CHAPTER FIVE
[5]
song: criminal by fiona apple

"This is fucking stupid." Celine says from the backseat. "We're gonna get ourselves killed."

"Then stay in the fucking car then." Topper snaps.

Emotions were high. Noah Holland was dead.

Less than an hour ago everyone got the call. And before that, Summer and Rafe watched as search and rescue dragged his body out of the marsh.

They said it was an attempted strangling, and a stab wound in the chest. They dumped his body into the swamp like he was nothing.

"Pull around here." Rafe says, gesturing towards the woods off the road.

Topper slows the car, pulling it off the road and down into a slight ditch, before turning the headlights off. Silence overtook the vehicle as they all studied the house ahead of them.

"They all hang here." Topper nods forward.

"What are we looking for, exactly?" Celine speaks up.

"Weapons, personal items, anything suspicious." Kelce lists off. "Anything that's gonna get these fuckers arrested."

Rafe turns slightly from the passenger seat, glancing slightly behind him to look at Summer. She'd been silent this entire time. She'd been silent since they found him.

Her eyes were stuck out the window, unmoving and lifeless. She hadn't cried. She hadn't really done anything.

"We need to be fast, who knows when they'll be home." Kelce says, nodding at everyone.

Topper was out of the car first, then everyone else followed after him. Summer was slower than the rest, hesitantly looking around at the dark trees that surrounded them. She'd never been this far south before. Certainly not to some Pogue's house, and certainly not at night.

Rafe glanced over at Topper, Celine and Kelce, who were already making their way to the house, then back over to Summer, who was still by the car.

"You want me to wait with you?" He asks quietly.

Summer glances up, like she'd been snapped out of some deep thought. She shakes her head. "No. Let's go."

Kelce ripped through the screen on the screen door with a pocket knife, reaching his hand through the newly formed hole to unlock it from the inside. He starts searching the porch, while everyone else floods inside with their phone flashlights out.

The house reeked of beer and weed, and it was apparent that a single teenager was living here by himself. Summer felt inclined to plug her nose as she searched, but that wouldn't do much to protect her from any of the diseases she was going to catch in here.

Topper tore the place apart, ripping everything from the shelves, slamming cabinets shut so hard the hinges fell off.

"You need to chill out." Celine snapped at him.

"Noah's fucking dead, Celine!" Topper got in her face, raising his voice.

"Yo, yo." Kelce says, pulling Topper away from Celine after rushing inside. "Come on guys, we gotta be smart about this."

Summer was in the bedroom, listening to all of this go down from the open door. She shuffled through all the junk in the table beside the bed. Nothing of any use. Condoms, a lighter, old pictures, trash and more beer cans.

"Anything?" Rafe says, joining Summer after searching the bathroom. Summer shakes her head no.

He walks over to the closet and opens it up, reaching up to the top shelf and pulling out old dusty boxes, letting them drop to the floor as he shines his phone flashlight around.

Summer sat on the edge of the bed, watching as the rest of the group frantically rip apart this house to find something. Anything that would put an end to this.

She didn't know if they were doing this to avenge Tyler, Holly, and Noah— or if they were doing this to save themselves from being next.

"Sully." Rafe hums. Summer turns around on the bed to face him. He watched her cautiously before speaking again. "Do you want me to take you home?" He asks, genuine concern on his face.

"Stop—" she puts a frustrated hand out, waving him off. "Stop worrying about me. I'm fine. Just— find something. I don't know." She swallows harshly.

She hated this feeling. Like everyone was watching her, just waiting for the moment where she would inevitably get pushed too far, and break into a million pieces. For everyone to feel like they should be the one to mend her back together.

"Guys!" Kelce yells from the bathroom.

Rafe and Summer both quickly head out of the bedroom at the same time, joining Topper and Celine who met Kelce in the hallway.

"What the fuck is this?" Kelce says, unraveling a black cloth and revealing a hunting knife. Celine brought a hand to her lips in disbelief. "Why would you hide this in a medicine cabinet?!"

Topper grabs it from him, examining it as he breaths heavily. "It's JJ's. Look." He holds it back out to the rest of the group, pointing at the MAYBANK etched into the wood of the hilt.

Summer notices a sudden change in the shadows around them, and with it, she turned to see two bright lights coming down the road and shining directly into the house.

"We gotta go now and take this to the station." Kelce says, nodding at Topper.

Topper shakes his head, letting out a scoff. "No, no. We're dealing with them first." He says, before quickly taking off out the front door.

"Top, stop! They have a gun." Celine says frantically as everyone followed after them.

Rafe gently stops Summer from following Topper out the front, putting a hand on her shoulder. "There's a back door—"

Summer brushes him off, before stepping down the steps into the front yard. They pile out of a rusty old orange van. They being John B. Routledge, whose house they ransacked. JJ Maybank, whose knife they just found stashed away. Pope Hayward, who always seemed too smart to fall into this crowd. And Kiara Carerra, who was once apart of this friend group many many years ago.

"Get the fuck out of here!" JJ yells first, overlapping with Kiara's own shouts of, "What the fuck are you guys doing?!"

Topper charges forward first, holding the knife up. "Recognize this?" He asks accusingly.

John B narrows his eyes, trying to see what exactly it was that Topper was so confident about.

"You broke into his house?!" Kiara yelled, quickly making her way over to where Summer and Celine stood.

Kelce stepped in her way, "Uh-uh," he said, holding a hand out. "Back up."

Kiara's mouth gapped open in disbelief, glancing over at JJ and Pope. "You actually think we had something to do with what happened to your friends?!" She could almost laugh at the absurdity of it.

"Ask him!" Celine shouts, gesturing over to JJ. "It's his name on the knife!"

"Where did you even get that?!" JJ shakes his head, pointing at the knife. "That's my dad's!"

"Shocker." Summer scoffs.

JJ's eyes were full of hate when he turned to look at her. It was her father who represented someone who testified against his father. It was her father who got his arrested.

"Why the fuck do you have this here?" JJ turns to John B, who'd been reasonably quiet throughout this whole thing.

"I— I don't know. I've never seen that before in my life." He shrugs.

"Someone planted it." Pope spoke up.

"Yeah, right." Kelce scoffs. "Someone stole a knife from JJ's deadbeat dad, and then decided to just conveniently—"

No one had enough time to stop it before JJ had collided his fist with Kelce's jaw.

Everyone bursts into action at once.

"Why the fuck did you do it, huh?!" Topper yells, getting into Pope's face, who was just trying to pull JJ off Kelce.

"None of us give enough of a fuck about any of you to do that shit!" Kiara yells over the commotion.

"Us and you? Stop acting like you don't live on Figure Eight you bitch." Celine scoffs.

"Really? Because with the way you all treated me you would've thought I don't." Kiara looks at Celine like she was an idiot.

"What do you mean treated you? You were the one who decided to start hanging out with literal criminals—"

"They're not criminals?!"

Summer just watched, not sure what to do, not sure what to say. They were all just acting like feral animals. Scared and confused, and going back to their first initial instincts; fighting to the death.

Summer swallows harshly, looking around. Celine and Kiara screaming at each other. Topper, Kelce, JJ and John B all on top of each other, throwing punches and kicking ribs. Pope was at least trying to break it up. She was beginning to wish she'd stayed back with Sarah and Camila.

Rafe stepped forward, picking up the knife that Topper had dropped in the midst of the fighting. "We'll take it to the station." He says to Summer, who was the only one paying attention.

He makes his way back over to the car, glancing behind him a couple times to make sure Summer was following. She lingered amongst the mess for a moment, wondering how and why they all got to this point, before catching up with Rafe.

Rafe leans into the front seat of Topper's car, his jaw clenched and his eyes focused. He honks the horn twice, before leaning back out. "Hey!" He yells.

The sound of punches landing, and high pitched insults being thrown, comes to an abrupt end. Rafe glances at Summer, then back to the rest of the group. "We're leaving. If you want to get yourself killed, do it on your own time." He nods slightly towards Topper, whose nose was bleeding.

Celine was already walking back over to the car, sending Summer a frustrated eye-roll that was an assumed response from her conversation with Kiara.

"Come on," Kelce pulls Topper away from JJ, who was still getting in his face.

"We're sorry about your friend." Pope speaks up.

It was a genuine comment. At least, it sounded that way to Summer. Topper, however, didn't take it that way, as he jolted toward Pope like he was ready for another fight. Kelce grabbed onto his arms and pulled him away, talking him down from it.

As everyone made their way back to the car, Summer watched as the Pogue's recouped. Kiara walked over to JJ, giving him a slight slap on the head, one that said 'you're an idiot.'

"You're going to fucking jail, man." Topper chuckled, before Kelce pushed him into the car.

Summer was the last to get in, taking the passenger seat as Rafe drove. The knife sat on the dashboard, a reminder of why they were all here.

Summer couldn't take her eyes off of it as Rafe drove down the dark road.

"Is there a napkin, or something in here?" Celine says from the back. "You're bleeding on me."

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to cause you any distress." Topper says sarcastically, as he holds the bridge of his nose, tilting his head back.

Summer knew those Pogues were bad news. She knew they had every reason to want to kill her and her friends, to bring them as much pain as they thought they deserved. But something felt deeply off. Like there was something else going on entirely— something bigger that she was completely unaware of.

"What are you thinking?" Rafe spoke quietly to her.

"I don't know." Summer sighs, shaking her head slightly. "I'm just—" she pauses, then scoffs, rubbing her eyes frustratedly. "God, I don't know."

The station was busy, unsurprisingly. In the back, you could hear deputies answering and making calls. Telling people, 'we don't know what happened yet, but we're working hard to figure it out.' 'There's not much we can say right now.' 'Yes, we're enforcing a stricter curfew.'

Summer stood at the front desk, peaking her head around to get a better view of what was happening in the back. Rafe and Kelce stood beside her, Celine sat back with Topper, holding an ice pack to his eye.

Deputy Shoupe came around the corner after Summer rang the bell a few times. He was clearly stressed, his eyes were sunken in and his usual welcoming self was not feeling so welcoming right now.

"Can I help you?" He says with a sigh, after glancing at Topper, and then back to Summer.

She swallows harshly, placing the knife on the counter, glancing at it and then back up to Deputy Shoupe. "We found this stashed away at John B. Routledge's house." Kelce says, gesturing towards it. "We think they might have something to do with—" he hesitated. "Everything that's been going on."

Deputy Shoupe puts his hands on his hips, observing the knife for a moment before looking back up at the kids with raised eyebrows. "What were you all doing in The Cut?"

Summer glances nervously at Rafe, who sends her a subtle, comforting nod.

"We were looking for that, sir." Topper says from the seating area, gesturing up at the counter.

Deputy Shoupe narrows his eyes at him. "And what happened here?"

"They're violent, Deputy Shoupe. They just came at us." Topper squirms as Celine readjusted the ice pack on his face. "And then we found this hidden away in a medicine cabinet—"

"Hold on—" Shoupe stops him, holding out a hand. "Don't tell me you kids broke into a house."

Kelce turns around and glances at Topper and Celine quickly, before turning back around. Summer pushes the knife forward on the counter. "Please, sir." She says. "I can't—" she let's out a shaky breath. "Can you run this as evidence? I— like is there something you can do to check?"

Deputy Shoupe's cold face grew slightly empathetic. He'd never seen the girl so shaken up. Never seen her stumble on her words. He blinked a few times, examining the knife from a distance before stepping forward and picking it up.

Summer watched carefully, desperately waiting for the moment where he said 'yup, this is the one, we'll lock him up and you'll all be safe again.'

"Well, I can tell you right now this isn't the same one used in the killings." Shoupe says, holding it back out for them to see.

Summer leans forward, while Rafe observes from a distance.

"How do you know?" Summer shakes her head, confused.

"It's about three inches too narrow." He says, placing a finger gently on the blade. "In the autopsy report—" Shoupe hesitates, glancing up at the girl before continuing. "It would have had to have been a much bigger knife than this." He cuts to the chase.

"Have you guys even brought them in? JJ Maybank? John B?" Topper says. "If it's anyone it's one of them—"

"We have, actually, Mr. Thornton." Shoupe cuts him off. "The both of them were actually here, at the station— in regards to the gun incident at the party— about the time Noah would have been killed."

The room fell silent.

"Well, what about Kiara Carrera? Or Pope Hayward?" Celine speaks up, standing up from her chair.

Shoupe sends her a firm nod. "They were here with them."

Summer leans away from the desk, letting out a deep sigh.

"Can't you just run a few tests on it?" Rafe speaks up. "Look for DNA, anything?"

"I'll do what I can." Shoupe says, then looks around at everyone. "You kids should have been home long ago. I'll let it slide this time— but they're starting a new curfew tomorrow. I don't want to see any of you out past then, alright?"

Summer felt hopeless. Three of her friends were dead. Killed. And at this rate, she may never know why. Or by who.

"Where were they when Tyler and Holly were killed, huh?" Topper says, as everyone was making their way out of the station already.

"Leave it, Topper." Celine says, defeated.

Summer leaned against the hood of Topper's car, arms crossed as the cold night breeze swept past her blonde hair.

"This doesn't make any sense." Kelce says, after letting the door to the station close shut. "What the fuck are we gonna do?"

Celine shakes her head. "Why them? I mean— Tyler I get. He was always such a dick to JJ. But Holly? She'd never said a word to them. And Noah was actually good friends with Pope? I just don't—"

"Because it wasn't them." Summer says.

"If it wasn't them, then who was it?" Celine says.

"It was Summer." Kelce says.

Summer snaps her head up, her eyebrows furrowed together. "Excuse me?"

"You're the only one here who has any sort of motive." He raises his voice slightly, flailing his arms toward her.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Celine snaps. "Are you an idiot?"

"Tyler was cheating on her!" Kelce says, like that part wasn't obvious.

"So she kills him, Holly, and Noah?" Celine says, her eyes wide with disbelief, shocked by his stupidity. "For what reason?!"

"I don't know—" Kelce holds his hands up defensively.  "How do we know it wasn't you?!" Kelce shouts at Celine. "You couldn't stand Holly."

"We all couldn't stand each other!" Celine says. "Everyone knows that. So why would I kill Tyler? Or Noah? And how the fuck—"

"This is stupid." Rafe mutters, quiet enough so only Summer would hear.

Summer looks up at him from the hood of the car. It felt like they were the only two here with any sensibility and logic left in them. "Do you wanna go?" She asks him.

Rafe starts to nod, but stops as Topper speaks up.  "No, no." Topper starts. He lets out a scoff as he brings the ice pack off of his eyes. "It's you."

Summer couldn't tell who he was speaking at until everyone turned and looked at Rafe.

"Topper— stop. Everyone stop." Summer stands up from the car.

"No, oh my god—" Topper scoffs. "It's him."

Rafe rubs his eyes frustratedly. "Yeah?" He questions boredly, just exhausted with the entire situation.

"You kill her boyfriend so you can have her all to yourself. If I can't have you no one can, right?" Topper steps forward, putting his pieces together. "We all know you're obsessed with her, dude."

Rafe stands still as Topper approached him, watching his every move through tired eyes.

"Holly was just collateral damage. Wrong place wrong time— no—" he cuts off his own train of thought as he thinks of something else. "No... luring Holly in and killing her there... that was so Summer would find out they were sleeping together. So she'd have one more reason not to mourn either of them too much."

Summer scoffs, looking around to the rest of the group and expecting to share their same reaction. Expecting one of them to speak up, to tell Topper to relax, that he was doing too much. But Celine and Kelce just stood and watched, exchanging subtle glances between each other that read as 'I don't know... it makes sense.'

"And Noah?" Celine asks after a pause.

Summer narrowed her eyebrows at her. "Seriously?" She says.

Rafe hadn't moved, he just looked down at Topper as he continued on.

"Noah had a crush on Summer. He told me." Topper says chirpily to Celine, and then turned back to Rafe. "And you knew that. Didn't you? And you saw them getting close and—"

"Stop!" Summer yelled, charging over to Topper and standing in between him and Rafe.

It was like she wasn't even there as Topper kept his eyes steady on Rafe. Like Topper had turned this into some twisted competition, for whoever could come up with the best story.

"Who's next, huh?" Topper adds finally.

Summer pushes forcefully on Topper's chest. "Stop!" She yells again, loud enough this time to earn his attention.

Her lip started to tremble. From anger, or frustration, or the overwhelming amount of guilt that was starting to take over her body, she didn't know. She felt her throat tighten. "Go home!" She says, breathing heavily. "You're all being ridiculous and I'm— this isn't a game!"

They looked guilty now. Too afraid to make eye contact with one another.

"Go." Summer said firmly, staring Topper down. "Fucking idiots." She mutters, her voice cracking slightly.

"Summer—" Celine starts, a frown on her face, but Summer shoots her a glare. Kelce walks over to Topper and pulls him back, Celine joining them. "We'll meet tomorrow. Camila and Sarah deserve to know what's going on too." Celine says.

"Okay." Was all Summer said as she watched the rest of them pile into Topper's car, and drive off.

A stillness lingered in the dark as the two were left alone in front of the station. Guilt racked her chest, her eyelids falling heavy.

She turns slightly, to check on Rafe for the first time since everything had happened. He'd just been taking it all in silence.

"You alright?" He asks quietly, even though it should've been her asking him.

Summer was quiet for a few seconds. Her chest heaving in and out with every deep breath.

Nothing made sense. No one was acting like themselves. Her friends were dead. There was a killer on the loose. She might be next. He might be next. She started feeling like her knees were gonna give out.

She looks up at him, eyes darting back and fourth in between his quickly. "Will you stay with me?" She asks after a moment.

Rafe was quiet, but there was a subtle change in his eyes when she spoke. He looked sad for her. But it wasn't pity— he was just sad. He felt her pain in all the ways only he himself would understand.

They'd walk to her house in silence. It was only a couple blocks away from the station, and despite all warnings to not be out this late at night, Summer knew Rafe wouldn't let anything bad happen to her.

Perhaps it was naïve of her to put that much trust in someone who had hurt her before. Who had acted like she was nothing for nine months.

But things felt different this time. Things were different.

"My dad's out of town for a while." Summer says at the front door, as she got out her keys to unlock it. "And my step-mom... you know."

Rafe stood beside her, watching her as she spoke. "He just left you? During all this?"

Summer swallowed harshly. "Yeah." She let out a small scoff. "It sounded like it was important. I don't know."

She opened the door and Rafe held it open with his arm, towering over her as she walked in first. She switched on a couple lights in the entry way and turned around to face him.

It was an odd situation for him to be coming to her house for the first time. She set her keys down on the table beside the door, before gesturing to the stairs.

"Come on." She said quietly.

Rafe followed behind as Summer led the way. He felt the ache that radiated off of her, despite how hard she was trying to uphold this front.

He watched as she went into her room and turned on a couple lamps. She picked up some clothes off the floor and threw them into a pile in her closet. She took off her purse and hung it on a hook.

Rafe stood in the doorway, hesitant to speak. Her movements were stiff and calculated, as if breaking her normal routine would mean something was wrong; that things weren't normal.

Summer suddenly stopped in the middle of the room, bringing her hands up as she let her face fall into her palms.

Everything had fallen apart. It all came as an electrical storm in her brain that physically hurt. It was different from a headache, and it felt the same as intense sorrow, perhaps as a sort of frozen panic with nowhere to go. So though she had been appearing calm, her sad eyes were saying far more than 'help me' they were saying that her soul was in such unbearable pain.

Was she ever going to feel safe again? Was she ever going to spend another second not worrying if her friends were alive or dead? How many more funerals would she have to go to? Why was this happening to her?

His arms wrapped around her in a gentle embrace. She didn't realize how much she needed his touch until he was right there, reminding her of his safety; an unspoken promise from him to her.

She leaned into his chest, and he listened to her sobs, like an angel pleading for help. He felt her body tremble beneath him, clinging onto his sleeves for support.

Summer pulled away suddenly and quickly, leaning up on her toes and grabbing his face, pulling him in and connecting their lips.

Rafe was caught off guard, almost unsure if it was actually happening, as he felt her hands come around to the back of his head. It had always been written in their gaze, a chemistry, a seed of lust, an invitation to touch the other in the ways they'd done before.

He breathed her in, deepening the kiss as he pushed her forward. She felt her back collide with her dresser, and with it, things fell off it and to the floor. She didn't care, she just tangled her hands up and around his neck, pulling him closer.

There was a hunger in his kissing that only proved he had been waiting patiently for this moment. That those nine months of silence were spent only thinking of her. He had gotten her back. For good this time.

But he felt the tears on her cheeks as he held her face, tasted them in their kisses. He had to be smart about this.

He pulls away. "Sully, we can't." He whispers, leaning his head down and against her shoulder.

Summer lifts his head back up and tries to connect their lips again. "Come on, Rafe." She says, mascara streaming down her face.

She kisses him again, and for those few seconds, Rafe had shed every ounce of logic and reason he had left. He wanted her now. He needed her.

He pulls himself away. "Not like this." He says, turning his head as not to be tempted any further.

"Please." Summer's lips were trembling, more tears formed in her eyes as the only distraction she needed was slipping from her fingertips.

Rafe turned back to face her, his chest aching at the pain in her eyes. She grabs his hand and puts it back on her cheek again, holding it there with hers as she stared at him, quiet sobs escaping her lips.

He blinked slowly, wiping away her tears with his thumb. Not like this. Not like this. He kept telling himself.

"Let's go to bed." He whispered as he leaned his forehead on hers.

Summer was too tired, too defeated to even keep up the fight. She just nodded, pulling his hand off of her cheek, but keeping it intertwined with hers as she walked over to her bed.

She sat down on the edge for a while, empty eyes glued to the floor. It was a while before she kicked off her shoes and laid her head down on the pillow beside him.

He wrapped his arms around her and held her as she fell asleep, feeling every little sob she tried to stifle rack against his chest. He wanted to kiss her pain away. But not like this.

He'd worked too hard to only be a distraction.

a/n
lololololol

hope u enjoyed 🤍🔪