Who did it?

School started back up a month ago, it’s almost like they want to forget what happened like they want to forget my brother was killed in cold blood in this very school, the police still don’t know who did it, so I could very much be going to school with my brothers killer. My brother’s name was Mark he was 18 years old and about to graduate high school, he was excited, and his future got stolen from him. 

My brother was one year older than me, we had gone to the same school almost our whole lives, we were always very close for some reason, many people were surprised we weren’t trying to kill each other 24/7, sure we fought a lot but I loved my brother, almost more than my parents. My brother was killed 2 months ago, he was killed in the backstage area of the auditorium, they found his body only hours after it happened, and I did look at the cameras, but conveniently they weren’t working the day it happened, this was planned, by some sicko. 

I almost want to believe it’s fake, like the body they found was a dummy, but I can’t, I was shown the stabs wounds, 47, the person who did this obviously had to have hated him already, but my brother was loved by everyone in the school, teachers, student’s, admin, etc, so I knew the first thing was to find out who might have been faking their love for my brother, and I knew exactly how to, the school held a memorial pep rally for my brother, it’s stupid, they’ll be singing school pride right before and right after they talk about my brother, but somehow I got the filled out attendance sheets from all the teachers so I could see who all was at school that day, I marked off all the people there, and there was one person who was missing, his name is Adam, he seemed weird but like he enjoyed being around my brother, he was kind of a loser, he watched anime and wore the same hoodie everyday, he had greasy black hair, glasses, and he had severe acne, but as soon as my brother died he started dressing and acting differently. 

I started looking for him throughout the school. After what felt like looking forever I finally found him, he was in the auditorium, I slowly walked up behind him and once I got close enough I heard crying, I walked around him to see that his eyes were all puffy and swollen, I didn’t know what to do, I was never good at comforting people and so I planned to leave but he stopped me and looked me dead in the eyes,

“I didn’t do this…” 

He said, almost like a robot, I pulled my arm out of his hand and hurriedly left. Once I got to the bathroom my heart was pounding and I felt like my head was going to explode, I sat down in one of the stalls trying to get myself to calm down, at that point I thought I had just found my brother’s killer, I tried desperately to calm down but my heart was beating so fast and I started to cry, I didn’t notice until the tears began to fall on my pants before I had calmed down even a little I heard a teacher call my name from outside the bathroom, I knew I couldn’t go tell him “I think I know who killed my brother”, he wouldn’t believe me. 

Before I could stand and leave the teacher walked in, he saw me in the stall from below and asked me to unlock the door, I reached up and opened it and when he saw me he only described it as “covered in tears and sweat, and he was breathing very heavily”. He helped me up and walked me to the nurse who gave me some water and told me to lie down, it didn’t help much, any time I closed my eyes I could see the almost practiced look on Adam’s face. Eventually, my parents came and picked me up, I didn’t seem to be calming down so the nurse suggested they take me to a hospital or a therapist to help with my overwhelming nerves. 

Once I got out of the hospital I calmed down after I was given some anti-anxiety medication, my parents started bombarding me with questions and I knew I couldn’t tell them what had happened so I just said, " I got overwhelmed because of all the people in the gym”, I lied, but I knew they’d never believe me. I stayed home for a few days, not because I wanted to but because my parents made me, on my first day back everyone was looking at me weirdly, and one of my friends ran up to me and told me something that made me sick to my stomach, “Adam hung himself last night, he wrote a note and it said”, “since everyone thinks I did it, here’s your proof I didn’t,”, my jaw dropped and the world started spinning, the only thing I could think was that I had just lost my lead. 

Throughout the day I made sure I listened in to every conversation I could, teachers kept allowing me to skip the work, they all said sorry, I hate that word, everyone feels like they have to say it and they think it’ll make me feel better, it won’t, nothing will until I find out who killed my brother, at this point, I was desperate until I saw my brothers girlfriend, Aimee, she seemed almost, too happy like she was glad he was gone, so I knew I needed to ask her questions, but in a way that would make her tell the truth. 

After a few hours of trying to convince her she finally agreed to meet me so we could talk, after school I drove her to my house, and once we got inside I sat her down on the couch and got straight to asking questions, she seemed uncomfortable but like she was telling the truth, but at that point, I wasn’t ready to even consider that she wasn’t a suspect, I thought everyone was a suspect so even if I wanted to believe her I couldn’t. she left the house at around 10 pm, we had been talking for hours and even though her answers sounded truthful I couldn’t help but feel like she was lying, I laid in bed starring at the ceiling just thinking of people, his football friends, they always talked about how they wished they were him, his teachers, they always said that he was the top student, maybe one got jealous and killed him? I thought until I fell asleep, I honestly couldn’t tell you what I dreamt about but I know I didn’t like It, i woke up in a cold sweat, i didn’t know why but I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I grabbed my phone and realized I had gotten a message from Aimee, she was asking if I was awake, and when I didn’t answer she sent a message that made my stomach drop. I stared at the phone for a good hour before replying, her message said “I know who did it” I frantically started messaging her but she never answered. I jumped out of my bed and ran out of the house, got into my car, and drove to her house when I got there police officers met me, they were busy so I snuck past them and into her room, once I got in there I saw her, dead, stabbed just like my brother, maybe she did know who did it, but it was too late now I left in shock barely paying attention to the road as I drove home. 

Once I got home I saw my parents waiting for me, and they hugged me as soon as I walked up to them, I did start to cry, but not a lot, they told me if I wanted to I could stay home from school for a few days, but I refused, I was done, this person had to be caught, and I finally had an idea. Somehow I managed to get a hold of Aimee’s phone, I saw a number that was texting her, threatening her saying if she told anyone she would die, and stuff like that after I built up the courage I texted the number from her phone, they answered almost immediately, I could almost see the nervousness in their messages, I said that she survived and told the cops and that they would be caught tomorrow at noon, I don’t know how they believed me, most of the time the cops in our area are very resourceful so normally they would be there right now, I planned to look for anyone who looked worried about literally anything, then interrogate them with a few friends of mine. 

At school I wasn’t paying any attention to work but looking everywhere for someone who looked a little more worried than normal, once I got to my history class I saw my teacher fidgeting, he never did that, he always prided himself on being put together, that’s when I knew, it wasn’t a student at all. 

After school a few friends and I went into the history teacher’s classroom and locked the door, we interrogated him for a solid 2 hours before he finally cracked, he admitted to the murder of my brother and Aimee, but it came with a price, after sitting in silence I felt a wave of justice and relief wash over me but it was quickly covered by fear, he lunged at me with a knife, my friends tried to stop him but he managed to lodge it in my side, I yelled out in pain as I fell to the ground, my friends got him against the wall while someone else called out for help, I laid of the floor fighting for consciousness, the last thing I remember seeing was a few security guards running in, but I passed out before I could see anything else. 

I woke up in the hospital, I was surrounded by my parents and police officers, and as soon as I woke up they started asking me questions, I tried but I couldn’t answer most of them, I looked at my parents with pleading eyes and they ushered the police officers out of the room, once I was alone with my parents I started to explain everything, they seemed upset that I didn’t tell them, but also proud of what I had done.

I spent a few weeks in the hospital, luckily when I was stabbed he didn’t hit any organs, so I just had a pretty nasty scar.

After I was discharged I was asked to testify against him, I was practically terrified to be in the same room as him but I did.

I wasn’t the only one to testify, all of my friends who were with me did as well, after the trial he was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, I couldn’t help but smile when I heard his sentence for life, I had probably saved so many peoples lives but I also brought justice to my brother and Aimee.