"Shh"

"What?"

"Shhhhh"

"I really can't hear you. Speak up!" Ethan all but yelled at Owen.

"Shut up, dumbhead," Mae barked at Ethan. "We're in a funeral home, at a wake, not a fucking Taylor Swift concert! You have to lower your loud ass voice, idiot."

"Why you gotta be so mean?" Ethan pouted but snickered with me when I fist-bumped him.

"Will you guys shut up?" Rhea glared at us and we immediately dropped our grins.

"Guys, come on. They're almost done," Matt told us in a hushed tone.

All of us stopped talking and looked in the direction of the coffin. Elektra Queen's coffin.

We came to know through the obituary that Elektra's family had organised a wake at the funeral home of Paradise before the funeral, that would be taking place tomorrow morning. Being the nosy little shits that we are, we decided to attend the wake (more like crash, but, po-tay-to po-tah-to!).

It wasn't going that well so far, seeing as a few people in the funeral home were glaring at the loud group of teenagers.

A blonde woman was standing near the coffin, her hand wrapped around the arm of a dark-haired man, her husband, presumably. They seemed to be the relatives They were talking with another couple. Their conversation seemed to have come to an end when the blonde woman gave them a sad smile and hugged them. Something about the woman seemed familiar to me. As if I had seen her before.

"Well, she seems nice," Matt said, as the couple left the blonde woman and the dark-haired man by themselves.

"I guess it's our turn now. Aria," Mason turned to me, "you wanna tell them who we are?"

I scrunched up my nose, "Why should I be the one who has to engage in a conversation that is definitely going to be awkward as hell?"

"Because you are better at conversing with people than any of us," Owen pointed out.

"Yes, and I'm sure none of us wants Ethan to talk to them, " Torryn said quietly, raising his eyebrows towards Ethan.

Ethan immediately scowled at Torryn. "Hey, fuck you, Torryn. And fuck—"

He was interrupted by the sound of a loud gasp. We turned to look at a woman and a small girl looking at Ethan with wide eyes. The woman, probably the little girl's mother, gave us a dirty look and marched away from us as fast as she could with her daughter.

"Yeah, I think it would be wisest if you didn't speak at all, Ethan," Torryn looked at Ethan, whose only response was to pout.

"Guys, I don't think we should tell them the truth. I mean, think about it. How are we even going to introduce ourselves? 'Hello, we're the ones who last saw your relative alive on the night she was murdered'?" Rhea said.

We all shared a glance. She had a point. Maybe we hadn't entirely thought this through.

You think? My subconscious snorted sarcastically.

I thought for a while. "I'll handle it, let's go," I took the box of brownies from Mae.

Apart from sleeping, threatening people, and sharpening her knives and other weapons, Mae Jackson's hobbies also included baking. Torryn recovered at an astonishing speed of 2 minutes after receiving that particular fact and simply nodded at Mae, who returned the nod. Owen recovered next, a close second with the record of 5 minutes (yes, Rhea, Mason and I were jotting down the time), and gave Mae a frightened smile. Matt and Ethan still hadn't gotten over it.

I moved towards the couple and cleared my throat, once all of us reached them. "Hello, I'm Aria Miller and these are my friends," I smiled at them politely.

Upon a closer look, I could see her red-rimmed eyes that suggested that she'd been crying for quite some time. Despite that, she gave us a polite smile.

"Selene Jacobs, nice to meet you," she extended her hand for me to shake, "and this is my husband, Anthony," She gestured to the dark-haired man. Both of them still looked confused at our presence at the wake.

I offered them a sad smile, "I'm very sorry for your loss, Mr and Mrs Jacobs. We didn't know her for very long, but Elektra was our friend."

I was rather proud of myself for saying all of that without hesitation. I maintained eye contact with both of them. It was rule number two of lying. Always maintain eye contact.

Mrs Jacobs looked at us with a happy look on her face, "I'm so happy she managed to find company in such a short amount of time. She always liked to have people over for tea. She was so happy when she moved here. She was doing so great in her business. Everything was going amazingly for her an-and this happened," Her voice broke at the end and she sniffled into a floral printed handkerchief, while her husband hugged her close.

He looked at us, "Selene and Elektra were cousins. They were as close as sisters though. This is a very hard time for all of us."

I nodded in sympathy all the while trying to remember where I'd seen Mrs Jacobs before.

Someone next to me shifted uncomfortably at the sight of the crying woman. It was probably Mason. He'd never been good at lying.

Rule number one of effective lying: don't feel bad about lying.

I shoved the box of brownies in front of me and gave them a sympathetic smile, "We're all very sorry for what happened to her."

She accepted the box and gave us a watery smile, "Thank you, all of you. I'm very sorry, but we will have to excuse ourselves. Please have something to eat or drink."

The couple left after we nodded in reassurance.

"That went well," I said, as we turned towards the coffin and someone in our group snorted.

"If she was doing so well in her life, then why was she murdered?" Mae asked no one in particular.

"Maybe she was doing too well, " Torryn answered.

We all stepped a little closer to the coffin and peered closely at the forever unconscious form of Elektra Queen. It was kind of unsettling to look at her face and not see those petrifying electric blue eyes of hers.

She was dressed in a black dress. It seemed like someone had tried to cover up most of her exposed skin with flowers. But, whoever had, hadn't done a really good job. I could still see parts of her arms and neck.

Her face looked a little weird. It seemed to be a little swollen. Maybe that was because she had been dead for a week. Probably.

Then I looked at her neck again, at least at the part that was visible, and my thoughts started racing. Familiar words and pictures from a certain project popped into my mind. Now, looking at Elekta Queen's unmoving body, all I could think about were certain words from that project.

Swollen tongue. Edema. Neck abrasions.

All the pieces of evidence lead to one conclusion.

I swallowed, "Guys, let's get out of here, please."

Everyone furrowed their eyebrows at me, but there must be something in my voice that made them listen to me and hightail out of there.

"Hey, what happened?" Ethan broke the silence, once we reached our cars, parked on the other side of the street.

I looked around to make sure no one else was listening and glanced at my friends and swallowed again.

"Elektra Queen was strangled to death."

********************************

Hellllooo everyone!

I hope everyone is in good health. Guys, please stay safe!

Tell me what you think of this chapter! I'll try to update as soon as possible.

VOTE
COMMENT
SHARE

Mason: Vote if you're a bad liar!

Aria: And vote if you're a good one, too!

----------------

Glossary (kind of)

Wake: A wake is a social gathering associated with death, usually held before a funeral. Wakes are held at the house of the deceased or at funeral homes.