Memories From a Dead Girl

"That's not funny," Chloe said angrily after she'd stopped crying. She was pissed, again, and with good reason. "God, what's wrong with you?"

Austin stared at her, opened his mouth to speak, then shut it.

Chloe rubbed her temples. "Can you just go, please? I'm getting a headache."

"But—"

Her green eyes flickered with something I hadn't seen before as she said quietly, "We've accomplished nothing today, there's no point for you to still be here."

"You need me," Austin said.

"No, I don't," Chloe replied. "The only person I need — the only one I've ever needed — is gone. Maybe you lied," her voice was cold. "Maybe you did what everyone thinks. Maybe you're just the world's best fucking actor, I don't know."

Austin's expression shifted, then, and he took a step toward my sister. "Listen to me. I did not kill Olivia. You believed me yesterday, what changed?"

"I just don't understand." She couldn't keep the disgust back. "You were cleared, and ever since you touched that Ouija board, you've been different. You've been mean."

"Mean?" Austin laughed, and the noise made me cringe. "After everything I've been through in the last week, I never thought you'd settle for calling me mean." He advanced on her, pinning her against the wall next to the couch. "What happened to murderer? You're the one who put that label on me, Chloe. You assumed I did a terrible thing and you'll never see me as anything else. No matter what, you will always doubt my innocence."

Chloe swallowed, her eyes a mixture of emotions. "Did you cheat on the polygraph?"

Austin regarded her. "No, I didn't. If I had killed Olive, don't you think I'd confess? That I'd tell those cops — tell the whole world — what I really am?"

"Get away from me." The words trembled out.

"Not until you see that I'm not the monster you've made me out to be," Austin said in a voice I'd never heard before.

I couldn't help; all I could do was watch.