There is indeed power in the tongue. If every student were truly being sincere with themselves then they would admit that at some point they did wish Matt Brady to drop dead. But now was not the time to admit that, not loudly anyway, especially with the school compound littered with news reporters and cops and the wild life service officers.
Even though it was a sunny afternoon, it rained. It poured heavily in the students faces and in their hearts . I will admitt my tears had come a the way to my brim but I wasn't going to let a single drop of tear fall for Matt. Not when all he did was be an abnoxious roudy bully with no respect for everyone, not even his equally annoying on and off girlfriend Lisa.
The news had struck her the worst. She'd tried to rush towards the ambulance as his body, ripped apart, completely unrecognizable body was lifted into the back of the ambulance. Ruby's dad who had come as a cop, had to hold her back. The only reason they were sure it was Matt was because of his signature blue and yellow baseball jacket that would be occasionally draped on Lisa's shoulders.Like a flag on a conquered kingdom. Some of us had been unlucky enough to actually see the sight of him before he was covered and I wasn't sure I would ever look at meat, every again.
Two girls had been assigned by the principal to keep an eye on Lisa, one consoling her and the other packing up her stuff so she could be sent home to ' process her shock'. I think they sent her away so that the news reporters wouldn't see just the kind of personalities that were being bred in Vadille High.
She was probably the only one that was balling out of genuine hurt that Matt was dead, out of nowhere. The rest of us were consumed in our panic and fear for our dear lives It had not been the average death, you see. Even the movie nerds couldn't decode it , not even the ones that bonded over 'Blacklist'. Absolutely no leads.
There was no proof of any wild animal having gotten into or out of the school that would have been noticeable. Alvah was literally everyone's project for a week and all she did is overline her eyeliner, be pale and boring. Surely ,the students with that type of energy and time would notice it if a wild animal were to just pop in and out of the school casually .
There is no way a person would have done it, because he had claw marks and two punctured holes on the neck, like he had been attacked by the predator. Now before you suspect me, I will have you know that I know the details because am the one that found him. There was no blood pooling around him, infact he was so pale there was barely any blood coming out of his rip wounds and those were really really deep wounds.
We had been called into the multipurpose hall for so that we'd confirm if anyone was missing. It's no question of doubt that Alvah was missing, that bitch came to school when she felt like it. But coincidentally, Nate was missing too. And Ruby very badly wanted to report that. Also, the unempathetic greedy information news reporters were banned from entering the hall so that no one would have to jaggle between grief and being exploited for headlines.
" What if he's in trouble? what if this might actually help?"she wondered out loud, charging towards her dad. Before she could get past arms length I grabbed her wrist, which would be the first time I had ever made skin contact with her on purpose. The feel of her knitted cream sweater against her beaded bracelets gave me irritation chills but I shook them off.
" He was missing for two weeks! He just lost his parents, dude is going through a hard time, do you really want the cops knocking up on his door ?"I reasoned with her, hoping my words would override her need to be daddy's little helpful daughter.
" You say that like you think he's guilty, perhaps I should report that too. "
" Would you please for once fight your excessive need to get a tap on the back and an applause? Everyone knows how Nate and Matt were, why would you want them to pin that on him?"
" You think they would? Nate seems suspicious to you?" Her curved brows thickened. The shuffle and hustle of students trying to find their seats was dying down, leaving me and Ruby the option to seat next to each other .This wasn't my ideal setting but heck I would tie her to the chair if I would need to.
A couple of teachers, just as shook as as us made their speeches and tried to lift our spirits although I'd say based on how everything had happened it was going to take more than words to get us to calm down . Ruby's dad was the last to speak. As soon as he started I reminded Ruby not to try anything stupid. We went back and forth exchanging insults and coming too close to biting each other's noses off in our heated whisper screaming match before someone behind us poked us and shushed us. Now we were mad at him not each other. How dare he.
"I want you guys to know that my team and the worldlife service are working hand in hand to ensure that we get to the bottom of this. We shall not rest till we have the answers to all the questions you must have. Trust that we'll restore safety in Vadille as we have in all these years..." his hoarse voice halted and his eyes skimmed the crowd, I could tell he was looking for his precious daughter. His face was half covered by the shadow cast from his green stiff hat but I noticed how his face broke when his eyes locked with his daughters. He got snapped back out of their bonding time that the rest of the school was just third wheeling at this point by the sound of wind blowing into the microphone and causing a screeching sound that stung in all of our ears.
" Sorry, about that..." his moustache that had grown past his upper lip bobbed up and down for a moment before he realized his words weren't reaching us. A fellow cop was panicking behind him this time in the effort to get him a mic which made me question the type of person he was at work. He seemed much younger and fresh in the field, all stiff and weird as he passed him a different microphone and took the other one.
" If anyone has any leads, there will be papers that will be handed to you and you can anonymously write your hunches or anything that will help the case. Once again I apologise for your loss. "
My eyes and Ruby's collisioned intensely while he said this last part. I was going to hang out with her and even move into her house if that was the only way to keep her from painting Nate a suspect. Had she not heard her dad, asking us to suggest to them what we think might have happened. Shouldn't tht have been the ones to do that? Weren't they once to tell us what they think happened.
" Let me text him okay, then you'll know that he's fine." I tapped my screen and it blinked to life.
' Dude, some terrible thing just happened at school and Ruby is worried about you, are you good😲' I punched on the keyboard and as soon as I press sent I noticed him typing immediately. Poking Ruby's shoulder, I showed him the screen, hoping it would console her or something. Skeptically she squinted at the screen of my phone, looking for proof of anything, anything that she could use to just go against me. Knowing I had nothing to hide I continued to hold the phone up confidently waiting for her to accept defeat. Would that be satisfying. Then she made a face that made me think this wasn't going to play out the way I thought. Her eyes, now filled with something else between fear and hurt tore from the screen to mem Immediately I flipped the phone to face me.
" Am fine. But I need you to come alone. Something terrible happened😢" I could almost feel the despair just burning off the phone. All he'd used is an emoji, not send me his actual emotions. But then again Nate was an iPhone user, perhaps I needed to catch up with technology to perhaps it had evolved to that extent. Or I was empathetic. That too. Either way, I had to go see him now.
" He's fine. But I need to go see him. "I tried to keep the statement casual but concern bloomed in my mouth halfway through the statement. To avoid looking at Ruby I kept myself busy, buttoning up my flannel, and packing up my stuff.
" Am coming with you!" she quickly replied ready to spring onto her feet when I held her arm and plunked her back to the seat.
" Nate wants me to go alone. I'll update you." Her gaze flickered from me to the podium, against the artificial lighting ,her eyes, now steamy with tears sparkled immaculately. How could such a negative and hurtful emotion look so graceful on one's face? With Nate around , all we ever did was piss each other off but hanging out for the first time without him made me notice there was more to her.
***
MAX'S POV
It dropped as an unexpected bomb for everyone, two students dead out of nowhere. I had seen how their bodies were savaged as they were being lifted onto the stretchers. Ruby was all getting worried about Nate being hurt too as he had avoided us earlier, which is probably my fault. But hey, I don't believe that my anorexic best friend ate everything in the fridge in one sitting. You don't go MIA on people who care about you then come saying like that.
"Aren't you gonna call Nate or anything?" Ruby asked me, still breaking down on her own. Her frail frame shaking inside her clothes. She wore a knitted aqua blue sweater, sewn with chunky yarn on ripped mom jeans. She slopped the oversize neckline on her left shoulder, showing off a hot pink strap and her shoulder bladesThe natural glow of her skin almost shirt rays through the torn parts. She'd pulled the sleeves of her sweater to cover her hands and used it to dab the endless stream of tears.
Never in my whole lifetime of knowing Ruby had I thought she would let me see her like this. Sniffling, nose running, eyes red and having a major outpouring. She'd try to stop crying. I noticed her trying. But then the intensity of the situation crushed upon her in new waves. Seeing her like this made something in me uncomfortable. Something I didn't understand. But there wasn't much I could do. The best I could do for her was not live her alone and keep passing her serviettes to blow her nose.
While she was concerned about Nate missing, I was concerned about this Alvah chic with her 'mysterious' aura that had everyone become trash for her. Not me . She was always popping up like email spam when I least needed to see her pale, skinny, creepy, attention-seeking self. Till now I hadn't seen the appeal of her. I had noticed the ogling between her and Nate. It was off-putting and disrespectful to me and Ruby. But they were both missing at the same time? I could be worried about people that are exploring each other's depths and lengths. Take that to mean whatever you like. But the deaths? And then two of them missing at the time? It raised my brows and was going to raise the cop' s as well.
"He is fine," I told her, seeing her vulnerable is just something am not used to, she is always walking around being a bitch, cursing like its a talent, and flipping her middle finger at anyone that tries to mess with her or her friends. Including me, who was pathetically bad at feelings. Call me sick, but I thought it was kinda cute "You are going to be fine too. All they ever did with their lives was bully Nate anyway."
"And we let it happen. You and I both. We didn't try enough and now all these strange things are happening and Nate's missing. We are terrible people!" I wanted to laugh at the logic but she would have killed me if I had dared show some teeth. She cares for Nate in a way I don't understand. She was the only one I ever saw trying to stand up for Nate. It's not that she physically fought back or won the arguments. she just made a point of ruining your day if you messed with Nate.Which was why her mind was going wild. Just like Nate's. I wanted to argue that nothing was my fault, but she is so creative with blame games she would have found a way to pin it on me. And she makes things like that stick with you, literally burns it on your conscience so its something she always attacks you with when you are acting up. My face shuffled in confusion at the realization of how much Ruby I could speak.
"Nate is fine. I promise. I saw him leave school early. He didn't have anything to do with it." I blurted my thoughts, his speech from earlier coming back to me. If even a pinch of what he said was true then who says he didn't.
"No one said he did! Oh my God how could you even think that!? " she started to throw light punches on my chest, her sparkly eyes angled upwards to face me. " Unless you're keeping things from me. And you know how I feel about that" Her pitch rose from a two to a seven in a sec, managing to get a few heads of worried mourning students flipped to our direction with so much concern it made me feel like I wasn't handling the situation right.
She was already just inches away. Her sweater made her fluffy, like something you wanted to grap. It seemed like the only solution. Her punches stiffened as I engulfed her with my relatively large arms, gathering her in one swoop.
I heard a tiny gasp escape her lips at the feel of something so unexpected and so unfamiliar. Her height was so perfect, her head right under my chin, I really thought it would smell like an old shoe, well it smelled like a new shoe which is bearable if you ask me and which is a tick for her because she is pathetic at taking care of herself. It took her moment before her little hands came to the side and squeezed tight onto my shirt, pulling me closer and not even knowing it.
This wasn't a sweeping declaration that I would walk into those tubs where thousands of people are touching each other wearing the very minimal pieces of clothing. I know you have seen that in videos. But the serenity and the rush of hormones it caused felt like something I could get used to. I couldn't help wonder how long these weird emotions had been brewing in me. Was it the moment she came into the table and refused to let me be cold and distant by always poking me and being all up in my space. Was it her overbearing confidence? Or her belief in the good in people?
I enjoyed her warm breath beating my chest each time sobs erupted out of her till my phone buzzed in my pocket and I sprang out of the hug as if it burned, and something in me tore right in the middle, like the weirdo that Nate is to look it up. Talk about the devil...
'Dude.Come.Alone.😬' it read.
***
"Okay, dude...I have come
... alone." I told Nate as soon as I had opened his bedroom door. He was on his computer, flashing shade of blue on his perfect-outta-nowhere face making me really take a hint in being just in the same room with him. His cheeks were clearly glistening with tears. Were they of joy because a hero, had gotten rid of his bully for him? I was about to find out. Whatever had kept his eyes adhered to the screen had caught his attention so much he didn't even look at me when I came in.
" Am glad you did. You might want to take a seat." A familiar voice responded from behind me, I didn't have to turn, hate was blaring in my chest so I knew it was Alvah and I was right, they were boning. I really thought Nate had standards this was just disappointing, now I would have to live the rest of my life knowing this. Was he trying to punish me?
"How long Nate? How long have you been doing this." I sounded like a heartbroken cheated on wife but that didn't matter. His gaze slowly tore from the computer to me. His face, a frustration that had been there the whole time and disgust. I did that. The disgust part.
An awkward silence fell in the room. Just me, standing there, propped against the door frame wondering if I drove like a maniac and broke millions of traffic rules just to come to this. I mean, his face had dried smudges of ketchup, so did his trembling hands. Which burned my eyes to look at because of the horrendous ring, too big for his finger and in the wrong lifetime. But then Alvah was here. Which bothered my soul because why call her before me. Like, am I not good enough anymore?
"Talk to me! Fuck!!" I finally cried out, curiosity was eating me up like fire on dry grass and they were both being dramatic.
"It's not something we can just tell you. Take a seat." Alvah requested.
"Don't tell me what to do Nate? Why do you look like this? Why is he crying? What did you do to him?" I marched towards her face that always looks so plain, if she didn't do her red lipstick right she would look like eyebrows on a wall. She was now holding Max's chair like a proud president's trophy wife, not even hitching her breath. I wanted to spit at her face. Just standing there, wearing a tough face. I know am scary when am mad. She shook her head sadly causing her hair to wave in giant side by side waves, something what would have been hot on TV then flickered her gaze over to the monitor. The topicof research: Vadille High Student Attack.
Why would he be looking at that if it made him so flipping sad?I had promised I wouldn't but my brain kept going back there picking out things in Nate's story that made perfect sense and putting sense to what had happened. Nate wouldn't possibly be a...he wouldn't ever clap a mosquito between his palms even if it was buzzing right outside his ear.
"No. It can't be. Nate is a sweet guy and that guy had been bullying him a long time ...he has never fought back, he never fights anyone. Why are you doing this? why are you pinning this on him? Did you see the body, they were pallid and it looked like some wild animal was biting their heads off, Nate would not...Nate right?You would not do this kind of thing right?"
I sat next to my best friend who definitely did not just kill anyone and especially not in that way! His lips parted, as if to say something, then he couldn't. If Alvah was not going to tell me what was happening right now I was going to flip my shit. Alvah's hand rubbed slow circles on his back, which I didn't think was helping the situation because she had been doing it a long time and so far, he hadn't spoken a word.
" You can tell him. He is your best friend right?" Alvah encouraged.
Each time he wanted to talk, it's like a wild cry just wanted to explode out of him like he was ashamed that I was seeing him like this. He slid his palms across his cheeks, which were drained of color as the rest of his body. Leaving the red marks on his face that I was just snapping out of my denial and realizing was not ketchup. I knew they weren't but I needed to believe that. So badly.
Then he started to type, his fingers were shaking a lot so once in a while, he would press the wrong key being cheered on by Alvah whose sudden established friendship with Nate was freaking me out. I read through the words in a blur before coming to conclusion.
''I did it."
I think my heart stopped working for a second...