As she walked the hallway of Oaksville high at just 8:30am, Claryse was already exhausted. She seriously believed she had the stupidest brother in the whole world, she raised the phone to her line of vision and read it again.
Library building, 3 o'clock, don't be late, the message had her sighing again, 'I thought I told you not to meddle' she whispered to herself. 'Idiot, this is the exact definition of meddling'.
Claryse sighed, by now, everyone who was a suspect in the case would've received the same message. The thought frightened her, what exactly could Caleb gain by doing this? Nothing, he couldn't gain anything? She was scared, scared that her brother would be locked up. It was actions like these that got people sent to jail.
They were already suspects in the case, they didn't need more attention attracted to themselves by doing something like this. Claryse couldn't understand why Caleb was so bent on finding the murderer. She couldn't understand why he wanted anything to do with the case. Personally, she wanted to stay as far away from the case as possible, she just wanted to wait out the storm until the killer had been caught and the tension had died down. Their parents wanted the exact same thing, so why was it that her only brother was so adamant on being an idiot?
Claryse sighed for what felt like the 200th time that morning. She brought her phone to her face and read the message again, throwing her hands in the air in frustration.
Why was Caleb doing this? What, what exactly could he hope to gain? Why was Caleb so adamant on involving himself in Toby's case. It definitely wasn't because he was hurt by Toby's death. Quite the contrary, as far as she could tell, Caleb really hated the fellow, and he'd always make his distaste for Toby very evident, it was a deep, serious hatred. One she personally never understood.
Then, if Caleb hated Toby and his drive for justice wasn't pushed by his love for him, why exactly was he doing this? Claryse could not understand. She sighed again, she could feel a headache starting to form at the back of her head.
She closed her eyes, and rubbed her temples. She'd been seriously exhausted these days, the case had been weighing heavily on her, she was constantly thinking, constantly running and constantly hiding. She was tired, perhaps Caleb was right after all. Maybe they all should band together and try to solve the murder themselves, so they could get it all over with.
As she was thinking, she didn't notice the figure that was walking towards her, his head was down and he was reading a book, and since they both weren't looking, they bumped into each other.
"Oh, I'm so sorry" Claryse voiced, he raised his head and she saw the greenest eyes ever, his blonde hair was nearly styled and his skin was so pale. He was handsome.
"Don't worry about it" he told Claryse before he stood up and left, turning down the hallway.
As he left, Claryse realised he reminded her of someone, she stopped to think. Who was it? She was almost certain she had seen him before, then of finally clicked.
Toby, the boy was almost a spitting image of Toby, they almost looked exactly alike. They were so similar it was scary.
Who was he? Could he be related to Toby? Claryse doubted it, if he was, then surely she would've seen him before, right?
She pinned it down to it being a coincidence and continued walking. She still had a lot on her mind, Toby Esquire didn't deserve to be thought about by her. She had loved him, so much and he had repaid her love with disrespect. She allowed herself to remember what he had done to her.
* * *
(2 months ago)
She clung to him, begging, pleading, reasoning, doing anything that would make him stop what he was about to do.
"No, Toby, please, please don't do this to me" she begged. The tears were already falling freely, she was making a fool of herself in front of someone who didn't care, she didn't mind though. She didn't care about her pride, all she needed was him.
"Listen, why don't you understand, I said I'm not interested anymore, I found someone else, someone I actually like this time. Can't you be happy for me?" Toby said, with a bored expression, obviously already tired of the conversation.
Claryse caught the insult, the insinuation that he never liked her in the first place, that she was just something to ease his boredom. She did not care, she had forgotten her pride, she needed Toby, he couldn't leave her. He couldn't throw away three years of commitment and love.
She wrapped her arms around his waist tighter, as if somehow the physical closeness would mend the broken relationship. "Please, Toby, I'll do anything, just please don't leave me"
He didn't listen though, he pushed her off of him as she fell to the floor. He continued to pick his fingers as if the being in front of him was so below him.
"Listen, I'm done. Okay? The sooner you accept it, the better" he said, then he walked out of the room and left her with her tears.
* * *
(NOW)
Claryse closed her eyes and sighed, no. No. It had taken her almost an entire month to pick herself back up, to find the pride she had lost because of Tony Esquire. She wouldn't allow herself to be hurt again by the bastard, he didn't deserve her tears, even if he was dead.
However, Claryse couldn't deny that she still loved him, even after all the suffering he had caused her, all the tears he'd made her cry, her heart still yearned for him. She closed her eyes again, passing the hallway that led to the library.
Claryse suddenly heard something, it sounded like sobbing. She turned to the direction of the voice and heard someone speak.
"But it wasn't your fault, right?" The voice sounded familiar, she couldn't place it though.
"It was self-defence, we could go to the police and........" the voice was cut off by the person who was sobbing.
"No! Please, No! No police, I don't want anyone to know about this" the voice yelled.
Claryse felt sick to her stomach, who was this person, this person that was so cold, that was so heartless, that was a murderer. She headed towards the room the voices were coming from.
Claryse peeked through the keyhole and she saw it, the face of the person who murdered the love of her life.