Sever

by Jesse Grey

  Straton shook his head. “No. No, I’m calling the police. You shouldn’t have come here. You should be in jail.” he said severely.

  “No, please!” Sumner begged, clutching at Straton’s arm and holding on with incredible strength that set Straton’s teeth on edge. “Straton, my friends don’t know the truth about what happened the night in the cemetery.”

  “Goodbye, Sumner. I’m not getting caught up in all of this.”

  “You already are,” Sumner cried, releasing his arm. “By dating Faith.”

  Alarms and red flags had nothing on how uneasy Sumner’s words had struck him at that moment.

  “How do you know about that?” Straton demanded to know.

  Sumner’s emotions were suddenly clear and sharp, tears no longer coat-ing his cheeks or even on the horizon in his eyes, as if everything up to that point had been a very well-rehearsed front. “I’ve made a couple stops to Ar-mor Falls before tonight.” Sumner then went back to wearing a veil of worry over his face, yet another counterfeit illustration of emotions. “Tonight, something happened. Something bad.”

  “Tell the police,” Straton was putting his foot down. “Stick around, I’ll call them for you.”

  A sinister look glazed over Sumner’s earlier facade of terrified inno-cence. “Be that way.” All too suddenly, Sumner pushed Straton back inside of his dorm room, staining Straton’s bare chest with blood. “One day, I’ll cash in this rejection for something...far more rewarding on my end.”

  “Sumner, what are you gonna do?”

  He let out a cackle that brought the hair on the back of Straton’s neck to attention, troops saluting a farewell to his better judgment. “You’ll know when I take my withdrawal, Jacobs. Until then,” Sumner laughed menacingly again. “Sweet dreams.”

  Before a response died in the back of his throat, Straton watched as Sumner ran down the dorm hallway, vanishing once again from the resi-dents of Armor Falls like a tangled vapor with salt slicked razor tendrils ready to strike its next waiting victim.

  Sumner’s former friends stared in complete disbelief as Straton finished his confession, leaving not only them but also Dagger utter-ly void of a response at first.

  “So let me just try and wrap my head around this,” Dagger breathed cautiously. “A bloody, distraught Sumner Shadows pleaded for your assistance involving...what?”

  “I don’t know. Sumner said his friends didn’t know the truth about the night they were attacked.” Straton nodded. “And then he said something bad had happened that had gotten him covered in blood.” he sighed. “He made it seem like someone was messing with him, making it look like he was doing something that he wasn’t.”

  “And you believed him? Is that why you didn’t tell the police about your little run-in with a wanted fugitive?”

  “Sumner tried to kill his friends, detective.” Straton shook his head. “Of course I didn’t believe him. A month ago, this happened and in that time, nothing came of his threat. So I thought I could just forget about it and he wouldn’t strike. Plus, I was terrified. Of what the cops might assume, yes, but more than that, I was scared of Sumner.” Straton looked like he might be shaking. “He said I’d know when he’d make me pay for shutting the door on him. Now I’m your new suspect in Sumner’s case, right? I’d say I’m well aware that he’s gotten me back.”

  “So you think it was Sumner that left the picture for Willa to find?”

  “Don’t you?” Straton scoffed. “Sumner’s watching, every last one of us. He wanted to get back at me for turning him away and he’s sufficiently succeeded.”

  As Dagger asked Straton a little more about Sumner’s state of mind the night he showed up, the four friends were at a loss of un-derstanding. They all turned away from the mirror and just stared at each other.

  “What just happened?” Bridge said, shattering their silence.

  Mercer rubbed his temples. “I don’t know which part to try and process first.”

  “Why the hell was Sumner covered in blood?” Bridge wondered. “And if it was him outside the RV, could he have saved that blood to soak the stake in?”

  “Aren’t we done assuming the RV thing was him? He signed the picture, Bridge. He wanted us to know that the picture was him. He’d have done the same with the RV.” Mercer rebuked.

  Abram sighed. “I’m stuck on the part about us. How could we not know something about the attack at the cemetery?”

  “I can’t do this.” Alex said, looking away from them. “This is all too...I can’t.”

  Withdrawing from his friends, Alex walked out of the room heatedly, leaving for the front of the police station.

  “Alex,” Bridge called after him, but Abram shook his head.

  “I’ll get him.”

  Alex was already flinging open the police station doors, glad his mom, sister, or Willa hadn’t been in plain view to stop him from leaving, when Abram finally caught up with him just outside.

  “Alex, wait.” came Abram’s voice from behind him.

  “Why can’t we be done with this?” He said, whipping around to meet Abram’s face. “Why would Sumner come back at all? He tried to kill us, and the police never found him. He got away, why come back?”

  “I know Straton’s confession raises a lot of questions but—”

  “I’m tired of questions. I want answers!” Alex lamented. “We’ll always be those kids that knew Sumner. Our lives will always be in-terrupted by police investigations and last minute questionings, Abe. I don’t want a life run by the memory of Sumner Shadows.” Alex tried to hold back his anger and sorrow from showing, but tears beckoned against his corneas. “I want the life I had before this, when it was just the four of us. When you and I listened to songs from the eighties and laughed and we weren’t burdened by crimes and alibis.” His emotions steered him now as his cheeks were assaulted by sud-den moisture. “I transitioned so I could finally be myself and now I find myself trapped in a life I still have no control over.”

  Losing to his sobs, Alex’s crying took over completely, Abram pulling him into a much needed embrace as Alex settled into his fa-miliar arms, silencing his sobs into the taller boy’s shoulder.

  “We won’t always be Sumner’s friends, Alex.” Abram said as he traced a pattern on Alex’s back comfortingly. “We will get past this, but in the meantime,” Alex’s hysterics dying down, Abram broke the hug to stare at him, wiping away his tears with a stray finger. “We can’t lose ourselves along the way. We’ll get back to times like be-fore.” he smiled. “There is life after Sumner Shadows. We’ll get there, I promise.”

  Alex grinned in spite of the situation. “What would I do without you?”

  “Drown yourself in Rocky Road.” Abram laughed.

  Agreeing, Alex grabbed one of Abram’s hands. “Thanks for al-ways knowing how to ground me.”

  “Anytime.” he smiled back.

  Alex enveloped Abram into another hug, squeezing him tightly, feeling completely okay with dealing with all things Sumner if Abram was by his side through it all. When they broke apart once again, Alex stared into Abram’s blue eyes and glanced at the smile he held, and he didn’t plan to, but all the feelings came rushing up with-in him like a soda can being shaken and opened abruptly. He was pressing his lips softly against Abram’s before he could stop himself, closing his eyes and savoring the familiar sensation he had missed so much.

  The feeling of Abram’s hands on his shoulders brought Alex out of the happy ecstasy, pushing them apart sooner than Alex would have preferred.

  “Alex—”

  “I still love you, Abe.” Alex cut him off like the quick swipe of a razor blade, blurting out his feelings in an instant, like he'd ripped open a vein. “And I know you still have feelings for me too. That night in the car, before we went to the RV, I felt it. Don’t tell me you didn’t feel it too.”

  “Stop.”

  “I know this is complicated, I know it’s not what you’re used to, but we were so good, Abe. We can be A
be and Liss again.” He grabbed for Abram’s hand, elated that his former flame had let such an act transpire.

  “Alex.”

  “I’m still the same person I’ve always been—”

  “No!” Abram pulled his hand back, breaking the last of the physi-cal contact still remaining between them. “No, it’s not the same. It will never be like before because we’re not Abe and Liss anymore. I’m still Abe, but you’re Alex now. I’m happy for you, I really am, but things have changed.”

  “Abe.”

  “I didn’t hear from you for five months!”

  Mercer and Bridge walked out of the police station, instantly ending their conversation as they made their way over to them.

  “Tell them I had to go.” Abram said. “I’ll text Willa to come out and take me home.”

  “Abe—”

  “Goodnight, Alex.”

  Abram started walking toward Willa’s car as Bridge and Mercer came up to Alex, looking perplexed.

  “What’s going on?” Bridge asked.

  Alex wiped away fresh tears as he watched Abram walk away, too hurt to explain in detail.

  “Nothing,” he finally said. “Nothing at all is going on.”

  9

  WHERE SHADOWS DWELL

  Abram’s phone rang over and over the next morning, all of the calls coming from Alex, as he had expected. When he sent the calls to voicemail and Alex texted that he wanted to talk, Abram let out a sigh. He had once loved Alex and he still cared for him a lot, but it was a lot for him to come to terms with. He had never thought about his unresolved feelings for Lissa upon learning that she was Alex. Abram just wanted to push it out of his mind for the time being. So when Mercer texted him about meeting up at the gym the next morning, Abram concocted a story about needing to work out to his parents and leapt at the invitation when his parents agreed as long as he was home before dark.

  After they were sweaty and the slightest bit sore, Mercer and Abram hit a nearby coffee shop for some carbs and caffeine to re-ward themselves.

  “You were going strong today,” Abram laughed as they sat at an outside table to bask in the warmth of the vibrant sunny day. “Kir-by’s sure gonna love the work you did on your biceps.”

  Mercer laughed too as he sat the bag with their everything bagels down on the table, Abram taking one with earnest. “Maybe if I get a second date, she’ll be able to appreciate my work out today.”

  Smiling, Abram swallowed a generous bite of bagel before speaking. “Speaking of, how’d the first date go?”

  “Pretty good,” Mercer said between sips of his caramel Frappuc-cino. “I really like her. I told her a little bit about us before I could ask too much about her though.”

  Abram sighed. “Yeah, the car warning cut it short.”

  “Now do you believe me that someone saw us?” When Abram just sipped his white mocha frapp, he continued. “Whoever wrote the messages on our cars, they’re not the same person who sent Willa that picture.”

  “No, I don’t think so either.” Abram concurred. “I mean, signing the picture? I believe Straton, I think Sumner sent that to my house so Willa would find it.” he paused. “Maybe we should listen to who-ever wrote the car messages and stop looking for Sumner.”

  Mercer scoffed. “You want to start confessing too? Abe, we’re so close. Straton’s confession only helped the Sumner hunt."

  “How’s that?”

  “I looked it up this morning.” Mercer nodded. “Heartmyth is only about fifteen miles from the Armor Falls county line, which is only about another five miles from Arclan.”

  “And what, Sumner took the rest of the night to walk there? That’s like a two hour walk.”

  “One hour and thirty-seven minutes,” Abram looked surprised, a sentiment Mercer just brushed aside. “I checked. Sumner could have walked, or biked, or even stolen a car to get there. My point is, it's not that far for him to get to and hide out there. If Sumner is still watching, especially to make sure Straton is suffering, we need to go while he's distracted, while he thinks we’re too focused on Straton’s connection to him.”

  “I guess that makes sense.” Abram sighed, shoveling in more of his bagel when his phone chimed again. He pulled it out of his bas-ketball shorts, seeing the recipient and sighed. “Relentless.”

  Mercer tried to scarf down the rest of his own bagel. “Who’s that?”

  “Alex,” he answered with a heavy sigh. “I’m about to turn my phone off.”

  “Why? What’s wrong?”

  “He kissed me last night.”

  Mercer stopped chewing his food, talking around his food at the bombshell, slightly muffling his words. “I’m sorry, kissed?”

  “He said he still loves me and that we could try to be...us again.”

  “Wow.” Mercer said. “I didn’t expect that.”

  “Neither did I,” Abram admitted. “I don’t even know what to say to him.”

  “Well you better patch things up with him before tonight.” Mer-cer finished the last of his coffee. “Just be honest with him. I’m sure he’ll understand.”

  “Anyway,” Abram deflected easily. He wasn’t in the mood to talk about it anymore. “We need to figure out who’s messing with us.”

  “I think finding Sumner is more important right now.” Mercer stated. “Don’t get me wrong, if someone knows about that night, we need to find out who it is, but I think time is on our side right now and we need to break into Arclan while we still can.” Abram’s phone rang again, causing Mercer to smile. “But first things first, you need to talk to Alex.”

  Sighing in defeat, Abram caved. “You’re right.” he quickly texted Alex back in a blur of typing. “Can you drop me off somewhere?”

  When there was a knock on her bedroom door, she didn’t even move. She barely even heard the repetitive tapping. Everything seemed either numb or foggy to her anymore. A knock hardly regis-tered in her mind as important.

  “Faith, it’s Willa.”

  Faith turned her head, but didn’t rush to open the door. “My dad let you in?”

  “He’s the one who called me over. Just let me in.”

  A sigh lazily left Faith’s lips. “It’s open.”

  The door creaked open, and Willa effortlessly strode in, closing the door quietly behind her. She made her way over to the window seat where Faith resided. Willa sat on the bed across from her.

  “Your dad said you haven’t left your room since everyone got back from the police station,” Willa shifted uneasily. “And that you won’t let anyone in. Not even Alex.”

  “They don’t understand.”

  “You let me in.”

  “You knew Straton, a little bit at least. You tried to help me.” Faith’s earlier tears resurfaced. “How did I not know, Willa?”

  “He didn’t tell anyone, Faith.”

  “But he told me he didn’t know Sumner at all. He lied to me and I have no idea why.”

  Willa looked at her with elevated eyebrows. “Alex didn’t tell you anything?”

  Her tears stopped instantly. “Why would he know anything about why Straton lied?”

  “He didn’t give me details,” Willa’s voice wobbled, unsure if she should tell her. Ultimately, she decided that she would want Faith to tell her if the roles were reversed. “But Abe did tell me that Dagger let them watch Straton’s interrogation.”

  Faith was up on her feet in a flash, running past Willa and sprinting down the hall and bursting through her brother’s room, not caring about the startled look on his face as he was pulling a shirt over his head.

  “Have you heard about knocking?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that you got to watch Dagger question Straton?”

  His face crinkled in sarcasm. “Because it’s confidential infor-mation?”

  “Bullshit.” Faith snarled.

  “Why would I tell you something that’s just going to drive you crazy?” Alex went to reach for her but she lurched backwards before he could make contact. �
�Faith, I didn’t tell you because it’s not like I can recite Straton’s confession for you.”

  “You have to tell me something,” she pleaded. “I have to know whether or not I wasted three months trusting someone who’s been helping Sumner.”

  Her brother breathed deeply, grabbing her hands. “I can’t tell you what he said,” When she huffed and rolled her eyes, he stared at her sternly. “But, I will tell you that what Straton did say, I believe him.”

  Her eyes widened liked biscuits in an oven. “You do?”

  “Yes.” he said, giving her a small smile. “I do. I think we all do.”

  “So…I should talk to him?”

  Alex smiled again. “Yeah, maybe you should.”

  She pulled her brother into a rapid embrace, holding him close to her for a minute. “Thank you, Alex. Thank you.”

  “You can thank me by driving me to meet Abe?” Alex hoped, ending his statement in an inquisitive tone.

  “How are both of us going to get pass Dad?” Faith scoffed.

  “Say you need to work on Yearbook stuff at the library with Wil-la since she came over,” Alex told her. “I’m gonna tell him I’m trying out for basketball and need to practice.”

  “Is that true?”

  “I was thinking about practicing for a possible tryout, but I have to see Abe regardless.”

  “And I really need to talk to Straton. If where your meeting Abe is on the way, I’ll take you but—”

  “I’ll take you.” Willa piped up, stepping into Alex’s room. “I have a couple of errands to run for my mom anyway.”

  “Perfect,” Faith smiled weakly. “As long as we make sure Dad doesn’t see us going in the wrong vehicles.”

  The three of them headed downstairs together, perfectly aligning their excuses for their various reasons to be bending the rules of the lockdown.

  “Thanks for the ride.”