Collectively, it seemed, all of their ears were ringing.

In the haze of the aftermath, Amory spotted the gun, sitting uselessly where he dropped it. It was easier to focus on the weapon rather than the body, but soon blood was pooling out on the ground, crawling slowly around like a reminder of what he had done. He was in shock, he thought, though he was not sure he had ever been in shock before. He knew blind rage, knew it well really, but he didn't know numb shock. This was foreign to him, and he feared that any moment his soul would escape his body and he would be unsure how to get it back.

Nadia was the one who had screamed the loudest, and now her hand was still raised to her mouth. Her eyes were wide, though no noise escaped her mouth any more. She felt like a ghost frozen in place, and she realized that she was probably in shock, too. She thought of her job, about how much she stood to lose. She couldn't continue to fight for world peace while behind bars, and it now seemed like that was where she was destined to go.

Lou fell to her knees, slipping through Caspar's fingers like water. The sound of the gun shot felt like it was still reverberating through her body, like she was unable to get out of a loop. Lou was always so put together, always so determined to show the world her best face, but now she was left thinking fuck the world. All she had ever done was make herself pretty and strong, and she had never been rewarded for it. So, she collapsed, and she sobbed, and she thought repeatedly, fuck the world.

Caspar looked from Lou to the body, his mouth open in silent shock. Caspar had seen a lot of messed up things in his lifetime; his aforementioned foster dad limping into the house after drunkenly shooting his foot, a kid in one of his foster homes being forced to write lines until his fingers bled for stealing food (which Caspar had actually stolen), and so on. Still, this seemed to take the cake. He had never seen a dead body before, nor had he ever seen so much blood. He wanted to crumble, like Lou, because maybe then he would know he was feeling something, anything. Instead, he remained frozen.

Marc hated himself, because he didn't get to Amory quick enough. Had he just been a little faster, or thought a little quicker, perhaps this could have been avoided. He wasn't surprised, though. This was who he was. His family had taught him as much; he would always try, and he would always fail. He would never do right by those around him. Marc was someone who tried with all his might, whether it be for himself or for those he loved, and still never ended up on top. It was exhausting; no, he was exhausting, he thought. And now someone was dead because of it.

Ophelia looked at all of the faces around her, taking in all of these people that she loved so dearly. This would not be the end of their story, she decided. They would not fall apart from this. Vallie was gone, it seemed, but Ophelia was far from done fighting. Perhaps she couldn't save her best friend, but she could still save the others, and that would have to be enough.

"Okay." Ophelia clapped her hands together. "Everybody, I'm going to need you all to pull yourselves together. This is what we're going to do."

No body moved, save for Marc turning slightly to eye her. He expected her to be an emotional wreck, but found instead that she looked determined. Ophelia moved from the living room to the kitchen and began digging under the sink. When she returned, she had a pair of rubber gloves, the kind people use to wash dishes, in one hand, and a container of bleach in the other.

"I'm serious, you guys, you need to listen to me." Ophelia shouted a little louder, then waited expectantly. This time, everyone turned to look at her except for Lou. Lou wasn't going to give in, she had resigned herself to being a mess now. She wasn't going to pull herself together for anyone. "Amory—No, Marc, I need you to go outside to the shed, see if they have a tank of gasoline out there. I imagine they should, they probably have to use a pretty big lawn mower to mow this property."

Marc obliged without question, desperate to just get out of the room, whilst the others who were paying attention to her looked on with confusion.

"Nadia, I need you to search the kitchen and the dining room for matches or a lighter." Ophelia paused, waiting for Nadia to move before continuing. Nadia faltered only slightly before falling into action. "Amory and Caspar, one or both of you need to carry Lou to her bed. She's in shock, okay?"

"We all are." Amory finally spoke, shocking even himself when his vocal cords worked.

"I know that." Ophelia responded, a light edge to her voice. She knew that they were in shock, but they only had time to deal with so many crises at once. They had to pull themselves together, then they could crumble later. "But if we want to leave here tonight and not have to worry about going to prison, we need to work together right now."

"If you guys don't get involved, you won't have to go to prison." Amory bit back, growing frustrated. This was his fault, only he should have to suffer. As he pressed on, his voice growing louder, Marc returned from outside with a gasoline tank in his hand. "If you guys just call the police now and tell them what happened, you all can go on and be fine. Marc, tell me I'm right. None of you have committed any crimes, yeah?"

"Well, no, we haven't." Marc responded quietly, glancing down at the tank in his hands.

"Exactly." Amory raised a hand towards Marc before setting his eyes back on Ophelia. "Don't do something stupid to protect me."

Ophelia straightened her back, keeping firm eye contact with Amory the entire time. Without letting her gaze stray, she projected her voice and spoke to the room, "all in favor of doing something stupid to keep Amory from going to prison?"

Ophelia immediately raised her hand, and Amory scoffed loudly. His eyes then shot to Marc, pleading with him to just let it go, but the second Marc looked at his face he raised his hand as well. Perhaps he would always let people down, but that didn't mean he wouldn't stop trying. He'd incriminate himself in as many ways as possible before he lost his best friend.

"Marc..." Amory spoke, turning soft. His eyes were beginning to well with tears as he started to lose his fire.

Lou had finally begun to tune back into her surroundings. She wanted to be a mess, she enjoyed the freedom in finally letting herself dissolve, but not if that meant losing Amory. She was still hiccuping, somewhat hyperventilating, as she pulled herself into a sitting position on shaky hands. She didn't think she had the strength to raise her hand, so instead she just nodded at Ophelia, then at Amory. Amory then began to cry.

Caspar raised his hand, because who was he if not loyal? This group of people had found him and loved him when so few before ever did. Caspar had been raised to believe the best thing he could ever be was tolerated, and his family and friends had shown him otherwise. If they jumped off a bridge, he thought he might just do it too. If they were going down, together, then there was no place he would rather be.

Nadia returned then. She hadn't heard the conversation, her heart pounding too loudly in her ears as she tore through the various drawers in the kitchen and dining room. She had a set of matches in her hand, and she looked confused as she spotted Ophelia, Marc, and Caspar with their hands in the air. Plus, Amory was crying, something she had never seen before.

"What's going on?" Nadia asked quietly, glancing around at each of her friends.

"Nadia, we're taking a vote." Ophelia finally tore her eyes from Amory, spinning to look at Nadia full on. "Amory thinks we should just call the police and let him deal with the consequences. We're saying we're willing to cover this up to keep him from that. You in?"

Nadia thought once more of her job, and how much she had to lose. She loved Amory and the others, obviously, but she also loved herself enough to know how much her life meant to her. She had spent countless hours working towards her goals, and now she was being asked if she would potentially throw that all away for someone else. So, she hesitated.

Ophelia gaped at her, while Amory breathed out a sigh of relief. The sound made Nadia look to him, and she swore she melted on the spot. Sure, she had worked hard for her life, but hadn't he? Hadn't they all? More importantly, she realized, hadn't Vallie? She was gone, and they had been unable to save her or realize sooner. Nadia liked to tell herself that if she got the chance, she would do things differently to keep Vallie around. This seemed to be her chance, at least with Amory.

Nadia raised her hand.

"So we're in agreement then." Ophelia smiled as she turned back to face Amory. "So don't bother trying to talk us out of it. We're in this together now."

A moment passed where Ophelia let her statement sink in for everyone. Truly, they had always been willing to do anything for each other, even when they were thousands of miles apart. That's what being best friends meant, at least to them.

"Okay, so here's the plan; we're going to set this place on fire." Ophelia explained quickly, knowing she had everyone's attention.

Immediately, the room was filled with a mix of gasps and groans.

"That's your great plan?" Amory raised his eyebrows, nearly shouting. "Then what, we go on the run? I don't know if you know this Ophelia, but I'm a somewhat recognizable face."

"No! We're not going on the run." Ophelia hurriedly replied, waving her hands in the air to regain everyone's attention. She needed to keep control of the situation. "Look, we're going to pour gasoline around, position Tyler's body and the gun as if he shot himself, and then light the match where he's sitting. It'll look like a planned murder suicide, like he set everything on fire before offing himself. We'll suggest to the cops that Tyler could tell we were starting to get suspicious that he did something to Vallie, and it seemed like he just snapped, okay? He set the house on fire with us in it, then shot himself. The gunshot woke us up, so we all ran. Cas, Marc, Nads and I will have to jump from the second story window, to make it believable."

"This sounds really risky, Ophelia." Marc spoke sheepishly, taking a step towards her.

"Won't the fire burn all the evidence we have against him?" Nadia raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah, but that's the point, isn't it?" Ophelia responded, cocking her head to the side. "He wouldn't want there to be any evidence. Besides, can't they like, look up his searches without the actual computer? Is that a thing?"

Everyone glanced around at each other. No one knew the answer to that question, because they all knew very little about computers.

"We won't be able to tell him about the corkscrew." Caspar spoke quietly, his voice sounding grim. "If we say we knew about that, they'll just question why we didn't come in sooner."

"Smart, see! This is falling together already." Ophelia clapped her hands once more. "Okay, so this is our story; Marc, Lou, and I came home after searching for Vallie and told you guys that nobody had seen her. Tyler came back with the pizzas and got drunk and aggressive, so we were all scared to leave. We all went to our rooms and packed, planning to leave when he passed out, when we heard the gunshot go off. Amory and Lou raced out of their room and found everything on fire, so they called up to us to get out while they jumped through their bedroom window."

"Are we going to mention the google history?" Nadia questioned. Ophelia thought for a moment before answering.

"No, I don't think so. That might make us look bad for not immediately calling."

Everyone sat in silence for a moment, trying to work out the story in their minds. If they were going to pull this off, they needed to have everything perfect.

"Then what?" Lou croaked out, her voice sounding raw. She had finally stopped shaking, but her eyes felt puffy from her tears.

"Then..." Ophelia paused, clearly coming up with her plan on the spot. "Marc will run to get help. We can't grab the car keys, it'll seem like we had too much time to think about this, and even if you have your phone on you, we won't have service. So, Marc will run to town and get help, and the rest of us will wait."

"Why Marc?" Amory sounded somewhat indignant, though his hands were shaking.

"Because you're a mess, and I don't trust that you won't run and confess to everything right away." Ophelia narrowed her eyes at him. "Marcs the next quickest, so he'll go. It wouldn't make sense for all of us to run aimlessly in the dark, so they shouldn't question that too much. It's a 20 minute drive into town, and the road up here is usually so dead, so on foot it'll be awhile before Marc finds anyone. It'll give us time for the house to really catch flame, and it should destroy anything that incriminates us."

With that, Ophelia was done. She waited, wondering if anyone else would voice any protests, but no one did. So, they got started. Ophelia gave the rubber gloves to Caspar, who begrudgingly moved Tyler into a sitting position with his back resting against the couch. Since he had on the gloves, Ophelia then tasked him with cleaning the gun with bleach to remove Amory's finger prints, then the gasoline tank to remove Marc's. With the gloves still on, Caspar began to pour the gasoline around the room, guided in a very specific fashion by Ophelia. The others held their noses as the smell wafted throughout the room.

Caspar then placed the gun in Tyler's hand, and Ophelia instructed him to hold the gun to Tyler's temple. She tried to imagine the way the blow might knock him over, then instructed Caspar to tip him in that direction and place the gun beside him. The others found they couldn't watch, but they also couldn't leave. They were in this together, through it all.

"Okay, now everyone needs to go to their rooms." Ophelia spoke after all was said and done, her voice cracking for the first time since she had taken charge. She was losing her fire, but she needed to hang on a little longer. "I'll light the match near Tyler then run upstairs, everyone should count to ten after I slam the bedroom door, then go, okay?"

Lou tried to raise to her feet, careful not to touch any of the gasoline, but her eye caught on something under the recliner. She carefully stood before walking towards it, now avoiding both gasoline and blood, then used her foot to kick it out. Everyone looked on as another gun slid from underneath the recliner.

"Guess we know what Tyler was searching for." Lou gulped, though she couldn't look up and meet the other's eyes.

"Kick it back under the chair." Ophelia instructed before tearing her eyes away. "He probably has guns hidden all over the house, but it wouldn't make sense for him to have two out."

Lou did as she was told, kicking it lightly back under the chair before making her way to the guest room and not looking back. Amory followed her after a moment. He had a million things he wanted to say, including an apology, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't know how to thank someone for saving him so completely. Though Lou couldn't look at him, he hoped she knew.

Caspar took off the gloves, but he didn't throw them out. He feared that they would be found amongst the rubble, and that the police would question why Tyler would wear gloves if he planned to die anyways. Instead, he rinsed them off before putting them back under the sink with the bleach, and hoped that would be enough.

Marc, Nadia, and Caspar gave Ophelia one last long look before ascending up the stairs and going to their room. Caspar and Marc both took a seat on the bottom bunk, and Nadia paused before joining them. Marc threw an arm around Nadia, pulling her into his side, and then they waited.

Ophelia drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes, unable to look at Tyler's lifeless body any longer. She slid the match along the box a few times, struggling to get it to light, but once she did she dropped it in the gasoline in front of Tyler immediately. The fire caught quickly, so she ran up the steps.

There was a loud noise, like something being knocked over, that caused Ophelia to pause halfway up the steps. She heard several more noises of movement, but decided she didn't have time to dwell on them. She didn't know the sounds a house catching fire would make, so she pressed on.

She got upstairs and slammed the door loudly behind her, her chest heaving as she looked at her three friends on the bed.

They counted silently, mouthing the numbers to each other, as if it was a secret they needed to keep amongst themselves.

At ten, they dissolved into madness.

---

heyyy this chapter is pretty long in comparison to the last one so that's something!

I really hope the Wrights have housing insurance on their cabin. Oops.

I know I'm at a point of updating quite frequently again but it's because I have so many chapters already written and I'm too excited to share them. Like, these are the chapters that I have been imagining since before I even published this book so like it's so exciting to finally share these words, yanno?

Anyways, any predictions?? I've loved all of the theories everyone has commented and I have been careful not to respond to them and accidentally give anything away. I will say people have come close in their predictions, but no one has gotten the full story down fully, so like, maybe I'm pulling this whole mystery thing off??