CHAPTER TWO

She brushed her finger over the limp arm, tears stinging in the corners of her eyes. Cassandra couldn't breathe. Instead, her throat gasped for air, crying out into the morning's silence. It was a quiet road just metres away from a sandy, Welsh beach. It wasn't all so gorgeous though. The woman was sat in a ditch by the side of that road, mud covering her bare legs - shorts included; her long, golden hair falling over her face.

In her arms, a woman with similarly-golden hair, only this girl was younger. The younger girl wasn't moving, she wasn't breathing. She'd been motionless and without a pulse for hours. Cassandra rubbed the tears from her own cheeks, accidentally replacing it with mud that she'd picked up from the ditch. Ignoring the dirt, she pulled her phone out and attempted to call her family, but each call rang out. Nobody was answering.

"Pick up!" the woman roared, brushing her muddy hand through her hair in frustration. The motionless girl to her side was her sister, Alana. Her only true sibling, though she'd never admit that's what she thought.

"Jesus, finally! Where the hell were you? Why weren't you answering me," the girl sobbed down the phone. "I need you to come to Denby road right...right now. You need to come now," Cassandra shouted, trying to emphasise the importance of being quick. On the other end of the phone was Alana's boyfriend, Craig Norton. Cass didn't have the man's number, she didn't care for him enough for that, so she was forced to call him through Facebook instead.

Cassandra knew little about him, she was too engaged in her own love life to pay attention to anybody else's. Still, there would be no man good enough for her little sister and those who came before him were frightened off by the thirty-five year old. Their mother would always speak of how innocent and friendly he was, but Cass didn't believe any man could be innocent.

Ten minutes later was when his car pulled up and he stepped out. The moments before that had been nothing but a slow blur. It felt like he'd taken three hours to get there. Craig had curly brown hair that matched his brown eyes. It didn't exactly compliment his leather jacket and old jeans.

"Cassandra?" he called out in confusion, walking towards her cries. She didn't have the energy to call back, her body slumped over the smaller woman. And Alana was small. Her delicate figure was even beautiful when it wasn't moving, far different to Cassandra's more athletic one. "Alana?" The very moment his eyes found the girls, his face could only be described as ghost-like. Pale and in shock, sickened. He looked even paler than Alana. "Why the hell haven't you called an ambulance?" he snapped, grabbing Cassandra's phone out of her hand and dialling before she could say anything.

She shouted back, "There's no point," not even taking a moment to look up at him. He halted. She'd felt his presence arrive, heard his footsteps and then his voice. She didn't need to look at his broken face, it would only mirror her own emotions.

Craig bent down to get a closer look, his finger tracing the bruises on Alana's body. They were fresh, probably from the evening before. Cassandra knew it was unlike Alana to stay out all night, but had guessed that she was with Craig. Now wasn't the time to question him, not when she could barely find a single word to utter.

"She has marks everywhere. Her neck. Her face." The man lifted up the younger woman's clothes, nudging Cassandra out of the way gently. "Her body." They weren't big marks, just marks large enough for him to see that this was no accident. Every word Craig spoke was just an echo to Cassandra, going in one ear and out the other.

The pain in the Craig's chest became too much for him to speak much after that, his words turned into croaks the more he spoke. Although Cassandra wasn't listening to what he was saying, she could hear how he was saying it. "We...We need to get her away from here. I'm calling an ambulance," he breathed out, though he wasn't certain all of the words could actually be heard. With tears scattering his face, his lips fell down to kiss his limp girlfriend on the forehead.

What neither of the duo had noticed was the person stood meters away with wide eyes, watching everything. Staring for the whole duration, yet never making their presence known.

****

"Will you just answer your god damn phone, it's doin' my head in," roared Sophie as she sat at the kitchen table with her two older siblings. There was only so many times a classic iPhone ringtone could go off without it getting annoying.

"Is it Cassandra?" questioned Lydia, raising a brow.

"Sixth time in the last 12 hours," Freddie spat, with a tired sigh. He loved his girlfriend but sometimes she was too much. His careless personality didn't mesh well with the woman who was so needy.

"I wouldn't pick up either if I were you."

"I would. Then at least my family could have some peace an' quiet," Sophie grumbled again, kicking her foot at Freddie's leg under the table. She pulled her medium-length, blonde hair out of a ponytail and began brushing it. The two older siblings looked more similar with their dark locks, but Sophie did share Lydia's blue eyes.

Freddie asked, "What's got you in such a bad mood, Soph?"

"Uni troubles?" guessed Lydia.

"Got a 3rd in my assignment."

"What does that mean? You're the first to go to uni remember," Lydia reminded her.

"It means I got a D. And Alana got a C and kept telling me how bad she'd done. If her C was so bad imagine how bad my D was!! I could've hit her I was so angry."

"You two need to stop spending times with the Reyes family and get a better friend... and girlfriend in your case, Freds." Lydia had always disliked most of the Reyes family, ever since Freddie had started dating Cassandra. She could see how toxic they were for one other but Freddie would never listen to her.

"Having the town's golden girl as my best friend is so difficult. First she took Craig from me, now she belittles me."

"She didn't take Craig though, did she. You both fancied him and he chose her. Dunno what either of you see in him anyway," Freddie grumbled carelessly between eating his toast.

"I want to win sometimes. It always feels like a competition with her."

Lydia sighed and got up to put her plate in the dishwasher. As she came back she gave her sister a tight hug from behind. "You're better at other things, Soph. Can she break an apple in two using just her hands? No, because that's your thing. You have a sense of humour, that girl doesn't have that. She doesn't trump you at everything."

"Lyd's right. And if you wanna be better, keep studying until you are. Sounds dreary to me, but if it's what ya want."

That was when his phone went off again. Lydia grabbed it.

"Jesus woman! Would you stop calling him he's bus-." She didn't have time to complete the word 'busy' before she realised Cassandra was sobbing down the phone. She quickly put her hand over it and handed it to Freddie. "She's crying. Deal with whatever tantrum it is this time but don't say I didn't warn you. C'mon Soph, let's go de-stress. How does shopping sound?"

Lydia put her hand behind Sophie's back and the two walked out of the room to leave Freddie to speak to Cassandra.

****

"I know you say we're not serious, but you know I would happily wake up to those gorgeous, dark-brown eyes every morning." Mia hadn't noticed Ana's solemn face when she walked back into the bedroom. Instead she was flirting as she always did. That elegant but cheeky tone paired with a thick, flirty smile. It was hard for any man or woman to resist, but Ana Reyes suddenly had other things on her mind.

"That was my sister on the phone," gulped Ana, trying to keep her expressions as neutral as possible. She was in shock and it was showing on her features more by the second.

"Oh? Which one? I thought you said your sisters weren't in your life anymore." Mia's words were gentle and a smile still shone off of her face as she looked directly at her lover.

"The only one left," the dark-skinned woman spoke in disbelief with a shrug. Her words were slow, she was still trying to process the information she'd been given. Ana made her way over to the bed in a daze. She had years of dramatic relationships and bad choices behind her that had led her to live on her own, with only her daughter.

Her head dipped; curls bouncing downwards. Every long, black curl was so crisp and perfectly curly. People often asked her how she did it, but it was all natural.

"What do you mean, my love?" Mia questioned with great care. Her fingertips rested on the top of Ana's hand, their eyes meeting each other's. Ana thought Mia looked like the kind of princess she'd read about when she was little. Full of elegance and natural beauty. Long, brown hair and a pale face. She'd be easy to fall in love with if the curly haired woman wasn't too scarred by past relationships to allow it. Mia was older by nine years, having made it to her thirty-eighth year. Ana had always been more-than mature enough to keep up though, especially since things weren't ever going to get serious.

"Alana was found dead," mumbled Ana, still struggling to take it all in. "I-I. Murdered. They think." It caused her great guilt. Suddenly she wished she'd seen the younger girl more. Ana always hated the questions that were asked due to her adoption. 'Why aren't you the same colour as your brothers and sisters' or 'why do you look so different to them?' She hadn't noticed until people kept pointing it out. She'd always loved her adopted family and it was everybody else who made it difficult.

Mia was good at hiding her emotions and whilst she wanted to gasp in horror, she tried not to react. She didn't want to react in the wrong way. Instead she allowed her hand to move up to the other woman's shoulder and lent her head closer.

"You can go and see your family, you know. If that's what you want. I would understand, Ana." It was incredible how Mia had such a smooth and gentle way with words. It was calming. Ana shook her head and kept still whilst Mia reached out and wiped a single tear from her eye. She was still in too much of a daze to cry properly.

"No. No... they won't want me there. It's best I stay here. Besides, I'm going to have to tell Maddie. She'll be gutted. She loved her Auntie with all of her heart." There was a small smile on Ana's face remembering how her sister and daughter had always got along so well, but it didn't last for long. Even Maddie had seen more of Alana in the past few years than Ana had and Maddie was only five.

"Your daughter is the bravest little girl I have ever seen," the brunette woman stated with that same smile. "And the brightest. She'll look after you." Mia paused for a moment before scooting around to the woman's side and giving her a slow kiss on her right cheek. "But I want to look after you too." Oh how Ana longed to enjoy the woman's company for more than comfort or sex but that was never going to happen.

It all dated back to Ana's ex fiancé. After already suffering a secret miscarriage at the age of sixteen, when Ana got pregnant for the second time is was the scariest time of her life. Her fear was sensed by her boyfriend who turned on her. He told her that if she lost their baby to miscarriage then he'd blame her and never forgive her. The mental abuse continued throughout her pregnancy and after Maddie was born she just couldn't cope. Postnatal depression. She didn't want to see the child who's father had mentally abused her.

A couple of years on and she'd got better, she'd found help so that she could be a mother properly. The only problem was that she still had to see the man. When she picked Maddie up at the weekends, in the evenings. She wasn't able to bear thinking about somebody treating her like that ever again and that was why relationships were so off-bound for her, but Mia understood and didn't question it. She was more-than fond of their arrangement anyway.

Mia led her lips slide softly down Ana's neck. Comforting kisses, one by one. The darker woman stayed silent as it happened. It was nice, but she didn't know how she should be reacting.

"For now, we relax. Later, we will deal with everything, one step at a time and once it has sunk in." Mia was wise.

"Good plan," she breathed out, forcing a faked smile to into Mia's eyes. "I just feel so guilty."

"You have no reason to. You did nothing wrong. Alana loved you very much and she understood, I am certain of it."

"I'm scared I could've stopped it. I'm smarter than Cassandra, I might have known something was wrong."

"Please. Don't blame yourself," urged Mia, brushing her hand down Ana's curls. "Be brave, my love. If not for you then for Maddie."

****

With beaming smiles on their faces, Sophie and Lydia rushed through the door of their home with bags filling their hands.

"You know I really thought we were going to be spending the night in jail when you made that alarm go off," chuckled Lydia.

"As if I'd steal a hairbrush. What would be the point in that? I'm certain that security guard has it in for me. Not the first time he's done that."

The two halted their chatter when they noticed Freddie's solemn face staring back at them. It was unusual to see him with such ghost-like features since Freddie wasn't the kind of person who cared about anything, or anybody very often. The two sisters stared him back until he mumbled at them, his eyes on Sophie.

"Where were you last night?"

"I was studying. Why are ya looking at me like that? Hello...what have you done with my brother Freddie?"

"Sit down," he instructed, gesturing for them all to go into the living room.

"Freds, you're scaring the shit out of us, just spit it out." Lydia knew how out of character this was for her brother. Panic was already spreading on Sophie's face and her instinct was to protect her younger sister. The blonde girl was the same age as Alana and had known her since school. It was only recently that their friendship had become more of a struggle.

Freddie didn't have a way with words. "Cass found Alana dead in a ditch."

"Freddie now isn't the time for your sick jokes," snapped Lydia, putting her arm around her younger sister. He was the kind of person to make stupid jokes.

"You think I'd joke about this??"

"Well wouldn't you?!"

"No. I'm not sick."

"Could've fooled me."

"Shut up!" cried Sophie, struggling to take in the news. "Both of you just...just shut up." She paused, wiping her face from the tears that had already fallen. Slowly her eyes looked towards her brother. "What- What happened?"

"Cass said she doesn't know yet." He paused. "She wants to know if you saw Alana last night, Soph."

"Are you trying to say our sister did this?! Or is that what Cassandra's saying? Jesus Freddie, which family are you part of?"

"You seriously think now is a good time to be bitter at a woman who's just lost her sister?" Freddie snapped, getting up from his seat. "Whatever. I'll leave you two to it. I'm sorry Soph." Despite his frustration over Lydia's reaction, leaving the room was a relief. He didn't know how to deal with these situations.

****

With a haunting, pale, white face, Cassandra sat in the hospital with her head in her hands. Marcia was beside her, she'd been one of the paramedics to arrive at the scene and had now vowed to stay with Cassandra until her siblings could join her. Her hand rested delicately on Cassandra's bridged back whilst she took deep breaths to stabilise her own grief. It felt like the world had frozen in time. The numbness in her bones escalated from her heart down to her trembling legs.

Moments of silence later, Danny and Jack rushed in, immediately throwing their arms around their sister. Cassandra could hear Danny's sobbing. It made her heart pound quicker and only made her feel more sick from the shock. She lifted her head slightly to view them. No eye-contact, that would only make her heart break more, but she scanned over their eyes briefly when they were looking away. Jack's expressions were more deadpan. Nobody could see how he was feeling, but that was expected from a detective like him. It was difficult for any of them to know what to say; difficult to produce noise over their sobs. 

Marcia got up onto her feet. "I'll leave you all alone," the paramedic breathed out before walking away. Her shoes clipped against the floor and Cassandra focused on the sound of it, each foot perfectly in time to a slow-paced rhythm. Gradually the footsteps faded out and silence flooded her ears once again. Danny slid down from his feet onto the seat beside his sister and the sound of his head hitting back against the wall echoed.

"How...How could this happen?" he finally sobbed. "Why was she out? How did she..." It had been Lalia Lovelace who had told the two brothers in the end. Marcia had managed to get through to her cousin.

Cassandra slowly raised her posture.

"You...You should've seen 'er." She spoke her words slowly, spitting one out at a time through her tears. "Bruises. Everywhere." The blonde took a deep breath whilst anger flooded her eyes until suddenly there was no other emotion left on her face. She looked at each of her brothers in turn. "Somebody. Did. This." 

Cassandra looked around to see the shock that flooded Danny's face, finally allowing the eye contact. "No...." Danny paused, shaking his head vigorously from side to side. "No...nobody would want to hurt Alana."

Cassandra looked to Jack knowing he always had something intelligent to say. Not this time though. Instead, he gripped his nose between his thumb and index finger and said, "We need to go and be with Mum and Dad. Sitting in a hospital isn't going to do us any good." His Scottish accent was usually always comforting, but not this time. It lacked the authority it usually did. It was breathless now, like he just couldn't find the energy.

Going home one sibling short was a horrifying thought for Cassandra. She just wanted to on her own or in her boyfriend, Freddie's arms.

*****

Darkness was spreading in the sky and Craig had locked himself indoors ever since returning from finding Alana's body. He knew what people would think. He was the mystery boyfriend, the person the Reyes family knew nothing about. That alone was enough to combine his grief with guilt.

"Hey this is Alana. It looks like I'm busy doing something cool right now but leave me a message and I'll give you a call back as soon as I'm available."

His golden-girl's sweet voice reverberated through his phone's speakers and into his ear. He'd listened to it half a dozen times now, realising it was the last he had of her voice other than the silly videos they'd filmed of themselves together.

"I'm sorry," he cried into her voicemail. "I'm sorry. I was supposed to protect you and I wasn't there." Craig ended the call and pushed his phone to his forehead before dropping it down into his lap.

Perhaps it wasn't wise to leave a message on a phone that was about to be so heavily investigated, but the man didn't think of that. It was his only way left to speak to her.

*****

Sophie was sick of spending time around her siblings. Those looks full of sympathy, the back rubs, the awkwardness. It only made her feel ten times worse. When they'd looked away for just a few moments to bicker amongst themselves, she'd escaped the house and rushed off to meet her friends in their favourite coffee shop.

Atlas was a minimalistic little coffee shop with smart designs on the walls and comfy seats. Outdoors it consisted of a grassy patch with fairy lights and plenty of seating. It was quiet, especially in the early evening when it was soon to shut.

Three girls sat outside. Sophie was one, her blonde locks tied up in a messy bun. She couldn't be bothered with much else. Beside her sat a darker skinned woman with long, shiny black hair. That was their friend, Talia. Then beside her, Nadine Castleton - a well-known surname around town. Along with Alana, the four girls had met in school and hadn't left each other's sides since.

Sophie had liked Alana the best until recently.

"God, I feel sick. I can't believe this is happening," grumbled Nadine. She was the eldest of the group by a matter of months and probably had more intelligence than the other two put together. Alana had often seen Nadine as competition, but Nadine didn't reciprocate that. She was more chilled out and not so bothered about what grades she got.

"It doesn't seem real," added Talia.

Sophie sighed. "My brother basically asked if I killed her. I hate him so much, I don't want to go back home."

"You can stay at mine," Nadine offered. She lived with her brothers and figured she could do with some feminine company. Her shoulder-length brown locks bounced slightly in the wind as she stared across at her friends. She didn't put much effort into the way she looked.

"Let's all spend the night together," suggested Talia, not wanting to be left out. "I don't think any of us will be doing much sleeping." The long-haired beauty was the very opposite and dressed to impress. Even now she wore a tightly fitted dress that raised Sophie's eyebrows. Sophie couldn't understand how Talia could dress up at a time like this.

Nadine raised a brow and looked to the others. "Do you think she could have done this to herself?" 

"It didn't look that way apparently." Sophie was the type of person who would spread all of the gossip before having any of the details, even when it was about her so-called best friend.

Nadine sighed and looked down at the table between them, tracing some fallen sugar with her finger. "Nobody would do this to Alana."

"What if they come for us next?" Talia whispered with worry after staying quiet for a few moments. "Why would anybody want to kill the golden girl? What if they wanted us instead?" Talia didn't have the most intelligent of minds, but she'd watched enough television to worry that there was more to this than anybody else seemed to think.

"Don't be ridiculous. We haven't done anything, right? What would anybody want with us?" Nadine replied.

"We're gonna be questioned by the cops," Sophie stated in her harsh, Londoner accent.

"I haven't seen Alana since uni on Friday so I can't say much," Talia mumbled back. 

"And I haven't seen her since last week when we all hung out at Freddie's bar." Nadine had finished uni a couple of years earlier. Whilst the other three had vowed to go to uni late together after a gap year or three, she'd gone at the age of eighteen. She'd thought it was silly that the other three had made their lives so intertwined. "Do you reckon Craig had something to do with it?"

"Probably," Sophie breathed out, begrudgingly. She didn't mean it, she was just bitter over Alana and her perfect boyfriend. Even now she was dead.

It was at that very moment that Sophie's phone buzzed on the table, allowing all three girls to see the message that popped up.

We know you hated her really, Sophie Campbell.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Cast:

Gemma Atkinson as Cassandra Reyes

Indiana Evans as Alana Reyes

Richard Fleeshman as Craig Norton

Louisa Lytton as Lydia Campbell

Casey Deidrick as Freddie Campbell

Sacha Parkinson as Sophie Campbell

Roxanne McKee as Mia Willard

Emmy Raver-Lampman as Ana Reyes

Emily Berrington as Marcia Lovelace

Russell Tovey as Danny Reyes

Richard Madden as Jack Reyes

Esther Smith as Nadine Castleton

Scarlett Vas as Talia Patel