Sever (Slayer Society #1)

by Jesse Grey

  “Wake up, B.”

  Bridge was shaken awake from a generously dreamless sleep, not really registering exactly where he was until he opened his eyes and saw Mercer’s wide smile beaming down on him like some sort of pearly spotlight.

  “You gotta start getting ready, unless you want to be late.”

  Then, like a crescendo of crackling fireedged memories, last night came back to Bridge in short bursts of light and movement behind his dark eyes. He sat up in his bed with newfound haste, turning to see if Ben was still there, but was met with the usual empty sheets.

  “You okay?” Mercer’s question reminded Bridge that he was still there, looming over him with curling eyebrows of curiosity.

  “Yeah,” he grunted back. “I just need some coffee.”

  Mercer nodded. “Kirby brought some.” With that, his smile grew like a praised puppy. “She’s downstairs in the kitchen.”

  “Kirby, huh?” Bridge grinned, stretching his joints in an attempt to seem at ease rather than wondering what in the hell had happened to Ben, not really wanting to think that he left in the middle of the night. “You weren’t lying when you said that you guys made up.” he forced himself to say.

  “Nope.” Mercer lit up like the night sky on the Fourth of July. “I’m officially a taken man.”

  Bridge laughed, patting Mercer’s hand. “Congrats, Merce.”

  “Thanks. Better hit the shower.” Bridge nodded at his request as his best friend walked out of his bedroom and presumably to the kitchen to guzzle down some caffeine with Kirby.

  Sighing at the fact that Ben probably had left in the middle of the night, Bridge threw off his beds’ blankets and walked down the hall in his boxers to the bathroom that he shared with Mercer. But when he opened up the door, the bathroom wasn’t exactly empty.

  Ben was standing over the toilet, sleepily relieving himself while Bridge ran into the room and closed the door with great emergent reflexes.

  “Ben!”

  He noticed Bridge lazily, like he was looking at him through a discarded kaleidoscope, flushing the toilet as he finished before lightly rubbing his ass through his hot pink boxer briefs. “You went a little too rough last night. My ass hurts.”

  “You have to go!” Bridge bellowed, ignoring Ben’s sore muscle issues and struggling to keep his voice down. “Mercer and Kirby are still here.”

  Ben’s eyes grew like pesky weeds in a garden, like the previous fog was lifted and it suddenly hit him what kind of situation they were in. “Damn. Bridge, we have to talk about last night.”

  “Yeah, yeah, we will, but right now you need to get the hell out of here.”

  “But—”

  “Not now. Out the window.”

  He looked at the window and then at his body, which was completely devoid of clothing, except for his hot pink boxer briefs. “Please tell me that’s an attempt at early morning humor.”

  “I’m not risking you being seen, now go.”

  Sighing, Ben lifted the bathroom window as quietly as possible as he went to hop out but turned back to face Bridge one last time, a seductive grin on his face. In a quick blur, Ben grabbed Bridge’s face and pulled him into a fast but intense lust filled kiss that Bridge smiled into, lightly pushing him away.

  “Go.” he laughed.

  Ben laughed too, hoping none of the neighbors were watching as he climbed out of the bathroom. Bridge chuckled even more as he spectated the hilarious display of a naked Ben running through nearby backyards to avoid being seen by anyone who cared to notice.

  Alex laughed, a genuine deep laugh that he hadn’t done in a while, as his dad told him a story about some of his coworkers while the two of them strolled through Westbrooke Park before school and work respectfully.

  “I’m gonna go run to the bathroom really quick.” Ethan Llewellyn said, smiling at his son as he retreated to the parks’ bathroom facilities.

  He made his way over to the bridge absentmindedly, smiling once he realized how just two weeks ago, Abram was practically ending their friendship at this very spot. And now, well, Alex wasn’t exactly sure what they were now but for the time being, he wasn’t complaining. And he definitely wasn’t complaining when he saw a shirtless Abram running toward him from the parks’ track, sweat beading around his muscles and riding along the ridges of his abs, a pair of basketball shorts hanging loosely on his hips.

  “Hey, Alex.” Abram said, stopping in front of him to take a break from his workout.

  “Jesus, Abe.” Alex said, clearly ogling him. “You’re running before school now?”

  “Clears my mind.” Abram admitted, wiping some sweat from his eyes. “What are you doing out here so early?”

  “My dad and I had breakfast with Mom and Faith at the bistro across the street before Mom went to work and she took Faith to school for some yearbook thing.” He gestured toward the bathrooms. “Dad’s in there.”

  “Cool.” he smiled.

  “Hey, while you’re here, I wanted to ask you something.”

  “Okay.” he grinned again, not helping Alex’s lust levels.

  “I know it’s only been a couple days but about the other night—”

  “Alex,” He closed the remaining space between them, the boards of the bridge creaking under his feet as he neared. “Do we really have to talk about it?”

  “I just want to know where we stand as far as—”

  Abram leaned in and kissed Alex roughly, his hands snaking to the shorter man’s hips and pulling him even closer. Alex immediately kissed him back with ferocious need, running his hands over Abram’s slickly wet abs, earning a groan from him. Though he’d hate to admit it to anyone else, he couldn’t stop himself from whimpering slightly when Abram pulled away, a wide rubbernecked grin on the taller one’s face.

  “Did that help you figure out where we stand?”

  Alex laughed, biting his lip briefly as he stared into Abram’s deep sea eyes. “Honestly, it just made my head even cloudier.”

  Abram just shook his head. “You’re overthinking it.”

  “So what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying,” Abram smiled again, reaching out to fiddle with the hem of Alex’s pants. “That standing isn’t exactly what I’m focusing on when I think about us.” He kissed him again, swiftly this time, like it was just a habit now. “Let’s not define everything right now. Let’s just be.”

  That’s when Abram noticed Alex’s dad coming over to them, throwing a hand up and smiling at him. “Hey, Mr. Llewellyn.” Ethan waved back before Abram looked back at Alex. “I gotta go. See you at school.”

  He watched with glee as Abram started running again, a content curve on Alex’s lips.

  “Are you and Abram...back together?” Ethan said warmly.

  “Work in progress, Dad.” he responded, his eyes fixated on Abram’s ass while he still had it in view. “Work in progress.”

  For the first time, Mercer and Kirby walked into Westbrooke High hand in hand. Stares followed them while they sauntered down the hall. Between his infamy and her new kid status, they would probably have a ship name by the end of the school day, but they ignored them, only concerned with what really mattered: each other. They found their way down the hallway, ambling over to Kirby’s locker. She quickly opened it, Mercer leaning against her locker’s neighbor. Kirby grinned as she turned to him, leaning forward and kissing Mercer as Faith and Willa, followed by Bridge, came over to greet them.

  “Enough already.” Bridge said sarcastically.

  They parted, all smiles as each of them eyed their respective besties.

  “What’s up?” Mercer said to Bridge.

  “Alex and Abe want us”

  Nodding, Mercer kissed Kirby’s cheek. “I'll catch you later?”

  She affirmed his question as he walked off with Bridge to meet up with the rest of his friends. Faith and Willa joined her by her locker, the former scoffing.

  “Is it just me or are they always having secret rendezvous meetings?�
�

  “They’re probably talking about the Hugo thing.” Willa determined.

  Slamming her locker door closed, she gave them equally inquisitive stares. “What Hugo thing?”

  After a collective sigh and a weary glance, Willa spoke up. “Straton’s roommate and best friend, Hugo, saw Sumner the night he visited Straton.”

  “Straton saw Sumner?” Kirby felt blindsided by this apparent known information. “When?”

  “Mercer didn’t tell you any of this?” Faith scrunched up her nose.

  “What’s going on?”

  “They got to witness Straton’s interrogation,” Willa said. “Sumner visited Straton, covered in blood, asking for his help. When he refused, Sumner declared revenge and fled. And apparently, Hugo saw him before he disappeared again.”

  “And when was this?” Kirby demanded.

  “Over a month ago, I think?” Willa looked to Faith for confirmation.

  “Yeah, something like that.” she said.

  Kirby stormed off, leaving them by her locker.

  “Wait, we wanted to talk about Homecoming!”

  Mercer, down the hall with his friends at Alex’s locker, gave his friends a look of caution.

  “What do you mean, ‘tonight’?"

  Alex huffed. “If we don’t do it soon, they could get impatient and take the pages away again.” he told him, knowing that his next words were the last ones any of them wanted to hear. “We have to go to Shadows Manor. Tonight.”

  “Alright. I guess we should get it over with. We need those papers.” Mercer decided not to argue, especially with Alex being right.

  “Are you guys forgetting about what Dagger said?” Bridge countered the content feel that swam around them. “Arclan and Shadows Manor are under police surveillance. The grounds could be swarming with cops. We can’t exactly tell them that we’re there to stroll down memory lane.”

  “The four of us there will definitely be easy to spot.” Mercer sighed.

  “Then we split up.” Abram said, weighing out their options. “You and Bridge go to Shadows Manor and find those papers and Alex and I will go find out what Hugo saw the night Sumner went to Heartmyth."

  “Whoa, why are me and Mercer the ones going into the gang of police officers? If Alex goes and gets caught, at least he could possibly know some of them and get off the hook.”

  “Because I know Straton.” Alex insisted, further adding to Abram’s idea of splitting up. “Straton trusts me and that will help us get the full story out of Hugo.”

  “What happens if we get there, somehow don’t get caught by the cops, and somehow find out where we’re supposed to acquire the pages, say all that goes according to plan, what if they’re not even there?”

  No one had an answer for Mercer, though he hadn’t really expected them to give him one. If they went through all the trouble of bypassing the police and the clues from Sumner’s hideaway beneath Arclan weren’t there...none of them wanted to dwell on it, not wanting to think on what the failure would mean afterwards.

  Kirby came stomping over to them, with Faith and Willa a little way behind her. She stopped in front of Mercer.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about Straton and Hugo?”

  Mercer looked pretty confused until Faith stepped up. “I thought you had at least told her about Straton’s confession.” she said with a heavy and guilt filled sigh.

  “I didn’t tell you about Straton because Dagger told us to keep it to ourselves.” Mercer eyed Alex and Abram. “It seems some of us took that more seriously than others.”

  “Then what’s going on with Hugo?”

  People were starting to stare at all of them now, with their huge crowd forming in the hallway. Sighing, Mercer took Kirby’s hand and led her into a nearby empty classroom, both of them disregarding their friends as they found themselves alone.

  “Mercer, I just told you a huge part of my life.” Kirby said with a shaky voice. “I don’t want you keeping secrets, even if it is to protect me. That night at Arclan, Sumner pulled me even deeper into this. If this is going to work,” She flexed her finger between them. “You have to tell me everything.”

  He knew she was right, even before she had finished. She was right that he wanted to protect her, but he couldn’t dismiss the fact that she was also right about being further dragged into The Sumner Shadows Saga. His friends weren’t going to like it, but he had to tell her the truth about what was going down tonight.

  “Okay.” he nodded.

  “Okay?”

  Mercer shook his head again as he scoffed. “We’re going to Heartmyth tonight. Well, Abe and Alex are, to find out what Hugo saw the night Sumner visited Straton.”

  Kirby nodded. “Okay. So if they’re doing that, why aren’t you and Bridge going?”

  “Because we’re going to Shadows Manor.”

  Her eyebrows, much like her interest, raised immediately. “What’s at Shadows Manor?”

  Mercer heaved a heavy sigh again, but he had to keep going. “There’s something we have to get there. Something from that room Sumner was hiding in underneath Arclan. We think it holds clues to everything. Sumner coming back, the reason behind the attack that night in the cemetery, everything.” He winced. “Only problem is, Shadows Manor has been put under intense police supervision ever since that patient escaped from Arclan.”

  “Back up.” Kirby shook her head, flustered by the onslaught of information. “How did this clue or whatever end up from Arclan to somewhere at Shadows Manor?”

  He grabbed her hand, a silent plea for her to let it go. As much as Mercer wanted to be honest and tell Kirby absolutely everything, he knew that he couldn’t tell her about their stalker just yet. And he obviously couldn’t let her know the truth about that night in the cemetery.

  “I want to tell you the whole story, and eventually, I will, but this isn’t just my story to tell. I’ve already told you all I can. Please don’t make me tell you this, not yet.”

  She gave him a small but vibrant smile. “I understand. I just didn’t want everyone to know what was going on and I was left clueless.”

  “I wasn’t trying to keep it from you.” Mercer told her. “I was thinking about telling you about tonight after school, because I needed someone to know where I was tonight in case the police catch us.”

  “I have a better idea.” she said evenly. “Let me come with you tonight.”

  “Please tell me you’re kidding. The Sumner Shadows Saga isn’t something to mess around with.”

  “You’re already an arm short.” Kirby patted his navy hued sling, tracing the pattern with her fingers for a second. “I want to help, Mercer. I’ve never been comfortable just waiting for someone else to fix everything.” She paused to squeeze his hand again. “You don’t have to tell me why you’re retrieving this, but at least let me help you actually find it.”

  Mercer laughed, shaking his head. “The guys are gonna kill me.”

  “Talk to them. They’ll understand why it makes sense to let me into the depths of, how’d you put it? The Sumner Shadows Saga?” Laughing again, Mercer agreed. “Honestly, I’m surprised Willa and Faith don’t know every detail, considering that picture they received from Sumner.”

  “That was more of a message for us, despite what it said. Sumner wanted that to go to the police, which is why he sent it to Willa. I think he knew we probably wouldn’t have gone straight to Dagger with it.”

  “So you’re not telling the police about whatever Hugo tells you guys?”

  “We’re trying to keep everyone we can away from interrogations with Dagger unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

  “Does that mean I’m going to see Shadows Manor for the first time tonight?”

  “I guess so,” he grinned, though he was still a little on the fence about letting Kirby in on raiding Shadows Manor, especially when she didn’t know why. But it seemed as though his remaining hand was tied. “Like you’ve already pointed out, I’m an arm short.”

  J
ust an hour before their curfew went into effect for the night, Alex and Abram made their way through the dorms of Heartmyth, getting a couple stern glances from the wandering students, clearly not believing that they went to school there as they wove their way to Hugo and Straton’s dorm room.

  “Let’s hope they’re home.” Abram wore a half smile, knocking on their dorm room door.

  “Faith said Straton was.” Alex said, slightly hopeful. “I don’t know about Hugo though.”

  The door snapped open quickly, a scruffy and wellbuilt redhead stumbling to open up the door. His smile faded slowly as he saw them, not really sure who they were.

  “Can I help you?” he said, caution oozing from his tone.

  “Is Straton here?” Alex said, clearing his throat.

  “Stray,” Hugo called back into the dorm room, a rustling sounding from inside. “Some guys here for you.”

  Hugo disappeared from view as he retreated deeper into the room and was replaced in the doorway as Straton popped around the doorframe, eyeing them with a sense of confusion.

  “Alex?” he asked first, then he looked at Abram. “And Abram, right?”

  Abram nodded. “Nice to see you again.”

  Straton gave him a nod instead of a smile, still wondering what was going on. “What’s up?” he spoke casually as he looked back to Alex, but they could tell by his slightly flared nostrils that he was fairly cagey at their sudden arrival at his doorstep.

  “Can we come in?”

  Seemingly hesitant, Straton stepped aside and let them enter the room. Hugo, who had been playing a game of Call of Duty on his Xbox, quickly paused it as they piled into the dorm room.

  “Stray?” Hugo said, his needful octaves present again.

  “Hugo, this is Alex, Faith’s brother.” Straton gestured.

  “Nice to meet you,” Hugo scoffed and laughed as he got up from his bed and shook Alex’s hand. “Sorry about acting so gingerly, no pun intended.” Hugo was delighted, feeling a little more at ease, when Alex and Abram chuckled.

  “And this is Abram, Willa’s brother. You remember her, don’t you?”

  “Dude, shut up.” Hugo groaned.

  Straton leaned toward Alex as the other two greeted each other quickly. “He hasn’t shut up about her the past couple of days.”

  “I heard that.” he snorted. “So did her brother. Thanks for that.”

  “It’s cool.” Abram flashed a fast simper. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “You guys can sit.” Straton stated, waving a hand toward their left, where a navy blue sofa sat between Straton and Hugo’s beds. Both sat down, with the roommates sitting on their respective places of rest. “So what brings you guys to Heartmyth so late at night?”

  Alex looked suddenly uneasy about what they were doing. It wasn’t until Abram squeezed his shoulder reassuringly that Alex took a deep breath before he was ready to start.

  “It’s about the night that Sumner showed up here.” he said slowly, eyeing Straton first and then locking eyes with Hugo. “We know that you saw Sumner after Straton.”

  In a paranoid flail of his limbs, Hugo leapt off his bed. “What!?”

  “It’s okay.” Abram told him in a calm, strong voice. “We’re not going to tell Dagger or the cops about it. If we were, you’d already be at the police station and we wouldn’t be here right now.”

  “Straton, you can trust us.” Alex pleaded, turning to his sister’s boyfriend, using his hazel spheres to beg him even more. “We just need to know what he,” He looked back to Hugo. “What you saw, if we’re ever going to understand why Sumner came back to Armor Falls.”

  “How did you even know that I saw him?”

  “Faith.” Straton answered for them, abruptly realizing the conclusion on his own. “That’s why she cancelled our lunch date the other day, isn’t it? She heard us.”

  “And I asked her not to tell you why until I had the chance to talk to you.” Alex confirmed.

  “Is it safe to assume that she told you about Dagger questioning me?”

  After a subtle look between Alex and Abram, they decided to tell Straton the whole truth. “Actually, Dagger let us watch your interrogation.”

  “Great.” he sighed.

  “But we don’t think you helped Sumner.” Abram uttered. “We believe you.”

  “Which is why we believe that you saw Sumner, Hugo.” Alex smiled feebly. “We just want to know the full story.”

  An abyss of an exhale left Hugo’s lips, slowly sitting down on his bed, crossing his arms across his bare chest, eyeing them intensely. “Like I said, I was drunk, but I know what I saw. Even if I did block it out for a while.”

  “We know.” Abram displayed a sympathetic smile.

  “It’s okay.” Alex nodded, reassuring him to continue. “Just tell us what you saw.”

  He sighed again, giving them a weak nod. “It started when I left the party.”

  Hugo was really feeling the alcohol, the moon looming above him as he left a dorm party. It was still a couple weeks before school officially started, but those enrolled in summer programs were winding down from their term. And Hugo was taking full advantage of the summer parties before the fall semester started back up. He was leaving a rager of a party that a bunch of sophomores were throwing, heading back to the dorm he shared with Straton when someone came storming out of his dorm building.

  And he was covered in what looked like blood.

  What was worse was that Hugo recognized the crimson stained stranger instantly as Sumner Shadows, the high school student who had tried to kill his friends, and who had been hiding from police since it all went down five months ago.

  Even through the haze of an alcohol afflicted mind, Hugo knew better than to be seen by him. He took refuge behind a nearby tree, still having a clear view of Sumner. Luckily, with very few students on campus to begin with, there was no one else around to witness Sumner’s sinister snarls as he stomped around, seething with rage.

  “He thinks he can ignore me?” Sumner looked like a rabies infected animal, practically foaming at the mouth with ravenous malice.

  Hugo figured he was about to mutter more unpleasantries when his phone rang. Swearing slightly, Sumner sauntered off away from the dorm buildings and closer to the student parking lot.

  Stupidly, Hugo decided to follow him. Maybe it was the beer and liquor, or maybe it was his own morbid curiosity, but he followed Sumner to a gazebo that overlooked the parking lot. It was shrouded in shadows, thanks to the trees surrounding it. Sumner answered his burner phone as he stepped into the contraption, giving Hugo enough time to hide behind another tree next to the gazebo.

  “What do you want?” Sumner groaned into the receiver end of the cell phone.

  Watching through slightly disoriented eyes, Hugo observed Sumner’s facade of slight annoyance turn to outright psychotic.

  “What do you mean, ‘you’re out’? You can’t just quit this, you can’t just quit me!”

  Sumner threw a punch at one of the gazebo’s posts, not even flinching when his fist collided with the wood. Hugo was sure it hurt like hell, but if it did, there were no signs of it on Sumner's face.

  “I will ruin you.” Sumner told the person on the phone. “He’s back, and things are about to change. If you go now, I will bury you. Do you get that? Your worst fears will come true. I will make your nightmares come to life, you bitch!”

  He was screaming now, already aiding the faint throbs Hugo felt banging against his temples. The other person on the phone must have hung up because Sumner took the phone and smashed it against the gazebo’s wood floor, his roars of anguish ringing loud into the silent night around them.

  Sumner smacked himself in the head several times before picking up his phone remnants and running off into the night, leaving Hugo overwhelmed with what he had witnessed, not really sure if it was all in his head or if he’d really just seen a mentally shaky Sumner Shadows.

  Hugo finished his retelling, uneasy as Abram an
d Alex, and even Straton, who he hadn’t told every little detail, stared back at him with wide, astonished irises.

  “So someone is, or I guess was, helping Sumner.” Alex said, breaking the screaming quiet in the room.

  “I think so.” Hugo agreed. “Just like Straton saw, he was covered in blood.”

  “And maybe this person found out what he had done and figured they were in too deep with a psycho.”

  “But who was it?” Straton quipped.

  “And did Sumner get blood on him by hurting someone?” Alex sighed, still reeling from all of Hugo’s information.

  “Sumner said ‘he’s back’.” Abram muttered, ignoring all of their lingering questions. “When exactly did this happen? What day?”

  “August 1st.” Straton and Hugo said in unison.

  “It was late though,” Hugo added. “I think it was after midnight, so technically it was the second.”

  “Jesus.” Startled, Abram stood up from the bed. “That can’t be a coincidence.”

  “What are you talking about?” Alex said, worry hanging in the back of his throat.

  “August 1st. That’s the day I came back from Maine.” Abram explained. “The day I came back from the other institution.”

  “You’re sure?” Alex stood now too, alarmed by Abram’s words.

  “Institution?” Straton pondered.

  “Never mind.” Alex and Abram said together, they lowered their voice for just them to hear. “Why would Sumner come back the same day you did? And how would he know?" Alex stated.

  “I don’t know,” Abram confirmed, shaking his head. “But let's hope Bridge and Mercer are having better luck than we are.”

  Bridge was pissed. Pissed about the fact that he was skulking around Shadows Manor, pissed that he had no idea what Hugo was telling Abram and Alex. But he was even more pissed that Kirby was with them.

  Mercer had told him why they should bring her into the fold, so to speak, and Bridge couldn’t argue that Kirby was already pretty involved with everything related to Sumner. But that didn’t mean that he had to like it.

  They were already at 1661 Karder Cove, already hiding from the three visible cops just outside of Shadows Manor, whom were languidly talking next to their squad car. Hiding in the darkness several feet away from the property, they watched as two of the cops left the vehicle to patrol the grounds of Shadows Manor as the last remaining cop got back into the confines of the car.

  “So what’s the plan?” Kirby said, eyeing them eagerly.

  Bridge scoffed. “You tell us. You’re the one who brought a weapon.”

  Laughing, Kirby readjusted the strap over her shoulder, the one she had attached to a metal baseball bat. “I’m not taking any chances after what happened beneath Arclan.” She patted the bat with mock affection.

  Mercer took to his own straps, adjusting his sling so his arm was a little more comfortable. “We have no idea where to start.” he told them with a nod.

  “We can bypass the cop in the car.” Bridge sighed. “We should start out back. The door to Sumner’s room is by the pool, remember?”

  “Yeah.” Mercer nodded. “Starting at his room makes sense.”

  Becoming instantly stealthy, they used the trees as cover while they made sure to keep out of sight of the cop in the squad car. In just a few minutes, they had scaled the side of Shadows Manor and were running to the side of the mansion, leaving the safety of the tree lines for the danger of being exposed.

  “We have to be careful.” Bridge said. “Those two cops are on the grounds somewhere.”

  Kirby absorbed his words, leading them since she had the weapon, with Mercer right behind her and Bridge in the back. They made their way around the house until they reached the beginning of the backyard. She kept creeping along the edge of the house, ambling parallel with the massive pool, but Bridge and Mercer were frozen in place just around the corner.

  It’d been a long time since they had really been in the backyard of Shadows Manor. The memory of spring break was at the forefront of their thoughts. How had everything gotten so messed up?

  “Hey.” Kirby came back to them, seeing the dual hypnotized looks on their faces. “You guys okay?”

  Bridge just scoffed, shaking his head. “A lot of memories is all.”

  “Yeah” Mercer stated. “Come on. We need to get going.”

  “I’ll lead. Let’s go.”

  Bridge took over then, guiding them towards the basement door that led to Sumner’s bedroom. He figured they’d have to break into the mansion to hunt for the missing pages, that their tormentor would make them scavenge for what they thrived to find. But their stalker must have been as impatient as they were to get some answers.

  “Guys.” He stood there before the basement door, waiting for Kirby and Mercer to join him and see that their search was already over.

  Because on the basement door, hanging by a single strand of chrome duct tape, were two pieces of paper.

  “That’s it?” Kirby asked, looking at them with dumbfounded eyes.

  “They’re getting desperate.” Bridge commented, grabbing the folded up pages swiftly.

  “Who’s desperate?” Both Mercer and Bridge were suddenly aware that Kirby didn’t exactly know everything.

  “What do they say?” Mercer was ready to know what information they risked their lives for.

  “Who’s there?”

  The voice didn’t belong to any of them, all of them motionless and overcome with fear. They stood still, not making any noise, not even fully breathing to keep quiet.

  “This is Armor Falls PD. If someone is there, come out now.”

  Eyes flared, they ran. They went back toward the tree line, back to the obscurity of the darkness. But the cop acted quickly.

  “Stop or I’ll shoot!”

  But they were in the trees by now. They kept running as the bullets started, weaving their way closer to safety and away from the gunfire erupting from the grounds of Shadows Manor. The police officer stopped firing, presumably to inform his fellow officers about them, but they’d be long gone by the time the cops began searching.

  A few minutes later, they were back at Mercer’s Jeep, hidden behind some shrubbery and trees just beyond the forest down the road from Karder Cove. It’d probably be only minutes before the police came, but they had several places to look, buying them plenty of time to work with.

  Kirby ran up to the Jeep, leaning on it to catch her breath. Bridge immediately ran to the front seat and grabbed his phone to use as a light. Mercer was the last to approach his vehicle, joining them at the hood of his vehicle.

  “I hope whatever is on those pages was worth getting shot at.” Kirby said, Bridge fiddling with his phone to turn on its flashlight.

  “They better be,” Mercer looked like he was shaking a little bit. “I’m already having flashbacks from the passageway.”

  The huddled around Bridge as his phone’s flashlight roared to life, illuminating the hood of Mercer’s Jeep in total vibrance. He placed the papers on the hood and unfolded them, the page on top coming undone from its creases. Staring confused, they saw that the first page was a scrawling of Sumner’s inner rage.

  They think they can defy me. They all do. They’ll see, they’ll all see. I’ll get them all in time. Streetcar will be the first one, she’ll be so close to the truth and yet she’ll never learn of it. They’ll find out that I always get what I want in the end.

  No one said a word. They just kept staring at the message over and over. Bridge folded the first page up and stuffed it in the pocket of his jeans, Mercer reaching to flatten out the second piece of paper to assist.

  The second page wasn’t as difficult to follow or think about. It was just the same two words written repeatedly, every time the two words were scribbled, the writing looked angrier and angrier.

  “Oscar Runner?”

  Kirby’s questionable echoing of the name fell on incapable ears. The two young men didn’t know what the name meant any
more than she did. But the name was covering both sides of the page, so it had to mean something pretty important.

  Sirens were heard in the distance, rising like coyote howls in the night, making them stir in antsy circles. “We don’t have much time. Let’s go.” Bridge nodded as they scrambled into the Wrangler, trying to wrap their heads around the utterly vague findings that made up the two pages Sumner had poured his murky soul into when he had been hiding in the room beneath Arclan Asylum.

  14

  SHE KNOWS THINGS