Delilah’s heart pounded to the beat of her sneakers hitting the pavement. Breathing in short gasps, she made the third and final lap around the local park, ignoring everyone in her gym class that were jogging behind her. She had a mission: get to the finish line first with the fastest time.

“Delilah, wait up!” called a familiar voice from behind her.

Delilah turned her head, trying to see how far back her best friend, Britney Wesell, was. She could see Britney trying to pass another peer down the stretch a little ways from Delilah. As Delilah began to slow down, she realized that if she was to wait up for her friend, she’d never get to the end in time to be first.

Making a split-second decision, Delilah called over her shoulder, “Sorry, Brit! I’ll see you at the finish!”

With guilt pooling in her stomach, Delilah turned back to the road, her face drenched in sweat. She could see the finish from where she was standing, and Delilah knew she could make it if no one decided to make a last minute sprint to pass her.

“Come on, Delilah,” she muttered to herself, pushing her legs as far as they could go. “Just a little farther.”

With one last burst of energy, Delilah threw herself over the finish line, collapsing in the damp grass. Soon after, Britney and the rest of her classmates crossed, all looking extremely fatigued. Britney collapsed beside Delilah, slapping her across the arm. “You ass!”

“Ow,” Delilah said, rubbing her arm. “I’m sorry, okay?”

Britney rolled her bright green eyes playfully. “Uh huh. Do you really have to cross the finish first every single damn time?”

Delilah sighed loudly, running her fingers through her long blonde hair. “Yes, Brit, I do.”

“For God’s sake,” Britney groaned, throwing her arms spread-eagle on the grass.

In the distance, the school bell rang. The girl’s gym teacher told the class to jog back, and Delilah was the first one up from the ground. However this time, she decided to stay back with her friend, making up for abandoning her during the race. Since everyone was eager to get back to the school, Delilah and Britney were soon the only ones left on the worn path.

“Oh great,” Britney shook her head, throwing her hands over her head to protect her hair from the sudden rain shower. Delilah cursed under her breath, pulling the hood of her jacket over her head. Just a few minutes ago, the skies had been clear and rain-free. Now the skies were completely covered in dark clouds.

“C’mon, we should hurry.” Delilah began to jog down the path, trying to get away from the pouring rain that threatened to drench the both of them. She could hear Britney’s loud footsteps from behind her, and didn’t bother looking back until the footsteps eventually ceased.

Delilah stopped in her tracks. She turned, furrowing her eyebrows at the girl now staring into a small island of trees and bushes. “What are you doing, Brit? Do you want to be soaked?”

“Delilah?” Britney’s voice shook with fright.

“What?”

Britney’s gaze shifted from the bush to Delilah. “I think I see something.”

Now Delilah was even more confused than before. “What? Brit, what are you talking about?”

“Come here,” was all Britney said, her hands now by her sides. She shook like a leaf, and Delilah realized that it wasn’t from the cold. She was seeing something in the bush…something disturbing.

Delilah edged towards the place where Britney stood, warily looking to the area where Britney would not seem to quit staring at. She then saw what Britney was so shaken up about, and clapped her hands over her mouth in horror.

“Is that a hand?”

Britney shook her head in disbelief, her eyes trained on the unidentifiable object warily. She approached it, her whole body shaking in fear. With a stolen glance to Delilah, Britney reached down, shifting the leaves of the bush.

Immediately, Britney screamed.

As Delilah saw what Britney was screaming about, she couldn’t move. She stared at the body of the very dead Mia Monroe, not being able to pry her eyes away from the pale face and blank eyes. It was only hours ago that those eyes had been staring at Delilah with pure cruelty. Now they were just dull – staring lifelessly at the sky.

Delilah knew those eyes would haunt her nightmares later that night.

Britney was on the ground now, scrambling away from the former classmate. Her eyes were almost bulging out of her head. She was terrified, and Delilah didn’t blame her.

“Do you—Do you think she’s really dead?” Britney stuttered, her chest rising and falling rapidly with each breath she took.

Delilah didn’t reply. Her limbs finally wanted to work for her, and she slowly walked over to the body, her heart pounding inside of her chest. As she got a better glance at the body, a breath caught in her throat. A stab wound was present in the middle of the girl’s chest – the knife still lodged in her flesh. Delilah immediately turned away as she felt the vomit trying to pass through her mouth.

She grabbed her head in her hands, trying to steady her erratic breathing. The poor girl had been murdered and dumped in the park.

A girl she knew.

Of course, Delilah didn’t like Mia, and Mia didn’t like her. But it was still traumatizing. No one deserved to die at such a young age, no matter how badly they hurt someone else.

“Lila?” Britney questioned, using her best friend’s nickname. “Are you okay?”

Delilah didn’t realize she was curled up on the ground until she looked over to Britney, who looked equally nauseous. “She—She’s dead, Brit.” Delilah shook her head in disbelief. “She’s dead…”

“What do we do?” Britney crawled to Delilah’s side.

Delilah shook her head again. “I—“

Before she could finish her sentence, Delilah threw up her lunch all over the cool grass.

***

School had been dismissed early. Delilah was sent home after talking to the police about the discovery of Mia Monroe’s body, and the same went for Britney. They walked home together, but didn’t say a word to each other. They were too shocked to do anything but find their ways home.

Delilah’s mind was filled with images of the dead girl. She was there when they zipped Mia in a body bag. She was there when they called the time of her death. And she was there when the body had been discovered. Of course the police questioned her and Britney first, since they were the ones who had first found Mia and reported it. Delilah had a hunch that they had thought her and Britney might’ve had something to do with their classmate’s death.

But they didn’t. Delilah knew both her and Britney weren’t responsible for Mia’s death, even though Delilah had every reason to do it. Mia had bullied her since the beginning of the grade for some unknown reason, but Delilah never had thoughts of hurting her. She just wasn’t that type of person.

As Delilah walked through the front door to her home, she raced upstairs to her bedroom where she collapsed over her bedspread and stared at a blank wall. Luckily for her, Delilah’s mom wasn’t supposed to be home from work for at least a few more hours, so she had time to reflect on what she was supposed to say to her about the subject.

She knew she couldn’t just say out of the blue, “Oh hey, Mom! I found a body on the way back from gym class today. Turns out, it was the girl who has been bullying me for the past six months!” No, that wouldn’t do.

Giving up on her attempts to write an appropriate speech, Delilah grabbed her phone from her bag and called her boyfriend, Jared Neisson. Hopefully he’d be able to calm her down since she hadn’t seen him all day.

“Hey.” He picked up on the third ring.

“I can’t believe she’s gone,” Delilah whispered, skipping past the formalities.

She heard Jared sigh through the receiver. “I can’t believe it either, Lila. Are you okay? I heard you found her.”

And you didn’t bother calling me when you heard? “I don’t know what I am right now. I just saw a dead body…the body of a girl who’s been bugging me. Even though she was a bitch, she didn’t deserve to die,” I muttered quietly.

Jared was quiet for a moment. “Do you want me to come over?”

Delilah stole a glance at her alarm clock before replying, “Yes.”

Jared said a quick goodbye to her before hanging up. Delilah threw her phone across her bedspread, and it almost fell onto the floor. She didn’t care though. All she cared about was the fact that someone she knew was dead, and she had been there when they discovered the body. In her mind, it couldn’t have been a coincidence.

A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. Delilah sprang up from her bed, racing downstairs to answer the door. As she suspected, Jared had arrived. When she opened the door, he wrapped his strong arms around her. Delilah didn’t realize she was crying until he whispered in her ear. “It’s okay, Lila. You’re okay.”

“It’s not okay,” Delilah replied hysterically. “Someone is dead…murdered!”

Jared didn’t reply. He only ran his hand up and down her back as she cried her eyes out. Delilah tried to stop by attempting to convince herself that she was being a baby, but she couldn’t stop sobbing. Guilt was setting in now. Delilah started to think that maybe she was the one being mean to Mia, and that sent her over the edge. She slipped to the ground, her body wracking with sobs.  Jared sat on the floor as well, cradling her in his arms.

“It’s going to be okay. They’ll find out who did this, Lila.”

Delilah didn’t reply.

***

That evening, Delilah didn’t come to the kitchen for dinner. Instead she stayed in her room, trying to block out the deafening noise of her thoughts with music. Jared sat on the edge of the bed, just inches from when Delilah was laying spread-eagle against the comforter. They hadn’t spoken for the past ten minutes – probably because there was nothing to say.

She drummed her fingers on the bedspread to the beat of the unknown song that had just come over her stereo. This was Delilah’s weak attempt at calming herself down.

“Is it weird your mother hasn’t come down to check on you yet?” When they had begun dating, strict rules were laid out by Delilah’s mother, much to Delilah’s embarrassment. The two were never allowed behind closed doors alone, and they certainly weren’t allowed in Delilah’s bedroom for even two minutes.

Needless to say, they didn’t follow those rules for very long.

Delilah grabbed hold of the small remote to her stereo, turning down the volume. “It is a little weird, isn’t it?”

However, just as Delilah finished speaking, they both heard loud footsteps on the stairs outside of the bedroom. Delilah widened her eyes in alarm.

“Go!” she told him. “Hide under the bed!”

Jared immediately did as he was told without question, and Delilah readied herself for her mother’s entrance.

“Sweetie, are you home?” The door opened slightly, revealing Delilah’s mother. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun, and the dark circles under her eyes made her look completely exhausted.

“Yes, Mom!” Delilah flinched at the overenthusiastic tone she used. Any mother with a teenager knows that if their child talks with extreme zealous, then they are usually hiding something. In this case, her mother did notice.

Delilah’s mother narrowed her eyes. “Is there something you want to tell me, Delilah?”

Delilah quickly shook her head. “Why—Why do you ask?”

Her mother raised an eyebrow, placing her hands on her hips. “Is there someone in here?”

She swallowed back her slight fear. Delilah could feel her heartbeat in her ears as her mother walked further into the room, surveying her surroundings. Before Delilah could say anything to stop her, her mother looked under the bed.

“Hi, Mrs. Martin…”

Delilah’s eyes slid shut as she heard her boyfriend greet her mother. She knew she was in trouble now.

Her mother didn’t answer Jared, but instead looked up to Delilah, her eyes dark with fury. “Delilah Elizabeth Martin!”

Delilah flinched at her mother’s tone. “Yes?”

Delilah’s mother let out a huff of air. “Why the hell is Jared in your room?”

Delilah stole a glance to Jared, who was just climbing out from under the bed, looking rather annoyed. “I have an explanation,” she began slowly, trying to appease her mother a little.

“Let’s hear it then.”

She took a deep breath before continuing. “I found someone dead today after my gym class…that girl that’s been bugging me. Jared was just here to make sure I was okay. I swear to God nothing happened!”

“You found a body?” Her mother looked alarmed now, her eyes widened in shock.

Delilah nodded timidly. “Me and Britney actually.”

They talked for a few minutes about how Delilah discovered Mia’s cold body. Then Jared stupidly tried to leave, and the spotlight was put back onto him.

“I don’t want to see you in this room ever again, Jared. I laid out the few rules I had, and you disobeyed. Don’t make me ban you from entering this house.”

Jared looked as if he was about to say something, but decided against it. His eyes flashed with an anger that even Delilah couldn’t recognize. It made her do a double-take, but the look was gone by the time she got a closer look at him.

“Mom, he was just helping me out!” Delilah said fiercely after Jared had left the room.

She shook her head. “It’s no excuse. I told you this already. He isn’t allowed in the house while I’m gone; especially in your room for that matter!”

Before Delilah could fire back a reply, her mother had already left the room. Delilah muttered a curse under her breath before sitting back down onto her bed, grabbing her notebook.

Since Delilah was eight years old – after her father died of cancer – she always kept a journal of her everyday life. It served as her therapy, just like music served as someone else’s.         

Grabbing a pen, she began to jot down the thoughts screaming inside of her head. A lot happened during the course of the day. First, she and her friend found a dead girl in the park, and then Delilah’s mother went berserk after finding Jared in her room. Delilah assumed that the terrible day was over, but the night was just beginning.

***

Two hours passed before Delilah heard the scream.

She had been reading a novel --‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ --to be exact. It had been assigned to her as a novel study for school a few weeks ago, and she hadn’t read much of it. That night however, she found solace in curling up and escaping from reality, which is why she began to read the classic novel.

Unfortunately after reading barely fifty pages, she was interrupted by a scream that chilled her blood. It was a woman’s scream, and Delilah immediately threw down her novel, her heart pounding in her throat. “Mom?”

She got up from her bed, walking over to the door. She paused for a moment, listening for anything else, for her mother to tell her that it was only a show on her TV. Delilah knew something was wrong when she could only hear silence throughout the small house.

Throwing open the door, she raced down the flight of stairs.

“Mom! Mom!” she yelled.

Delilah raced into the kitchen, freezing when she noticed the overflowing pot of boiling water. Her mother would have never left a pot on the stove unattended.

Delilah’s throat tightened in fear. Something was seriously wrong.

“Mom!” Delilah scoured the house, trying to find any trace of her mother. Eventually, she retreated to the backyard, screaming her mother’s name.

She stopped in her tracks when she noticed the pool. In the darkness, she could just make out a shape in the cold water. Delilah slowly approached the pool’s edge, taking a closer look at the dark shape. She pulled out her phone to provide some light to see what was floating in the water, even though she had a terrifying suspicion of what it was.

Delilah was right.

She scrambled back from the pool, letting out a blood-curdling scream. “Help! Somebody help!”

Delilah got to her feet, racing through the house and out of the front door. “Please, help me! Call the police!”

Even though her phone was still clutched in her hand, she couldn’t dare to dial the number herself. She was in too much shock over the body floating in her pool.

Then she saw someone running down the street towards her. She squinted her eyes, trying to make out who it could be. Her heart pounded in her throat as she thought of the fact that it could be the killer, but as the person came closer, she figured out who it was.

“Jared,” she cried, running into his strong arms.

“Delilah, what’s wrong?” His voice seemed sympathetic, but for some reason she pushed him back. Then she saw his face and his damp clothes.

“Where were you?” she questioned, fear creeping into her tone.

He glanced down at his shirt, where she was currently looking, and swore under his breath. “I was—I was washing dishes. Some of the water splashed on me.”

Oh my God. Her eyes widened when his eyes shifted away from her. Jared was lying. Which meant…

“Did you just…were you just in my backyard?”

He tried to seem oblivious. “What? No. I was at home, Lila.”

“Don’t lie to me!” Delilah shrieked, pushing him back. Tears began to rush down her face at the thought of the body in her pool. “You killed her. You killed my mother!”

Jared looked away, his shoulders sagging. “She tried to break us up. It was the best thing to do.”

Delilah burst into tears at his words. “Break us up? She just didn’t want you here when she wasn’t, Jared! And you killed her for it!”

“I did what I had to do. I can’t lose you, Lila!”

Delilah shook her head, her cheeks wet with tears. She pushed her hands through her hair, trying to make sense of his words. “No, Jared. You just lost me.”

“Delilah!” As she turned away from him, Jared grabbed her arm, yanking her back to face him. “No! You don’t get to break up with me!”

            “You killed my mother! You’re a murderer, Jared! A murderer!”

Then she thought about earlier that day, and the puzzles clicked into place inside of her mind. “Did you get rid of Mia too?”

“What?” He tried to seem confused by her words, but she knew very well that he understood perfectly.

“Answer me, Jared!”

 He clenched his teeth together, his grip tightening on her arm. “She was a bitch anyways.”

Delilah shook her head in disbelief. “Get off of me!”

Jared sighed. “I can’t let you go, Delilah. You’ll blab to the police, and then we won’t be able to be together. I’ll be in jail, and you’ll be dating some loser!”

Delilah swallowed slowly, ignoring his words. “Let me go, Jared.”

“No.”

“Let me go!”

“No, Delilah! I’m never letting you go again!” he said fiercely. Then he reached into his jacket pocket, revealing a small revolver. He placed his finger over the trigger and held the barrel under Delilah’s chin.

Her eyes widened in alarm. “No, Jared. You don’t need to do this.”

“I do,” Jared replied softly. He leaned in and kissed her forehead softly. “I’ll be right behind you, love.”

Before Delilah could do anything to try and disarm him, Jared pulled the trigger.

THE END.

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I created this short story for the #WattpadFright contest (created by the official @fright profile), but it's also a sneak peek of the type of material my next novel 'Delusions' will contain. Now, 'Delusions' will be way more frightening, but I thought this was a nice thing to go with a more new topic of horror.

'Redefine Me', the last book in the The Betrayal Trilogy, will be posted October 20th 2015! If you haven't read books 1 & 2 (Find Me and Save Me), I'd suggest you do so! They're a great stalking read!

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