That’s not how I remember it.

Author’s note: I’m dedicating this book to a boy named Aiden, his birthday is on Saturday, November 7th! He was my best guy friend back in kindergarten, but then moved away at the beginning of 1st grade, after five years, he moved back and we were recently reunited! Though we aren’t as good of friends as we were back then I still remember all the fun murder mystery games we used to play with our other friends. Happy birthday Aiden!

Two years ago today my best friend died during a so called “shooting” so many people are still muring about what happened, saying things like during a lock down (if you don’t know what a lock down is it’s what your school does when something bad happened or someone bad is near the school) he was in the bathroom and didn’t hear the announcements go on to announce the lock down, and the bad guy broke into the school and went in the bathroom then shot him. I guess that is kinda close to what happened but the only difference is that there was never a lock down and I was with him in the bathroom when he died...

Of course I didn’t tell anyone about this because I was afraid they would think I was the one who killed him and there would be so many questions! The only one who knows is my best friend that’s a girl, CJ, she was walking past the bathroom when it happened, and I don’t know exactly how it didn’t happen. Ever since then me and CJ have been trying to figure out how exactly it did happen.

I guess you might be wondering how? How do they not know exactly what happened? First off he was in a stall and I was washing my hands when all of a sudden the stall door swings open and my best friend, Riley, falls out of the stall face first and smacked against the hard bathroom floor, I ran over there in shock.

“Riley! Riley!” I had yelled “What happened?”

“He’s he’s in there” were his last words. I stood up and looked at the stall no one was in there not one person. But there was one thing that didn’t make sense the toilet was flushing continuously. That’s when CJ bursted through the bathroom doors, even though girls aren’t aloud in the boys bathroom. She shrieked at the sight of Riley dead on the floor.

“W-what happened?” She had said

“I don’t know! First he was there” I said pointing at the stall “Now he’s here!” “And what are you doing in the boys bathroom!” I yelled

“I was walking past the bathroom when I heard a loud BANG! So I ran in here to see a dead Riley and a shocked Aiden!” She said her voice shaking.

Ever since then we still don’t know what happened, but Riley’s not the only one who died on this day... one year ago today CJ’s friend Zoey died, three years ago today Riley’s other best friend, Jake, died, four years ago today Zoey’s other best friend, Avery, died. Something definetly did not make sense here, why were they dying, was I next? Was CJ next? We would find out at one o’clock this afternoon which was when all the murders of the past were committed, before then we needed to watch our backs. Especially because CJ and I were sure one of us would be next.

“Aiden!” CJ called from the end of the hall. “You know what today is right?” She asked “We have to be careful! Do you want to die?” people were now staring but she didn’t care.

“Of course I don’t want to die!” I yelled back walking towards her “I have an idea, it might not be safe and one of us could die but before one o’clock you need to go to the girls bathroom and I need to go to the boys bathroom. If anyone dies text me! And I’ll do the same for you, we need to watch who comes in the bathroom and who goes out!” I said as CJ nodded her head.

I glanced at my clock and saw that we had 30 seconds until one. Me and CJ glanced at each other once then sprinted down the halls to the bathrooms, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24... I made it hoping CJ was in the girls bathroom. Nobody came in the stalls or out but there were a couple of stalls closed. 10, 9, 8, I was now shaking and my heart was beating so fast I thought I was going to explode. I thought that as long as I wasn’t in a stall I would be fine. But that’s the one thing me and CJ didn’t cover, CJ was smart but what if she walked into a stall... 3, 2, 1... I waited nothing happened but then I heard a scream, a loud scream, CJ’s scream, it slowly faded as if she were slowly fading away. I hoped and hoped it wasn’t her who died as I ran down to the girl’s bathroom, then I got a text, I was relieved to see that it was from CJ. I stumbled into the girl’s bathroom to see a boy in a black coat flat on the ground. CJ was pale, she looked sick.

“He said something before he dropped dead.” She said “He said four names... Avery, Jake, Riley, and Zoey” She said her voice shaking so much your could barely tell what she was saying.

“What?” I said stupidly “wait...” I squatted down and reached for something that was poking out of his pocket... it was four pictures of Avery, Jake, Riley, and Zoey, they all had x’s on their faces and red marker lines coming from their chests, I guessed it was supposed to be blood.

“He killed them” CJ said looking over my shoulder, “But why? Why would he kill them then kill himself?”

“Maybe he felt bad?” CJ shrugged, after a while of staring at the pictures and the stranger’s dead body we walked out of the bathroom knowing we solved the crime and there will be no more murders... hopefully.