It’s been four hours, and three minutes since the plaza, and Alex can’t seem to get whoever was staring at her out of her head. His frightened gaze, but knowing face was just too weird to explain it in words. But it looked as if he knew who he was looking at, but now whoever it was, was gone nowhere to be seen. Forever. Alex stood up looking out her window, kids walked by and she assumed they were in sixth grade. They laughed, and cursed. But she knew it was normal for them, just like her. But she had no time to waste, every little second is more time flying away like pigeons when they get scared. As soon as she was about to open her laptop when her mom called her down for dinner. Alex stomped down the stairs, and went into the kitchen, her mom smiled and Alex returned the smile. Her mom looked at Alex with concern. “Alexandra? Are you feeling alright?” She asked, serving Alex’s plate. Alex just nodded and started walking to her chair, when her mom scoffed. “Harper.” Alex looked up, once her mom said her middle name she knew she had entered the war zone. Besides her mom knew everything, there wasn’t any point in lying to her so she sighed.
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“Fine. I’m not fine. Today was going alright. Me and Andrew went to the new bookstore at the plaza and Katie got us food. But then, when we were leaving I…I felt something strange and well once I turned around, there was someone looking at me. I don’t know who he is or why he was looking at me. But I think he knows who I am and I’m going to find out.” She said, taking a big bite of her mom’s famous casserole. Her mom looked at her, a mixture of disbelief and worry creeping into her eyes.
“Alexandra, what in the world? Is this about your stupid project? I’ve told you already this can be dangerous. Some people in Westmore can get really angry at this.” Soon a light knock filled the air. Alex stood up “I’ll get it.” She walked up to the door, and opened it. And there he was. Her own brother. They stood there for what felt like years. Her mom called out from the kitchen.”Who is it?” Alex stayed silent. “No one. Be there in a sec.” She pushed him out the door and closed the door behind them silently. Max stood there. “So it is you.” He said as if nothing else had happened. Alex looked at him a million emotions flooding her at the same time. Her eyes filled with tears. Happy tears.
“Where the hell have you been?” She asked, falling into his arms. He wrapped his arms around her, something that had stayed with them until now surprisingly. He chuckled, pulling away from her slightly.
“Somewhere. Far away from here. England to be exact. But I felt something weird like a feeling so I came back and once I saw you in the plaza I knew I was right in following the feeling. “ He said, his smile fading from his face. “Hey…Mom.” Max said, his voice cold. Their mom’s eyes widened, in anger. They stayed there for five minutes and a half
“Oh. Max you’re back that’s… That’s great.” She said, keeping her gaze on the fresh cut grass behind him. Alex knew what was about to happen, and she couldn’t let it happen.
“How ‘bout you go back inside mom.” She chimed in hoping her concern didn’t show. Their mom nodded, giving Max one last glare before going back into the house. Max sighed heavily and rolled his eyes
“She's still the same isn’t she? Of course she is.” He scoffed, crossing his arms, looking down at Alex. Her frown grew bigger as she signaled for Max to enter the house. Once he entered, she closed the door behind them. Max’s eyes lingered over every picture, every wall, and furniture. He turned back around and his gaze landed on the stairs. He walked up each step, as if he was recalling every little memory he had on these stairs as a kid. Alex followed close behind him, still making sure she skipped the fifth step up since it was the creaky one. Max observed every inch of the hallway up stairs and soon they reached his bedroom. He pushed the door open and to his surprise it was just like how he left it when he ran away.
The bed was still made, his desk was still the same shitty mess he had left it in. The wardrobe was a bit open, and his night table was still covered with notes, and that one picture he had taken with Alex weeks before he ran away.
“Damn, it looks the same… Smells the same too. Even my desk looks the same.” He laughed softly at himself. And looked at Alex.
“Yeah, mom told me to leave it the same if you ever returned. But I guess she’s not happy to see you now is she?” She said, kicking a white sock out of her way, while leaning against Max’s desk.
“Yeah, and I’m not happy to see her too.” He said, opening his journal, turning the pages without a care in the world. Alex sighed, snatching the journal from his hands and reading the first sentence.
“So why aren’t you happy to see mom?” Just as she asked that, another knock was heard. “I’ll get it.” She said once again running down the stairs, skipping the fifth step. As she got to the door she opened it. Christi, Katie’s mom appeared in front of her.
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“Oh, hi Christi.” She said, no Mrs. Song. No. In their family it had always been, first names that’s just how it was. Christi smiled and gave her a hug. Another normal thing for the Song family.
“Hello, sweetie is Elizabeth home?” Elizabeth, her mom.
“Yes…Yes she’s home I’ll get her right now.” Alex walked to the kitchen where her mom stood by the counter putting away plates in the cabinets. “Mom, Christi’s here. She was wondering if you’re home.” Alex said, as her mom closed the cabinet. “OK.” Is all that she said and she walked out. Now all Alex had to do was go up to her room and start her research alone. Away from the world she would now enter her own world. A world where everyone is easier to talk about. She went up to her room, closing the door behind her. Closing the curtains and opening her laptop. She went to her Google Documents and opened a new document. She grabbed her Ipod from beside her book and popped in her ear-phones. She got startled when ‘Cage The Elephant’ started playing and she turned down the volume just a bit.
“God, anyway. So now onto doing this thing. I promise I’m going to prove you innocent no matter what happens, just wait please.” She said, looking at the photo she had on her desk. Elijah stood there with his bright smile as Andrew, Alex, and Katie splashed him with water three months before everything happened.
She started typing no matter what, memories filled her mind, his laugh, his smile, his voice. How kind he was, he could remember Alice too, though she never knew her but she remembered those days when Alice would show up randomly at their house for quick hellos and goodbyes.
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8/13/2010
8:34 PM
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Project Entry #1
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Well I really don’t know how to start this but I guess I’ll just start by explaining why I’m doing my project about eight years ago. One of the reasons why is, because I know who Elijah was. I know who his siblings are, (Katie and Andrew Song.) Elijah was a good guy. Even though I only knew him for about three years of my life, since I had just met his sister in 1999 when I was five; Anyway. Eight years ago what really happened? Well what we know, or well what all of Westmore knows (thinks) is that Elijah killed Alice. But I know he didn’t he would never do that. Or would he? No he couldn't.
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Theory #1: He could have ‘killed’ her because, maybe he was mad at her and had a good reason to kill her.
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Theory #2: It’s just something people think and he actually didn’t do it.
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Theory #3: Something else happened that night that police know and they just never released to the public. (This is a closed and unsolved case after all.) So maybe if something else did happen we might never know. Now since I’m going to go to the police tomorrow since it’s Sunday I’ll have to go on Monday since they don’t open tomorrow. I’ll just need to interview Andrew and Katie (though the principal said I can't interfere with any family but I don’t care if this is do or die) I need to prove Elijah is innocent no matter what.
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Alex and her theories, all the time she has theories for example: If her favorite pen goes missing she has theories of how it went missing or that one pair of socks she always loses, theories. But now her theories might actually lead to something great. She just needed to wait until something happened. But for now all she could do was interview Andrew and Katie. Andrew especially, she knew Katie wouldn’t talk much about it but Andrew would. So she texted him, and waited for him to answer no matter how late she had to stay awake, but then her phone buzzed.
‘Yeah sure, I can go tomorrow. And if you want to I’ll go with you on tuesday after school to the police station”
Alex smiled and replied back with.
‘OK. Night’
Alex put her phone away and went to sleep, she was determined about this and wasn’t going to be stopped by anyone. The night went by faster than she expected and at about noon Andrew would be coming over. So she got up and set her room just for the occasion. At noon sharp, a familiar knock was heard. Andrew’s typical knock long and short. She skipped the stairs and opened the door. “Hey Andrew, ready for today?” She said, her eyes filled with determination and joy. Andrew smiled and nodded slowly. They went up to her room, the house was silent except for Max’s muffled voice from his room, he sounded angry, but Alex didn’t think much of it.
She let Andrew into her room and closed the door behind her.
“OK, so Imma record, is that fine?” She asked hoping his answer was yes. Andrew nodded again. She pressed the red button and started speaking.
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Interview With Andrew Song:
Alex: OK, so uhm all I need right now is your name, and describe yourself.
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Andrew: [Inaudible] Sorry. Uhm yes hello I’m Andrew Song, Elijah Song’s brother. I’m eighteen years old, and I’m a senior at Westmore High School.
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Alex: So Andrew, who was Elijah. What was he like? Was he kind to you and Katie or was he mean?
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Andrew: Well Elijah was kind, carefree, hilarious, and damn stupid sometimes but I loved him. He was like my second dad, when our dad was out late at work.
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Alex: [Inaudible] So he was just carefree? Hm, OK, and what was his behavior that October weeks before everything happened? Ws he acting differently, maybe a bit distant or just out of character?
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Andrew: No, no not at all not that I remember but he was the same ‘ol Elijah y’know. But well, the weeks before the incident happened his temper was… it was short I guess.
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Alex: His temper was short? What do you mean?
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Andrew: Well he would get mad at small things, like if Katie didn’t knock on his door he would yell at her. But then hours later he would be fine. It was like a weird pattern, and mom and dad would stay up late talking about what could possibly be wrong with Elijah.
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Alex: So he would get mad at anything basically? That is weird, did he ever hurt any of you?
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Andrew: No, no he never hurt us. But he would just get mad, and he would scream and yell, throw things and well I would protect Katie. She was scared at times. But yeah he would never hurt us.
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Alex: OK. So did he ever have conflict with your parents? Or with Alice maybe, since they were best friends. Since best friends sometimes have quarrels.
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Andrew: Well the weeks before she had come over many times, but I was sick for that week before it happened. She would come over to finish a project they were working on together or she would bring that day's homework. Y’know nothing out of the blue. But well i really didn’t know since I was in my room most of the time.
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Alex: Perfect. Well that’s basically it I mean– thank you so much.
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End of Interview With Andrew Song
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So this means Alice was over at Elijah’s house a lot the week before she went missing and everything happened. I’ll have to look more into that but Andrew also mentioned Elijah having a short temper, he would yell, scream, and even throw things. And I know by a fact the Elijah I knew wasn’t like that, or at least that’s what I think…
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As soon as the interview ended, Andrew left. And now I’m left with questions. Questions I will never be able to answer, if only Elijah was still alive, if he hadn’t killed himself or maybe someone killed him. But all I can do now is wait. But with the information Andrew provided was more than enough for now. But he also mentioned his parents having late night talks about his behavior. And he said, he would yell at Katie.
Maybe there is something more to this and I just don’t know it yet…
Time: 12:20 PM
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Alex opened her laptop again, pressing the button as it came to life. She sat on her desk and went straight to the ‘Illinois State Police Website’. The Illinois State Police were where they kept records of things like this. But tomorrow she will go to the Westmore Police Station. Maybe they could help her with what she needed and Andrew was going with her which gave her more peace. She went to their records, clicked on 2002 October the first file was what she needed, once she clicked on it. The page loaded, she waited and after a few minutes…
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File not found. Please try again.
‘What? No.” She hit refresh.
File not found. Please try again.
Shit. Refresh
File not found. Please try again.
Shit Please No. Refresh
File not found. Please try again.
No no no no….
Refresh.
File has been found please give us a few minutes to store in your cloud.
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She sighed in relief. “God, thank you.” Alex leaned back in her chair waiting for the blue bar to fill up. As it finished a loud ding startled her. She rolled back to her desk reading over the file, it was ten pages long. Explaining the case, the people involved and possible theories. All leading back to Elijah. She shook her head in annoyance, she counted every time Elijah was mentioned which went up to a total of about thirty times in the whole ten pages. Until she read it over again, is when she noticed something off.
“Who the hell are those people..?” She said, leaning closer to her screen. She took out her phone and took a picture. She went back to her documents and uploaded the picture, so much information and she had barely started.
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8/14/10
1:23 PM
Project Entry #2
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So I have found something that might actually help me with this thing. VP and LT were possible suspects, but who the hell are they? I don’t know but I have a picture of the site. I hope this leads me somewhere good and if not then I’m going to throw a chair in the air (not actually but you get it right). Below is a picture of what I found on the Illinois State Police site.
So what happened is unknown and they found the knife, and a burner phone on the ground. Maybe that was Elijah’s phone, maybe a phone he might have found and used. Who knows.
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