Chapter Three

I couldn't get my mind off of what Patrick was going to say as I followed Hayden and Dashil home. He wasn't a very serious person, but on the phone it didn't sound like he was kidding around. It was difficult to believe someone besides Patrick could have written it, especially Anna. She couldn't be alive! I bit my lip as I walked through the door to my house. I was nervous to hear what Patrick was going to say.

As I waited on the couch for Patrick to arrive, I let my hand dangle off. Our dog Cooper jumped up on the seat next to me. His tongue dangled out of his mouth as I rubbed his black, curly haired belly. I could smell my mom’s cooking in the kitchen; tonight we would have her famous Shepard’s Pie for dinner. I could hear Dashil, Hayden and my mom rambling on about how old they have to be to go to the park by themselves.

Ding-dong.

I got off the sofa and opened the door for Patrick. His hands were in his pockets and I could tell he was deep in thought. He scratched his curly golden hair and looked at me.

“I would never do that, Lace.” He stated, and pulled me into his arms before I could say a word. Suddenly I felt guilty for blaming him.

“I shouldn’t have blamed –”

“Shh. I don’t care.” He rubbed my back comfortingly. For a second, it felt like it was Anna who was holding me. It felt like a huge missing piece of my life was put back into place. Unfortunately, the feeling went away only seconds later. Nobody could replace Anna.

Patrick hugged me for a few more seconds, and then looked at me with a more serious face. “Will you show me it?”

“Yeah, of course. Follow me.”

I stepped out of the front door and it slammed shut behind me. Patrick and I quickened our pace so Hayden and Dashil couldn't catch up to us. I knew that they would be interested in going to the park again. We looped around to the back and followed the familiar trail back to the small park. I was nervous to see the writing again.

When we finally reached to park we went straight to the bench. I showed him where it said bottom wasn’t death. He shook his head in disbelief as he read it over and over again.

“This is insane…” he murmured.

“Do – do you think Anna really wrote this?” I stuttered,

Patrick stood back up and put his hands on his hips. He pursed his lips and shook his head. “I don’t know who else would. I mean, I can’t think of anyone who would do this… and nobody has handwriting like Anna’s.”

I nodded in agreement.

“Well, what are we going to do?” I asked.

Patrick pursed his lips, “I really don’t see what we can do.”

There was not really anything we could do. We didn’t know what to believe. It was crazy to think that Anna could still be alive somewhere, but that probably was not true. There was no other evidence, and we would just have to believe that somebody was playing a trick on us. I saw Anna fall. I didn’t even see the bottom of the pit she fell in. I didn’t even hear her hit a bottom by the time I had to run from the men.

“Well, whoever did this really screwed with us.” Patrick said with a bitter tone. “Let’s go.”

The rain started again, and we walked down the muddy path back to my house. I kicked a rock, and about half way to the house it landed in a small smudge of red grass.