Chapter 9

• Wren's POV
• Beware the love interest…
• I was slowly going out of my mind, every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was the image of the bright blue wrapper with red hearts. It was haunting me.
• My ears were ringing, and I could feel arms moving me, voices were trying to talk to me, but I wasn't processing any of it.
• The next thing I knew, I was in a place with lilac walls. My room, my brain sluggishly supplied. Astrid was silent, I guess she also felt the weight of what we had done.
• I killed someone. Me. I killed Leslie. The ringing in my ears were getting louder and my legs felt numb.
• "I’ll be back." I heard someone say, and the door was shut. Leslie's blood was on my hand, I'm a murderer. Hysterical laughter bubbled out of my and soon, they turned to ugly, heaving sobs.
• What would the pack do when they found out? I was scared, I was guilty, and I was alone.
• The door opened again, and I felt warm, gentle hands on my shoulders. I lifted my head up from where it was between my knees, it was Caelum, Soren was standing a few feet behind him.
• "I killed her Caelum! She's dead because of me. I didn't mean to, you have to believe me Caelum, I didn't mean to." I gripped his arm tightly, tears and snot running down my face.
• I knew I must have made such a sight, but I didn't care, the guilt I felt was overwhelming, I felt crushed under the weight of my guilt.
• "Wren, you didn't." He said gently. The grief from losing one of his pack members was still preeminent in his eyes, and that crushed me even more.
• "You don't understand Caelum, it was my cupcake. I poisoned the muffin to kill you, she must have seen it on your table and eaten it. I killed her!" I didn't care that I was literally confessing my sins to the one person that could sentence me to death.
• I felt a warm pair of lips on mine, the shock I felt, and the amazing tingles were enough to jolt me out of my guilt induced haze. The kiss was probably for minutes, but it felt like seconds.
• A cough behind us caused us to jump apart. Soren was trying to disguise his smile behind his hand. I was sure that my whole face looked like a tomato, and a hint of pink was seen on Caelum's cheeks. He smiled shyly at me, but he became serious once more.
• "The muffin was trashed, I personally made sure of that." Soren said, raking a hand through his hair in frustration.
• "I don't understand, if the cupcake was trashed, how did it get to Leslie?" I was confused.
• "I knew the muffin was poisoned with cyanide and I asked Soren to throw it away, which he did. Someone must have seen him do it and dug through the trash later on to look for it. The person must have given it to Leslie after." Caelum explained.
• "Maybe it was a prank, maybe the person didn't know the muffin was poisoned. Is that a possibility?" I asked.
• "It would have been, except it doesn't explain the note." This came from Soren, who had come further into my room to sit on my bed.
• Normally I would have given a snarky response to him sitting on my bed, but it wasn't the time or place.
• Well, I tried to hold myself back, "Sure, make yourself comfortable." I still muttered, too low for him to hear. Caelum heard though, judging from his quick grin.
• "This wasn't a prank, this was murder, and it wasn't done by an outsider. There was no sign of struggle so she wasn't force-fed the cake, meaning she ate it voluntarily. Leslie wasn't the type to accept cakes from strangers, which means it was someone from the pack." His voice grew cold and hard towards the end.
• Soren turned to me, "Who knew of your plans to kill Caelum with a poisoned muffin?"
• "Nobody, it wasn't something to advertise." I answered sheepishly.
• "Now she's sheepish." He rolled his eyes, I glared at him.
• "Was anyone else with you in the weapons room? Or did you see anyone lurking around it when you entered or when you came out?" Caelum asked.
• "The only person I saw when I came out was Soren." We both turned to look at Soren. He rolled his eyes sarcastically.
• "Tada, I'm the killer." He said dryly, throwing jazz hands. I giggled.
• "Obviously, it isn't Soren. But apart from him, nobody else was there when I came in or when I got out, I made sure of that."
• "Did you notice anyone following you around that day? Like a particular face that just kept popping up? You really need to think on this one." Soren urged.
• Something kept niggling the back of my brain, an important information that I had forgotten, but I didn't know what it was.
• "No. I can't think of anyone, I'm sorry." I finally said after I thought long and hard. I bowed my head in shame. I hated feeling useless, but that's what I was at that point.
• "Dammit, we've got nothing, no leads, no suspects, nada!" Caelum said, and stormed out in frustration.
• Tears leaked out of my eyes, "I'm sorry." I whispered to Soren.
• "It's not your fault he’s being an ass. He’s just worked up. He’ll apologize, you'll see." He smiled reassuringly.
• I shook my head, "Not that, I created the murder weapon, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry." I wiped my tears away, but more kept on coming. I growled in frustration, I wasn't a cry baby.
• "You didn't create the murder weapon. The person would still have found another way to kill Leslie. You had nothing to do with this, do you hear me?" He firmly said, I nodded, but I wasn't convinced.
• I was laying in my bed that night when a thought occurred to me. Who was the note addressed to? Whose love interest was the note talking about? The killer? Leslie? Soren?.... Or me?