Sever

by Jesse Grey

  Ben coughed at his abrasiveness, looking around to make sure no one was listening to their conversation.

  “What’s the big deal? We had fun last night. No need to label an-ything.” Bridge nodded.

  “It’s more complicated than that.”

  He didn’t know what the issue was. Maybe Bridge had fudged a few of the details during the back to school party at Heartmyth last night, but they had both been pretty drunk and Ben had an amazing ass and...one thing had led to another. It’s not like they were hurting anyone.

  A titter sounded from behind them. A beautiful blonde spun Ben around and hugged him invitingly. Bridge’s eyebrows raised inquisi-tively as the woman turned to meet Bridge’s, smiling.

  “Oh, sorry,” she laughed. “You must be the student Ben is advis-ing. Abram, right?”

  “Uh, no. I’m his friend, Bridge.” he smiled nervously. “And you are?”

  The woman laughed. “I’m Paige Honeycombe, the new guidance counselor.”

  “Oh. Nice to meet you. How do you know Ben?”

  Ben shifted awkwardly as he opened his mouth to speak but Paige silenced him by holding up her hand, Bridge’s eyes brightening at the ring on her finger.

  “We’re engaged.”

  As Ben chuckled oddly, Paige beamed exuberantly, and Bridge stood there speechless as he stared at the man he had just slept with and the woman he was lying to about it.

  2

  DROP DEAD

  Abram made his way deeper into the heart of Westbrooke High, every step making him all the more angry. His parents had gone on and on about trusting him and then they went and gave him a glorified babysitter? He was so angry he was ready to annihilate some lockers. How could they say that they trusted him when they had sent Ben to observe his every move? He hadn’t felt so betrayed since Sumner had turned his life upside down.

  His sister caught up with him finally, and he was facing her be-fore he even realized it.

  “Abe, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

  “I’m not mad at you, Willa. Mom and Dad gave that speech about giving me back control over my life and they gave me a stalker!”

  “Look, I know they didn’t tell you everything but they’re just looking out for you. Having Ben around isn’t ideal, but they’re just making sure that what happened with Sumner never ever happens again.”

  Abram took in a chaste breath. He hadn’t realized how hard this had hit his family until he had returned home. What happened with Sumner was tragic, and obviously, Abram had felt the brute of his reign six months ago.

  Steeling himself, Abram looked into his sister’s eyes. “I guess I can be nice to the guy, for my family.”

  Willa gave him a quick hug. “It’s just for a little while. Plus, he’s a pretty nice guy. He seems to know Bridge.”

  “Yeah, what the hell was that about?” he laughed. “Speaking of, you and Bridge seem close.”

  “He’s been going through a rough time lately.” Just when Abram went to ask about it, Willa shook her head. “It’s not my place. You’ll have to talk to him about it.”

  “We have to get to class anyway. Let’s get this day over with.” he laughed.

  She looped her arm with her brother’s, mimicking his laughter. “You still have to tell me what it was like being in a crazy house.” When he laughed even more, she smacked him spiritedly. “I’m seri-ous! You’ve never told me.”

  But Abram just cackled again as he walked down the hall he used to own, his sister by his side as he tried to ignore the abundance of stares and whispers that came from every direction.

  Mercer walked into his first period class and quickly took a seat in the back of the room as a few kids whispered in his direction, caus-ing him to roll his eyes. Last year, he and his friends had been the envy of Westbrooke. Nobody ever gave them shit or gossiped about them, at least not to their faces, like they were now.

  He glanced to his right, where the last seat sat next to the win-dow, looking over the sedimentary object with delayed perspective. It’s where Sumner would have sat when the five of them had a class together, always needing the escape to look out into the world be-yond the confines of the classroom. Mercer cursed himself as more kids piled into the room. He hated himself every time he missed Sumner, or at least the friend he used to be to him.

  Remembering the first time he had met Sumner, Mercer found himself back in freshman year of Westbrooke. It was the first day back from winter break, and Mercer and his friends were meeting up in the cafe for breakfast, like every other morning. He was just going to stop by his locker before he met them. He remembered sifting through his locker when a stranger had approached the locker to his right, next to a huge window. The guy had molasses dark hair and wore clothes straight out of a GQ photoshoot. Mercer was sure Bridge would be all over the new guy, causing him to smirk. Mercer walked over to the new guy, slamming his locker shut after grabbing his biology book.

  “Welcome to Westbrooke,” Mercer grinned, watching the stranger jump slightly at the intrusion, causing Mercer to put his hands up, laughing. “Sorry, man. Just wanted to say hello.” he put his hands down. “You wanna join me and my friends at lunch?”

  The kid shut his locker, biology book in his hand too, and gave Mercer a sarcastic smile.

  “Drop dead.”

  The guy walked away defiantly, leaving Mercer to wonder what he had done to piss the guy off.

  The second bell brought Mercer back to the present. His history teacher, the overly effervescent Mrs. Mortimer, told everyone to take their seats as a leggy blonde sauntered into the classroom. Mercer’s gaze stuck to her as she began talking quietly to Mrs. Mortimer. He’d never seen her before. Her blonde hair was styled upwards in a pixie cut. She wore earrings with tiny polaroid cameras dangling from them, among her other ear piercings. Her vibrant green eyes shone as she smiled at Mrs. Mortimer. She wore a black leather jacket over a plain white t-shirt and skinny denim jeans with imitation suede wedge heels that accentuated her legs. Not that Mercer was staring or anything.

  “Class,” came Mrs. Mortimer’s bubbly tone. “We have a new sen-ior joining us this year. This is Kirby Wheaton.”

  Kirby regarded the class in a very sarcastic way. “I look forward to ignoring each and every one of you.”

  Several kids laughed as Kirby smiled at the crowd. Mercer couldn’t help but smile himself.

  “You can find a seat, darling.”

  Kirby nodded, surveying the room until her eyes landed on the seat next to Mercer, the one right by the window. Mercer steeled himself as she sat down next to him, setting her things down on her desk and leaving her purse by her feet.

  “Starting your senior year at a new school. That must suck.” Mercer blurted out in a hushed voice. She gave him a grin, further blushing his cheeks.

  “It’s cool. I’m totally adaptable.” She leaned in closer to him. “Plus, if I was still in Maine or Manhattan, I never would have met you.” she winked.

  Mercer laughed, thoroughly enjoying her playful confidence. “You traded Manhattan for Armor Falls? Trust me, New Hampshire doesn’t even compare to New York City.”

  “I’m actually from around here, sort of.” She paused. “I’m origi-nally from Salem, New Hampshire. My mom decided to move back to our home state.”

  Nodding, he extended his hand out to her. “I’m Mercer.”

  Kirby giggled lightly as she shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  The class went by lazily after that, Mercer helping Kirby when she had a question about the whereabouts of the school as Mrs. Mor-timer went about summarizing what their year was going to look like. It was nice to have a conversation with someone who didn’t know who he was or what had happened to him six months ago.

  Five minutes before the bell was set to ring, Mercer decided to spark conversation with Kirby that didn’t have to deal with school.

  “So, are you into photography?”

  She laughed, nodding. “How’d you guess?”
/>   “The earrings,” he smiled, gesturing towards the tiny dangling cameras. “Just an assumption.”

  “Yeah,” Kirby confirmed, her fingers gracing her earrings ab-sentmindedly. “I have a more modern camera, but my favorite is my restored Polaroid. I don’t use it all the time, but it’s a classic.”

  She reached down and rummaged through her purse and pulled out several polaroids with one single date written on all of them. “I took these last night at the cemetery.”

  Looking at some of the photos, Mercer raised an eyebrow. “Ar-mor Falls Cemetery?”

  “Surprisingly good lights on the grounds,” Kirby confirmed. “I know it’s weird, but we just moved into that house just around the corner from it, the one through the woods? Anyway, I’ve always en-joyed the quiet, dark beauty of the place where the living come to remember the dead.” Seeing his reaction, Kirby began to gather up her pictures. “But it’s not for everybody.”

  “No, no, I think it’s cool.” Mercer insisted. “Just have some not so great memories there.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry.” she said, clearly thinking the worst.

  “It’s not like that. It’s just...complicated.” he laughed awkwardly.

  The bell vibrated loudly around them, dismissing the rest of the class as students raced to be the first out of the door.

  “Maybe if I haven’t fled the premises, maybe I’ll see you at lunch?” Kirby said as she stood up with her belongings.

  “Uh, yeah,” Mercer said hesitantly, a watted grin brightening his face. He hadn’t even thought about what he was doing about lunch since he wasn’t speaking to his friends. “Yeah, that’d be great.”

  Kirby started to leave as Mercer gathered up his things when something caught his eye. He glanced over at Kirby’s desk to see that she had forgotten one of her polaroids. He looked up to call her, but she was already gone.

  Sighing, Mercer intended to just slip the photograph into his pocket and find Kirby later to return it, but the curiosity got the bet-ter of him. He reached for the polaroid and flipped it over, seeing that she had titled the picture “Cemetery Boy 8/30” as he took in the scene the picture displayed. That’s when Mercer screamed and al-most dropped the photo. Because in the polaroid was Sumner.

  3

  INTRODUCTIONS

  Coming out of his first class, Abram felt strange. Mainly because he was basically a celebrity at Westbrooke for all the wrong reasons. Almost every time someone looked at him, whispers of “He’s one of them” and “Sumner’s victims” were buzzing around him. He couldn’t imagine what they’d be saying if he told everyone about his stays in mental institutions. They’d run with that kind of material forever.

  But he also felt strange because he felt so lost without his friends. They’d been his support system for so long that it felt completely foreign to him to navigate through life without their we’ve-got-your-back smiles beaming back at him. Sure, he’d spoken to Bridge, but the one person he yearned to speak to was Lissa. She was one of the only things that had kept him sane while he was away. And he hadn’t gotten so much as a phone call from her. She was the first girl Abram had ever fallen in love with. He didn’t even know if they were still dating or not.

  As he made his way to his second period class, he spotted her over by the huge window in the hallway corridor. He tried to stop himself from running to her, but he couldn’t help it.

  “Lissa.” Abram breathed easily as he called out to her, watching her turn around to face him. Only, it wasn’t Lissa.

  “Abram?”

  He grinned slyly as she pulled him into a quick hug.

  “Faith, how’s it going?”

  She smiled up at him. “I’m fine. What about you? When did you get back?”

  “Not long ago. I’m glad I ran into you. Actually, I thought you were Lissa.”

  “Oh, I see.” she said uncomfortably.

  “Where is your sister? I haven’t heard from her since I got back.”

  “Um,” Faith stirred nervously in place as she searched his face for a change of conversation before realizing that he needed an answer from her. “Abe, it’s a long story.”

  Fear pulsed against his veins. “Is she okay? Is she sick?”

  “No, nothing like that.”

  Faith opened her mouth to set everything straight when a man loomed toward them. Abram looked over to see a ruggedly hand-some man making quick strides to close the space between him and Faith. A light came over her face as she laughed.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Surprise!” he bellowed, beckoning her for a hug, which she quickly obliged.

  Abram coughed uncomfortably as Faith realized that he was still standing there with them and hadn’t run off to class.

  “Oh, sorry.” She turned toward the stranger. “This is Abram, my...friend.”

  The dark haired man locked eyes with Abram and smiled wide. “Straton Jacobs, nice to meet you.”

  They shook hands briefly, perplexed features still displayed on Abram’s face. “And who are you exactly?”

  “I’m really bad at this, aren’t I?” Faith giggled as her phone lit up, ignoring the text as she dropped it in the back pocket of her jeans. “Straton’s my boyfriend.” Faith’s grin widened at the mention and grasped Straton’s hand “What brings you here?”

  “I figured I’d see how the first day was going on my way to class.” Straton lifted their conjoined hands and placed a light kiss on Faith’s, making it hard for Abram not to roll his eyes.

  “Do you go to AFU?” he finally asked.

  Straton shook his head. “I’m a sophomore at Heartmyth.”

  “Faith, you were supposed to meet me outside the office.”

  Abram heard the male voice before he saw who it belonged to. But once he did, he had to do a double take to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. The guy looked so different, his short brown hair and flat chest included, but so many things remained the same. The hazel eyes that Faith also bore. The half halo of freckles along his neck. His pouty lips. He spotted Abram and froze. Abram watched as terror glazed over his familiar features.

  “Lissa?”

  Finally tracking her down, Mercer made his way over to Kirby as she rummaged through her locker. She spotted him as she looked away from the storage space, smiling despite the pinched look he wore as he approached her.

  “Mercer, hey.” Kirby said, watching as he slammed something against the locker next to hers, startling her to the point of jumping.

  “When did you take this?” Mercer demanded, tossing the picture toward her.

  Kirby thanked her reflexes silently as she caught it, realizing that it was one of her polaroids. She looked back up at the obviously an-gry Mercer, confusion leaking out of her pores.

  “I told you, I took these last night.”

  Mercer huffed, shaking his head with newfound vigor. “That’s impossible.” He pointed at the photo. “Do you have any idea who that is?”

  Kirby examined the polaroid once more before tapping the cap-tion she had written. “I don’t know, but as you can see, I call him Cemetery Boy.” After seeing Mercer’s flustered expression, she went on. “Look, Mercer, I swear to you, I took that last night. I saw him in the cemetery and I guess he saw me and tried running when I snapped the picture.” She moved closer to him. “Who is he?”

  He sighed. He didn’t want to drag Kirby into the mess of his life, especially with her being new to town, but she at least needed to know who her ‘Cemetery Boy’ was.

  “His name is Sumner Shadows,” Mercer started. “Six months ago, he tried to kill me and my friends.”

  “Mercer, my God.” Kirby gasped, obviously horrified. “You said you had bad memories at the cemetery.” She let her sentence fade into the air between them as Mercer’s facade darkened.

  “That’s where he attacked us,” he nodded. “Afterwards, he skipped town. No one has seen him since.” Mercer sighed. “I’m sorry I was so livid. It’s just hard to believe that he�
��s assumingly back in town.”

  She collected the things she needed from her locker and closed it quickly, inching closer to him as to avoid eavesdroppers. “Mercer, we have to take this picture to the police.”

  “No,” he commanded, grabbing the polaroid from her hand. “We can’t tell the cops anything. Not yet anyway.”

  “But what if he’s come back to...finish what happened in the cemetery?”

  “I’m sorry, Kirby,” Mercer stuffed the picture in his jeans’ pocket. “I’ve told you too much. I shouldn’t have bothered you with any of this.”

  He went to leave, but she caught his arm. She locked her eyes with his and took in a chaste breath.

  “Mercer, you can trust me.”

  “I don’t want you tangled up in this.”

  “I already am! I took that picture, remember? Let me help.”

  “I can’t,” He shook his head. "I’m sorry about this. Forget we met. For your own good.”

  As Mercer stormed away, he heard Kirby calling his name, but he had to put as much distance between them as he could apply. If Sumner really was back in Armor Falls, he had to lessen the potential victims. And just by knowing him, Kirby was at risk. And Mercer didn’t want any more casualties at the hands of Sumner Shadows.

  Seeing Abram hadn’t been part of his plan. He knew when he had gotten to school and had a meeting with the principal and his parents that had gone well into first period, that it was going to be a trying day. He knew coming back to school a survivor of an attempted murder would be a transition. But seeing Abram was in no way part of his return as a changed man to Westbrooke.

  He had run away at Abram’s first uttering of his old name. Why hadn’t Faith warned him that he was back? Maybe she hadn’t known, but he couldn’t talk to him yet. They hadn’t had any closure during their visit at Arclan five months ago. He had to wrap his mind around Abram being back before he could even think about talking to him again.

  “Lissa!”