Beechwood Academy

chapter eleven

"You haven't stopped pacing since you got back," Sammy said, eyeing Duncan from his own bed. Duncan was walking back and forth at the foot of their beds mumbling incoherent things under his breath. Duncan stayed silent and ran a hand through his hair. Sammy almost began to worry about the silence, fearing he'd made Duncan angry at him. "Okay, tell me what you found. Is the freak telling the truth?"

"I don't know," Duncan mumbled, pinching his bottom lip in thought.

"I know you found something, spill." Sammy sat up as Duncan climbed into his bed. Duncan looked up for a split second before jumping off of his bed and rushing to his backpack. He pulled out the 1922 yearbook and flipped to the drama page before laying the book in Sammy lap and paced around the room once again.

"Those pictures couldn't have been edited, Miss Drake and Jared both went to this school in nineteen twenty-two." Duncan cleared his throat and braced himself for Sammy's angry response he knew was coming.

Duncan definitely didn't expect Sammy to answer with, "Okay yeah, I knew that. It's not really a damning discovery."

"You. . .what?" Duncan asked, stopping in his tracks.

"Look, whatever you suspect is probably true except for the fact that Jared is alive. I saw him die. . . He died in my arms." Sammy waited a beat before continuing. "I know you think I have survivor's guilt or something when I say Jared is dead because of me, because I don't and he did. I murdered him."

Duncan watched the silent tears fall from Sammy's eyes but couldn't bring himself to speak. He didn't know whether to pity the boy or be terrified of him. Sammy saw the look on Duncan faces and cursed under his breath. "Don't be afraid of me Duncan, please."

"No. . .I'm not, j-just tell me what happened." Duncan sat down on his bed and crossed his legs, waiting patiently for Sammy to talk.

"She'll kill me. I cant—"

"Nobody else has to know, not even Rudy." Duncan interrupted, crossing his heart with his pointer finger.

Sammy hesitated. The tears falling from his eyes were dropping into his sheets but he didn't bother to wipe them away. ". . .She did something to me and I can't go back. God, if I could go back I would."

"Who? What did she do?" Duncan leaned forward.

"She made me choose between Rudy and Jared. I. . .I chose Rudy. She killed him. I'd never seen Jared scream so much, he was screaming at me and asking why I didn't choose him and I couldn't speak. Jared ran away, he was a missing person for two weeks and Rudy was dead. I went to his funeral, then the day before school let out for summer break he showed up with that stupid smile on his face." Sammy was talking so fast that Duncan could hardly make out some of the words over Sammy's accent. Sammy sniffed and finally took the time to wipe his eyes but he couldn't force himself to look at Duncan. "After Jared heard that Rudy was okay, he came back too. I still don't know how Rudy is here, I have no idea what happened or why he's not dead but he came back and I was so overjoyed. Both of my best friends were back, and then one night She came to our dorm. She did something to me and I lost every sense in my body but I knew what I was doing. When I woke up. . . Jared was choking and spitting up blood. The autopsy said he'd had an untreated medical condition but I know what happened that night and for some reason She covered for me so I didn't go to prison."

Sammy gave Duncan time to process his words. Duncan spoke slowly. "Why. . .Why are telling me this now? Why couldn't you tell me the first time I asked?"

"Would you have believed me?" Sammy asked.

"Probably not."

"Plus, you're smart and I know you would have figured it out sooner or later," Sammy mumbled. "But I swear to God if you tell anyone else—"

"I won't, I swear." Duncan held up his hands in defense. "But I still have something to ask."

"Okay."

"How the hell have they survived a hundred years?" Duncan saw Sammy's body tense as soon as the question left his mouth.

"I don't know." Sammy's answer was so simple that Duncan knew he was lying but he didn't have the mental capacity to argue with the blonde then. He rolled over in his bed and closed his eyes, not bothering to turn off the lights but he forced himself to push every question in his mind out. He told himself that he'd figure it all out over the weekend, it was the only thing he knew he could do without getting himself killed.