It was supposed to be a peaceful afternoon. One that would envelop the sunset like a sweet promise of peace. School had let out early, and the air was filled with the sweet scent of blooming hibiscus flowers. Felix stood under the almond tree in the courtyard, waiting for his friends Jessica and Mary.
They had always been a trio. Wherever Mary went, Jessica followed. Felix was the quiet one, the neutral link between the two girls. He had never fully understood the competition between them, but lately he sensed something, something sharp, unspoken, brewing beneath Jessica's smile.
That night, Mary didn't come home.
The next morning, the news struck like thunder in the middle of the dry season.
"Mary is dead."
Those three words spread like wildfire through the school. Students whispered, some in disbelief, others in fear. Some wept openly. But no one was more devastated than Felix.
He was the last person to see the two girls together.
He sat alone under the same almond tree, his head in his hands, fighting back the wave of confusion that washed over him.
Soon, a police officer and Principal Ahmed arrived to take Felix away for questioning.
"Tell us everything you remember," Officer Bako said in a calm but firm voice.
Felix hesitated. His hands were shaking as he began.
"We were supposed to meet here. Jessica, Mary, and I. We always see each other after school. But yesterday felt... different."
"Different in what way?" the police officer asked.
"Jessica was acting strange. Not herself. Quiet. Distant. I asked her what was wrong, but she just smiled and said nothing."
He paused, staring at the cracked tiles of the station floor.
"Mary arrived a few minutes later. She was excited. She said she'd been chosen to represent the school in a national debate competition."
"How did Jessica react?"
"She clapped... but it seemed forced. Like she was just putting on an act."
Officer Bako scribbled in his notebook, his expression indecipherable.
"What happened then?"
"Mary said she needed to go behind the school to pick up a file she'd left in Aunt Margaret's office. Jessica offered to walk her. I told her I'd wait. That was the last time I saw Mary alive."
The body was found an hour later behind the abandoned school building, face down in the sand, her neck twisted at an abnormal angle. There was no blood. There was no sign of a weapon.
It looked like a fall, or something meant to look like a fall.
But the autopsy confirmed it was murder.
Strangulation. Intentional. Personal.
And then the bombshell exploded. The surveillance camera in the nearby staff room window—long thought to be faulty—had recorded the end of the crime.
Jessica. Standing next to Mary.
Her hands. Around Mary's neck.
Felix couldn't believe it. He refused.
"No... no, that can't be. Jessica loved Mary. They were best friends!"
But the evidence was clear. Jessica was arrested the next morning.
In the small cell, Jessica sat silent and impassive. Felix caught a glimpse of her.
He entered the dimly lit room, not knowing what to say. His voice trembled.
"Jessica... why? Why did you do this?"
She looked up with empty eyes.
"You wouldn't understand," she mumbled.
"Help me try!" she snapped. "Mary was your friend! Our friend!"
Jessica sneered and looked away.
"She had everything, Felix. Everything. Everyone loved her. The teachers praised her. The boys chased her. Even you..."
He paused.
Felix frowned. "And me?"
"Did you never notice?" he whispered bitterly. "I was always second. Always her shadow. Even when I tried hard, I was invisible. And yesterday she was singled out again. More praise. More applause."
He clenched his fists.
"I couldn't take it anymore."
Felix's voice cracked.
"So you killed her?"
Jessica's eyes burned.
"I didn't mean to. I just wanted to confront her. Tell her how I felt. But she laughed."
Felix blinked.
"She laughed?"
Jessica nodded slowly.
"I told her how I felt. How tired I was of being ignored. She looked at me and said, 'Are you jealous? Of me? That's weird, Jess.' And then she laughed. That laugh... like I was nothing. Like it was a joke."
She took a ragged breath.
"I lost control. I didn't mean to hurt her. But when I saw her fall... when she stopped breathing..."
Finally, tears streamed down her face.
"It was too late."
Felix stepped back, frozen.
"You let jealousy take her away from us. From me."
Jessica looked up sharply.
"Don't pretend you didn't love her, Felix. You always smiled when she was there. I saw it. I felt it. You loved her more than me."
He didn't answer.
Because it was true.
A week later, at the school assembly, Principal Ahmed solemnly appeared before the students.
"Today we remember Mary. A brilliant student. A kind soul. A victim of something much more common, but often ignored: envy."
Jessica had made her confession. Her trial was still pending, but everyone knew how it would end.
Felix still sat under the almond tree, but this time alone. The laughter, the chatter—the signature sound of the trio—had disappeared.
Aunt Margaret joined him in silence.
"Some wounds never fully heal, Felix," she said softly.
He nodded.
""She was my friend," he whispered. "They both were."
Aunt Margaret placed a hand on his shoulder.
"It's okay to mourn the victim... just as much as the one who fell into darkness."
Months passed, but Felix never forgot.
Not the smile Mary wore when he last saw her.
Not the broken confession in Jessica's eyes.
And not the question that tormented him:
How could someone so close to him become a hand of destruction?
It was a question that echoed through the halls. A question that reminded every student of the fine line between admiration and envy.
The tree they once sat under remained a silent witness to friendship, betrayal, and the consequences of a heart poisoned by comparison.
And every time Felix passed, he softly whispered a word:
"Why?"
No one answered with certainty.
But everyone remembered.
The end.
Thank you for your time and God bless you all