All We Will Never Know

Two and a half years ago, the quaint neighborhood of Everwood in Charlotte, North Carolina was impacted by an unfathomable tragedy. At approximately 2:00 A.M. on the morning of January fifth, police were called to the Armstrong residence on the edge of town. Upon arrival to the home, police found sixteen-year-old Isabella Armstrong deceased in the family’s pond, surrounded by several people who claimed to have not seen what happened. Among the crowd was William Armstrong, Isabella’s elder brother, who was arrested for the murder of his sister the next day. The death, the arrest, and the accusation of murder all came as a shock to the residents of Everwood, who were quick to point the blame at the only possible suspect, who was already in police custody and unable to cause more harm. The verdict seemed inevitable, until the court hearing in which it was noted that Will Armstrong had indeed committed one crime on the night of his sister’s death, simply not the crime he had been accused of. In the end, Will Armstrong was charged with breaking a restraining order against a former girlfriend, Hadley Kingston, who had purposely visited the Armstrong residence on the night of the murder to make amends. Though the investigators determined that Isabella Armstrong’s death was accidental, caused by a fall on the slippery dock and acute hypothermia, Will Armstrong was sentenced to two years at the Hollywell State Penitentiary for breaking the restraining order against his former girlfriend. Ultimately, Will Armstrong found himself in prison for unrelated charges, but that did not stop the community from making their own assumptions about the tragedy. During the trial, protesters surrounded the courthouse with signs suggesting that Will was guilty, even after the jury determined otherwise. It has now been two years, Armstrong’s sentence is over, and the allegations have yet to end. We have had reporters on scene at the Armstrong residence all morning, awaiting the arrival that will surely rock the community once again. Stay tuned on CMBC Channel 9 for more updates regarding this imminent event.

Kassidy Edwards turned off the television and sat in silence in the family room of her huge, mostly empty house. The sunlight flooded in from the windows lining the back wall, but she was tucked in the shadows on the leftmost couch, just out of reach of the light. She could cry and scream as loud as she wanted to. There was no one else home to hear her, to comfort her in this time of need. She was physically alone, just as she always felt.

Just how Will probably felt.

She had felt guilty for so long, but when Will was away, it was much easier for her to live with the sin. She didn’t have to see his face and feel shame for not standing up for him, for not telling the truth when it could have saved him. She didn’t have to see that hurt look in his eyes, a constant reminder of her betrayal. She was ashamed of herself for what she did and the unexpected chain of events that followed and led to even more deception than she had planned.

Kassidy wiped the tears from her cheek and sat up.

It was her fault that Will ended up in jail. At the time, she didn’t really know what affect her actions would have. She was a sophomore dating a handsome senior boy. She had everything she could have wanted. She loved Will, but he was just too nice. It sounded crazy, but stability wasn’t enough for her. She had spent fifteen years watching her parents fight constantly; they physically and emotionally abused one another every single day until their divorce. She was used to the drama and the tension, so when her relationship with Will turned out to be almost flawlessly perfect, she just couldn’t handle it. She needed more; she craved it. And one day, she found just what she was looking for in a fellow classmate, the infamously rude, filthy rich Macon Barker, who just so happened to live right across the street from Will Armstrong. Despite the close proximity between her boyfriend and the guy she was cheating on him with, she made it work. She stayed with Will and loved him with all her heart, and then when she needed someone to argue with her and call her stupid instead of agreeing with everything she said, she turned to Macon. But that wasn’t it. She didn’t stop there. The real reason Kassidy blamed herself for Will’s incarceration was because of what she did on that night; the night of Bella’s death, the night the world went to shit.

The sound of Kassidy’s phone ringing was so sudden she jumped.

“Hello?” she answered frantically, placing her hand over her chest. Her heart was almost beating out of the skin.

“Why aren’t you at school?” Macon Barker asked. There were several voices in the background, the slamming of locker doors.

Kassidy pulled her blanket over her legs and traced the quilt pattern with her finger. She couldn’t tell Macon that she was staying home because of Will, so she thought up a quick lie.

“My mom won’t be back until tomorrow and she wanted to take pictures of me on the first day.” She grimaced at how false it sounded.

“Oh, okay.” Luckily for her, Macon was the typical hot-but-stupid teenage guy.

She rolled her eyes at how easily he had bought the lie and wondered if he simply just didn’t care. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said quickly, prepared to hang up.

To her surprise, Macon didn’t jump at the opportunity to end the conversation. “Wait,” he coughed. It sounded like he moved away from a group of people. A second later, he spoke again, his voice soft and shockingly reassuring. “If you need to talk or want me to come over after school or something, let me know, okay?”

Kassidy hung up the phone and smiled and cried all at once. Maybe he wasn’t stupid after all.