Teen Ink

Chapter 1- Present

I asked Mr. Saunders if I could use the restroom. He gave me a bathroom pass and let me go. The bathroom stalls at North Valley High are absolutely disgusting. They should at least clean the stalls every other day. I opened up the first big bathroom stall, or, at least I tried to but it was locked. So I went to the second largest bathroom stall. Yuck, toilet paper all over the floor, how disgusting. I had to go ninja status to make my way to the actual toilet itself. I put down loads of toilet paper around the seat. I was not about to sit down on that filthy looking thing.

I sat down and concentrated on actually going pee instead of thinking about the discomfort I felt in there. But wondering why the bathroom stall was locked, and it didn’t sound like anyone else was in the bathroom, really caught my attention. Somebody could have locked it because it was probably ten times nastier and dirtier than any other bathroom stall in here. But that didn’t make much sense either. Not realizing that I was staring off into space, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something creeping into my stall. It was oozing and a dark bright red, soaking and seeping up into the mounds of toilet paper on the floor. And it was coming from the locked bathroom stall next to me.

I began gagging and I quickly finished up my restroom break to get out of there quickly. I got out of the stall as quick as I could without touching any of the soaked up toilet paper. When I got out though, I ducked my head under the locked stall to see what lay under there and to my innocent eyes, it was a body. A dead body and her head was faced towards the door, eyes closed and blood everywhere. I screamed at the top of my lungs and ran out of the bathrooms in search for someone to help. A security guard saw horror in my face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Quick,” I rushed, pulling him by the sleeve of his jacket.
“What happened?” he asked more rushed. I took him into the restroom and pointed to the locked stall. He tried opening it, but he figured out it was locked.
“What’s in there? Can you climb under and open it?” he asked.
I couldn’t speak. I was too shocked and scared at what I had seen, but I shook my head at him in response.
“Can you please tell me what you saw in there?”
“Death.”
Immediately, he took out his walky-talky and phoned over more security guards and the principle. He then dialed 9-1-1 on his cell phone and spoke with them. They addressed codes and circumstances, locations and witnesses and then he hung up.
“Do you know how this happened?” he asked.
“No,” I spoke softly.
Kristen Sellers, one of my very best friends, walked into the bathroom. The security guard, whose name tag said Officer Martin, looked at her.
“Sorry miss but this bathroom is closed,” he said.
“How come?” she questioned.
“I’m just going to have to ask you to leave the restroom miss. We have a serious case on our hands.”
I looked at her and she noticed the worry in my face.
“What kind of case? What happened?”
Two more security guards, two police and a paramedic came in both sides of the restroom, and without another word, Kristen walked out.
“We need to get this door open,” Officer Martin said to the others.
The police man used a pick locket to unlock the stall door. I moved back behind them so they could take care of the girl lying on the floor, but what I could make out of it was beyond me. The girl had cuts on both wrists that ripped deep into her flesh and on the wall, written in her very own blood was, ‘I love you, Jacob Butler.’ One of the police men, Officer Philips, called up a crime scene investigator and the paramedics covered her body with a tarp.
Officer Philips looked at me, “What’s she here for? Was she involved in this?”
“No, but she came to tell me what she saw,” Martin said.
“She has no purpose here, get her out. She doesn’t need to see this,” Philips said.
“Wait, do you know this girl?” Martin asked.
I shook my head, “No, but I know Jacob Butler. He’s a senior at this school.”
Philips looked at Officer Martin, “Get Jacob in here, now.”

Minutes later Jacob and the principle came into the restroom.
“Are you Jacob Butler?” Philips asked.
Jacob nodded his head.
“You know this girl?” he asked, pulling back the cover and pointing to the girl lying on the floor. Jacob shifted over to the door. His eyes got wide and fear washed over his face, “Not entirely, but I know her name is Melissa Brown.”
Philips pointed to the writing on the wall, “Why does she say she loves you?”
Jacob looked up at the writing and choked. He could no longer speak or even think for that matter.