01 ARCHER

August 20, 2021

“Why did you do that?!" The first words he fired when he entered my room. There's a disgusting expression of annoyance plastered on his face.

He's dressed in a formal attire that makes him professional, polished, and refined, but his atrocious manner failed to amuse me.

"Really, Archer?! You created a podcast about a dead girl and asked people to find her for you?! Are you out of your mind?!" Bryon continued while his blazing eyes were still looking into mine.

I was so full of him that my anger collapsed and made me throw away the joystick controller in my hands and balled my fists when I looked up at him in infuriating anger.

"What do you want, Bryon? Will a podcast ruin your name?" I scoffed in disgust, still trying to contain myself from bursting even more.

"Is this all your plan, huh? Bring back the old news that shocked and traumatized many people of Camden? For god's sake, Archer, it's been years! You need to move on! You goddamn know that I'm running for election as a mayor of Camden, then you have the guts to bring that case back to tell that it involved our name in that case?! For what Archer, to ruin me?!"

My lips snickered. I stood up on my bed and gave him my sharpest glare. "Shut up, Bryon. It's not about you. Stop pretending that everything I do revolves around you! And besides, you were all the reason I said nothing back then. I kept my mouth shut because you manipulated me!" His eyebrows knitted even more. "If people love you as their mayor, they'll vote for you even with or without issues tangled in your back. You're not getting younger. Maybe this is the time for you to take responsibility for what you did."

I gasped in furious, "So if you're done with your stupid remarks, leave and get out of my sight!"

I shoved him in the chest. And that's when he blew up. Out of his spur, he furiously grabbed my collar's shirt that forced me to raise my chin at him. He gritted his teeth as his dark eyes looked straight into mine. His anger makes him extremely wicked, as if the nerve in his forehead will pop out at any moment.

"You'll gonna regret this, and don't forget that I have warned you!" And just like that, he loosened his grip on me.

I can't help but clench my jaw as I nodded in mockery while fixing my shirt. He made his way on the door.

I laughed hysterically to annoy him more. After hearing me laugh, he paused and glared back at me again. His face is now serious as he stepped one foot inside my room.

"Your girl is dead. We both know that's the truth."

Those are the last words he said before completely disappearing from my view.

His last words left me on the track of madness. I don't know how his words can hit me like this.

I yelled in anger and pushed all the things on top of my accent table. Creating noises when it shattered on the ground.

I gasped in rage as I sat back on my bed and clasped my fists. I breathed heavily in a pattern to prevent myself from becoming angrier.

I don't know what he meant by that. Does he honestly believe that Sierra is really dead, or he just wants me to believe that? We both know that something wasn't right the moment that the news broke about Sierra's death.

It's freaking fishy how a garbage man saw Sierra's body inside a garbage bag floating on the lake. But after he reported that, he never came out publicly for interviews, he was just gone. I mean, it's reasonable if he wanted to keep himself out of the public eye. But disappearing completely in Camden Town after that incident is a freaking joke!

For all I know, he may also be an accomplice of the culprit. Or maybe my father paid him money for his silence. So the people of Camden will stop talking about the dead girl, so our town won't be the talk of the media anymore. He doesn’t want the Leviticus to be ruined or even get involved in any single havoc.

At that time, Camden Town's mayor was my father. I also explained to him everything about what happened to us that night, but instead of believing me, he dismissed my reasons and faked pity for me. He sent me to a psychologist to examine me with the reason that I was just traumatized and in a state of denial and grief. I spent three years of my life being forced to forget my memories of Sierra, in exchange for being freed from drugs and therapies. But what they did not know was I never stopped believing that Sierra was still alive.

I shook my head and heaved a sigh. My breathing is slowly going back to normal pace again. I turned on my side and there I saw the photograph of us in a frame that has been sitting on the top of my bedside table ever since the day we took it. It has always been there. Even when I heard the news about her death, I refused to put it away.

She was wearing a light pink dress with feather ruffles on the hem that goes down her knee. She was so beautiful in what seemed to be a cottage-core dress. In the photo, she's standing behind my back while holding a melting strawberry ice cream with a sweet smile on her face. I remembered being awkward and shy towards her. 

That was also the day that I first met her.