Drop of Doubt

by C. L. Stone

  “Did he hurt you?” the masked man asked. “Did he try to?”

  I nodded slowly. “He cornered me in the girls’ locker room.”

  “And you haven’t seen him since?”

  “No. They said—”

  “Not to worry about it.”

  I stopped talking, suddenly afraid to know any more. My fingers smoothed over the top of the phone. I was tempted to put it down, to stop Mr. Blackbourne if he was listening. Part of me didn’t want to sever the connection either. I didn’t know what to do. “Yes,” I said quietly.

  “The reason they don’t want to tell you anything is because it would be a lie, and they’re pretty good at manipulating facts enough to make themselves believe what they’re saying is true.”

  I thought of Mr. Blackbourne and what he had told me. It took years to learn how to lie well enough to become undetectable. Instead, he taught me how to change the truth enough and how to think so when I spoke, even if I was unsure, it would sound like the truth. “What are you saying they did to Mr. McCoy?”

  “Just don’t be surprised if you never hear from him again.”

  “What?”

  “He’s either dead, or they have him locked up somewhere, probably the same place they took your mother.”

  My heart sank. “They didn’t ... they don’t do that.”

  “Oh you don’t think so?”

  “My mother’s ill,” I protested. “She’s under heavy medication. She has cancer.”

  “I’m sure she does, but she was a risk to you, and right now they see you as an asset. So they’ll eliminate anything that stands in their way. They do it to win you over. When you’ve sold your soul to them, that’s when they let you know.”

  “I don’t understand. What is the Academy?”

  “It’s a private school,” he said.

  I twisted my lips. That’s what they told me at first, but now I knew it was more than that. I wasn’t clear on what.

  “Yeah,” he said. His head nodded. “You know better. You’ve seen a lot, right? How they operate? But if you ask any member what it is, they’ll say the same thing.”

  “Why?”

  “Who cares about some preppy private school? Parents they don’t eliminate are all too grateful to ‘enroll’ their kids into what looks like an elite school, and they get more excited when they learn tuition is free because their kid is being sponsored. Anyone that cares thinks it is a good opportunity, but most parents of the kids they enlist are abusive and are happy to get rid of their kids whenever possible. Then all a kid has to do is say, ‘I’m going to the Academy’ and parents don’t ask, don’t want to know. And the kids getting in are fed the lies and promises and are too grateful from being saved to look closer at what they are signing up for.”

  It didn’t fit. The boys loved the Academy. Victor told me so. They all did. “But the Academy helps people. They’re at my school to help.”

  “Believe me, if they are anywhere, it isn’t because they’re there to help. There’s something they want and you’re helping them if you work with them.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t believe it.”

  “I’m not here because of my own health. I don’t have to be here to warn you. You were hard enough to get away from them. And it won’t be long before they catch up to us.”

  “What?”

  “You’ve had that phone on and called Mr. Blackbourne, didn’t you?”

  My fingers shook so bad, I dropped the phone. It slid to the floor at my feet. The screen was on. Mr. Blackbourne’s number had been dialed. I bent over for it.

  “Don’t pick it up,” the man said, in a threatening voice now on top of the strange mechanical sounds. “Don’t touch it.”

  “What do you want me to do?” I asked. “Where are you taking me?”

  “I’m taking you as far as I can. I know they’re coming for you. I just wanted you to hear me out.”

  “So you’re telling me to run away? I can’t do that. I’ve got a sister. And ... I can’t.”

  “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave right now and not come back. Your sister isn’t interesting to them. You are. There’s a reason for that.” He sighed, shaking his head. “But you’re not going to listen to me. You’ll go back.”

  “How do you know?”

  “They suck you in. I know. And if you’re Academy material, you’re clever. And you don’t back down.” He half twisted his head again toward me. “Isn’t that what they tell you?”

  I started to shake my head, wanting to deny everything, but I stopped short. I wasn’t very good at lying.

  “You’re a smart girl, Sang. So I know you’re not going to listen to me when I tell you to run. You’re going to keep snooping around until you see proof of what I’m telling you.”

  “You can’t expect me to trust you after kidnapping me.”

  “I told you I do what I have to.”

  “Why wear a mask?”

  “I don’t trust you that much yet.”

  “And you expect me to trust you?”

  He shook his head. “No. That’s what I said. You don’t now. You won’t trust what I’ve said. But you will.” He punched the button to turn off the cruise control. He pulled into the right lane, passing signs for a rest area a couple of miles ahead. “You’ll go back and you’re going to look for the signs.”

  “What signs?”

  “Be more demanding,” he said. “Ask to see your mother. Say you won’t do anything else with them until you see her.”

  “They’re smart Academy guys. I’m sure they can figure out how you can look in on your mother without her knowing if what you say is true. If she’s still around.” He pulled onto the exit for the rest area. “I hate to leave you here, but they’re probably really close now.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I know how they operate.” He parked, grabbed the keys and pulled them out of the ignition. “Plus Mr. Blackbourne really loves this car.”

  My mouth was hanging open as he heaved himself out. For a while, I wondered if he just managed to get a good replica. No wonder I recognized the car. He stole it from Mr. Blackbourne.

  I unbuckled and shoved open the passenger side door. “Who are you?” I asked over the top of the car. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Keep your eyes open. Find out for yourself if I’m telling the truth.” The white mask caught the light of passing cars, causing the material to shimmer like plastic. “I’ll be watching,” he said. He tossed the keys over the top of the car and at me.

  I caught them. “How do I reach you?”

  “You don’t.” He turned around, and in a flash he was running toward a truck with an empty bed. He ran at top speed, launched himself, and caught the end of the truck bed and heaved himself on. The truck rolled out of the rest area and headed up the highway.

  WHEN DOUBT CREEPS IN

  My heart was still racing, and I was pondering what to do. I had keys. I had a car. I had no idea how to drive. I understood the phone was in the car but something had me hesitating, wondering about the man in the white mask. He was protecting me, or thought he was. He was once in the Academy. Or was he? Otherwise, how would he have known all those things?

  Didn’t Mr. Blackbourne take over Mr. McCoy’s job? Mr. McCoy had attacked me, true, but could any of us had predicted it? Would he have taken the vice principal’s job in another way if he hadn’t?

  He even knew the hospital I’d been in belonged to the Academy. The Academy infiltrated a school. What made it hard for me to believe they could take over an entire wing of a hospital?

  How do you take over a hospital and not have anyone notice? Is that how Mr. Blackbourne and the others could guarantee my parents wouldn’t find out the last time I went for X-Rays and my MRI when my foot was injured? They knew because it was the Academy section. It would require an Academy-run hospital to be understanding if Dr. Green had to run off and help me, or help one of the others. Or had a strange girl assisting h
im who was nowhere near qualified.

  If what he said was true, and for some reason I believed it, Dr. Philip Roberts was Academy. Marc was Academy. Even that old lady in the bed, and all the assistants. It felt incredible and impossible. I had no idea what it meant, but suddenly the Academy was everywhere. I didn’t know where it ended.

  And if he did know these things, that had to mean he was part of the Academy. And if that was true, was the rest of what he was saying true?. I remembered Derrick said they once tried to recruit him, but he didn’t want that life. Maybe Derrick’s parents weren’t abusive. Was that why their recruitment didn’t work?

  Derrick had once told me Kota and the others were thieves. The masked man believed they were dangerous, too. I wondered how the masked man had stolen Mr. Blackbourne’s car. Didn’t that make him a thief, too? How had he managed to infiltrate the other iPhone, too? Or manage to manipulate the number so soon after Victor had gotten a new one? But if he was from the Academy, he was an equal match for the rest of them. He knew how to do things the other ones knew how to do.

  And he knew a lot more than I did.

  The keys in my hand tempted me. I didn’t know what to do, but I imagined what it would be like if I simply drove off. Would the guys be able to follow me? What if I jumped in a truck bed or hitched a ride just like the masked man? Would I be able to disappear like him? Would I be able to run away? Kota had told me this was a choice. Was it really? If I asked them to back off, would they? Or was that a lie so I would feel comfortable enough to trust them?

  I closed the passenger door, and found the edge of the sidewalk and squatted down to sit on it. With my knees up, I tucked my head in and held myself together. If the masked man was right, the boys would be here any moment. Part of me wanted them to show up. This had been scary. This was watering the little seed of doubt that I had let creep into my mind the day Derrick had told me they had once been thieves.

  What had I gotten myself into? Didn’t the guys tell me all the time they were worried I’d get upset and leave?

  But if they were thieves, or bad people, why did they work so hard at taking care of me?

  Why did they have to be so nice?

  A familiar black Jeep sped up the oncoming ramp toward the rest area. I swallowed back the thick knot of tears at the base of my throat. I didn’t have time to fall apart now. I didn’t want to think of the questions or the possible answers. My heart was overwhelmed at seeing the familiar car, and all I could think of was faces I thought I knew so well, that had saved me time and again. For now, I wanted to forget. The masked man had to be wrong. The boys were good. If it hadn’t been for them, I’d be dead. They wouldn’t hurt me or put me in danger. I knew it.

  Didn’t I?

  I stood as the Jeep got close. It stopped, parking lengthwise across four parking spaces and within a few feet of where I stood. The doors on both sides opened while the engine was still running. North hopped out of the passenger side seat. Mr. Blackbourne followed from behind the wheel of the driver’s side. Kota and Nathan lunged out from the back seat.

  North flew at me, his arms out. I had the keys in my hand but dropped them when he picked me up around the waist. I breathed in the musk of his cologne. I hung on around his neck.

  “Baby,” he cooed. His hands roughly touched over my stomach and arms as he inspected me. “Why is there blood? If he—“

  “It’s not mine,” I said quickly. The blood spots still on the shirt probably told them a different story than what had really happened. “Long story, but I’m not hurt. He never touched me.”

  He hugged me close. “Fucking shit, what the hell happened?”

  “I ...” I choked out, but his arms around me were too tight and I couldn’t find enough air to talk properly. I ended up whispering. “North.”

  But the comfort and relief I wanted to feel at his hug had been soiled. Into my mind crept little questions, biting at my brain. Was he really worried about me? Was anything the masked man said true?

  And for that reason, I wanted to cry. I wanted to hate the white mask and what he’d done. I sank into North’s hug, wanting something to grip to. Wanting the feeling of peace I’d once felt with him to return. I thought if I hugged him tight enough, maybe that feeling would come back. That everything the masked man had said would go away.

  I wanted my hug to ask questions of North I couldn’t ask out loud: Prove to me it was a lie. Tell me you’re good. Make me believe again.

  Before, I had told them I didn’t feel part of their group. Now it was like I was suddenly cast into cold bath water. It wasn’t just me and my small Academy family facing off the world. It was the world out there, and me in an unknown place with the Academy hovering over me with secrets. I suddenly didn’t know who they were any more.

  And what hurt the most was that who I thought they were had been a lie. My heart was breaking. The feelings I had for each of them suddenly weighed so heavily inside me that I hadn’t realized before how much I’d come to care about them.

  It hurt so bad to consider it all might have been a lie.

  I shoved it all aside, willing myself to be strong now. If the masked man was wrong, I didn’t ever want the boys to know I had any reservations at all. I wouldn’t want to hurt them like that.

  “Let me have her,” Kota’s said from behind North.

  North grunted but released me. I sucked in some air, holding on to his shoulder. Despite my desire to look, I couldn’t meet his eyes. I thought if I did, I would see some flicker of truth in what the masked man had said, and I didn’t want to know right now. I was scared to death North would see at once that I didn’t trust them.

  Kota rescued me before I had to look at North. He pulled me close, lifting me right off the ground, his face pressed to the crook of my neck.

  “What happened?” Mr. Blackbourne asked from behind me.

  I spoke around Kota’s hug. “I called your emergency line. Did you hear what he was saying?”

  “We could hear you, but the other voice was garbled,” Mr. Blackbourne said.

  My heart thundered. So he possibly didn’t know much about what the man had been saying. I tried to remember what I had said, and how much I might have already revealed about the conversation. “He was wearing a mask, and there was some sort of voice distortion. I guess it was so I couldn’t recognize him.”

  Mr. Blackbourne touched the corner of his glasses with a forefinger. “It could have been why we couldn’t understand him. The cell phone didn’t pick up the sound.”

  Kota’s arms held me, pressing me to his body. “Did he hurt you?”

  “No,” I said. “He didn’t touch me. He just wanted to talk.”

  “Where did he go?” North asked. “Is he still here?”

  “No. He hopped a truck bed.”

  “Did you catch the plate on the truck?” North asked.

  “Let’s not chase now,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “He’s probably already jumped off and headed in a different direction. We’ve lost him for now.”

  “I want her,” Nathan said.

  Kota grunted but released me.

  Before I could turn around, I was collected by the waist and half spun. Nathan’s blue eyes met mine. “Are you okay?”

  My heart felt frozen. His eyes sought out everything I was trying to hide. I wasn’t sure how much they heard when I was talking, but I didn’t want to appear like I was trying to hold back. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I needed time to absorb what had gone on. “He scared me, but he didn’t do anything.”

  “He was asking about the Academy?” Nathan asked.

  Was that what he was worried about? If I spilled some secret? “He was trying to tell me what he thought. He thinks like Mr. Hendricks, that you’re bad and he wanted to warn me.” There, it was good enough. It was essentially what he was saying, but it wasn’t the whole truth. They probably could have guessed half as much from what I said.

  Nathan kept his hand at the small of my back but addressed the others. “H
e’s dangerous.”

  “I agree,” North said.

  “I don’t think so,” I said.

  They all turned toward me. “Why do you think that?” Mr. Blackbourne asked.

  I wondered for a moment if maybe I’d said too much. “He could have kidnapped me for a long time or hurt me, but he didn’t. He thought he was doing good by warning me about you.”

  “But he’s a psycho, Peanut.” Nathan clutched my waist. “He just up and snagged you.”

  “He went to a lot of trouble just to talk to me,” I said. “So if he was planning on hurting me, it would have happened. But he didn’t. He just talked to me and dropped me off here.”

  “This wasn’t just talking to you,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He planted his hands on his lean hips. His gray eyes shifted, calculating. “This was a message to us, too. He wanted us to know he knows more than we think he does. We can’t let our guard down.”

  “I don’t think he’s coming back for me,” I said.

  “We can’t be too sure,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “What was he asking you to do?”

  “He wanted me to run away. He was warning me if I was hanging around you, that I might get hurt more.”

  Mr. Blackbourne’s eyes lifted and met with Kota’s and then with North’s. The silent communication they shared lasted only a moment, but it was as if a whole conversation had been spoken and they’d reached a decision together.

  “I think we found what we were waiting for,” Kota said.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  Nathan frowned. He pulled me in tighter as if afraid to let go. “He’s warning you to stay away because he’s planning something for us. It’s like the Morse code you were getting. He’s warning you to stay away because he has something in mind.”

  My heart stumbled and almost soared again, but only for a moment. Maybe Nathan was on to something. Maybe the masked man was lying and trying to scare me. Maybe he was trying to make me think I had to leave.

  Didn’t he say as much? But he also said so much more. I shook the thoughts for now. I needed to keep my eyes open, but I also didn’t want to see the guys hurt. I didn’t know what to believe, but they had saved me so many times. I couldn’t let them get hurt. I wouldn’t let that happen. I wasn’t going to abandon them. “How did you all catch up with us so quickly?”