Beechwood Academy

chapter six

There was blood covering every inch of his body. Wren and Rudy were on either side of him, Wren was crying and Rudy looked like he wanted to kill. Not far ahead of them, Sammy stood. His face shifted with emotions as he contemplated who would die. Duncan could almost hear his thoughts when the two made eye contact, he knew what Sammy's decision was. Duncan was partly glad that he was chosen since it meant Rudy and Wren would be physically fine, but the other part of him was terrified of the fate. Sammy stalked towards him, his eyes were filled with sorrow and regret for what he was about to do and Duncan could do nothing but watch.

"I'm sorry, mate," was the last thing Duncan heard before his body shot upwards and the weight of his blankets wrapped around his legs. He was in back in his room, it was only a dream.

"Alright?" Sammy's voice made Duncan flinch. When Duncan didn't respond Sammy spoke again, "Duncan?"

"Bad dream." Duncan's heart was pounding in his chest and his hair stuck to his forehead as sweat drenched his face. He was okay, but mentally scarred from the first dream he'd been able to remember in years.

* * *

"You aren't gay by any chance, are you yank?" Rudy's question went in one of Duncan's ears and out of the other. Duncan had been staring at his lunch plate, not paying attention to his friends for at least ten minutes and none of them realized until now. Rudy snapped his fingers in front of the boy's face, causing Duncan to startle and look at him. "Are you gay?" Rudy asked again.

"Um, I don't think so," Duncan mumbled, rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hand.

"You've been staring into space since English, is everything alright?" Wren asked.

"I'm fine." Duncan mumbled, catching Wren's eye for a split second before looking back down. Susie and Sammy shared a look, silently thinking the same thing.

"Are you sure?" Susie asked. "You're acting just like Jared did before he—"

"He's fine. He had a bad dream last night," Sammy interfered, shooting Susie a look telling her to stop talking. Duncan looked up, catching Susie's eye. She gave him an apologetic shrug and resumed eating her lunch.

"All I'm saying is. . .you're quite strange, but aren't we all?" Susie said as if to cover up what she'd said in the beginning. Under any other circumstances Duncan would've pried to know more but he didn't have the energy to argue with Sammy.

* * *

"Samuel Frost will play Dracula, Duncan McCarthy will play Van Helsing, Wren Matthews will be Lucy Westenra, Carlos Martinez will be Jonathan Harker, Susie Fuego as Mina Murray, and the rest is to be announced." Miss Drake paced the front of the room as she read out the decided cast of this years annual Beechwood play. Duncan was utterly unamused with having a lead role, he was entirely set on letting someone else take his place. As if reading his mind, Miss Drake spoke again. "If you fail to participate and/or decide not to be in the play at all once you already have a part then you will fail my class."

Duncan audibly groaned and dropped his head onto the back of his seat. He heard Sammy stifling his laughter beside him. Wren was grinning at the brunette but she grabbed his hand to comfort him.

"I know, who would want to die on stage in front of hundreds of people? Well, you'll have to whether you want to or not but I promise we will all have a great deal of fun bringing this play to life." Miss Drake clapped her hands together and did a dramatic bow before dismissing them. Duncan groaned again in his seat, dropping his head in between his knees.

"Don't be such a baby, you get to kill me mate, doesn't that sound fun?" Sammy said with a wide, amused grin.

"Not if I kill myself first," Duncan grumbled.

"Don't say that you twat." Sammy smacked the back of Duncan's head and grabbed the boy's wrist to pull him out of his seat. Wren giggled and shared an amused look with Susie before following the boys out of the drama room where Rudy waited outside of. Rudy had used the death of his boyfriend last year as an excuse to get out of drama class so instead of being forced to participate in the play he would be studying in the library.

"Guys, since Duncan is officially a drama nerd shouldn't we finally fill him in on last year's dilemma?" Susie asked as the group made their way up the stairs. Rudy and Sammy had been talking about God knows what and their conversation ceased at Susie's words.

"I don't think so." Sammy continued walking.

"I would like to know." Duncan said, turning to Susie with curious eyes. He turned to look Sammy but he met Rudy's eyes instead and caught the ginger mouthing something to him so that Sammy didn't hear: Courtyard, after lights out. Duncan just nodded and fell into step with Wren as Susie, Rudy, and Sammy walked ahead. "Does it have something to do with Jared King?" Duncan whispered to the girl beside him.

"Yes, and that's the reason Sammy doesn't want you to know," Wren said, not daring to look at Duncan.

"Why?" Duncan pried.

"Jared was Sammy's best friend and he's afraid that you won't want to be around him once you find out what happened to his former roommate." Wren gave as little detail as possible and Duncan couldn't help but want to scream "just tell me!" but he just remained silent, hoping he would get the answers he craved after lights out.