Scream: Do You Think You Can Unmask The Devil?

Beholder Of A Dying Message

~2 DAYS LATER~
~Hendrickson High 8:47 a.m.~

A bearded, white-skinned, formally dressed man stepped up toward the podium. He places his refillable spiral binder onto the platform where he can then read off his speech to which he starts to give. "Greetings parents and fellow students of Hendrickson High! We have called in this meeting today to honor our recently departed student Charlie Walsh. Taken from us way too soon. Let us take this time to bow our heads and effectuate a moment of silence." Assistant Principal Watts announces.

~Cynthia's POV~

Everyone went on to bow their heads simultaneously to appreciate Charlie's legacy. Chills filled the room almost instantly; the air felt heavier than usual. The feeling could be described as one that would trickle up your spine during a wedding or funeral.

Of course, I, too, bowed my head in a prayer position. I haven't the faintest idea who this kid was or what he went through, but I still wanted to show common decency by wishing him peace.

Folasade stood right next to me with her head positioned the same as mine. She kept complaining her neck was sore from a very restless night.

I mean, I wouldn't blame her. The terrifying images we beheld after yesterday's incident would keep anyone up at night. To be quite honest, I'm not even sure I have completely wrapped my head around that afternoon.

Everything was just moving so fast, and it felt like the school was trying to find ways to cover up his death. They've even issued out statements regarding certain events that may have occurred, altering them to fit a false narrative.

After about seven minutes of hush-hush time, our assistant principal began to speak.

"Ok, thank you for your patience. You may raise your heads. Now, we will move on to the achievements this student would've received once he graduated. And that section will be presented by one of our most devoted and brightest students here at Hendrickson, Zenobia Ricketts." Principal Watts announces.

Zenobia approaches the podium after being introduced to the audience.

"Let's give a round of applause to Principal Watts everyone, and an applause for you all as well because we truly wouldn't be able to pull this off without all of your support. Now, first we'll start off with Charlie's academics."

A slide displaying Charlie's school yearbook photo from the previous year and his PSAT/SAT scores flickered on the wide projector. Zenobia took a deep breath and continued.

"Charlie was an exceptional student, who not only excelled at sports, but his academic scores were some of the highest Hendrickson High has had in a while." Parents started applauding at this achievement. Zenobia started to tear up. Whatever Folasade was feeling for this guy, she probably felt it ten times heavier just because of who she is. She feels everyone's grief and uses that emotion to drive her caring, voluntary actions everyday.

I gazed back at Folasade for just a second to see she had also started crying while watching her friend give this speech.

Shock covered my face like I had just seen Charlie's body all over again. Which wasn't an image I wanted to keep in my head.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this is a dissimilar side of her that I hadn't seen for myself yet.

Fola spots me staring at her. "The hell are you looking at?" She questioned, clearly irritated. And she's back, I thought to myself. I quickly turned at the sight of her angry expression and focused my eyes back on the presentation.