by Willow Rose
“I hate that guy.”
“Was it the same dude?” Skyler asked. “The one who killed you last week too?”
“Yeah, he’s so annoying. I spent three hours getting to where I was. Now, I lost everything.”
Back when they just met, Austin had barely ever talked to Skyler. Not until he found out that Skyler’s much older sister was a famous esports gamer and YouTuber. Austin dreamt of becoming like her, and so once he found out she was Skyler’s sister, they had become friends. Skyler wasn’t stupid. He knew that was the reason why Austin hung out with him, not because he thought he was cool or even liked him much. Austin was one of the popular boys in school, one of those that hung out with the popular girls at lunch and on the weekends. He would post pictures of himself with them on Snapchat as they hung out by the pool at Patricia’s or Malia’s house. Skyler didn’t care much about those no-brained cheerleading girls or hanging out at their pool, but he did care about Austin. A lot. He liked hanging out with him and felt such deep jealousy when he saw snaps of him with them.
So that was why he had promised him to help him become a famous gamer and YouTuber. Somehow, Skyler had managed to make him believe that he knew how his sister had become who she was today and that he could help him out. But the fact was that Austin wasn’t a very good gamer and teaching him anything had proved harder than Skyler had thought.
“Go at it again,” Skyler said.
Austin sighed. “I don’t feel like it.”
The thought that Austin would want to go home now made Skyler panic. He didn’t want this to end, them spending time together like when they were younger before the girls came into the picture. “Try something else. We can play Call of Duty Black Ops III if you like.”
“Nah,” Austin said and ate chips from Skyler’s bag. “It’s boring.”
Skyler looked at his watch. It was almost midnight. The gaming lounge didn’t close till two in the morning, and Skyler had hoped they’d stay till then. His dad had told him he could stay and that he’d pick him up when they closed. It was his parents’ biggest wish for Skyler to follow in his sister’s footsteps and become an esports gamer, but he just didn’t have it in him. He liked to play, but only for fun. He didn’t like the pressure of having to win or even perform well. And he wasn’t very good at it either.
“So, what do you want to play?” Skyler asked nervously. “Fortnite?”
Austin looked at his phone with a deep sigh. Skyler ate some more chips while trying to suppress the feeling of sadness that overwhelmed him from time to time, especially when he was lonely.
Austin looked at him and shrugged. He received a text and smiled when he read it. Skyler’s heart dropped. He knew that smile. That meant one of those girls had texted him again. Once they did, Skyler knew that the fight for Austin’s attention was lost.
Austin texted the person back, then took a selfie and sent it. Skyler rolled his eyes, annoyed, then put his headset back on and continued his game.
Chapter 56
“Attention, all units. We have a possible 10-32 at The Riverside Shopping Center. I repeat we have a 10-32. Any units in two minutes or less?”
Deputy Adams stared at Sheriff Rogers, who was sitting next to him in the cruiser. He had only been with St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Department for what felt like ten seconds, and was out on his first patrol, driving with the sheriff when the call came in. It had been a slow Friday night so far. They had stopped a guy who had run a stop sign and given him a ticket, and then they had gone to the burrito place to eat dinner. Adams had given up on anything interesting happening before his shift ended at midnight. But then this call came, and he could barely believe it. 10-32, that was man with gun. Did they seriously have a man with a gun on his first night on patrol?
Sheriff Rogers grabbed the radio. “217 received. En route.”
“217, additional information. No shots fired yet. Call came from one of suspect’s friends who said that he had brought a gun to the gamer’s lounge called Gamer’s Respawn Gaming Café. He is planning on attacking at midnight. Gunman’s name is Skyler Griffin. I repeat Skyler Griffin. Shooter is black, wears white hoodie.”
Deputy Adams looked at his watch. “Midnight? That’s fifteen minutes from now.”
Sheriff Rogers nodded. They were only two minutes out from the shopping center. He rushed the cruiser into the road.
“Let’s get him before he pulls out that gun.”
Rogers grabbed the radio again. “217 received. Advise SWAT.”
“217, will do.”
Rogers put the radio back, then took a sharp turn and turned on the wailing siren. Adams sat back in his seat, then felt for his gun in the holster, secretly hoping he’d get to pull it out. He had been training for this for so long. This was the type of stuff that made him want to join the police in the first place.
Was he ready for it?
As he saw the lights flickering in the distance and heard the other patrols joining in, he nodded to himself. Yes, he felt ready. Scared as heck, but ready. This kid wasn’t shooting anyone tonight; Adams was going to make sure of that. He would be proud to be the one to have prevented the next big mass shooting.
Chapter 57
Skyler sighed and looked at Austin, who continued to text and take snaps and send them. What was it about those girls that made them so important that Austin forgot everyone else around him? Skyler didn’t get it. He didn’t understand why Austin was always on his phone, either. Skyler always left his in his backpack and never took it out if he didn’t need to use it. But then again, Skyler didn’t have any friends on Snapchat, and he didn’t use any social media, so there was no need to be looking continually at his phone. No one would be texting him either, except for his family.
“You want some candy?” Skyler asked and showed him the twenty-dollar-bill his dad had given him when driving him to the lounge. He nodded toward the vending machine by the end wall.
“Sure,” Austin said with a shrug.
Skyler rose to his feet. He didn’t even notice that his phone was lighting up in the front compartment of his backpack or that he had received more than thirty calls and texts. Instead, he walked to the vending machine and pressed the numbers to get a packet of Skittles and two Hershey bars, one for him and one for Austin. He knew how much Austin liked chocolate.
He looked back toward him when the phone by the counter rang, and the guy managing the store picked it up.
“Hello?”
Skyler opened the bag of Skittles and poured out a handful that he put in his mouth and chewed. The guy behind the counter looked paler than usual. He had a ton of piercings and a long beard that he was now fiddling with as he listened. Then his eyes grew wide.
“Really? What the…?”
The guy grew quiet as the other person spoke before he said:
“Yes, yes, of course. Right away, ma’am.”
He hung up the phone and seemed to be gathering himself for a few seconds before he looked at all the kids in the lounge.
“Uh, guys. Listen up. I need to get you all out of here. As in right now. I just spoke to someone who said there was a bomb inside the store.”
The guy’s eyes grew even wider as he spoke the words like the realization was just now sinking in. Skyler was still chewing his Skittles, wondering if it was some sort of joke or if he had actually heard him right.
“I mean it,” the guy said. He grabbed his phone and a hoodie, then looked at all the kids who were staring at him, eyes wide. “There’s a bomb in here. Get out!”
And just then, panic set in. The few kids that had actually heard him because they weren’t wearing a headset threw everything they had in their hands and stormed for the doors. Seeing this, the other kids took off their headsets and stared at the guy who kept yelling at them to get the heck out of his store before the bomb exploded.
Skyler had only one focus, and that was Austin. Austin was in the middle of playing Counterstrike and hadn’t heard a thing. Skyler ran to h
im and pulled his headset off.
“There’s a bomb. We have to get out of here now.”
Austin grabbed his phone and backpack, and they ran outside, joining the others. In the distance, they heard sirens. Skyler stared at the building in front of him, then felt Austin’s hand in his. With a slight gasp, he looked at him, and their eyes met. Austin seemed scared.
“Do you think we’re far enough away?” he asked, his voice shivering. “If it explodes?”
“Maybe not,” Skyler said. “Let’s move to the other side of the street.”
They walked across the road just as the police cars rolled up. Skyler’s heart raced in his chest; he had never seen so many police cruisers at the same time. Being black and having been told scary stories of innocent people of color being killed by police, his legs began to shake beneath him. His parents had instructed him carefully on how to react when stopped by the police, but it still scared him like crazy.
Don’t run. Whatever you do, don’t run. And do everything they tell you. Make sure you tell them you are unarmed. Don’t give them a reason to believe you’re a threat.
Skyler watched as about ten police cruisers drove up in front of the store. At the same time, another big grey police cruiser drove up behind him and opened its side door. A set of strong hands reached out for him, grabbed him around the shoulders, and swiftly pulled him inside. Next, the cruiser took off, tires screeching on the asphalt.
Chapter 58
“Please, don’t,” Skyler cried desperately. “I didn’t do anything.”
“It’s okay, Skyler. No one is accusing you of anything,” Matt said, using his soft voice to calm the boy. He was holding him tightly in the passenger seat until he relaxed, and he could let go of him. It took a few seconds for him to realize he wasn’t in trouble. Skyler finally eased up, and he sat up straight, while Matt continued talking to him, assuring him that we weren’t out to hurt him.
“We’re here to help you, Skyler. We’re not the enemy. We’re going to take you to your sister’s place now.”
Meanwhile, I floored the cruiser, and we took off, leaving the shopping mall behind us. I could see the blinking lights of Matt’s CBPD police cruiser in the rearview mirror for a long time, and I didn’t feel safe until we reached I95, taking off toward Fellsmere, where Skyler’s sister and her husband were waiting for us with Sheriff Howard.
When we finally got there, Skyler spotted his sister. He seemed dumbfounded yet relieved. I parked the cruiser in the parking lot by the sheriff’s office, and Matt and the boy got out first.
“Skyler!” Susan Johnson exclaimed, then ran for him. She grabbed him in her arms and hugged him tightly, closing her eyes.
When I stepped out of the car, Sheriff Howard came up to me, a sly smile on his lips. “It worked. I wasn’t sure it would. And I certainly didn’t like any of it; you were right about that part. Still, I gotta hand it to you. Clever thinking.”
“Yeah, well, since the boy didn’t answer his phone, there really was no other way to get to him quickly enough when he was more than an hour’s drive away in a different county, which was run by a different sheriff. I knew we couldn’t make it there in time to stop them after they received the call.”
“St. Lucie County was out of my jurisdiction, and before I could explain the situation to my colleagues and convince them of this strange story, it would have been too late.”
“Nothing clears a building faster than a bomb threat,” I said with a chuckle. “Even if it was a controversial move.”
“The boy could have been seriously hurt or even killed,” Sheriff Howard added. “Racial bias in law enforcement is, unfortunately, very real. And if they believe he has a gun, then…well, we’ve seen it happen too many times if you ask me. The climate of fear and the expectation of violence accelerates the serious risk of overreaction and excessive use of force.”
I smiled. “You’re a good man, Sheriff Howard.”
“I still don’t like it much, but it seems you might have saved the day,” he said. “So much could have gone terribly wrong tonight, but instead, no one was hurt, and that pleases me.”
I shook hands with the sheriff before I walked back to Matt’s cruiser. Before I got in, I turned around and threw one more glance at Susan and her brother, who were still hugging.
My eyes met hers, and I felt a pinch deep in my stomach. We had won this round. It was a good feeling. I had broken the Swatter’s code and found part of his pattern. It was bound eventually to lead me to him if only I kept digging. At some point, I would get to him. I knew I would.
I just hoped it would be before he made his next move.
THREE WEEKS LATER
Chapter 59
“I’m going nuts here.”
I stared at Liam, who was standing in my doorway. I hadn’t spoken to him in a little more than three weeks when we had talked about Susan Johnson on the phone. I had sent him a text to update him on what happened to her and wrote that we had our first victory, right before bedtime on the day we saved her. He had answered that he was extremely relieved. But that was the last communication we had. It had been a busy three weeks. Christmas had come and gone, and so had New Year’s Eve. Matt and I had celebrated both apart from one another, which felt odd, but we hadn’t really spoken much since that night. It felt like we were both avoiding the issue right now. Meanwhile, I had been digging deeper into my research and trying to recreate the Swatter’s pattern when Liam rang my doorbell.
“Liam? What the heck are you doing here?”
He pushed his way past me and came inside, rubbing his already greasy hair excessively.
“I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I keep thinking that today he’s gonna do it again. Every morning, I go through the news, combing through it to see if anything matches his behavior—if anyone has been killed by the police overnight. It’s driving me crazy.”
I slammed the door shut behind me. I was still in my jammies, I suddenly realized, and crossed my arms in front of my chest. School was back in session after winter break, so the kids were all gone, and I hadn’t planned on seeing a single soul all day.
“Welcome to my world,” I said. “Coffee?”
“Please.”
I walked to the kitchen and poured coffee into two cups, then handed him one. He stared into it like he wasn’t sure it wouldn’t kill him.
“It’s not been digested by Indonesian monkeys or cats or whatever the best coffee in the world is supposed to be. It’s just plain old black coffee. Nothing fancy. But it will wake you up and keep you going for a few hours till you need the next one.”
He smiled. “I’ve had coffee before.”
“Really? Doesn’t really seem like it. There’s milk in the fridge if you use that and sugar in that bowl over there. If you need Almond milk, I’m sure my mom has some in there as well.”
“I prefer it black,” he said and sipped it. He tried to look like he was enjoying it, but his eyes told a different story. I didn’t care. I poured myself a bowl of Cheerios and put milk on it, then began to eat.
Liam stared at me, his eyes still frantic, yet so incredibly sad. “I need to catch him. I need to see justice for Tim. I can’t stand the fact that this guy is still out there, and the police aren’t even looking for him.”
“I am,” I said, chewing with my mouth open. A drop of milk flew toward him and landed on his shirt. The shirt looked expensive, so I dried the droplet off with a napkin as fast as I could. Liam stared at my hand touching his chest, then at me.
His stare seemed to look straight through me, undressing me, and suddenly, I could barely breathe. I hated myself for it, but I found him so insanely attractive, it pained me. Why did I feel this way? He was pretty much the most unattractive man I had ever met. And he wasn’t even a great person. He wasn’t even nice, and he didn’t have a winning personality.
Our eyes were locked for a long time until I finally gathered myself. I cleared my throat, then moved away and continued to eat my Cheerios.
“I want to be more involved,” he said. “I need to do more.”
I turned around and wiped milk away from my lips with my hand. “Involved?”
“With the investigation or whatever you call it. I need to do something. I can’t stand the fact that this guy who is responsible for the death of my boy is still out there. I can’t focus on my work. I keep walking into his room, expecting him to be in there sitting by his computer, rolling his eyes at me, or even saying something nasty because he hates me. He used to hate me, Eva Rae. But at least he was there. At least he was still alive. I need to get rid of this guilt I’m harboring inside. I need to pass it on to someone else before it eats me up.”
I swallowed another bite, then put the bowl down. Liam looked like he would break into pieces. I grabbed him by the shoulder and helped him to sit down. I took the coffee cup from between his hands and placed it on the kitchen table. He looked up at me.
“I’m falling apart, aren’t I?”
I exhaled and took his hands in mine. “No one would blame you if you did.”
Chapter 60
THEN:
DeVilSQuaD666: Yo answer me this.
SlayerAlpha32: What do you want?
DeVilSQuaD666: Did the cops show up at your house last night? Yes or no.
SlayerAlpha32: No
DeVilSQuaD666: I don’t believe you
SlayerAlpha32: So? See if I care.
DeVilSQuaD666: I know for a fact that you’re lying.
SlayerAlpha32: Oh? How?
DeVilSQuaD666: Come on. You can’t hide it. Be honest. Did anyone show up at your house last night?
SlayerAlpha32: Nope.
DeVilSQuaD666: Be honest with me. I know they were there. Admit your defeat. Did they flashbang you or not?
SlayerAlpha32: You’re literally retarded.