"Mom!" I whispered. Both she and John turned to look at me and I gestured for the both of them to come to the window.

"Look."

They quietly obliged as they looked through the slit in the window.

"Elijah is out of jail?" My mother asked in shock.

John pulled out his phone and typed a few keys. "He got out this morning." He said as he held the screen up to us. An article that read:

Elijah Grey Released From Jarod County Jail After The Murder of Aaliyah Monroe

I read more and saw that the murder cases had gone cold and they had used John as the scapegoat.

"What the hell?" My mother yelled. "Look." She said as she pointed to a part in the article.

I read it and my mouth dropped.

I looked over to John and he had his hands over his eyes and shaking his head.

The article had said that he killed himself after finding out he was going to jail. That was far from the truth though, I saw with my own eyes along with other people, Hardy pulled the trigger.

"So they're all liars," John said. "If they could lie about this I could've easily been framed."

My mother fell into a conversation with him about the article and I turned my attention back to the window.

Carter and Elijah remained at the driveway and I walked towards the door.

"Where are you going, Aaliyah?" My mother asked.

"I'll be right back."

Before she could say anything I rushed through the front door to the two boys that I used to love.

"Am I crazy for missing her?" Elijah asked.

I watched as Carter turned to him and shook his head. "No. I miss her too."

Elijah scoffed and crossed his arms as he looked at Carter. "I bet you do."

"You know how sorry I am about that Elijah. I just..."

"You just fell in love," Elijah answered.

Carter nodded slowly and turned back to the house.

"Although I'm still upset about what you two did, I want to thank you for always believing in my innocence," Elijah said softly.

His brother looked at him and gave him a small smile. "Always."

I stood back as I looked at the two brothers closely. I didn't know how I could fall in love with both of them considering how different they were.

Carter was a couple of inches taller than Elijah with curly brown hair and glasses. His physique was slender and he lacked the muscles that Elijah had but he was adorable. His green eyes held a warmness that could melt the coldest of people.

Elijah on the other hand had stark black hair that hung in waves a few inches above his shoulders. His blue eyes were threatening but magnetic. He had silver piercings adorning his eyebrow, nose, and lip. He looked like a rockstar.

Maybe that's why they got along so well though. The qualities that they lacked, they would find in one another.

"We're both aware that Mr. Hayes is innocent, right?" Carter asked.

My breath hitched at the mention of John and I listened intently.

"Definitely."

"I want to figure out who did this to her," Carter said.

Elijah snapped his head to him and shook his head. "No Carter, we need to move on. This person is dangerous, I don't know about you but I'm not trying to get killed. Look at this house Carter, everyone that lived here died because of this person."

Carter nodded slowly and crossed his arms. "I know but I can't help it." He began as he pushed his glasses onto the bridge of his nose. "I tried to investigate these past few months but I got nothing."

"There's a reason for that, the person is good at what they do," Elijah said.

"You think so?" Carter asked.

"Hell yes, they've been able to evade police custody and continue killing."

"We're smart too." Carter countered.

"Sure...but I just got out of jail, I'm trying to stay out of trouble. This town tends to twist stories and I won't go back to jail for getting myself involved in this mess again."

Again?

"One thing that puzzled me about you is why and how you confessed. You had to have known details that the police didn't." Carter said.

Elijah sighed and shook his head. "I got a package delivered to my house before I turned myself in. There was a bloody ear and I recognized it as Aaliyah's when I saw the earrings I bought her for her birthday."

I instinctively brought my hand to my ear as I took a step back in shock.

"It was when she had been missing for a few weeks so I knew it was legit. The package came with the letter and it said that if I didn't follow the instructions on it, they would come for you all."

"What were the instructions?" Carter asked.

"To go to the police station and confess to killing her. The letter had details of the kidnapping and murder so I just repeated it like some sick speech."

"Do you still have the letter?" Carter asked.

"No. One instruction was to burn it after I memorized it."

"Did you tell anyone about it?" Carter asked.

"I told dad but he just told me to follow the instructions. He said they already had evidence against me, if I pled guilty I would get less jail time."

If Elijah was telling the truth, it meant that he was innocent. But it still didn't explain why Elijah was in my room with the mask that one night. Maybe he made all this up for Carter?

"Did you ever hear from the person again?" Carter asked seriously as he looked at Elijah intently.

"No that was the last time."

"What do you mean the last time? Was there another time?"

"Only one time before that," Elijah admitted.

"What happened?"

"I got another package left in front of my apartment." Elijah began. "I opened it and saw black clothes and some mask. At the bottom of the box, there were pictures of Aaliyah sleeping in her bed and pics of her changing that were taken from her window."

"What the fuck." Carter whispered.

"It gets worse." He said as he took a deep breath. "They said that if I didn't do what they said, they would kill her. So I wore the outfit and mask."

"What did the letter say to do?" Carter asked.

"It said to go to her house and scare her. But when I got there it was like she expected me. She was screaming that she was sorry and began running from me. I followed her to her room and opened her door and she was screaming at me and saying she knew it was me. I was so confused but I ended up taking it off...

I don't remember the rest of what happened but she ended up in the hospital for a broken leg I think."

Carter looked at Elijah stunned into silence and I was right along with him. I felt guilty for ever doubting Elijah. He was innocent, maybe even a victim of this sick man's game.

"You don't have any of these letters?" Carter asked again.

"No. As I said, I burned them all."

"I won't be able to sleep until I figure this shit out." Carter groaned.

Elijah laid a hand on Carter's shoulder and turned him to face him. "Promise me you'll leave it alone Carter."

"I can't promise you that." He said. "But I'll be safe."

Elijah sighed and shook his head. "I want you to move with me to New York."

"New York?" Carter asked baffled.

"Yeah, I need a change. Everyone here looks at me like I'm some killer. I want a fresh start, maybe even change my name."

"Why does it feel like you're running?"

"Maybe I am."

I watched as Carter nodded at his brother and sighed.

"At least think about it," Elijah said.

"Okay."

"Let's go inside."

With that, I watched as the boys headed into their house, leaving me paralyzed in my spot. I didn't come here to learn all of this information. I just wanted to know why they were here.

Again the only guilty person that continued to pop up on my list was Officer Hardy.

I wasn't sure about what I had just learned but I was confused. Deciding that I would keep it to myself, for now, I walked back into my house.

"What happened?" My mother asked.

"They were just talking about how they missed me."

My mother nodded her head and moved it back onto John's shoulder.

I navigated through the dark house and made my way up to my room. Throwing myself onto the bed, I ran the events of tonight through my head and eventually let myself drift off into a troubled sleep.

I was awakened by a sudden cold breeze in my room. I had closed the window so I had no idea what it was. I sat up in my bed and looked to the window to see it now open with the curtains waving from the wind.

I rubbed my eyes once again and looked around, my eyes landing at the foot of my bed.
In the darkness, I could make out the outline of a person in the dark just standing there.

Looking down at me.