“Annie was my best friend. You have to understand that. I didn’t want to turn her in.” Hazel sobbed to the police officer across from her.

“Tell me what happened, Hazel. From the beginning.”
Her watery eyes were pointed down; she focused on the scarf in her hands. She rotated it around and around, and proceeded to tell the story. Trying to conceal her hysteria unsuccessfully, she spoke.
“It all started the day before, we were talking in my room about Cece…” Hazel flashed back to the day when it all began.

She sat on her bed, attempting to brush through her obnoxious, tangled curls that never seemed to reflect the amount of time she spent attempting to tame them. Annie was sprawled out on the floor beside the bed.
“It’s like she’s trying to make my life miserable,” Hazel said, avoiding eye contact. “She has to comment on everything I do. Every little thing.” 
“What do you mean?” Annie asked with sincerity. She had this strange sense that she had to protect Hazel. The two girls were best friends, but they sometimes felt like extensions of one another; it was as if they weren't whole people on their own.
Hazel sighed and looked down at the plain white comforter that covered her plain white bed sheets. “She teases me about everything, it’s just not funny to me anymore.”
Annie shook her head; she always empathized with Hazel. “I could take care of it for you. I’m good with stuff like this. I can handle it, if you want,” she offered calmly yet forcefully.
Annie was aggressive and dramatic; she was quick to react on an impulse. She had these dark green eyes that were so mesmerizing that it was difficult to look at her for. Her hair was long and shiny. She always looked beautiful, and she was very good at pretending like it was effortless. Annie was exceptionally intimidating in a sort of fascinating and tantalizing way. She had tons of friends, but Hazel never met any of them. She heard stories of all the adventures that Annie and her picturesque friends went on. She listened to Annie talk about the boys they met, all the parties they sneaked into, and secret trips to the city with great interest and awe. Hazel always felt lucky to be friends with someone like her. The two girls never went to the same school; they only became friends because they were neighbors at a young age. They grew up relying on each other for companionship, and Hazel never felt like she needed anyone else.
One dreaded day, Hazel moved away. Only two miles away, but she felt like she would never see Annie again. Somehow, Annie saw something in Hazel that intrigued her: her willingness to be molded and lead. She treated her almost like a project; as if she was trying to fix anything that ever went wrong in Hazel’s life. Needless to say, two miles could not separate Annie and Hazel.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll handle it. It’s just dumb highschool stuff, you know? I just want her gone, like just out of my life for good. I’ll figure something out.” Said Hazel, trying to hide her pain behind a facade of apathy.  Cece Horton, a ruthless, shallow girl who had an ongoing hatred for Hazel, was relentlessly teasing her at school. Cece had no reason to hate her, for Hazel never did anything that was intended to hurt anyone. Hazel was simply an easy target; she wouldn’t give any effort to stop the bullying. She was too unsure of herself and too afraid of confrontation to attempt to.
Hazel didn’t have any friends. Other than Annie, that is. She wore thick-framed glasses that constantly slid down her elephantine nose and hid most of her simple face. She had eyes that she described as “blueish/greenish” and unruly brunette curls. She was humble looking, nothing spectacular. That seemed to define her life as well.
“You know I can fix this for you. I’ll get rid of her if you want, I-”
“Hazel, sweetie? Dinner’s ready, come set the table.” Hazel’s mother’s voice sounded from downstairs. She was an older woman with greying hair. Her face looked like she was in a constant state of worry, which was somewhat true. She tried her best to keep Hazel in a bubble; she didn’t want her getting hurt.
This was Annie’s cue to leave: Hazel’s mother, Ms. Waterson, never approved of the girl’s friendship. She dismissed Annie as a ‘bad influence’ on her darling daughter. Hazel always thought that she made her move houses so many years ago to try to get rid of Annie.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. She won’t be bothering you tomorrow,” Annie said, slipping on her shoes. “Byeeee!”
“Damn it, Annie. Don’t do anything, please!!” Hazel called as Annie waved her manicured hand and slid out of the door that connected Hazel’s room to the rest of the modest house. Annie didn’t respond to Hazel’s plea, but she shouted a farewell to Ms. Waterson as she opened the front door to leave. She got no response.

The police officer nodded and nudged the recording device closer to Hazel’s side of the table. “Tell me about the next morning. What happened when you woke up the next day?” He inquired composedly.
Hazel had stopped crying now. She wiped her nose and began talking again, this time in a less hysterical tone. 
“My mom came in my room and woke me up early, she said there was something she wanted to talk to me about something downstairs. She seemed worried, more than she usually does...”

Hazel’s clock read 7:30 AM. Far earlier than she needed to be awake. She knew something out of the ordinary had happened for her mother to need to talk to her before school. She didn’t think too much of it, though. Her mother was easily shaken up, so it was probably nothing. Hazel looked around her room. It was flooded with the clean light of the morning. Her room was very simple; she didn’t feel the need to decorate. It had a bed, a desk, and a large bookshelf that took up most of the space. Hazel lived vicariously through her books, so much so that she didn’t feel the need to live her own life. Hazel didn’t much care for taking risks like the characters in her favorite books. She was a very curious girl, but from afar. She didn’t want to have to face any difficult challenges in her life, but she loved hearing about them.
Hazel rubbed her sleepy eyes and started down the stairs. Ms. Waterson stood in the kitchen; her wrinkled hands grasped a spatula. She seemed to have forgotten that she was holding it, since the pancakes were already on two plates in front of her.
“What is it mom?” Hazel asked rather curiously. Her mother was a very intentional and punctual woman; it wasn’t like her to stare off into space doing nothing.
Ms. Waterson’s hair was drawn back into a tight, grey bun with frizzy wisps of hair framing her face. When someone looked at her, it was obvious that she had once been beautiful, but that beauty had since faded. She had deep wrinkles around her dull, pale eyes that left her looking like she was in a constant state of worry. This was somewhat true. Hazel’s question drew her out of her trance, and she began to speak.
“You remember the Horton family that lives on Point Bluff? Sweet girl, Cece. Good family,” She didn’t make eye contact with her daughter while speaking. Her eyes were fixed on the untouched food in front of her.
“Yes. I wouldn’t exactly describe her as sweet, though.” Hazel recalled the conversation that her and Annie had yesterday about the teasing.
Ms. Waterson turned the spatula over and over in her shaking hands. She gulped silently before attempting to speak about what had clearly been bothering her.
“Well, I heard sirens last night at about 3 AM. I went outside to see what it was all about. I didn’t bother waking you up, you’re such a deep sleeper.”
“Mom, what happened?” Hazel was tired of her mother always trying to delay the inevitable. In this instance, it was the end of her story.
“I talked to a police officer,” she gulped, “He said that… Well, honey, Cece was killed. Mr. Horton heard a noise at night and he happened to look out his window that overlooks that pool that they have. He saw Cece just floating there, face down.”
Hazel was silent. Her face had lost its pigment.
“And the thing is, Cece was on the swim team. She’s a great swimmer. So, the police think it was a murder,” Ms. Waterson lost it. Tears poured out of her apprehensive, faded blue eyes with force. “There is strong evidence of a struggle, it looks like someone just held her there- underwater I mean. I just don’t know who could have, I just, I guess I just don’t know, Hazel.”
Hazel didn’t know what to feel. The girl who had caused her pain and mortification in the past was gone. It seems cruel, but the first emotion that Hazel felt was relief. This was soon replaced with remorse and a heap of confused grief. She said nothing; she merely stared at the food in front of her, much like her mom had previously. Her mother soon told her that school had been cancelled since it was too painful for the kids to go back to their normal schedule so quickly. She suggested that Hazel go back upstairs and lay down.
Hazel walked in a trance up to her room with the white walls and large book collection; she stared at her bare feet the whole time. Everything just confused her. As she stepped into the doorframe, she heard a familiar voice from inside.
“What’s up with you, why do you look so s***ty?”
Hazel looked up sharply to see Annie sitting on the floor, her back against the colorful bookshelf. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence for Annie to show up uninvited. She figured out a way to climb up to Hazel’s window and surprise her.
“Uh, Hey,” Hazel began, unsure of how to explain. “My mom just told me that girl we were talking about yesterday, you know, Cece..”
“The b**** is dead. I know that already. I asked why you look like that, all sad and stuff,” Annie snickered to herself. She never got confused about her emotions like Hazel did.
“What do you mean, how could you already know that? And a girl I know, er knew, is DEAD. That kinda has an effect on people,” Hazel was letting all of her jumbled up emotions get the best of her. She never snapped at Annie, but she could have been a little more understanding.
“You wanted her gone, don’t pretend that you didn’t,” Annie cooed, and looked down at her nails.
“Not dead, Annie. How did you hear about it anyway?” Annie’s response scared Hazel slightly. She was so unconcerned with a murder that had happened only right up the street. Hazel wondered why she could care so little. “And why are you acting so weird about it?”
“Oh please, everyone here already knows. The sirens woke me up. And why would I care about some girl getting murdered? I didn’t know her, and from what you’ve told me, she deserved everything she got.”
Hazel was getting more and more concerned about her friend. She knew Annie was quick to react on an impulse, no matter how wrong it was. Hazel didn’t think that Annie was capable of anything like… god, she couldn’t even bring herself to think it. “Don’t talk like that, she didn’t deserve to get murdered. Annie, you live like two miles away, how could you hear sirens? Where’d you sleep last night?”
“They were really loud.”
“You didn’t do anything, right? Like you didn’t try to protect me and do something-”
“Seriously? I didn’t murder anyone. But if I did, you shouldn’t be all upset about it. You wanted her gone.”
“Not MURDERED,” Hazel exclaimed a little bit too loud.
“Calm down. You’re completely over reacting. I’m leaving. I’ll come back later after you chill a little.” Annie clearly disapproved of Hazel’s reaction to the news. She sincerely thought Hazel would have been excited about it.  I mean, why wouldn’t she? Someone who had caused her pain was gone, out of her life completely.

The officer nodded collectedly.
“I know it seems obvious. At that point, I kinda knew something weird was going on. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, that’s just not who I am. I think through everything with scrutiny. I think and think and overthink. I guess that I was just interested in her reaction. It was weird, but not really unlike Annie. She’s all mysterious, she wants people to be confused by her. That’s just the kind of person she is, you know?”
“I understand, Hazel. What happened next?”
Hazel exhaled quickly. “Well this is when it became clear to me what she did. I was so hard to realize that someone I loved, well, love so much is capable of something like… well,” her voice was shaky again. She tried to get herself together quickly and be of more help. “I went for a walk. To clear my head. I wanted to go by the Horton’s house and see what it was like over there. I didn’t intend to get involved, I wanted to watch from a distance, and see what was going on.”

Hazel left the house without explaining to her mother where she was intending to go. Her bare feet struck the cold asphalt quickly as she speed-walked to the corner of her street. It was a quiet neighborhood in Cape May, New Jersey with white picket fences and “three quarter inch” grass. She noticed the serenity of the whole place. It was beautiful, picturesque, even.  It’s so peculiar, Hazel thought, that all of the houses look the same as yesterday. Everything is exactly the same as before. It’s like even the neighborhood is pretending that everything is still safe and wonderful. Everything felt different to Hazel, though. 
She arrived in front of the Horton’s house at 9 AM. It seemed that every news station and police officer in the state was there as well. A beautiful young girl was killed; it was a great story. Hazel stared at the house and took in every detail. The white pillars and brown stones. It looked like an old timey plantation; Hazel despised that kind of pretentious architecture. She noticed that thick, opaque curtains covered all of the windows. Guess they didn’t want all of the attention for once. She scanned the lawn slowly and tried to find anything out of the ordinary. Blue bicycle, sprinkler head, three cars parked in the driveway, Annie’s scarf…

“Describe where it was, on the lawn that is,” The officer crossed his legs and stared at Hazel intently.
“I saw it next to the gate that connects their front yard to the back yard. I guess no one had noticed it yet. I went to go get it, I don’t know why. Maybe I wanted to protect Annie subconsciously. I don’t know why.”
“Okay, and then what?”
“I knew it was her who did it. It was a sudden thing. Like I already had an idea in the back of my mind, but all of the sudden I knew that I was actually right. I felt… accomplished almost. It was a strange feeling. Then when I reached the scarf, I got really upset. I realized the reality of the situation that I was in; I ran home so quickly after I picked it up. I just wanted to tell someone about it. So I went to go tell my mom. She flipped out, I don’t blame her though. And she called you, I guess. And that’s where we are now.”
The officer nodded again. He treated Hazel like a delicate vase that might break if he said something wrong. He was very particular about what he chose to say. “Okay, Hazel. Thank you for explaining.” He looked uneasy, “This may be hard for you to understand, but Annie didn’t kill Cece.”
“Yes she did. I know she did, officer. If she spoke to someone already, don’t believe her.” Hazel’s eyes were wild. She assumed that her friend had lied to the police, convinced them that she was innocent. Hazel loved her best friend, but she knew she needed help.
“No, she didn’t. Annie isn’t… well, here let’s have your mom explain it to you…” He got up quickly and opened the door. Behind it was Hazel’s mother. She looked as if she had aged 10 years in the past few hours. Her eyes were all cried out. The officer whispered to her something inaudible that Hazel couldn’t understand. Extremely confused, upset with herself, and hugely furious with Annie, Hazel glanced at her mother.
“Honey, I always wanted to tell you this. I’ll be frank with you because I think you deserve it. Your brain is a little bit… different from most people’s.”
Hazel waited patiently for her mother to get to the point.
“Well, Annie is made up. She was a friend that you made up when you were little. An imaginary friend. We all thought it was sweet, but then you got older. You started isolating yourself from everyone else. She’s not real, Hazel. You made her up.”
“Mom no I didn’t, you’ve seen her. I don’t know what you’re talking about; she comes over to our house every day. STOP lying!” Hazel was furious. She screamed at her mother, “ANNIE IS REAL. ANNIE KILLED CECE.” Her eyes were wild and violent.
Hazel’s mom looked afraid of her daughter, but continued. “Hazel, you killed Cece.”
Hazel screamed, “WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS, YOU KNOW THAT’S NOT TRUE!”
“You do these things and you don’t remember them. You think it was Annie, but Annie is not real. It was you. Sweetie, I love you, but you need help. Everything will be okay,” Ms. Waterson looked as if the words were physically hurting her as they left her quivering lips.
Hazel screamed and thrashed in her chair. “YOU’RE LYING STOP LYING! STOP-”

Hazel woke up in a room with padding on all of the walls. The last thing she remembered was screaming at her mother. She looked around, her mind racing. There was a bracelet on her wrist that resembled a hospital band. She had no idea where she was. Suddenly, she heard a snobbish voice from one of the corners of the room.
“Miss me? God, you were acting crazy back there.” Annie was sitting nonchalantly in the corner, applying a coat of lipstick. She had never looked more real.