"Hello, Bobby."
Bobby opened his eyes. "Cassandra? Oh my God." He ran up to her and hugged her tightly. "How is this possible? Y-You're dead!" Cassandra moved and Bobby saw Nick standing behind her. "And Nick."
"Yes I know I'm dead. I'm in your dreams. We are in your dreams."
Bobby backed up. "What do you want?"
"I want some information."
"But why from me?" As Bobby backed up, he hit something with the back of his legs and fell backwards, but the thing that he hit was a chair and it stopped his fall.
"I was just going to tell you to sit down. I guess that you're way ahead of me. I want to know the truth about my sister, Isabella. I want to know the truth about her death."
"Why do you think that I would know?"
Cassandra walked seductively over to him and sat down on his lap. She grabbed his shirt collar in one hand and with her other hand, she brushed it through his hair. "Because I think that you do." She leaned her face so close to his that they could feel each other's breath, but just far enough away that their lips couldn't meet.
Bobby smiled and shook his head. "It's not going to work this time, Cassandra."
She rolled her eyes and stood up. "Maybe this will."
"What are you doing?"
"Bobby, dear, do you remember Molly Hennafield?"
"Oh man. That bitch? She was the biggest nerd in school!
"And do you remember when the entire football team ridiculed you senior year because they found out that you had been dating her?"
Bobby shifted uneasily in his seat. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"I think you do."
All of a sudden, Bobby saw images of the entire football team laughing at him, ridiculing him, taunting him. "Enough!" he yelled. "Maybe I do remember that."
"Are you going to tell me about Isabella now?"
"I still don't know what you're talking about!"
"Okay then."
Again, Bobby started to see images, only this time, they were much worse. His step father was screaming at him and smacked him across the face while his mother said nothing. She only watched. He ran, found a phone, and called Cassandra. He was hysterical and Cassandra tried everything to calm him down.
"Remember that night that you called me?" Cassandra asked. "Do you need to see more?"
Bobby hesitated. "Okay, okay! I'll tell you what you need to know!"
"It's about time," she sighed. She and Nick pulled up chairs.
"Let me give you some background information first," Bobby said. "Then I'll show you what happened that night. I'll replay it."
"Oh, good. Even better."
"Okay. Carol, Austin's mother, wanted to get Lucy and she wanted me to help her. She had it in for Lucy because she claims that Lucy ruined her son's life with Adrian-James or whatever his real name is. She also had it in for Isabella, too, because Isabella and Austin should've married. She blames them not getting married on you, Cass, and when you went to Austin's wake that night, it just turned the knife deeper in her."
"Gee, what a surprise."
"See, Honey?" Nick added. "I told you so."
"Oh, shut up. Bobby, keep going."
"All right then. Now, this may get kind of gross."
"It's okay," Cassandra said. "Just don't be too descriptive."
"I'm not going to show you this part so I'm going to tell you as unpainfully as possible. The police that arrived at the house were in on the whole thing. In fact, one of the police officers was Carol's son, Austin's brother, and the other was Austin's cousin. They...did whatever...they did, to Lucy and that's how she got into the basement-"
"You mean the head?" Nick asked. Cassandra gave him a squeamish look and smacked him in the arm.
"Yes, that's what I mean," Bobby replied. "Anyway...okay. Now, I'll show you."
Bobby followed Carol closely. They had been following Lucy for about an hour now and had just seen her sneak into a house. "Quick," Carol said, "who's house is that?"
"That's Isabella and A.J.'s house," Bobby said, "but-"
"Great. Let's go in."
Bobby and Carol snuck through the slightly open front door, crept into the living room and ducked down behind the couch to watch what was happening in the kitchen. They couldn't hear what was going on, but they could see that Lucy had a gun in Isabella's stomach and Isabella was backed up against the kitchen island. All of a sudden, Isabella struck Lucy in her chest with a knife, in one quick movement and ran but then stopped and turned around. Thinking that Isabella was Lucy because her eyes were so bad, Carol stood up and fired her gun, shooting Isabella in the back. Isabella fell to the ground.
Bobby stood up and ran over to Isabella. "Oh my God!" Bobby yelled. "That's Cass's sister!"
"Even better," Carol sneered. "Now, you go upstairs and see if A.J. is around, or better yet, Cassandra."
Bobby was scared but did as he was told. He ran upstairs and into A.J. and Isabella's room. There was soft music playing, champagne and two glasses next to the bed, and candles lit everywhere. "I think we interrupted something," he mumbled. He saw an envelope on the nightstand next to the bed that said on it: Nick and Cassandra. Curious, he picked up the envelope and opened it. Inside were a pair of tickets to Ireland and a note with directions to their cottage on it. "These are for a long time from now." He set them back down and went over to the window. He saw A.J. coming down the street. "Oh no." He ran down the stairs. "Carol, A.J.'s coming." They ran through the kitchen but Bobby stopped. "Why is Isabella in the kitchen? And where's Lucy?"
"I switched them. I want them to find Lucy first. Come on!" They ran through the back door but as they did, Bobby's shirt sleeve got caught in the door. "Come on!"
"I'm stuck!"
"Rip it!"
Bobby yanked his arm and his sleeve tore and fell to the ground. Carol grabbed Bobby and jerked him out of the door. They left the door open a crack and watched.
A.J. barged through the living room, not knowing what happened in the kitchen. "Isabella?" he called.
Silence.
"Where are you? Oh I get it. You are trying to get me back for scaring you. Come on out, I'm sorry." Still no answer. "Izzy? Are you home?"
"A.J.," a faint voice called out to him.
"Coming!" A.J. said. He could tell that she was in the kitchen. He walked in and stopped in front of Lucy's dead body on the floor with a knife in her heart and a gun in her hand. "What?" A.J. could barely draw in a breath, he dropped to his knees. "Lucy? Dead?"
"A.J.," the voice said again.
A.J. looked further up along the kitchen floor. "Bella!" A.J. screamed. He got up and dashed to Isabella, who was lying on the floor. A.J. cradled her in his devoted arms. "What happened here?" Isabella smiled and slowly lifted her hand and brushed her fingers through his hair and down the side of his face, resting her hand on his cheek.
"I almost got away before she got some strength and shot me in the back."
"You are going to be okay. I'll call an ambulance."
"I love you, A.J. my beloved. All through the night, I will stand over you. All through the day, I will be watching over you. So don't worry, sweetheart, I'm your angel."
"You have to make it, you have to live!"
"Tell Cassandra and Nick that I love them, and the same with everyone else."
"How sickly sweet," Carol commented.
"You can't leave me!" A.J. yelled. "If I don't have you to hold on to, I can't go on in this world. If you said good bye, I would die. I would be a star with no light, a day without night."
"Hold onto our good times, because these moments we shall have forever."
"Please don't go. I beg you, don't leave!"
"I will always be with you. You may not see me, you may not hear me, but I will always be with you."
"No don't-"
"A.J., you mean so much to me, I would never try to hurt you."
"Isabella, I am sorry for anything that I did wrong, but you can't leave me!"
"I will always remember the part of you so tender. I'll be the one to catch your fall. Whenever you call for me I'll be right there with you."
"Izzy, from the first day that I saw your face, I knew that we would be together forever."
"Be strong for me, beloved. I love you. Kiss kiss?" Isabella made her good old fish faces.
"I love you, too, and I never meant to hurt you with Lucy-"
"Shh. I know. Adieu-" Isabella's eyes closed slowly and her hand fell to the floor. A.J. kissed her and took his finger and began to stroke her nose. "I love you." A.J. looked straight up. "Why her? She was the innocent one. I am the one who cheated, it should have been me!" A.J. kissed her lips softly, again. "Kiss kiss." He cradled her in his arms for a while, then laid his face on her stomach and began to cry. "I'm sorry for everything." He picked her up and laid her in his lap. He began to sing in a low, tender voice. "I don't want to close my eyes, don't want to fall asleep cause I'd miss you babe and I don't want to miss a thing. Cause even when I dream of you, the sweetest dream would never do, I'd still miss you babe, and I don't want to miss a thing-" He gently laid her down on the floor, picked up the phone and called the girls' house. "Hello Cassandra?"
"This is Cassie, A.J. is that you? What's wrong? I hear a terror in your voice-"
"I loved Isabella. Didn't you love her? She had made these cute little fish faces. She was so beautiful."
"Was?"
"Yes!" A.J. dropped the phone and began to cry harder than ever.
Cassandra threw on some sandals and sprinted to Isabella and A.J.'s house. She slowly opened the front door. "A.J.? Isabella?" Cassandra could hear A.J. crying and moaning in the kitchen. As soon as she reached the kitchen, she let out silent scream. A.J. looked up at Cassandra and she noticed Isabella lying there, dead. Cassandra let out another scream, only this one was so loud, Nick heard it on his way over to the girls' house. He quickly changed his direction and ran over to Isabella and A.J.'s house.
Cassandra cupped her hands over her mouth and swallowed hard. She closed her eyes, but the tears still seeped through. She ran to Isabella and collapsed. "Isabella! What happened?"
"I don't really know! I came in here and I...I found-"
"Did she say anything about me?"
"She said to tell you and Nick that she loves you," replied A.J.
"You poor guy, come here." Cassandra gave him a hug and let him cry on her shoulder. "She really loved you, I mean true commitment."
"Thanks, that actually helps, as stupid as it may seem."
"You want to talk about it?"
"Talk about what?"
"About Isabella and the good days."
"She was so great in everything she did. She was always considerate and understanding," said A.J. "I am so sorry that I never told her everything that I wanted to say to her, and now it's too late. I had never imagined that I would have to live without her smile."
"A.J., we'll see her again someday."
"She told me that she would always watch over me."
"And I know that she is. That she is watching over all of this."
"I mean I was horrible to her. I cheated on her. I basically let Lucy force herself on me."
"A.J., you know that's not true and I know that it's not true. She had a gun-"
"I should have tried to escape that day."
"She would have shot you!"
"You're point being?"
"Do you have any idea how disheartened Isabella would have been if you had died?"
"Well, look at me! I am not joyful here."
"I know, but what I am trying to say-"
"I know what you are saying. I just can't accept the fact that she's-"
"Oh A.J."
Nick walked into the house and into the kitchen. "Is everyone okay...oh my God." Nick's mouth dropped open.
"Nick!" Cassandra yelled as she ran into his arms in tears.
"I remember when Isabella used to run into my arms," said A.J. "She said that it was her favorite place to be and she wanted to be there forever and I told her she could." A.J. looked down and felt the tears coming back. Cassandra walked over to A.J. and put her hand on his shoulder. A.J. knocked her hand off him and stood up. "You don't know how important something is until it's gone and then, well, it's gone." He bent over and kissed Isabella's lips and again on her hand then left to go upstairs.
Nick bent down and lifted Isabella's head off the ground. He kissed her forehead and laid her head back down. "She was a great girl-"
"No, she was the most wonderful sister, friend, and person to ever walk the earth, and she is dead! I hate Lucy, I hate her!" Cassandra screamed.
Nick walked over and held Cassandra in his arms for a while. "I am going to call the police," Nick muttered.
Cassandra nodded her head and pulled out of Nick's arms. "I am going to step outside for some fresh air."
"All right, it'll be good for you, I'll be right out." Nick leaned over and kissed Cassandra's lips with concern. Cassandra took one last look at her sister, then walked outside. Nick called the police and then started to walk out of the kitchen but saw something by the back door. He walked over to it and picked it up. "Cloth?"
Bobby watched but Carol had started to flee. He watched Nick as he looked at the cloth and he watched Nick's expression go from perplexion to knowing exactly who's the cloth was.
"And that," Bobby said, "is what really happened that night."
Cassandra sat there and stared at Bobby. It was all too much for her. To know that her sister was really killed by her ex-fiance's mother. She couldn't think of any words for Bobby so turned to Nick. "You knew then, and you did nothing."
"I wasn't sure," Nick said. "Then, there was so much going on that I didn't think that it was a big deal."
Cassandra turned back to Bobby. "So you killed Nick? You started that fire?"
"No. I didn't, Cassie," Bobby said. "I swear to you that I didn't start that fire."
"Then who did?"
"It was Julie."
"How do you know?" Nick added.
"Because she told me."
"Oh," Cassandra said.
"And that's how I knew where you and Kevin were-"
"Excuse me?"
"Kevin didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what?" Cassandra asked with a new interest.
"I remembered the date on the tickets and I went to Ireland hoping to see you, Cassandra. But I never did. I only saw Kevin."
"That's because I didn't even go to Ireland."
"What?"
"I could only find the one ticket."
"That's because I hid the other ticket," Nick spoke up.
"You did?" Bobby and Cassandra asked at the same time.
"I had bad feeling about the trip so I hid the ticket so you couldn't go, Cassie."
She stared at Bobby for a minute longer, then turned to Nick. "Honey, I think that we should go." Nick and Cassandra stood up and began to walk away.
"So I take it that you guys are still together?" Bobby said, standing up from the chair.
Cassandra turned around. "You're very perceptive."
"Thank you. I learned from you. You know that our time together was very good."
"It was until you started being a jerk."
"I'm sorry about that, Cassie. I truly am. You know how terrible my home life was. I never received love so I didn't know how to give it. I always loved you and I tried to tell you. I only wanted to be with you and I only acted the way that I was brought up. I tried to change and you tried to help me change but I was too stubborn to be anything but a jerk. And I'm sorry. You and Nick deserve each other. He's better to you than I ever was or ever could be." He laughed. "I'm sorry I tried to kill you."
Cassandra slowly walked up to Bobby then gave him a tight hug. "I'm sorry, too. Bobby, it was fun. I have to go now. See ya someday."
"Yeah. See ya."