32. News

Instead of sleeping, we drank.

"The time in the morgue, I touched Henrietta2, back of my hand, gold, past. So the past was correct; it was her past. The girl being enthusiastic in a room full of colors. Henry said, too, that her room had never looked like this..." I wanted to come to a point but didn't remember what it was.

"Where is the real Henrietta?" Danny asked.

I pointed at him,

"Einstein got it, a thousand times more clever than he looks." 

Danny squealed happily at my compliment. And raised his beer,

"Gone to the parallel world?" 

"Come here, my man." I said, and Danny crawled into my lap. Oh damn, I am really drunk. He hugged my waist, and I stroked his bleached hair like I would do with a dog.

"Who is for us searching the parallel world?" I asked, and everyone raised their hands.

"Then we should find her." I nodded, ready to go, but Danny held me in place on my mattress.

Omar and Jordan laughed, the latter slurring while speaking,

"How the fuck do you get into a parallel world?"

"No idea. But the dead body did." I thought out loud, again petting the dog and giving up on standing up.

"But why?" Omar asked.

"No idea." We all thought hard, but there was no way I could tell.

"Not only that, why did she come with a bunch of evidence against you?" Jordan asked; he had the most to drink, and it was visible. Omar had even gone out and bought more alcohol for us.

"Why did she show up and the real Henrietta had disappeared?" Danny asked, speaking in my stomach, making me feel gross, so I smacked his head only for him to whine.

"Why was her skin in shreds?" I asked, only for everyone to look at me confused. Explaining what I saw today, we all went silent, Danny even retching on my lap. 

"Stop it." I smacked him before again petting him when he really stopped. 

Amidst the long silence, I heard Omar starting to snore, and I chuckled together with Jordan; Danny was the next to sleep away.

"You think I'm deluging myself?" I asked Jordan.

"At least it makes sense." Hadn't thought he was really still awake.

"For the case of me being a real murderer, you can tell the cops so that they lock me away." I felt somewhat melancholic again, the damn alcohol getting me away from the high.

"You aren't."

I hummed and drifted of myself.

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

"Kenny." I was shaken awake, somehow remembering that it was Saturday, so I should be able to sleep.

"Kenny, wake up." Jordan spoke again, and I felt a weight on me, Danny still lying on me. Pushing him away, I turned to Jordan.

"Hmm?" I asked groggily.

"The news, it's in the news, together with your picture, even about the diary."

"What?" My brain stuttered awake, and I took the phone that was held before my face.

'Underage Teenager slaughters schoolmate; the Victim speaks after her death!' It was flashy, and the picture they had taken was that of my high school yearbook, where I smirked into the camera.

My heart skipped a beat, seeing that.

"Are they allowed to show my picture? Isn't that slandering me?" I asked.

"No idea, but they did. They also write about the diary website; there are new entries, by the way. They are moving forward where Kennith and Henrietta are together, and he starts acting strange. Possessive." Jordan said, and I saw Omar leaning against the wall, also on his phone, looking at me with worry.

I had forgotten about the website; yeah, I had missed at least two entries.

"Well, how about we give a press conference about the parallel-world theory." Maybe I was still drunk, but I could still make jokes. Yesterday I felt like coming closer to the answer, and I had my friends on my side as well. That is much more than I had back then, where I became an outcast of my family.

"You should all go; if they find my address, you get implicated; let's text each other." I pointed at the door.

"Yeah, my mother called me already… Don't worry, you are not alone." Jordan patted my head before ripping Danny from me.

"You sure that you can manage?" Omar asked, declining a call on his phone.

"Yeah, thanks a ton." I made an OK sign and saw him nodding as well.

"Tell us everything that happens in the group chat!" Jordan turned around and implored me.

"I will, I will. I'm just going to sleep here over the weekend." I waved them away, and they left. I stood up and locked the door behind them, looking through the blinds to see if there was anyone around.

I checked my phone myself while lighting a cigarette and saw that there were even the pictures of Kenny2 and Henrietta2 on the internet. I doubt the police had leaked them; probably Henry's work.

Ah, I want to see the fuckers face when he comes to understand that I was innocent. Somehow there must be a way to prove it and shove his nose into the evidence until he chokes.

Though everything went downhill, I still, finally, read through the new diary entries, and corrected all the bullshit in them on the website Omar had made for me.

Still, it wasn't the public wrath that came from me first.