Sever

by Jesse Grey

  “It worked!” Lissa screeched. “Why would you cut yourself on purpose like that?”

  “I didn’t,” He took his bloody hand and licked his fingers eagerly. “It’s fake. Mostly some corn syrup I found in the kitchen the other day.”

  “You’re insane.” Mercer said, his tone clearly still hostile. “Completely insane. You should be locked up here.”

  “Oh, please. Quit being such a drama queen.” Sumner took in their still angry features, rolling his eyes at how irate the looks they were giving him were. “Come on, I was just trying to liven things up. Make it more like American Horror Story. Look, I’m sorry. It was supposed to be funny. I suppose I went a little too far. Forgive me?”

  They all looked between each other, all glances of discomfort and rage as they looked back at Sumner.

  “Don’t do shit like that.” Mercer demanded.

  “Scout’s honor.” Sumner swore, miming a salute for added effect.

  “Can we please go back to your house and forget all of this?” Lissa prompted with an exhausted sigh.

  “Sure.” Sumner said with an eightfold sigh. “This place is boring me an-yway.”

  He led them back towards the back door at the back of the kitchen, while his friends hung back and wondered why Sumner would do something like that. And if he’d keep his word and ever do it again.

  Abram finished spinning their dreaded past as Dagger stared at them in amazement. The four friends sat uncomfortably in front of him, avoiding his persistent glare.

  “He made you all believe that he was attacked?”

  Still silent, they all nodded simultaneously.

  “Why were you even friends with him?”

  “He had his moments.” Bridge sighed. “He was, is, completely in-sane, but he had these moments of making you feel...needed. Like you were different from other people. Special.”

  “We just explained away his behavior to him having a close group of friends for once.” Abram explained.

  “But all of us started to see him a little differently after that.” Alex added.

  “Alright.” Dagger stopped. “So Sumner liked to play games. What’s next?”

  There was a knock on the interrogation door, bringing them all to attention. An officer stepped into the room.

  “Detective, Ms. Wheaton is here.”

  They all looked at each other with inquisitive eyes as Dagger gave the officer a nod and told the officer to bring her in before he turned his attention back to the four of them.

  “We’ll finish this later. You’re all free to go.” They all got up to leave when Dagger added, “Expect a call sometime next week.”

  As they left the interrogation room, they all watched as the of-ficer from earlier escorted Kirby towards the interrogation room. She gave them all a quick glance, lingering on Mercer a little longer than the rest of them as they watched her disappear into the interrogation room.

  Kirby entered the room, wishing that the officer would stay with her as she spoke to Dagger. There was something really intimidating about the detective. The biggest thing being that he caught criminals as easily as she had caught mono last summer.

  “Ms. Wheaton, thanks for coming.”

  “You can call me Kirby, detective.” she said, crossing her arms. “My mother is Ms. Wheaton.”

  “Right.” he nodded. “Anyway, I just wanted to tell you in person that I’m not going to be asking you down to the station after today.” When she looked slighted, he went on. “I don’t think you have any connection to Sumner, aside from the picture. I think you just hap-pened to be at the wrong place when Sumner decided to make his dashing return to Armor Falls.”

  “Really?” She was stunned. Kirby figured Dagger basically thought she moved to Armor Falls just to get Sumner back to town.

  “Really.” he solidified. “Unless you give me a reason to think you’re guilty.”

  “Thank you, detective.”

  “I hope you know that calling you in was strictly protocol.”

  “I understand.” Kirby nodded. “Thanks again.”

  “Have a good evening, Kirby.”

  Kirby left the interrogation room and made her way out of the police station and saw that Mercer and the rest of his friends were talking just a few feet from the police station doors.

  She observed as Mercer came running toward her and away from his friends. “Hey.” he said, smiling.

  “Hi.”

  “We still haven’t been able to talk.”

  She shook her head in agreement. “Right. We never got a chance in history earlier.” she paused to give a small smile. “And now that I’m free from further interrogations—”

  “Wait, what?”

  She nodded excitedly. “Dagger cleared me.”

  “Kirby, that’s awesome.” His words confirmed as much, but his tone turned somber.

  “Why does the look in your eyes say different?” Kirby crossed her arms across herself.

  Mercer let out a heavy sigh. “Because it makes what I have to ask you even harder.”

  Her brow fidgeted in interest. “What is it?”

  “We’re pretty sure we know where Sumner is hiding,” he began at once. “And we need your help to get there.”

  “If you know where Sumner is then why didn’t you tell Dagger?”

  “Because we’re not a hundred percent sure.” Mercer looked around and made sure no one was listening. “If we tell Dagger and Sumner isn’t where we say he is, he’s gonna think we’re trying to help Sumner evade the police.”

  “Okay,” Kirby paused, wrapping her mind around his words. “Why are you asking me for help then?”

  “We think Sumner is hiding at Arclan. Well, sort of. It doesn’t matter, but we need your help because we have to get into Arclan.”

  “But why—” She stopped mid-sentence as his reason for asking her to help crashed down on her features. “The badge. I told you about my mom working at Arclan and you need to get in undetect-ed.”

  He confirmed her assumption. “I know it’s asking a lot, especially with Dagger clearing you and everything, but we need for this to be over.”

  “Mercer,” she sighed.

  “I know. I know this is crazy but we have to do this.”

  “What do you plan to do if you find Sumner?”

  Mercer looked fearless as he shook his head. “We do what we have to until Dagger can get there.”

  Kirby rolled her shoulders in frustration. All of this was all too crazy for her. She thought her life before Armor Falls was intense. Apparently, New York and Maine had nothing on New Hampshire.

  “When is this going down?”

  “Saturday.”

  She nodded. “My mom is working.”

  “Damn.”

  “No, that’s good.” Kirby assured him.

  “How is that good? We need the badge to get in.”

  Kirby shook her head. “If she was off and you tried to sneak in, Arclan would know. Security isn’t just high for patients, it’s strict on employees too. Mom told me if a badge is swiped to get in, they in-stantly know, especially if they haven’t clocked in.”

  “So what does that mean?”

  “It means I can help you. Since she’ll already be at work, I can get the badge and let you in.”

  In a flash, Mercer disagreed. “No. What is your mom’s shift?”

  “Two to eleven, but—”

  “You can go early, get the badge and we can get in right before she leaves, so no one suspects her if things get crazy.”

  “I’ll get you the badge if I go with you guys.”

  “Kirby, no.”

  “Because of Sumner, the police have questioned me about why my mom and I even moved to Armor Falls. I want to help.”

  “Sumner is dangerous, Kirby. If you tag along and things get out of hand, I’d never forgive myself if someone innocent in all this felt the brute force of that.” He closed in on the space between them. “Kirby, please. If you can get me the badge, we’
ll take care of every-thing else.”

  “But—”

  “Promise me.”

  Kirby just wanted everything to be over. Everything that heard Sumner Shadows’ name was cursed for life, and despite how short she had been involved in all things Sumner, she knew that things needed to end. Especially for Mercer and his friends.

  “Alright.” she finally said. “I’ll get you the badge and then I’ll stay away.”

  Relief overcame Mercer as he let out a huge breath. “Thank you.” He pulled her into a quick hug, one Kirby smiled into and recipro-cated.

  “Just please be careful.” she commented as they broke apart.

  “Tell you what,” Mercer gave her a grin. “To make it up to you, how about I take you out, as a thank you.”

  Kirby laughed lightly. “Are you asking me out, on a date, Mead-ows?”

  “Definitely.” Mercer smiled.

  “Who knew you were so smooth?”

  He cackled loudly, earning long distance glares from his friends. “I never am, just ask them.”

  “What about curfew?”

  “I was thinking about a lunch date at school, like a picnic out in the quad or something.”

  Pursing her lips, Kirby toyed with the idea until she ultimately agreed. “I got to say, I’m pretty impressed.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  “How’s tomorrow?”

  Mercer’s smile widened brightly. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

  “Goodnight, Mercer.”

  “Night, Kirby.”

  Kirby walked down the sidewalk to call her mom to come pick her up as Mercer returned to his friends, closer to the doors of the police station.

  “Kirby’s in. She’s gonna get us the badge.”

  “Merce, did you just ask her out?” Bridge said, eyebrows to the sky in wonder.

  “Didn’t expect me to be so suave, right?”

  “Sure.” Bridge clapped him on the shoulder, smiling mockingly.

  “So Saturday’s officially on?” Abram said.

  Mercer agreed. “We’ve got to get in before eleven, so they don’t think her mom let us in.”

  “Alright. Saturday, and hopefully this’ll all be over.” Alex stated.

  They all settled on the reciprocated prayer and then subsequently parted, taking their various ways home as they hoped that Saturday would alter everything forever and finally bring them a single ray of ethereal inner peace.

  Walking up to her house from her car, Willa realized that no one was home yet. She figured her parents were probably just now leav-ing their separate workplaces, but she expected for Ben to have al-ready dropped off Abram like usual. But all the lights were off in the house.

  Scrolling through her various keys, Willa found her house key and was just about to go into the house when she noticed something hanging out of the mail slot of the door.

  Pulling the item toward her, Willa was staring at a note. Written in red smudgy handwriting was a weird message.

  Maybe she’ll believe you now

  - S

  Confused, Willa turned the message over when she tried not to faint as her eyes took in a photo of herself that she barely remem-bered posing for. But once she saw the other two people on either side of her, she understood the message clearly.

  Because in the picture, she was standing between Sumner and Straton.

  8

  CONFESS

  Athena Wheaton walked out of the coffee shop, already exhausted as she impatiently tossed back her double espresso. Working at Arclan had been twice as tiring and stressful than she had anticipated upon taking the job. Managing a fashion boutique in New York was nothing in contrast to working as a nurse at Arclan Asylum.

  She kept walking down the street to her car when she noticed a familiar face at the same time they noticed her.

  “Athena.” came Adelaide Llewellyn’s velveteen voice, waving at her.

  Athena smiled nervously as she saw that Adelaide wasn’t sitting alone outside the quaint coffee shop, but she recognized them. They were both present at the lockdown meeting at Adelaide’s house last week.

  “Adelaide, hi.” She kept smiling as she walked over to them.

  “Addie.” she smiled back, correcting her. “Would you like to join us?”

  She looked at the sun-kissed man and dark caramel fleshed woman sitting with Adelaide.

  “I wouldn’t want to impose.”

  “Please,” The handsome gentleman said, pulling out the chair be-tween Adelaide and himself. “We don’t mind.”

  Pushing aside her reluctance, Athena grinned and took her seat with earnest.

  “Athena, I know you saw everyone at the meeting, but this is November St. James, Abram and Willa’s mother.”

  November put out a hand that Athena shook in an instant. “You can call me Nova, everyone else does.”

  Nodding, Athena turned her attention to the handsome man be-side her. “And this is Araec,” Adelaide smiled. “He’s one of Mercer’s fathers.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Athena grinned.

  “Likewise.”

  To redirect how uneasy she was feeling, she decided to steer the conversation, looking back to Adelaide once more.

  “Did you hear about Kirby?” Athena started.

  Adelaide shook her head. “About what?”

  “Dagger cleared her from any further interrogations.”

  The other parents looked completely floored, the other two look-ing to Adelaide for answers, which Athena was beginning to figure was the norm, given her lawful employment.

  “He didn’t mention anything to me about that.”

  “As if he would anymore.” November scoffed.

  Adelaide growled in annoyance. “I’m starting to think he took this case just to get under my skin.”

  “Do you have history with Detective Dagger professionally?” Athena asked innocently.

  Araec guffawed, which preceded angry looks from November and Adelaide. “Sorry.” he apologized hotly.

  “Am I missing something?” Athena laughed nervously.

  As Adelaide sighed, November took over and answered for her. “Alston, I mean Dagger, and Addie used to date in college.”

  “Oh.” Athena spoke softly. “And him taking a case involving your son…”

  “He’s driving me crazy.” Adelaide admitted. “It feels like he’s set-tling a vendetta by being back in town.”

  “I bet you regret moving here now.” Araec told Athena, laughing. “What even brought you to Armor Falls?”

  Athena cleared her throat before she started. “I desperately need-ed a job away from Manhattan, so we moved to a town in Maine, where everything was fine for a while. Until it wasn’t. I wasn’t get-ting anywhere with my fashion background so I applied to jobs using my nursing degree. And when we needed to leave Maine, I used the same method and applied to any and all nursing jobs that could have used another employee.”

  “And how did you find Arclan?” November chimed in.

  “Google.” Athena breathed uneasily, feeling like how she imag-ined Kirby must have had with Dagger. “Just searched for nursing homes and mental institutions with good reputations. I applied eve-rywhere, anywhere. The further away from Maine, the better.” she paused to look at all of them, sighing. “I was thinking I was going to get a job in Vermont, but Arclan was the first to call back. So we packed up our lives and found our way to New Hampshire.”

  “You didn’t research Armor Falls before moving here?”

  Adelaide interjected. “You guys are sounding a lot like Dagger.”

  “It’s okay,” Athena assured her, deciding to just get it all out in the open rather than these type of questions coming up any later for her to address. “No, I didn’t research Armor Falls. Once I got off the phone with Arclan and found a place to stay, I was sold. Anything was better than staying in Maine.”

  “Did something happen with Kirby’s dad?” Araec asked.

  “God, no.” Athena scoffed. “Kirby’s f
ather hasn’t been around since she was a toddler.” Pausing yet again, Athena enveloped anoth-er deep breath. “It was just personal affairs.”

  “Plenty of that around here.” November nodded.

  “Anyway,” Adelaide took a bite of her blueberry scone. “Back to the kids. I did hear about Kirby joining Yearbook though.”

  Athena laughed lightly. “She told me this morning. She’s always had a passion for photography. I imagine she’ll do well taking pic-tures for the yearbook.”

  “Are you sure you’re comfortable? I can talk to Thalia about it if you want.” Adelaide told her.

  “Why would I? Just because I want to keep Kirby away from the Sumner Shadows case doesn’t mean I want to force her to give up her ambitions. And who’s Thalia?”

  “Thalia is the principal at Westbrooke.” November said.

  “She can help,” Araec continued. “She has a unique insight into the whole Sumner situation.”

  “How’s that?” Athena looked confused.

  “Thalia Cobbins is married to Viviane Cobbins.” Araec said.

  “And Viviane’s sister is, was, known as Marjorie Cobbins.” No-vember added. “Before Marjorie got married.”

  “I’m not following.” Athena said nervously. “Who was Marjorie Cobbins?”

  Adelaide looked really distant, as if recalling an old memory about the woman in question. Finally, she locked eyes with Athena.

  “Marjorie Cobbins was Sumner’s mother.”

  “You have to admit, they are pretty damn cute together.”

  Alex and Abram couldn’t help but agree with Bridge as the three of them watched Mercer and Kirby on their picnic date out in the quad. They stood against a brick archway just outside of the cafeteria, feet from the stairs that lead to another entrance into the building, watching as Kirby and Mercer laughed together out in the grass.

  “Lord knows what awful decade old jokes he’s telling her.” Bridge rolled his eyes as they leaned against the archway and looked out from in between the brick structure.

  “Leave him alone,” Alex laughed. “I think it’s good for Mercer to be seeing someone.”