The night stretched on endlessly, with the cold air creeping through the cracks of the farmhouse. The once lively space now felt eerily silent, the echo of Samantha’s sobs the only sound breaking the suffocating stillness.

Mark sat against the wall, staring blankly at the floor, his mind still struggling to process the events that had unfolded. Jason paced back and forth, his footsteps creating a quiet rhythm against the wooden floors. Neither of them spoke, but the weight of their shared guilt hung thick in the air.

Samantha had stopped crying, her hands trembling as she gently laid Clara’s body down. Her face was pale, her eyes wide and hollow, the reality of her sister’s death hitting her in waves. She looked at Mark, her expression unreadable.

“It was an accident,” Jason finally whispered, breaking the silence. His voice was shaky, barely audible.

Mark flinched at the words. “It doesn’t matter,” he replied, his throat tight. “She’s gone…”

Samantha didn’t move from her place beside Clara, her fingers running through her sister’s hair as if hoping she might still wake up. But Clara’s skin had already begun to turn cold, her once vibrant face now devoid of life.

"We have to... do something," Jason said, his voice louder now, desperate. "We can’t just stay here."

Samantha looked up, her eyes meeting Jason’s. “And do what?” she asked, her voice low, emotionless. “Call the police? Tell them we drugged you two and that Clara died because of it?” Her words were sharp, but they cut through the haze of confusion in the room.

Jason stopped pacing, the gravity of what she was suggesting sinking in. “We didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“No one will believe us,” Samantha said, her voice barely a whisper. “They’ll think we killed her on purpose.”

Mark clenched his fists, his mind racing. She was right. No one would believe that this was an accident—not with Clara’s body lying there, and not with the drugs that had been involved. His mind flashed to the life they all had before this—carefree days, close friendships. It was all shattered in a single, irreversible moment.

Samantha stood up, her face hardened, though her hands still shook. “We have to leave her here.”

Mark’s head snapped up. “What? No… we can’t just—”

“Leave her here,” Samantha repeated, her voice firm. “We tell everyone she left the party. She ran off… and we couldn’t find her.” Her eyes darted between Mark and Jason, her expression cold and calculating. “We’ll make it look like she disappeared.”

Jason shook his head, his eyes wide with panic. “Are you out of your mind? They’ll find her body. They’ll know something happened here.”

“No one comes out here,” Samantha said sharply. “This place is abandoned. By the time anyone finds her, we’ll have already covered our tracks.”

Mark’s chest tightened at the thought. The plan was insane. They had grown up with Clara, shared years of memories together, and now they were being asked to abandon her body like it was nothing more than a problem to be swept under the rug. His stomach churned.

“Samantha…” he started, his voice shaking. “She was your sister.”

Tears welled in Samantha’s eyes, but she blinked them back quickly, steeling herself. “I know. But this is the only way. If we tell the truth, we’ll all be destroyed.”

Jason and Mark exchanged a glance, their minds racing with the impossible choice in front of them. Betraying Clara’s memory, lying about what happened—it felt wrong. But facing the consequences of the truth seemed just as unbearable.

Finally, Jason nodded, his voice barely audible. “Okay… we do it your way.”

Mark swallowed hard, the weight of his decision crushing him. “We’ll say she left. No one will ever know.”

Samantha nodded slowly, wiping her tears. “We leave tonight. We can never mention this again.”

---

The next few hours passed in a blur. Mark and Jason moved in a daze, following Samantha’s instructions like puppets on strings. They cleaned up any trace of the drugs, wiped down every surface, and left the farmhouse as if nothing had ever happened. Clara’s body remained inside, hidden in a back room, her presence now a ghost haunting the shadows.

By the time they drove away from the farmhouse, the sky was starting to lighten with the early morning sun. The weight of the night hung over them like a storm cloud, the guilt and fear twisting in their stomachs.

They didn’t speak the entire ride back. Every word felt too heavy, too dangerous. Mark kept his eyes on the road, but his mind was lost in the chaos of what they had just done.

Samantha sat in the backseat, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. She hadn’t shed another tear since they left the farmhouse. Her face was stone cold, her resolve frightening.

Jason, sitting in the passenger seat, stared out the window, his thoughts a whirlwind of regret and panic. Every second that passed felt like another moment closer to their inevitable downfall.

As they pulled into the city, the weight of their secret pressed down on them. Their lives had forever changed in the shadows of that forgotten night.