by Bella King
Travis drove us to an area that I wasn’t familiar with, far past the Brier residence and the mines that he was collecting explosives from. We drove for over an hour before he pulled onto a dirt road and drove for another ten minutes. There were no lights here, and Travis cut his headlights once we were deep enough into the woods.
“We’ll do it here,” he said, turning off his car and unbuckling his seatbelt.
My heart thumped in my chest as I got out. The air was chilly, and autumn was quickly cooling down into winter. It was still two months until the weather really got frigid, but I could tell it was going to be an unusually cold winter. I could already see my breath in the night air.
Travis took my hand, leading me into a clearing in the woods where a large flat rock lay. “This is where you’re going to take your oath of loyalty,” Travis said, pointing a finger at the stone.
I walked over to it while Travis pulled a long silver knife from his coat pocket. The metal glinted evilly in the low light of the moon. For a second, the words of Detective Charles ran through my head about not being alone with Travis. Now I was in the woods at night with him and he had a large knife in his hand. I wasn’t very good at keeping myself safe.
“Give me your hand,” Travis said, stepping forward and grabbing my wrist.
I braced myself for whatever was coming next.
Travis stared into my eyes. “Repeat after me. I will obey you until we find Kimberly, no matter what.”
I repeated his words and was immediately met by the light sting of his blade as it slid across my palm. It was a lot less painful than I anticipated, feeling like nothing more than a papercut. I watched as the crimson blood began to stream from my hand, dripping thick droplets onto the cold stone below.
“You’re now bound by blood to your promise,” Travis stated, taking a bandage and wrapping it around my hand to stop the bleeding. His hands were hot against mine, and skillfully tied a tight knot to secure the wrapping.
I looked up into his eyes when he finished. “So, tell me master. When are we destroying the basketball court?”
Travis grinned at me, putting the knife back into his pocket. “Tomorrow.”
Chapter 22
Travis excitedly explained his plan to me on the ride home. He wanted me to plant the explosives across the basketball court, coming in from the south entrance of the soccer field. There were no cameras there, and the one that was pointed at the basketball court hadn’t working in years.
I would still be wearing all black, covering my body as much as I could so that I wouldn’t be recognized or seen on my way there. Travis had planned every single detail, from the minute we should start, to how far apart the explosives needed to be placed on the court for full effectiveness.
Travis’s plan was to detonate the explosives from a distance remotely, breaking through the cement that covered the court. We wouldn’t need to search for the body ourselves, because once the police arrived, they would search the area. If there was a body beneath the basketball court, it would be easily found.
The best part about all of this was that there was no way for them to collect any real evidence on who had been there to plant the explosives. Travis had bought a pair of generic men’s shoes in cash from another city for me to wear. We covered our tracks well.
I had to admit that I was impressed by his planning. I expected him to have thought this through thoroughly, but Travis didn’t miss a single detail. He made sure everything was completely taken care of. The only thing that could possibly go wrong was that someone would show up to the court unannounced, but Travis calculated that as a negligible chance. “Close to zero percent,” he had said. I guess I had to trust him. I had taken an oath.
Travis drove a rental car with the license plate removed to the school that night, dropping me off with a duffle bag filled with mining explosives a half-mile from the school. He waited on the side of the road for me to return from my trip. If I didn’t come back within an hour, he would leave me to fend for myself.
I felt a nervousness that was soon replaced with a thrill like no other as I dashed from the car down the street toward Crimson High. I was doing something completely unlike me, all for some guy that I had met just a month before. Time moves fast when you’re a young adult, and feelings give you little room for common sense.
I kept reminding myself that this wasn’t only for Travis, but for a greater cause. Someone had been picking off students at Crimson High, and we needed to find out who. The sooner that happened, the sooner things would return to normal.
I was careful not to let the duffle bag get roughed up too much as I snuck through the gate behind the soccer field. It contained some pretty sensitive explosives, and they could detonate on their own if mishandled. The last thing I wanted was to spontaneously combust into a pink mist on the school soccer field. What a way to go.
I managed to make it to the basketball court in good time, killing just fifteen minutes on the way. It wouldn’t take me long to set everything up and get the hell out of there. I didn’t want to stick around and get caught or left behind.
I laid out the explosives carefully, arranging them across the court with speed and precision. Travis had made me practice in the woods a few times before we came so that I knew how he wanted them arranged. I did everything exactly how he had told me to.
I stood back, taking a second to admire my work. I knew that I still had time before Travis left, but I didn’t want to hang around too long. There was always the chance that someone would see me. I picked up the empty duffle bag and dashed off toward the soccer field.
For the first time in a long time, everything had gone perfectly. I was sure that the basketball court would be blown sky-high, and if Kimberly was hidden in the cement, she would be found very quickly by police when they arrived.
I got back to Travis’s rental car, jumping in and pulling the mask off my head. “I fucking did it,” I exclaimed with the stupidest grin. I felt alive that night, adrenaline pumping through me.
Travis grinned back at me and opened up the center console. He pulled out a homemade circuit board and handed it to me. Right in the center, there was a big red switch. “Flip it and let’s blow this bitch to the heavens.”
I looked him dead in the eyes as he pulled the car down the road and began driving back toward his house. “Travis, I think I’m in love with you,” I said.
Travis gave me the cockiest smile ever and reached a finger over to the switch, flicking it on. A second passed before we felt the ground rumble and heard the sound of a dozen explosives going off against the concrete.
“Aren’t you going to tell me that you love me too?” I asked as Travis sped away from the scene of the crime.
Travis chuckled and responded, “No.”
I crossed my arms, frustrated and a little embarrassed. The adrenaline rush from what we had just done kept my mood up however, and even though Travis refused to admit that he was in love with me, I could see it in his eyes. We were bonding over the crazy things we were doing together, and he liked it just as much as I did.
“Do you think the police will get there quickly?” I asked.
Travis nodded. “They definitely will, which is why I need to get you home as soon as possible. You need to have been at home, sleeping, the entire time this happened. You got that?”
I shook my head up and down furiously.
“Good. I’m going to ditch this piece of junk tonight before heading back to my place. I don’t think anyone is going to come looking for it, but you never know,” Travis said. “Let’s keep an eye out for any news about the basketball court. Hopefully they find something there.”
“I really hope so,” I said.
Travis nodded. “Me too. If not, we’re going to have to start planning how to get inside the walls at school without being noticed. That’s the only other place that Kimberly’s body may have been stashed. If that doesn’t work, I’m out of ideas.”
“I know we’re going to do
this,” I said, feeling confident.
Travis smirked at me, pulling up to my house. “Just keep your lips sealed,” he said, holding up the flash drive. “I’m going to go home and enjoy myself.”
I stuck my tongue out at him, hopping out of the car and circling around the back of my house to sneak back in. My parents wouldn’t have a clue that I was gone. Travis and I would burn all of the clothes that I had worn tomorrow in the woods, and nobody would be the wiser.
I had trouble going to sleep that night. I kept drifting off to sleep only to wake up thinking that the police were surrounding my bed. It was terrifying, but after an hour or two of this, I was finally able to sleep. Tomorrow we had school, and we might be finding out crucial information about Kimberly’s disappearance.
Chapter 23
I woke up without a single message on my phone from Travis. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised since he insisted that we only communicate in person. He had three places that he liked to talk about private stuff. Either it would be in the forgotten classroom, his car, or somewhere in the woods. I assumed he would find me once I was at school.
I went downstairs to find my parents standing in front of the TV, looking worried. My dad turned to me while pointing at the screen. “Somebody blew up part of Crimson High last night.”
I focused on the TV while a reporter talked, explaining how explosives were used on the basketball court. They were calling it a heinous crime without a clear motive.
Shit, I guess I was a legitimate criminal now. I felt an odd sense of satisfaction upon having blown up part of the school and making the news. A smile crept across my face as I watched the reporter wave at a large pile of rubble that used to be the basketball court.
They kept the school open after doing a sweep for other explosives and finding nothing, but when I arrived there weren’t many students there. Most of the parents were now too afraid to let their children attend school the day after the basketball court got blown to bits. I couldn’t say I blamed them.
Amy wasn’t there, which was good because I wanted to talk to Travis instead. I was sure that Amy would have all kinds of theories about who blew up the school and why, but I wasn’t keen on hearing them. I already knew the truth, after all.
I spotted Travis at his locker and walked up to him. “Good morning handsome,” I said cheerfully.
He turned to me. “Nothing,” he said, slamming his locker shut. “They found nothing.”
I was taken aback. “You mean at the basketball court.”
Travis nodded his head. “Fucking bullshit. Not a single damn thing,” he said, attracting nervous glances from some of the students walking down the hall.
“Okay, well maybe they just need time,” I suggested.
Travis let out a heavy sigh. “You would think a dead body would be pretty easy to spot if it was there. They don’t overlook stuff like that. We failed. Kimberly is somewhere else.”
I scrunched up my nose. “Well, I mean, are we going to keep looking?”
Travis placed a heavy hand on my shoulder. “We are going to find Kimberly even if we have to knock this whole building down to do it. Do you understand?”
“I made an oath,” I said, holding up my bandaged hand. “We’re in this together.”
Travis gave me a curt nod and twirled around to leave, talking over his shoulder as he walked away. “Don’t worry, Alice. I have a plan.”
I didn’t hear anything about Travis’s plans until several days later, when the excitement of the explosion was beginning to wear off. People assumed it was an extreme senior prank or something, but Principal Reed made it very clear over the intercom that things like that would get you expelled with a hefty prison sentence to go with it.
I was aware of how dangerous my life at Crimson High had become. I thought back to the day I had met Travis. I never thought that a chance encounter with the school bully would lead to me having sex with him and planting explosives outside the school. My life may have been spiraling out of control, but I felt oddly calm about the whole thing.
Travis must have been doing this kind of stuff for years, struggling through the beatings that his father handed down every time he made a mistake certainly had made him clever. For him, violence was the greatest teacher. It was sick and fucked up, but in a way, it made Travis more cunning and sly. He simply had to be.
I didn’t know what would happen if we found Kimberly’s body. Maybe there would be evidence along with it, but Travis was risking being framed as the culprit. Getting caught with a body was a one-way ticket back to the police station for extensive questioning. How would Travis explain everything without admitting to blowing up half the school in the process?
Maybe he would admit to everything. He seemed to care much more about Kimberly than he did about his own safety. I wondered why he was so obsessed with her. Had they been in love or something? Was that why he wouldn’t admit to loving me?
I was probably digging in too deep, overanalyzing this to iron out the creases in Travis and I’s love story. I desperately wanted to know more of the truth, but Travis was a hard man to follow. He spoke in half-truths and insisted that I trust him blindly. What choice did I have now?
It was interesting to me that Travis kept so much hidden despite how much of myself I had given to him. I had let him slash my palm, trusted him not to kill me even though he was a suspected murderer, and had even given him a flash drive full of my nudes for leverage. I was beginning to think that I was no better than Grace with the way I followed him around with puppy dog eyes and reacted to his every command.
Grace had gone missing though, and that meant that I could be next. For me, it was best to stick around Travis as much as possible. If someone was out there picking off every single woman that he associated with, then I was the next target.
I had to trust Travis. He had kept me safe thus far, but there was always a chance that he was behind all these murders. As unlikely as it seemed to me now, Detective Charles clearly didn’t trust him, and many people at the school were terrified of him, not just because he was a bully, but also because he was one of the last people seen with Kimberly before she vanished.
As far as anyone was concerned, he was the only person who knew where Eve had run off too, and she was found dead. It was possible that someone else had found her, but why go through the trouble to kill an innocent girl like Eve? It made no sense.
Every time I felt like turning my back to Travis and leaving him to concoct his crazy plans by himself, something stopped me. I couldn’t do it because of his stupid charm and the intoxicating passion when he fucked me in the forgotten classroom. I had lost track of how many times we had done it in there. I was obsessed with his body, and he seemed equally obsessed with mine.
I was hopelessly infatuated with Travis now. He was still an asshole sometimes, but he had softened up considerably since I had met him. The empathetic side of me understood where he had come from and everything he had been through, and the nurturing side of me wanted to help heal him, no matter how foolish I would look in the process. There was a good man inside of that rough exterior, and I was beginning to get more of that man.
Amy thought it was the cutest thing that Travis and I had made up. She had no clue how deep I was in this situation, to the point where it would ruin my life to get out of it. I could skip town and disappear, but I would probably end up like Eve. No, I was riding this one out, but Amy would be none the wiser.
It was a good thing that she had managed to stay out of trouble through all of this. As far as I knew, she was still with David, and Davis was still alive. Travis wasn’t very close to David, so he probably wasn’t at risk of being killed. It seemed like Amy would be more in danger, but I tried to keep her off to the side the deeper I got involved with Travis. Amy didn’t seem to mind since she was busy with David, so it worked out inconspicuously.
Everything that had happened in the past few weeks was causing my brain to go into overdrive. There was so much t
o process that I couldn’t possibly concentrate on making good grades, and my parents were beginning to take notice.
They warned me that just because I was dating a young man like Travis, I shouldn’t shrug off my school responsibilities. Senioritis, as it was often referred to, was a very real thing, but that’s not what I suffered from. I wasn’t slacking at school because I was a senior. I was slacking because I was sneaking out at night and defacing school property. It was a whole different thing.
Still, my parents would have never suspected that I get myself into so much trouble. They had no idea, and I didn’t want them to be disappointed in me. I needed to make sure I was never caught, so I took this thing as seriously as Travis did. Every move was intentional and well thought out. We still had plenty of time before the end of the year.
Travis let a few days pass before revealing any more of his new plan to me, but this time, we were looking at something that could really get us into some serious trouble. The risks of being caught were a lot higher, but this was our last shot at finding Kimberly, and Travis was taking a huge leap to make this happen.
Chapter 24
I met Travis in the forgotten classroom after he had texted me, expecting a booty call, but getting a detailed plan of our next mission instead. Damn, I would have liked to have sex and call it a day, but things couldn’t always be that easy.
Travis pointed to a chalkboard that he had somehow squeezed between the wooden planks covering the door. “This is where I think Kimberly’s body is. The south hall near to the basketball court. They’ve installed new cameras in the back since we blew the place up, so entering from that side is not a viable option.”