My Sister’s Murderer Is Protecting

POV: Vespera Vale “Seraphine Vale. Beloved daughter. Beloved sister.” I read it out loud because saying it felt better than just staring at it. The letters were carved deep into the gray stone. Three years of rain and wind hadn’t worn them down. I traced the edge of the S with my finger, the way I always did, and waited to feel something other than anger. “You should be here for the wrong reasons,” I whispered. “Not because Mom and Dad are shipping me off to the exact school where you died.” The wind moved through the cemetery trees. Somewhere behind me, a car door shut. I didn’t turn around. “Blackthorn Academy,” I said, like the name tasted bad in my mouth. “They actually think this is a good idea.” My phone buzzed in my coat pocket, I almost ignored it. Almost… I pulled it out, expecting a text from my mom asking where I was, or my dad reminding me we needed to leave for the school tour in an hour. Instead, there was a message from a number I didn’t recognize. YOUR SISTER DID NOT KILL HERSELF. My whole body went still. I read it three times. Four times. My thumb hovered over the screen like touching it again might make the words disappear, prove they were never real. Before I could type anything, another message came through. ASK RIVEN ASHCROFT WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BELL TOWER. I didn’t know that name. I was sure of it. I would have remembered a name like that. My hands were shaking now. I gripped the phone tighter and looked around the cemetery like the person texting me could somehow see me standing there. There was no one. Just gravestones and wind and my sister’s name carved in stone six feet above her bones . A third message appeared. BUT DO NOT LET HIM KNOW YOU HAVE FOUND OUT. I stood frozen in front of Seraphine’s grave for a long time. Long enough that my legs went numb from the cold. Long enough that when my phone buzzed a fourth time, I actually screamed. It was my mother. Where are you? We need to leave. I didn’t answer. I took screenshots of all three messages before I put the phone away, my fingers still trembling. ~~~~ “Riven Ashcroft.” I said the name at the dinner table that night, watching my mother’s face the way I used to watch Seraphine’s when I knew she was hiding something. My mother’s fork stopped halfway to her mouth. She set it down slowly. Too furking slowly. “Where did you hear that name?” she asked. Her voice had changed. It wasn't a casual curiosity. It was fear, badly disguised as calm. “Someone texted me,” I said. “Someone said Seraphine didn’t kill herself.” My father’s chair scraped against the floor as he stood up fast. “Give me your phone,” he said. “What? No.” “Vespera. Give me the phone.” I handed it over because I didn’t know what else to do, because I had never heard my father’s voice sound like that before, sharp and shaking at the same time. He scrolled through it for a few seconds, his face pale, and then he deleted the conversation right in front of me. “There was nothing there,” he said. “You imagined it. It’s been a hard week.” “I didn’t imagine three text messages, Dad.” “Vespera, please,” my mother said. Her eyes were wet. “Just forget about it. Please.” Nobody forgets a message like that. And nobody’s mother looks that terrified over a stranger’s text unless the stranger is telling the truth. I didn’t argue anymore. I just nodded and said okay, because I had already taken the screenshots, and because arguing wasn’t going to get me anywhere with two people who were clearly hiding something. ~~~~~~ That night, alone in my room, I searched the name. Riven Ashcroft. It didn’t take long to find him. There were photos from three years ago, a boy with dark hair and a jaw that looked like it never smiled, standing next to my sister at some school event. The caption under one photo made my stomach drop. Seraphine Vale and boyfriend Riven Ashcroft at the Blackthorn Academy Winter Formal. He was her boyfriend. And according to the old article I found next, he was the last person seen with her before she died. SERAPHINE VALE DIES IN APPARENT SUICIDE AT BLACKTHORN ACADEMY The article said she jumped from the bell tower at 11:47 p.m. I stared at the time until it blurred. 11:47 p.m. I remembered that time. I would remember it until the day I died. I was fourteen years old, lying in bed, when my phone rang. Seraphine’s name on the screen. I answered it because I always answered when she called, no matter how late. I heard breathing. Fast, uneven breathing. “Seraphine?” “Vespera.” Her voice was so quiet I had to press the phone against my ear to hear her. “If anything happens to me, do not trust..” The call ended, I never told anyone. Not my parents. Not the police. I was fourteen and terrified and I convinced myself I had imagined the whole thing, that grief was playing tricks on me, that my sister would never have said something like that and then died minutes later. But she did, And I had spent three years pretending I hadn’t heard it. ~~~~~~ My phone buzzed again at midnight. Another message, Unknown number. This time there was a photo attached. I opened it with my heart pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears. It was Seraphine, standing beside Riven Ashcroft, the night she died. I could tell by her dress, the same one from the news photos. But it wasn’t Riven or Seraphine that made my blood turn to ice. It was the girl in the background, standing inside the bell tower, half hidden in shadow, wearing my old coat. It was me, fourteen years old. Standing exactly where my sister died. I have never once, in three years, remembered being there. Then the final message appeared on my screen, glowing in the dark of my room. YOU WERE THERE THAT NIGHT, VESPERA..