Chapter two- Caroline’s Creek.

I can feel the sun pounding against my back as I wrap my arms around the warm smooth stone, that holds my sister Caroline’s body beneath it. Tears roll down my face and hit my short black dress. My knees are sinked into the grass as I sit there looking at the tombstone. Today would of been Caroline’s 19th birthday.

“Hi sissyy. I miss you.. mum misses you to.. she just forgot, that’s all.. she’s been hurtin’ a lot, we both have.. we miss you so much..” I mumble as my forehead is pressed against the warm tombstone. Tears begin to flood my eyes. I can’t believe mum isn’t here, how could she forget this.

I suddenly feel a hand on my shoulder and turn my head without removing my arms around Caroline’s tombstone to see who’s hand is on my shoulder. I look up and see a man wearing a long black coat. Detective Kipler. But I just call him Kip. 

I give him a friendly smile. “You remembered..” 

Kip reaches his hand out for mine to help me off the ground. I take his hand and feel my body slowly raise from the ground. I feel so weak, so empty. 

“Nadia, of course I remembered.. Caroline will always be remembered.” Kip says to me with a reassuring yet serious smile. His eyes are watering and his voice is a bit shakey. 

“Mum doesn’t remember..” I say bitterly. Harsh, but true. All she cares about is her fancy-pants new boyfriend. 

Kip looks down at the ground not knowing how to respond to my bitter remark. He knows i’m right. 

“Nadia hush. Don’t be ridiculous. It’s not that she doesn’t remember, she just tries not to remember as much.. she’s trying to move forward with her life, don’t be too hard on her..” Kip says to me as he looks deep into my eyes. I just nod in response, as the tears freely fall from my eyes. 

“I haven’t given up on trying to find the killer either Nadia, don’t ever think I will until the bastard is caught.. that son of a bitch is going to be in jail, I won’t rest until he’s behind bars.” Kip adds. The police have been investigating Caroline’s murder intently ever since the day she was found stabbed to death in a creek nearby our house. The creek respectively is now named Caroline’s Creek, it’s like a memorial for her; I make sure there are always fresh daffodils present there, those were Caroline’s favorite.

To this day, I don’t understand who would have murdered my sister, everyone loved her. But I pray every night that Kip finds the low life who did this. 

I’m home, in my room now, looking through scrapbooks of old pictures of me and Caroline. I sent my mum a couple texts bitching her out asking how she could forget about Caroline’s birthday, she didn’t reply, but I wasn’t expecting a reply anyways. God I miss Caroline so much. My heart literally ached with every sob that left my body as I sat on the floor with the scrapbook in my hands. 

I decide to put the pictures down, and get myself up. Kip was right, maybe moving forward wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all. But there is no way in hell i’m ever going to forget about Caroline, never. I get myself up, and wipe the tears from my eyes. I grab the fresh daffodils on my table that I got just for today, and head out the front door towards Caroline’s Creek. 

(Justin)

As I walk out my front door and look around at my new wealthy neighborhood before my eyes, i’m almost shocked that I haven’t been mauled by paparazzi yet.. this is something I could get used to. I guess all these people are rich enough to realize all I am is another person. 

I glance across the street over at that one beautiful girl’s house- Nadia’s house. Her name stuck to my heart like glue the moment it left her lips- those lips; so lush and tender. Something about that girl, was so.. so.. different I guess you could say. The way she had herself so collected was something I don’t see often. She’s cute. Really cute. Maybe moving here wouldn’t be so bad after all, seeing that gorgeous smile on a daily basis sounded perfect to me.

As I walk down the street, observing the different mansion like houses, and the occasional people outside of them, I try to get a feel of my new neighborhood. Knowing Nadia was my neighbor, lots of wealthy old rich folks, trophy wives, some dudes that looked about my age, and plenty of gorgeous girls- again, maybe moving here wouldn’t be so bad after all. 

I’m walking further into my neighborhood. The sun is shining on my face, no paparazzi in sight; i’m feeling incredible. It’s all a little too good to be true. 

I come up to a creek that I notice off to the far side of the road. I make my way towards it, and slowly and cautiously inch near it trying not to fall in. I pick up a twig and toss it in the swiftly moving water. I watch it as the water catches the twig, and it floats gracefully down the creek. As the twig floats further and further down the creek, I see some brightly covered flowers, some cards, candles, and even a few pictures on the creek bank not too far up ahead. 

Caroline Allen. I remember some of the neighbor folks were telling me and mom about a girl named Caroline Allen being murdered, and some creek being named after her. Poor girl. 

I walk near the shrine looking ensemble on the creek bank. Tons of different flowers caught my eye, it was beautiful. This girl was truly loved. What a terrible loss. Looking down at the few pictures of her present scattered around, she was beautiful. Absolutely breathe taking. She looked familiar in a sense.. really familiar the more I glanced at her picture.. she had the type of beauty where you wouldn’t just forget the name that belonged to that angelic face. 

My eyes wander around the memorial, and my ears are filled with the sound of the creek water flowing rapidly. I suddenly hear footsteps and turn towards them immediately. A beautiful average height girl with a short black dress on, holding daffodils stood before me. Nadia. 

I feel my heart speed up as she notices me. I get the nerve to say hello. “Hey gorgeous” I smile a genuine grin, as I look into her beautiful blue eyes. I was genuinely happy to see her. 

Nadia smiles at me. “Hey Justin.” Hearing those words come from her lips made me feel weak at my knees. 

(Nadia)

What the hell is he doing here? I secretly try to deny the fact that i’m excited to see him to myself. I look away from his big brown eyes, and kneel down close to a picture of Caroline on the ground. I kiss the daffodils, and lay them next to her picture gently. Looking around, seeing all the other flowers, and other things Caroline’s friends and members of our family brought to her memorial brings a feeling of contempt to my aching heart. See sisssy, no one will ever forget about you.

“it’s truly awful what happened to that girl Caroline.. tell me they’ve at least caught the prick who did this to her.” Justin says to me. The look on his face makes me believe that he actually truly cares. He’s sweet. 

”.. unfortunately no.. I have faith that they will though.” I reply to Justin. 

Justin nods and looks around at all the things left for Caroline. I keep my eyes on Caroline’s picture. I may not be looking at Justin, but I can feel his eyes suddenly on me.

“Did you know the girl?” 

I look up at Justin and see him looking down at me. I feel the hot tears rushing to my eyes, I manage to break a small smile then say “Caroline was my sister.” 

Justin’s face suddenly looks as if he had just seen a ghost. He feels awful, it’s obvious. I feel kind of bad, I didn’t intend to make him feel shitty for not knowing that the dead murdered girl is my sister. 

“Nadia… i’m so so SO sorry.. I had no idea.. really i’m such a fucking idoit, i’m sor-” I cut Justin off.

“Justin! It’s okay. Really it’s fine.” I say as I get up from the grounded getting closer to him. 

Without saying a word, I suddenly feel Justin’s arms wrap around me tightly. He rubs my back as I rest my head on his shoulder. Tears stream down my face, and get his shirt a bit wet. He doesn’t seem to mind though.

“Nadia, just think- you have the most beautiful, most amazing, guardian angel watching over you..” Justin whispered to me softly as he began to stroke my hair.

I had never thought of it like that. Hearing Justin say those words bring me a sudden sense of closure of my sister’s death that i’ve never been able to feel before. Tears continued to stream down my face, but Justin’s arms never let me go. My arms never stopped holding onto him either.

His smell; his cologne smelt amazing. His firm body against mine made me feel safe and secure. The way his whispering voice could calm me down and bring me inner peace. Quite puzzling, but absolutely extraordinary. This boy is extraordinary. Whoa there Nadia, don’t be getting all attached. No way. No fucking way… but the way he’s making butterflies flutter around inside my tummy, and the way he’s making my head spin certainly isn’t helping me keep in mind my no-attachment-rule.

Whether I like it or not, i’ve gotten myself into something. It’s becoming obvious that there isn’t going to be any easy way out either.