Chapter 2: [BeAstfriend]

The atmosphere felt heavy and thick as the two best friends faced each other. And it got dangerously worse when Risa spoke in a low, menacing voice. It felt so foreign to Lee's ears that it seemed as though someone else was talking through Risa.

"Yeah, you have been lucky—— so far."

Then out of her pocket, she took out a small, black, rectangular object. It was the stun gun she always carried for protection. But she wasn't planning on using it to protect herself that afternoon. Oh no. Not at all. With heart and mind clouded with anger, hatred, and jealousy, Risa stepped closer, approaching Lee with heavy steps.

"Risa? What are you— Argh!" Lee writhed in pain as the stun gun made contact with the hand she used to feebly block her assailant's attack. The shock spread from her palm, to her arm, chest, then to the rest of her body.

She fell heavily with a thud on the dusty ground as she felt her whole body go numb. She felt scared. She felt confused. With eyes that were fortunately not too affected by the shock, she tried to look left and right to see if anyone was coming their way but it seemed that Lady Luck has left her side.

Risa looked at the paralyzed Lee by her feet. A sinister smile crept onto her lips. Raising her foot, she kicked Lee in the stomach. After that, a barrage of blows were dealt on Lee's delicate frame as Risa kicked and stomped on her. Stomping really hard on her leg, stomach, her wrists and fingers, breaking them in the process. And as a bonus, a couple more on her face. While doing so, she felt a sense of accomplishment. She felt like she won. Something she hadn't felt in a long, long time. But it seemed like she still wasn't satisfied with the state Lee was in— dirty and bruised. She raised her hand and stabbed Lee in the chest with the stun gun. Lee's whole body shook as the electric current traveled to her heart and once again spread across her body. It felt as though her heart would stop beating any second but she steeled herself and willed herself with all her might to stay conscious. Risa pocketed the device. "Man, you're persistent. Did your Mom eat cockroaches while conceiving you?" She huffed. Looking around, she saw that dusk was approaching. She looked at the house in front of her. "Did you know the story behind this house?" Risa asked out of the blue.

Of course, Lee knew what happened. At least by what she heard from Risa. They had a conversation about that once when they were talking about the abandoned house they were always passing by on their way home. Back when everything was still fine. When she wasn't on the ground, stunned both figuratively and literally.

She heard that the house was abandoned because the matriarch of the house died there. Even with the sad event happening in the family, the patriarch needed to move to the US. But he couldn't just leave the house so he decided to turn the house into a rental place while he and his son migrated. But on the day of the flight, when everyone went to say their goodbyes to their neighbor, the father and son were mysteriously found dead inside the house . No one knew who killed them. After some time, the husband's brother tried to put the house on rent as was his brother's wish in the first place but every time someone does rent the place, they hear muffled shouts and arguments and screeching every night. It was especially loud on the night when the mother had died. Everyone got scared and feared the place. So in the end, no one wanted to rent the house and it was abandoned and eventually forgotten.

'But why is Risa asking this all of a sudden?' Lee thought.

Even with the paralysis effect from the stun gun, Lee couldn't help but wince as Risa bent down, clutched a clump of her hair, and drag her into the lot's front yard. She then slung Lee down in front of the front door, beside a large rock. If Risa had aimed a little bit more to the right, she would have thrown Lee's head down directly onto the rock. Maybe Lady Luck hadn't completely left Lee after all.

Risa looked at the boarded door of the moss-vine-covered house. "I told you that no one knew who killed them but that was a lie. The mother, father, and son, all their faces were bashed in by a huge rock which was believed to be the rock from the pond in their backyard. What really happened was the one who killed the mother was actually the father. It seemed like the mother was against the migration and accused the father of having an affair with someone from the US. The fight escalated and the husband walked out of the house to get some fresh air. Apparently, his wife didn't believe that the discussion was over so she stormed out after her husband. There they argued even more. And that was when the father probably threw the rock at his wife in frustration. It hit her square in the face and crushed her face when she fell after losing her balance. There were no houses nearby and the son was still out so nobody knew what happened that fateful afternoon.But somehow the son discovered the truth and decided to exact revenge by killing his father the same way he, the father, killed his mother. He then took his own life afterward by dropping the rock on his face. Such a boring and dumb way to die, don't you think? He could have thought of a more creative way to kill that bastard of a father but he just had to do it the same way. Rumor began to spread as people began saying that the house was cursed but... Wouldn't it be fun if you could help prove that rumor——?"

Lee's eyes widened in fear as she saw Risa bend by the side of her head. She heard her grunt as Risa lifted the big rock that was just beside her head a few moments ago. She didn't like where this was headed.

"—by being the fourth victim." Risa raised the rock above her head with great effort. It was heavy but the adrenaline rush from her rage was so great that she didn't even feel the weight of the rock. All she felt was the intense anger toward the pathetic girl who was lying on the ground in front of her. Defenseless to receive the final blow.

Lee couldn't do anything besides helplessly stare at the rock her bestfriend was holding. She wanted to beg Risa to stop but it seemed like even her tongue had become paralyzed rendering her unable to produce a single sound; there was nothing she could do.

'How could you do this to me? I really thought we were more than this? I really thought we were friends!' Lee's mind cried. A tear rolled down her cheek.

But Risa ignored the tear. If anything, it just made her want to hurt Lee even more. Her anger absorbed her completely that she screamed with a heart-wretching cry.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU! WHO IS SOOOOO LOVED BY EVERYONE! THE "ANGEL"! HA! ANGEL MY ASS! YOU'RE JUST A BITCH WHO STEALS EVERYTHING THAT I HAVE! YOU THINK YOU'RE SOOO PRETTY BUT YOU'RE JUST A DIRTY IMPOSTOR! HA! WITH YOU GONE, LUCAS WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO ASK ME TO BE HIS PARTNER! WITH YOU GONE, I'LL GET THE EMPTY SPOT OF THE VALEDICTORIAN! WITH YOU GONE, EVERYONE WILL LOVE ME AGAIN!" Risa cried hysterically, tears streaming down in torrents.

Lee's eyes welled up but she couldn't wipe away her tears. 'Is this how I meet my end? I still have so much I want to do.'

She wanted to call for help but even if she could, no one would heard her for a few blocks. Ever since the tragedy that happened at this house, no one built their houses near. The lot was so forgotten that weeds, bushes and trees grew. It was like a small jungle where Risa was the mad bear while Lee was just a small, cornered rabbit.

"You know what? I never, ever considered you as my friend. Surprise, surprise! I only got close to you so I could keep the new girl in check. How I've failed. But when you're gone, everything will slip back into their rightful place. And my life will be perfect once more." Her hands were trembling, not from the weight of the rock but from the rage that was boiling from inside her this whole time.

"Good-bye, Lee Jasmine Hart."

With great effort and a grunt, she heaved and brought her hands— rock and rage— down onto Lee's head.

The rock came with a dreadful sound as it came in contact with Lee's face. It smashed her face and skull with a sickening crunch. Still filled with rage, Risa stood and began kicking the rock into Lee's head furiously. Blood splattered on her hands which was still on the rock, on her uniform, on her face, on the grass— everywhere. Bits of brain topped the green, overgrown grass. A striking contrast of red and green. The sound of her death echoed in the forsaken area as the last rays of the sun slipped back behind the mountains.

Seeing the stream of blood gushing from the smashed head of her former "bestfriend", a pool of blood spreading around the area and seeping through the soil, Risa fell back on the ground when she came to a horrible realization that she had just killed a person. True, she did hate Lee for just waltzing into her life and stealing everything from her: her fame of being the best girl in school, her place as the Top 1, her "boyfriend", everyone's attention— everything. But it would be a lie if she said she didn't enjoy the time she had spent with Lee within that school year.

Once more, tears fell from her eyes as she shakily stood up. But this time they weren't tears of anger but tears of pain, regret, guilt, and fear. "I'm sorry." she whispered emptily in the air but it was too late. Lee was dead. And she was the one who murdered her.

Dazed, she went out of the opening where the gate once stood and went on her way home while singing in a hushed voice.

"Dumb... ways to die... So many... dumb ways... to die..."