Chapter 19: Vivian Shares The Truth

Alex felt his mouth go dry as Vivian began taking steps towards them. How did she know? He could have sworn she hadn't seen them in the basement. They were quiet when they left too and they'd barely talked about it since. It just didn't make sense.

“How did you know?” Courtney had realized the others weren't going to talk. Alex looked rather pale as he moved further back reaching Sam and Tracy. Luke was still next to her but he was staring at Vivian frozen and she couldn't tell what was running through his mind.

“What is going on?!” Tracy was rather confused and she felt like she didn't know what was even going on any more.

“Vivian has skeletons in the basement,” Alex's voice was barely a whisper.

He’d barely managed to get the words out before Vivian tossed something out into the middle of the room. It landed at Courtney's feet with a light thud. Tracy scrambled to see what it was. Sam had turned to Alex; he wondered if Alex was being serious. He had to be joking right? There was no way there were actual skeletons in the basement right?

“Is that..?” Tracy covered her mouth, unable to get the rest of her words out. She took several steps back looking at Courtney then at Luke. This was absolutely insane.

“I went down there last night. It was my idea. Courtney and Luke just didn't want me to go alone,” Alex took responsibility for sneaking into the basement because this was all his fault. He'd been the one to lead them into the basement and now he wished he hadn't.

“Alex it's not just your fault we chose to go down there. It's just as much our responsibility as it is yours,” Luke wasn't just about to let him take all the heat. Sure he'd told the truth about them not wanting him to go alone but they'd gone willingly he hadn't made them.

“Really?” Vivian slowly began to smile, her voice growing colder. Her eyes were filled with pure hatred and rage and it conflicted with the sickeningly sweet smile she now wore. A chair came flying at Sam and Alex. Tracy was no longer standing with the two but she watched it nearly miss Alex as Sam pulled him out of harm's way.

“Listen Sam and Tracy had nothing to do with this besides it's not like you told us that we weren't supposed to go down there,” Courtney brought up a valid point. Vivian had only given them one clear rule. They weren't allowed to contact their parents and that was all.

“You're right. I just want to know which one of you broke my trophy and decided not to fix it. I wouldn't have known if they hadn't made such a foolish mistake. So long as they come forward the rest of you will remain safe,” Vivian seemed angrier since Courtney pointed out that she couldn't exactly punish them for breaking a rule they didn't know existed.

Alex looked confused but Courtney just looked at the smooth skeletal arm at her feet before looking back at Alex her mouth agape. Alex inched closer, eyebrows raised. Sam and him had been the only ones who hadn't rushed forward to see what Vivian had thrown down. Now he wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

“Alex no,” Luke hissed trying to stop him. He knew Alex hadn't meant to harm the skeleton. He'd accidentally knocked the arm out of its socket and had been too upset to even think about fixing it. Everyone made mistakes and Luke understood that. He knew Vivian was furious and he feared what she might do to Alex if she found out it was him. She wouldn't harm them, she couldn't right? She still needed them to crack the case.

Alex was about to tell the truth but the look in Vivian's eyes made him freeze. This was the first time he truly feared her. She was acting far worse than the nice lady she'd acted as when they got there. Her hair stuck out everywhere. Before she'd looked put together, perfect even, considering was dead anyways. Now she had a deep gash in her stomach and blood dripped down from her throat to the floor.

“Fine, no one wants to own up to it. You have 14 days. Either have it solved or you will face my wrath,” Vivian waved her hand and Alex went flying back into Sam. The two fell to the ground as Vivian turned to Luke and Courtney.

“14 days my dear. That's not the worst thing I can do, trust me,” Vivian ran a jagged fingernail along Courtney's cheek. Vivian disappeared in a flurry of old papers leaving them there. The arm had disappeared along with Vivian thankfully. Tracy just stood silently looking over at Alex and Sam. He was concerned and considered going to help them up but thought better of it.

“You okay?” Sam asked after they were certain Vivian wasn't coming back.

“Uh… Yeah,” Alex didn't meet his eyes. He couldn't. This was all his fault. He'd made one lousy mistake and doomed them all. There was no way they would be able to solve this case in two weeks. At this point anyone was on the table and they had no clue who it was.

“We should get back to work,” Courtney pulled her hair up into a tight bun. She was trying not to focus on the new deadline. It was crazy. He knew if Alex had just come out and said it was his fault he'd have gotten far worse than he got but she didn't see how they could possibly get this done in time.

“CC we can't just put this whole dead bodies in the basement thing aside. Why didn't you tell us sooner? We deserved to know. We could have helped,” Tracy moved over to Alex and offered him a hand. Sam was still sitting on the floor dusting his maroon shirt off.

Alex took her hand gently as she helped him up. He couldn't think of a reasonable answer. Maybe they were scared for them. Maybe they'd been trying to protect them but they failed in the end anyways. He just looked at his boots quietly. The only thing he could think was that this was all his fault.

“It doesn't matter, it's not like they messed up. They were just trying to spare us the horrors they'd seen. Now we need to work together. No one goes off alone, especially you Alex. You can see her and she's more likely to go after you because of it. We need to solve this case and we need to do it fast. No one gets to sit it out anymore which means you're gonna have to pull your weight Luke. For now we separate into teams, find out what we can, and meet back in the living room at sunset,” Sam was trying to get everyone back on track. They couldn't let one slip up mess everything up and they definitely couldn't just give up. Not now. Not until they got out of here.