Two Faced

by Lauren Waqa

“Someone fucking call 911! Somebody help now!” Cleo screamed through the halls.

The school was empty, Cleo looked up and down the poorly lit hallways of the A building. Not even a janitor was in sight. Her shoes squeaked loudly as she ran back to accompany Megan’s dead body. It was after hours from when school got out, so there usually wasn’t anyone who stuck around for too long. She struggled through her purse to find her cell phone and immediately dialed 911.

“911, what’s your emergency?” the operator calmly asked.

“I need and ambulance now! My friends been stabbed numerous times. I don’t even know if she’s still alive! There’s blood everywhere!” Now her breathing began to get heavy. Almost as if she was ready to start hyperventilating. Her eyes began to blur the more she looked at the puddles of her best friend’s blood. She wasn’t sure if she was going to pass out or puke. Either one would make the situation more of a disaster.

“Okay, I need you to calm down Ms. what’s our location?” This time the operator’s voice seemed to get a little more annoyed the more Cleo began to struggle to talk.

“I’m…I’m…I’m…” her mind went blank for a second. She looked over her shoulder and caught sight to a bulletin board displaying numerous flyers advertising dance productions and Berkeley High’s spring musical try outs. “Berkeley High! I’m in the choir room in Berkeley High! Come now!” she yelled through her sobs.

She knelt down next to her friend’s lifeless body, almost floating in a pool of her blood. The body belonged to Megan Smith. She was Cleo’s only best friend. During sophomore year Cleo had moved from Kansas to Berkeley. Showers of tears poured down Cleo’s face as she suddenly remembered her first aide class she took this past summer. She quickly started to strip off her beat up hoodie and began to put pressure on Megan’s puncture wounds from the knife. As her hands touched Megan’s body she knew it was over. Her body was ice cold; she could feel how stiff it was. The stench of dry blood filled the whole choir room and her pulse was no where to be found.

The sounds of sirens got closer and footsteps filled the hallway.

“Victim’s name is Megan Smith. Cause of death, stab wounds to the abdominal and chest.” Detective Bryant said speaking into her tape recorder. “Body found by classmate Cleo Anderson around 4:30 in the afternoon.” She stuffed the recorder into her jacket pocket as she briskly walked over to where Cleo was regrouping herself.

“Hello Cleo, I’m detective Hilary Bryant and I’m going to be working on your friend Megan’s case.”

Detective Bryant was a fairly tall woman. She had straight dark black hair which made her pale skin pop in the sunlight. She wore a two piece suit which made her look quite professional. It looked like she wasn’t playing around.

“Can you tell me anything about what happened or what you saw when you found Megan?” she asked

Cleo sat on the steps eyes wide open still terrified of her best friend’s death. Her face was a pasty pale white, making her green eyes burst with color. She stuck out her clammy hands to shake detective Bryant’s in order to ignore awkward introductions. It took a second for Cleo to fin her words. All she could see flashing through her mind were the puddles of blood everywhere and her best friend’s body laying on the ground.

“I was coming from the H building after getting a little help from my math teacher. I remembered that Megan was staying a little late also so I wanted to see if she needed a ride home. She texted me saying she was in the choir room practicing. I walked through the door to find her dead body soaked in her blood!” she began to sob even harder. “That’s when I called 911. I don’t understand who the fuck would do something like this!” She yelled in anger through her tears.

Detective Bryant handed her a tissue, knowing there was going to be much more water works to come.

“What’s your relationship with Megan? How do you know her?”

Cleo wiped her face, gave a few hick- ups and sniffs before she started to speak again.

“Megan was one of my best friends after I moved here. As a matter of fact, she was my only friend I had here for a while. She was the first person to op up her arms to me when I first moved to Berkeley two years ago. Bushington is my hometown but my mom had to relocate to the Bay Area for her job. It was a super small town in Kansas, not too many kids at the high schools. I wasn’t too mad since I didn’t even have much to leave in Kansas. I never really fit in there either.”

Somehow every word that came out of Cleo’s mouth made its way on to detective Bryant’s note pad carefully observing every hand wave, breathing techniques and much more.

“Thank you so much Cleo. You have been very strong today. We will contact you if we have anymore questions.” Bryant said as she showed Cleo to the door.

The case still left Bryant puzzled. Many questions ran through her mind as if to who would have wanted to do such a brutal killing and innocent teen. They ran through all the video cameras throughout the school but found nothing. The choir room was so old the school didn’t care to put new working cameras in there. Detective Bryant set up interview with all the janitors, staff faculty, teachers, and even security guards, hoping it would bring her one step closer to solving the murder. The first teacher they immediately talked to was Mr. G in room H212. He had told them that she did come in after school for some tutoring but she couldn’t even stay because he had a meeting to attend to. Mr. G. told them she left the classroom by 3:45 to catch the next bus. It seemed that Cleo was the one who held all the answers.

Two days later detective Bryant gets a call from her partner detective Lent. He tells her there been another murder almost similar to Megan’s and that she should come check it out. Detective Bryant arrived at the station about a half hour later. She was greeted with her usual soy late and a manila folder full of papers. She looked over to her partner.

“I want you to take a look at these cases and tell me what they have in common.” Detective Lend said.

Detective Bryant opened the folder and skimmed through the papers. Victim Amanda Matthews, age 17, cause of death stab wounds to the back. Jackie Williams, age 17, cause of death numerous blows to the head with a hammer and stab wounds to the abdominal.

“So they both got stabbed. I’ve had numbers of cases with young teens getting stabbed. You think this is the killer for Megan?” Bryant asked.

“Take a look at where these girls lived. And then tell me who you think the killer is. The weapon was the same exact knife that was used to kill Megan.” Lent told her.

Bryant’s eyes made its way to the top right hand corner of the case file. Hometown: Bushington, Kansas. Bits and pieces of the puzzle began to form in Bryant’s head. She wondered if it was time to take another visit to Cleo’s house. Before they left the station, Bryant decided to do a quick profile check on Cleo, to see if he can find any additional information. She ran her arm across her paper covered desk eventually finding the computer. She knew in her gut Cleo had something to do with Megan’s death.

Cleo Anderson, age 17, white female, born in Bushington Kansas, school transfer from Bushington Psychiatric ward. Her eyes widened. She knew what she had to do. On the drive over to Cleo’s house detective Lent ran over her profile again.

“It says that she was kept in they psych ward for over 3 years. She was released about a year before she moved to Berkeley. They wrote that’s she suffered from a bad case of schizophrenia. Apparently she went by two names, Cleo and Angela. I guess Angela was her alter ego.” Lent described.

“It looks like the two are complete opposites. It describes Angela has a more aggressive and angry attitude. While Cleo is much more conservative and content with herself.” Bryant said.

“You know what I found out about the case with those two girls? I came to figure out that the person who called in the 911 call was Cleo!” Lent yelled.

* * * *

The front door knocks own, there’s no one in sight. The area is clear, so they begin to head up the stair where they can hear footsteps walking on the newly furnished hardwood floor. Lent and Bryant quickly but swiftly make their way through the empty house trying not to knock over any picture frames or her grandmother’s glass figurines that covered the house. They finally make it up to Cleo’s room. You could hear the extreme music blasting of death metal screaming spilling through her door.

“1, 2, 3…go!”

“What the….”

“Cleo Anderson you are under arrest for the murder of Megan Smith.” Bryant explained as he struggled to grab both her arms to handcuff.

“You are straight up trippin! Cleo isn’t here right now. You two need to get the fuck out of my house!” Angela said.

Her voice became a little deeper and you could tell her attitude wasn’t right. They knew Angela was ready to put up a fight.

“I’m sorry she meant Angela, you are under the arrest for killing Megan Smith. We know you killed her Angela, you wanted to put Cleo is misery. You always seemed to fuck up her life every where you go. And her family always has to run from what you put Cleo through.” Lent exclaimed in fury.

From the corner of her eye detective Bryant sees something reflecting in the sunlight from under the bed. She quickly pulls up the sheets hanging off the bed making it easier to find it.

“Well look what we have got here. I’m going to assume this is Megan’s blood and/or the other two girls you killed in Bushington.” Bryant asked

“You are going right back to where you started, in a psychiatric ward, so try not to miss us too much.” Lent teased.

She pulls out a huge kitchen knife from under the bed. Dry blood was stained all over it. She looks over to Angela who is furious of what was going down. She begins to kick and scream in fury knowing that her time was up. She had finally hit the end of the road and there was no more running away.