It’s only been a week since Ashley died. Since she got in her car on a stormy night and plowed into a tree. Her car was destroyed, and so was her body. Hers was the first closed-casket funeral I’ve been too.

Today, a police officer knocked on my door and handed me Ashley’s jewelry box. It’s pale pink and green with gold edges. I’ve seen it so many times sitting on her dresser. Now it’s sitting on mine.

I open the box. Instead of finding Ashley’s bracelets and other miscellaneous pieces of jewelry, I find a letter and a key. The key looked like it’s been stained a rusty red-brown color. Blood?

I snatch up the letter and rip open the envelope. Tears fall from my eyes; I miss her so much.

“Dear Lainey, you’re probably wondering what happened to me, how I died. I don’t actually know yet how I die, since I’m writing this while I’m still alive. All I know is they got me. It might look like an accident, but that’s exactly what they want you to think it is. The key will help you understand. It belongs to the little shed out in the woods behind my house. You know the one. I’m sorry I can’t tell you more. Love, Ashley.”

More tears fall. Someone killed Ashley? My first though is to call the police, then I read:

“P.S. Trust no one, they have spies everywhere.”

Well, there goes that plan. Instead, I pick up the key, the more I look at it the more I think that the odd stain is blood. I make a split-second decision and pull on my hiking boots and raincoat. The gray skies look like trouble.

Ashley’s house is only a five-minute walk through the woods. With key in hand, I set out.

Soon, I reach her house. Pale blue and white trim. Flowers everywhere- Her mom loves to garden- though most of them are wilted now.

I sneak around the side of the house and climb over the gate. Once in the woods I’ll be safe from view. The shed is only a few minutes away. Ashley and I used to play in it every summer, playing princess and witch or some other make-believe game. We’ve been best friends since we were six, now she won’t live past sixteen.

The shed has fallen into disrepair and should probably just be destroyed, but I don’t think anyone in town even remembers it’s out here.

I slide the key into the lock; I didn’t even know this place had a lock. Slowly, the door creaks open and I gasp. This is why she died.

Ashley had been creating a web, a very tangled web. It connected all the dots, known and several unknown. The dots all lead to one man, the leader of a cult. They killed Ashley.

But they also killed her sister. The mysterious murder from two years ago. Ashley had been solving the case, and it got her killed before she could tell anyone.

I’m going to make sure the whole world finds out about this, even if it kills me too.