He pulled the balaclava from his head and tucked it back inside his pocket then rushed back, again unnoticed, and mingled with the crowd in the school.
'Brendan, we've been looking everywhere for you, man! Did you see that?' Simon's voice was hard to ignore. Both he and Owen now stood in front of him, all three of them within the bustle and clamor of the crowd.
'I was here all along,' he answered.
'Oh, man! I should have brought my phone; this was awesome!' Simon exclaimed in a mixture of joy and disappointment.
'Yes…It was,' Brendan forged a difficult smile at him, trying to avoid suspicions.
The rest of the school hours, everyone was talking about this fight. "What was it?" and "who was he?" were the two major questions to which Brendan knew the answer to one of them.
Later Principal Johnston walked into every classroom telling all students to go home.
Brendan walked home alone again. Taking his time, thinking. What if an investigation was carried out and he was discovered? He knew Bradwield did not tolerate witchcraft or anything as bizarre and out of the ordinary as they had just witnessed. And to make things worse, he had been wearing the Bradwield school uniform and so the investigation would be a piece of cake for the police. He could see it now. They would find that one boy who had not been present during the freak show of a fight. They would bring him in for questioning and the truth would come out. And it would all make sense. Brendan Eriksson, now Brendan Payne, son of Howard Eriksson, grandson of Jonas Eriksson, the magician scientist condemned to death by the people of Bradwield. Brendan Payne, the boy who easily shoved Thomas, almost twice his size (and a black belt in karate), across the cafeteria. Brendan Payne, son of a man who withdrew from society to live in self-imposed exile for the rest of his life. Such a character was surely indulging in questionable practices…like witchcraft. Maybe a potion that gave him inhuman strength. Verdict? Guilty. Sentence? Death. How? By fire!
And that's how the story would unfold, and end.
When he got into the attic, Brendan found all the money gone. He just hoped Simon's father did not get too curious.
That night in his bed, he could not fall asleep. It was not because of the fact that the only meal he had had was at school but because he had killed someone. He had taken life. He had murdered Angus. And even though Angus had been one of his worst enemies, he had never had any fantasies or intentions of killing him at all.
He got up and went to the bathroom and he took some sleeping pills from one of the bottles by the sink. Five minutes after he had taken them, he fell asleep in his bed.
*
The following day he decided to walk normally to school. On his way he kept making estimations of how much his money could be. Thinking about this slightly relieved him of the stress about Angus and all the other crazy things currently happening in his life.
When he got to school however, he found police cars everywhere. Students were standing outside the school premises. Brendan was about to ask someone near him about what was going on when Samantha jumped out from the crowd and landed right in front of him.
'I'm afraid there's no school today,' she informed him, again not in her blazer but her hair set free to swish behind her like a mare. Her face was free from excessive use of makeup. 'They're carrying out investigations about yesterday's creepy battle,' she added.
'Oh,' he acknowledged her statement with his mind somewhere else. His heart started beating faster when he heard her say this. He knew his time was short.
She suddenly looked deeply into his eyes, as if searching for something that had fallen inside. She said, 'Brendan, I want you to look me in the eye and be completely honest with me.'
'Honest a…bout what?' he stuttered, his heart pounding louder.
'About the money, silly; what else would I be talking about? Where did Howard get it from?' She had a stern look on her face.
'Well…Howard was richer than me or anyone could have ever imagined,' he answered her.
'Then how come you never wore expensive clothes and never had expensive cars or let alone have one car at all?'
'Well…Howard wasn't really the showoff type.'
'Mhmm…how modest of him,' she commented before making a faint smile.
'Speaking of which; how much is it?' he asked her.
She sighed, 'Do you know that we spent the whole night counting it?' She stood with her arms folded.
' "We"?' he raised an eyebrow now looking confused.
'Yes! Me, my mom, my dad and his accountants…'
'Did you have to involve so many people into something like this? They're bound to get suspicious,' he protested.
'Did you really think I could count all that money by myself?' she defended herself, her arms still folded.
He shrugged and sighed in defeat, 'I guess not. How much is it anyway?'
'It's a total of forty-seven million gems!'