Chapter Text
Illi stood staring at the body laying on the forest floor that was so unmistakably hers. Well, other than the skirt that she knew was part of the outfit she had been wearing, she probably wouldn't have been able to tell. The body—no her body way laying in a small ditch in the forest. A smear of blood covered the front of her skirt, along with her pale, limp hand. And Illi just stood there in shock. She was dead. Murdered, to be specific. The events of the night before came flooding back to her. After leaving her house, where Frank, Mikey and Ray had all been hanging out in her living room with her, she decided to go on a walk. Through the woods. Then someone had come up behind her. A burst of pain flashed in her stomach as she remembered how the person had driven their knife into it. Once, then again, then again. Over and over again. She couldn't remember how many times. She could remember fighting, though. Even as she watched her blood stream from the stab wounds and soak into her skirt she fought. Until she couldn't anymore. The person had probably dragged her body to the small ditch, leaving her to rot. Then she had woken up in the ditch, face to face with her body, staring into her own open, lifeless eyes.
"Where the fuck did Illi go?"
Mikey paced around the living room. His sister had left for her "short" walk about 30 minutes ago. Pulling out his phone, he flipped it open (they had flip phones right?) and looked at his last text messages sent to her. Still no response. He pushed his weird glasses that Illi always made fun of up his nose. Groaning, Frank rolled off the couch that he had been laying on. "That's a good question."
"Should we like, I don't know, look for her?" Ray asked.
Mikey McMillin tugged on a piece of his hair. "Maybe we should wait another, like, hour."
And an hour passed. Still no Illi.
That was when Mikey decided to get his mom. Illi being gone for an hour and a half on a walk was not normal.
The minute Mikey said,"Illi's been gone for over an hour", Mrs. McMillins face paled. Everyone knew what she was thinking, though no one said it out loud. Illi was always being bullied and beat up at school, all because she wasn't born a girl. Now they were scared someone might have taken it a step further.
The police had arrived about 10 minutes after Illi and Mikey's mom had made the call. Now they sat at the kitchen table, asking her questions while Ray, Frank and Mikey sat in the other room. They could hear the muffled conversation they were having, asking if there was a chance she could have run away. At this point, it seemed like the best thing that could've happened.
"Mikey McMillin?" The police called from the room. "Could you come in here for a minute? We have a few questions."
Pushing himself off the couch, Mikey walked into the kitchen and sat down next to his mom.
Immediately, the officer started asking questions.
"Did Illi say where she was going?"
Shaking his head, Mikey answered, "She said a walk. Maybe she went to the park or the woods?"
The officer scribbled something onto his paper that Mikey couldn't make out.
"Do you think there's a chance Illi might have run away?"
He shook his head again. Illi would never have just left. And if she had, she would have told him first.
"What about foul play? We always need to consider this. Does anyone have any reason to do something to Illi?"
He pushed his glasses up his nose and took a deep breath before answering.
"Well, Illi gets bullied at school a lot. Because sh-she's trans. If anyone did anything to her, I think that would be why. I can't think of anything else someone might have against her."
The officer wrote one more thing down on his paper.
"I think that's all, at least for today. We'll probably try to piece together a search party to look for her."
Walking back into the room where Frank and Ray were, Mikey paused in the doorway. Frank was playing with his lip ring, while Ray was laying spread out on the couch. They both looked up when Mikey walked in.
"Do they know where she is?"
Shaking his head, Mikey walked over to a chair and sat down. "They might organize a search party to look for her. If she's not back by tomorrow."
The room fell into a deafening silence.
"She's gonna be okay, right?"
"I sure hope so."