━ NEUROSIS ━
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

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FOR THE first time since the lake, a truly cheerful atmosphere had been created around the group. After Travis and Natalie had returned with the deer, any agonizing hunger was cured, which was definitely what boosted everyone's spirits.

Despite the fact that night had already approached, everybody was still awake. Wide awake. They were too giddy to sleep.

Music was booming from Violet's Walkman, having turned the volume up to the highest setting. All of the girls, plus Javi, were dancing around the cabin to the song 'This is how we do it' which was currently playing.

Travis, Coach Scott and Misty all watched from their spots around the cabin, bobbing their heads along to the music with a smile.

"One. Two. One, two, three, four!" Mari exclaimed, jumping up and down to the beat.

Joyous laughter filled the air as the girls continued to dance, all starting to form a line as they began to switch their moves to the choreography of the song.

Javi made his way into the centre of the room as he danced along, the young boy's cheeks flushing slightly as the girls moved back to give him the floor.

"Go Javi!" Violet cheered.

Jackie applauded for the boy, joining in with the rest of the group as they also cheered him on. She glanced at Violet, the pair of them sharing an amused look.

Violet chuckled before looking away, picking up where she left off with her dancing. The group started to sing along to the song, a few occasional hums being heard since not everyone knew the words.

Violet turned around, catching Lottie's gaze. She grinned as she looked at her, holding out her hands and beckoning the girl towards her.

Lottie let out a small laugh as she danced her way over through the group, wasting no time in denying Violet's call over.

As soon as they were close enough, the pairs hands intertwined and they danced along to the beat together, laughter erupting between the two.

Lottie's eyes practically lit up as she kept her gaze held on Violet. Watching as she danced with absolutely no care in the world, completely yielding to the upbeat atmosphere that had been created.

And for a moment, as she watched Violet jump around, watched her run a hand through her hair, watched as the light from the fireplace allowed her copper eyes to gleam. She had forgotten they were in the middle of nowhere. She had forgotten their situation.

Violet looked back up at Lottie with a wide smile, pulling her closer before pushing her back with a spin.

Lottie let out a giggle at the action before doing the same with Violet, her giggle morphing into full on laughter when the Crawford girl accidentally bumped into Akilah.

Unfortunately, it was clear that the group's bliss wasn't meant to last. The track that was playing started to distort, the sound eventually fading away and completely giving out.

Everyone came to a stop, a multitude of sighs breaking out amongst them all.

"Goddamn it." Van let out with a breath.

Violet made her way over to her Walkman and picked it up, furrowing her brows at the device.

Jackie joined her side with folded arms, her gaze flicking between Violet and the Walkman. "What happened?"

"It's decided to be a bitch." Violet mumbled, slapping the back of the Walkman in an attempt to power it back on.

"Maybe it's the battery?" Lottie suggested as she walked over to Violet's free side.

"Yeah, maybe." Violet nodded. "Wanna take a look?"

"Or it could be something else." Jackie cut in before Violet could pass the Walkman to Lottie. "Here, let me see."

Violet continued to look down at the device, her eyes scanning over the item. Unbeknownst to her, she had completely missed the brief glare that Lottie and Jackie held with one another as they each held out their hands, waiting for Violet to choose who to hand the Walkman to.

Mari peered over their shoulders, offering her input. "Maybe try blowing on it?"

"Alright." Violet shrugged, deciding to do that instead.

Just as Violet raised the device to her lips, she was cut off by sound of floorboards in the attic creaking.

The room was quick to fall silent at the eerie sound. They all turned their attentions to the ceiling, seemingly frozen in place.

"Uh, what the fuck was that?" Jackie questioned.

Lottie swallowed thickly, taking note of the discomfort on everyone else's faces. "You guys heard it too?"

"Yeah." Violet whispered to her, quick to ease her worries. "I heard it."

Taissa rolled her eyes. "It was probably just a branch."

"Inside?" Mari shot her a confound look. "On the floor?"

Violet found herself shaking her head in response. She knew that Taissa was just trying to calm everyone down, not wanting panic to be caused over something that was most likely nothing.

But there was absolutely no way, that the noise came from a branch. It made no sense. And it certainly didn't sound like that.

It sounded like footsteps. Slow, cautious, footsteps.

Which also made no sense either. Because nothing was up there. Not anymore, anyway. That was a fact Violet knew all too well.

Mari gulped, taking a few steps back. "What if it's... him?"

"What? The dead guy?" Shauna asked, raising a brow.

"Um, yeah." Mari stated.

"Y'know what it probably was?" Natalie looked around at them all with a smirk. "The dead guys missing fingers trying to find their way home."

"Nat!" They all voiced, Natalie's words only freaking them out more.

Taissa sighed at the blonde's antics. "You really have to encourage them?"

"Come on Tai." Violet spoke up. "You seriously can't think that it was a branch?"

"And you seriously can't think it was something more." Taissa sent her a perplexed look.

"Don't look at me like that." Violet replied, a faint grin forming. "My Walkman just died. I'm a grieving woman."

"Fine," Jackie started. "Then it was a rat, or a raccoon or something. I don't know it—"

"Shh." Lottie interrupted, looking up at the ceiling once more in an attempt to listen out for the sound again. "Listen."

"Oh my god." Taissa scoffed, growing annoyed that it was still being entertained.

Silence loomed over them once more, everyone holding their breath and focusing their hearing to pick up on another sound from above.

They all waited for a few moments, nobody daring to speak or move. But nothing happened. Nothing at all.

"Well, I don't hear it now." Mari threw her arms up with a huff.

The fear started to ease, everybody letting out sighs of relief. Everyone except from Lottie, who's breath hitched in her throat.

Why could no one hear it? She still could. It was as clear as day.

She instantly turned to Violet, hoping that she heard it too. But the sight of her tense stance from earlier relaxing only made Lottie's unease grow more.

Violet couldn't hear it either. It was just her.

"You know what I think it was?" Coach Scott voiced. "I think the ghost decided it was time to get some sleep. And we should probably do the same, yeah?"

They all agreed with the man, making their way into their makeshift beds without any disagreement. It was safe to say that the last couple of minutes had infected the rest of the night, everyone now wanting to just sleep it off.

Violet pulled her blanket over her body, waiting for Lottie to get under the covers too before lying down.

Lottie lay her head on the pillow and turned to face her, making sure to keep her voice quiet as she spoke. "You really couldn't hear anything just then?"

"No." Violet frowned, noticing the worried expression on Lottie's face. "But... you could, couldn't you?"

"Yeah." Lottie nodded. "It's like he's still there..."

"He's not." Violet whispered. "I promise you, Lot. I got rid of him. I cleaned every inch of that attic."

It was the truth. Violet spent way too long up there the morning her and Taissa buried his body, ridding any aspect of him.

Every spec of dust that touched his body, every cobweb, every piece of worn clothing. She wiped it from existence. All so he couldn't hurt Lottie anymore.

"I just..." A shaky breath slipped past Lottie's lips. "...I can't shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen."

Violet's chest tightened at her words. She shuffled closer and opened her arm up around Lottie, pulling the girl into her. Lottie instantly gave into the touch, her body relaxing as she lay her head on Violet's shoulder.

The Crawford girl rested her chin on top of Lottie's head, soothingly running her fingers through her hair.

"I won't let it."

⋆༺♱༻⋆

[ 2021 ]

VIOLET SAT on the floor of Natalie's motel room with her legs crossed, flicking through the printed out crime scene pictures from the place they discovered Travis' body.

In the few days that she had agreed to help Misty and Natalie, they had managed to make a fair amount of progress.

Natalie had met up with one of her ex's from high school, Kevyn Tan, who was now a police officer. Much to Violet's distaste, the Scatorccio woman used her past flame with the man to coax him into looking further into Travis' cause of death.

It didn't amount to much, the man only being able to find out that Travis had no trace of drugs in his system the night he died. But at least now, they could rule that out.

However, Misty had pulled through with another lead. Using her citizen detective skills, as she would call it, she had arranged a meeting with someone who had managed to pull all of the police files on Travis' death.

Which led them to where they were now.

Violet glanced up at Natalie, who was sat on the bed looking through the autopsy pictures. She frowned slightly at the sight, not missing the way Natalie's breath hitched in her throat as her eyes were flooded with images of Travis' dead body.

"You good?" Violet questioned.

Despite still being angry at Natalie, despite the tension still lingering in the air between them. She still cared enough to ask. Because she knew that this was a lot, especially for her. It was Travis after all.

And with the history between Natalie and him, it was bound to shake her.

"I'm fine, Violet." Natalie defended, annoyance evident in her voice.

Violet rolled her eyes with a scoff, mentally cursing herself for even bothering to ask in the first place.

It was only a small grievance, but it couldn't help but be a reminder to Violet. Because once again, it led back to the same road. Violet caring about her too much, and Natalie not caring enough.

Natalie watched as Violet turned her attention back to the pictures on her lap with a clenched jaw. She let out a sigh, it now just hitting her how harsh her tone sounded.

She knew it wasn't fair for her to snap at Violet like that. All of this was just as stressful to her too. And after all, they had been the ones to drag Violet back into it.

"Uh, thanks, by the way. For tagging along with all of this." Natalie muttered, trying to offer an olive branch. "I think I would've gone crazy if it was just me and Misty."

"Wasn't given much of a choice." Violet's reply was jaded.

"Still," Natalie continued. "It means a lot, y'know... that you're still helping. Helping me, especially. After everything that happened with us."

Violet's attention picked up at that. She looked at Natalie, her soft gaze narrowing into one of anger. "I'm not doing this to help you, Natalie."

Natalie inhaled sharply, being rendered to silence. She'd be lying if she said Violet's words didn't sting.

"You made it clear that anything I could give you wasn't enough." Violet jabbed. "I'm doing this for myself. The quicker it's done, the quicker I can be rid of you. Both of you."

The Scatorccio woman nodded in response, not knowing what to say. Her mind was screaming at her to talk, to talk about what transpired between them, to fix it.

She wanted to explain. She wanted to tell Violet that it wasn't her, that she was the problem and always had been. Not Violet.

But she couldn't bring herself to.

Because she knew that nothing she could say would be good enough of an answer. Nothing could take away from the fact that still remained. Natalie abandoned her.

She abandoned someone who had always been good to her, always supported her when no one else would. And she had no idea why she did it.

Before Natalie could muster up another sentence, Violet suddenly perked up, staring down at the pictures as if a light bulb had turned on in her head.

"What is it?" Natalie questioned, watching as Violet's face scrunched in thought.

Violet stood up, placing down one of the pictures on the bed so she could see.

"What is that?" Violet pointed at the picture, honing in on a certain mark on the floor in the image.

Natalie's brows furrowed in confusion. "What's what?"

Violet reached over to the pile of pictures on the floor, laying them all out on the bed. She pointed out multiple other marks on the pictures. "In all of the pictures, there's different marks on the floor."

"The smudges?" Natalie shrugged, not seeing any relevance.

"It's not smudges." Violet shook her head, looking at the images more closely. "Does it not look like wax to you?"

Natalie sat up straighter, her head cocking to the side as she studied the pictures carefully. She watched as Violet zoned out of their conversation. She was clearly deep in thought, nothing around her being able to break her concentration even if it tried.

Violet quickly started to rearrange the photos, muttering her thoughts under her breath like some sort of mad scientist on the verge of a breakthrough.

Once they were in the right position, she took a step back, biting down on her nails at her creation. She was onto something, she knew it. She could feel it. But there was something about it that wasn't right just yet. Something was missing.

"Pen." Violet held out her hand.

"What?" Natalie asked.

Violet wafted her arm around in impatience, not wanting to lose her train of thought. "Give me a fucking pen."

"Jesus, okay, okay." Natalie mumbled, handing Violet what she asked for. "Here."

Natalie stood back, observing in curiosity as Violet started to draw along the paper, joining up the wax marks as if it were a dot to dot puzzle.

She didn't know what conclusion Violet had stumbled across and no matter how much she wanted to ask, she refrained from doing so.

The pure determination behind Violet's eyes was a look she had seen many times before on the Crawford woman. And Natalie knew better than to disturb Violet when she got like this.

After a few seconds, Violet tossed the pen on the bed and took a step back. Her eyes widened at the sight, her stomach churning at the revelation that her idea was correct. Natalie shared the same reaction, covering her mouth and letting out a shaky breath at what now sat below them on the bed.

Because after joining the wax marks together, Violet's fears came true. As much as she wished it hadn't. It all came together like this was the missing piece of the puzzle.

The lines now drew out a symbol. The symbol. The symbol that had haunted them for years.

"This is bad." Natalie shook her head. "This is so wrong. Travis didn't believe in any of this shit."

Violet let out a breath, placing her hands on her hips. "Then why is it in the place where he died?"

"I don't know." Natalie replied. "But I promise you... he did not put it there."

Violet tore her eyes away from the pictures, not being able to stomach looking at the horrid symbol any longer. She looked towards the door of the motel room before glancing back at Natalie.

"Is Misty still outside?" Violet asked with a huff. "What the fuck is she doing out there?"

MEANWHILE OUTSIDE...

During Natalie and Violet's time inside the motel room, Misty had been stood in the parking lot.

The plan for the day was to go through the files they now had access to. And Misty did plan on joining in and helping, it was her who managed to land them the intel after all, but first she had something else to do.

Because in classic Misty Quigley fashion, she had a plan of her own.

Misty leant against her car, a small smirk evident on her lips as she pulled out her phone. She dialled a certain number, patiently waiting for the call to be answered.

And after a few rings, it did.

"Hello?" The person on the other end said, confusion evident in their voice.

Misty couldn't help but smile, nothing but twisted excitement filling her body.

"Hi, Shauna."

The Quigley woman waited a few moments for her to say something, but Shauna remained quiet. Misty rolled her eyes before speaking up again.

"It's Misty. Misty Quigley" She informed her. "It's been so long—"

"I thought I told you never to call me."

"Even if something really big has happened?" Misty asked. Her voice was teasing almost. Like she was trying to pry a reaction from her. "Something that I know you'd want to know about but, for some reason... no one else thought to tell you."

A sigh was heard coming from Shauna. "I really don't have time for this Misty. Can you just fucking get it out?"

Now here is where Misty's dilemma lay. In her mind, her sick mind, she had two options.

Either tell the truth, tell Shauna about Travis, and risk Shauna going even more ghost on all of them.

Or tell a lie. A lie that she knew would grab Shauna's attention. A lie she knew would bring the Shipman woman in on their investigation.

Because Misty knew that with all of them, together again, they could put all of this to a stop. Once and for all.

And it was at that very moment... she decided to lie.

"It's Violet, she's... she's dead, Shauna."

⋆༺♱༻⋆

the band is slowly getting back together again... even if it is because misty is a raging psychopath.

[currently unedited.]