself, though her peripheral vision caught something else. She back-walked, stumbling across an open door which revealed Mark's arm wrapped over April.

The sight alone made her stomach churn, storming into the room and whacking him with her Speedy, triggering him to jolt awake and look at the woman in concern. It took time for his eyesight to adjust on the figure standing in front of him, eventually focusing on her bright red locks. His eyes widened, jumping up out of bed, forgetting he was naked...completely naked.

"W-what are you doing here?" Mark inquired, both shocked and embarrassed she was here. Though they weren't together anymore, it was still awkward having someone his age walk-in on him and his sleeping...whatever their relationship was.

"I'm over here having a heart attack and you're putting your dick into a girl half your age?" Lisa exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air, her handbag dangling with her movements. Her eyes traced down to his waist, figuring out the rest before shielding her eyes. "And for God's sake, at least have some shame, Mark." The woman added.

He sighed, trying to stay calm in the moment as every time he'd argue with a woman, it would somehow get turned back on him. The man put on his boxers, slipping on his sweatpants and t-shirt. Mark looked over at Lisa who was now standing outside by the wall next to the door, impatiently tapping her foot as she waited for Mark.

***

April's eyes flickered, not wanting to get up even though the impact of the pill was beginning to fade away. Her cheek still ached, having slept on her left side throughout the night. The atmosphere in the room felt...empty, quickly realizing that Mark and his protective arms weren't draped around her body. It hurt to shift her face, the stitched-up wound beginning to ache as did her head, the temples in particular. Nevertheless, she sucked in a breath before half-turning her body and realizing her assumptions were true – Mark was gone. But where?

"Well, he's never done this," A voice called out, followed by a sound of what seemed to be a fist slamming against a table. "If he was going to stay somewhere, he would have told me and his friends – but guess what, nobody knows!"

"Lisa, calm down." A man – presumably Mark – calmly requested, apologizing to someone else who was most likely in the room with them.

April overheard the conversation taking place, using her common sense and figuring out what it was about. She gulped, sitting up straight as she hide her bare chest with the duvet. The girl licked her lips in worry, wondering what she should do. If she stayed up here and ignored the situation, everyone would be suspicious, but even if she went downstairs, she'd still seem suspicious.

If she was able to lie to Mark about last night, there wasn't a soul who she couldn't lie to. After getting dressed, April walked downstairs, standing shyly at the end of the staircase, watching an evidently hysterical Lisa be held back by Mark, her eyes landing upon the officer who tried to simmer the woman's temper.

The police officer immediately took notice of the girl worriedly standing at the staircase, requesting Mark to take Lisa away as he now had a third person to question about Chad's disappearance. She could easily lie to anybody, anybody who wasn't part of law enforcement. But she was determined enough to shift blame away from herself, as she felt like the spotlight of Chad's sudden departure was shining brightly on her, not knowing whether it was the intense lights that made her sweat, or the fear of the police officer seeing through her bullshit.

Mark gestured her encouragingly to be questioned by the Officer who sat in the kitchen, taking his manic ex-wife to cool off in the living room. She gulped, beginning to bite nervously on her lower lip as she approached the police officer, pretending to seem curious about what was happening.

"Hi, I'm Officer Jenkins." He introduced, a warm yet fake smile appearing on his face. "I would like to ask you a few questions about a missing person's case. Would that be okay, or would you prefer to have your lawyer be present?"

April opened her mouth to respond, until she turned back to see Mark stroking the crying woman's back while she bawled into his chest. There was no way that asshole would ditch the redhead and make sure the girl wasn't making herself a potential suspect.

"No, I'll gladly answer all the questions." She flashed him a faint grin, sighing as she sat up straight.

"Alright, uh, where were you on the night of June 9th?" The Officer looked up at her.

She didn't know whether he'd already considered her a suspect or if he was genuinely attempting to piece the puzzles together and come up with a solution for the boy's abrupt loss. His intense gaze made April nauseous, feeling the temptation to tell the truth for once, but she couldn't let her life go to waste. No matter how stupid her answers seemed to her, she only hoped that Officer Jenkins would be stupid enough to fall for them.

"I was in Oxnard, visiting my uncle and his family." April simply responded, cracking her knuckles beneath the kitchen table.

"And what time frame did this visit take place?" The man inquired, writing down her answers rather messily on the piece of lined paper held together by a clip which had the words 'BRIGHTON POLICE DEPARMENT' etched into them.

"I think I left around 6:00, or maybe 6:10, and I came back – to this house specifically – at 2AM." She attempted to look confused when stating the time she'd left – being thankful that she examined her missed calls to Jason on the way back to Brighton.

He nodded, causing April to mentally sigh in relief.

"Did you go with anybody else? To Oxnard I mean."

"Yes. I went with my friend Jason."

"Jason Lahey?" Officer Jenkins glanced up at her while writing down her answers, his brow jerked in curiosity.

"Yes."

"We questioned Mr. Lahey and he notified us he didn't have a car. So, did you depart to Oxnard via the local bus, or-"

"We left Brighton in his car, but my uncle convinced Jason to recycle his Corona since it had multiple issues – it was an old 90's model, according to him."

"So you were the only one who came back to Brighton at 2AM?"

"Yes." April pursed his lips.

'Oh God, was he catching on?' she wondered to herself, trying to keep her composure so he wouldn't become more suspicious than he probably already was.

"What was your relationship like with Mr. Santino?"

"He was my ex-boyfriend, we broke up around a year or two ago – I can't really remember."

The man nodded for what seemed like the eighteenth time in the seven minutes she was being interrogated by him. It was such a simple yet suspicious gesture, God knows what he was thinking in his head.

"What was your name again?"

"April Fenning." Her voice was faint, knowing what he would question her about next.

"According to our records, Mr. Santino filed a report against you for puncturing three of his tires on his newly-bought Mustang, but he dropped the charges against you. Would you like to tell me about that?"

Though his tone was drenched in curiosity, April couldn't help thinking he was indirectly labelling her as a potential suspect.

"Yeah, he cheated on me and I snapped so...I just, did what I did in a moment of anger." April sighed, awkwardly rubbing her arm in shame. Though at the time slashing his tires seemed like a brilliant idea, she'd only come to regret it because it gave law enforcement the chance to think she had something to do with his disappearance.

"Would you happen to know why he dropped the charges?" Jenkins' eyes narrowed in interest.

"I think my mom may have talked to Mark about them," She shrugged. "I'm not really sure why he dropped the charges, I was never informed of that happening."

The Officer nodded, finishing up his notes and getting ready to leave. He got up, only to be interrupted by the teen girl.

"I think I may know where he went..." She blurted out, immediately regretting it later on.

"Excuse me?" He tilted his head in shock, why hadn't she told him this before?

"On my first night in Brighton, Eric invited me to this party at his house, and in hopes of mending Chad's and I's relationship, Eric locked us in a room together. It started off kind of...petty, but we eventually began talking about miniscule things like, what we were doing in our lives, that sudden break at Springwater Asylum, but he started to tell me about how he felt as though he belonged there."

Jenkins sat down, flipping through the heaps of papers in order to go back to where he'd written down notes about April's statement.

"What did he mean by that?"

"I think he said he belonged in Springwater Asylum – as if he felt that his mental state was so bad that he had to be admitted into an institute for the criminally insane."

The man was scribbling down notes, his hopes having been brought up by this new information.

"So I asked him why he felt like that, and I'm not sure if he was sober that night but he said he wanted to vanish like Houdini."

"Vanish?"

"He said he felt like there was this...boulder of pressure on his chest. He told me how intense his coach was with training, how his parents would constantly push him over the edge when it came to sports and studies, and Chad even mentioned how his strained relationship with Mark...impacted him negatively to the point where he began doing coke. I tried to comfort him, but he said he didn't need my advice, or anybody's for that matter." The girl was surprised, even she began believing her own fabricated story about an emotionally damaged Chad who just wanted to pack his bags and start a new life.

"What happened next?"

"He went off about this small town in Colorado, I forgot what it was called but it's very abandoned. Chad told me that if he were to run away, that town would be the first place he would run to."

"Crestone?"

"I think it was something along the lines of that, I just remember there being the word 'stone' in there."

It seemed like Jenkins was finished writing his notes, extremely relieved that he had a lead on his hands.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, I didn't want to break my promise to him."

"You didn't break a promise April. Thank you so much for your t-" He halted his statement, his eyes catching a glimpse of her stitched up scar. "How'd you get that?" The Officer asked.

Everything was going perfectly fine, until he brought up her scar. It felt as though he was believing her fake run away story, but obviously that scar had to be more prominent than a teenager's acne scattered across their face.

"I was in my uncle's junkyard, I tripped over an old engine and I think some scrap piece of metal scraped my cheek." April nervously chuckled, shifting her gaze away from his.

"Would you mind if I take a picture of that?" Jenkins inquired, taking out his phone as he didn't expect her to reject his demand, only needing her to legally agree to it.

'You've made it this far, April.' She told herself, biting her inner cheek as she worriedly looked at him. 'If you don't give him permission, you're going to be the first suspect on that list. And it wouldn't be a long one anyway.'

"Sure." April obliged, flashing him a soft grin before turning around to her right, the scar facing his camera. Once she heard the click, she returned back to her normal position.

"Well, thank you so much for your time. If I have any more questions, I will let you know and if you have any more important information – like the one you just gave me – it would be much appreciated. Here's my number." Jenkins stated, handing her a small business card with his details. The man gave her a faint grin before turning around and walking away.

***

"You let him take a picture of that thing?" Mark exclaimed, his hands gracing his hips once again as he scolded April.

"If I didn't, I would look suspicious."

"Oh yeah because that injury doesn't already look suspicious enough?" The man rhetorically asked, sighing as he held onto the top of his nose. "You couldn't even wait for me to be present during the questioning?"

"Last time I checked, lawyers don't fuck their own clients!"

"Oh for fuck's sake, April." He rolled his eyes, throwing his hand up in the air, trying his very best to be calm and collected in this situation. Mark had to admit, she did have an answer for almost everything, but it got to the point where it was just beginning to get on his nerves.

"If I had something to hide, I would have had you present, but I didn't."

"You did have something to hide, April. From us at least." Mark looked over at her, a slightly disappointed expression plastered over his face. "What did Chad tell you that night at Eric's party?"

The echoic house of Mark Helm's was a nightmare to exchange secrets and have private conversations in. Whispering in the kitchen would cause someone from the farthest second floor bedroom to hear the entire conversation. It's mainly the reason why Mark got caught having an affair, no matter how much they tried to keep quiet, the Helm's estate was always listening.