October Academy

Chapter 68

I shiver and goosebumps surface all the way down my body.

The Class Killer's face is blurry. "October Academy – home of some of the most sinful and corrupt families, where the poorer students are taken at night and genetically tested on by the very teaching staff that are meant to protect them, to nurture them..."

Cherry. Tim. They school killed them. Not drugs. Not suicide. Not even the fucking Class Killer. 

October Academy killed my brother.

"...so now, I have stolen six of your children to repay the favour, and I will not stop until I hear six confessions, or six figures are wired to my account," his voice is warped, robotic and twisted.

My whole world stops. The camera pans to the six students he kidnapped. The hostages.

Perry.

Acacia.

Darcy.

I dig my nails into my skin. Fear wracks my body.

When did he take them? I look around the room frantically. I could never see any of them from my position, but I assumed they were there. How did I not notice? 

He's taken them.

My best friends.

Where is Topaz? Why didn't he protect Acacia?

Havoc ensues. The whole stadium is alive. People are frantic, sirens are wailing in the distance, teachers are evacuating students.

I need to get away from it all.

I can't even begin to process what's going on. Is this a dream? Surely this is a dream. No, this can't be real. This can't be happening. This can't...

No one notices me when I run in the opposite direction from everyone else.

I duck under a table amidst the madness. I take out my phone, going through the numbers, looking for the unknown number.

I call it and my heart beats loudly in my ears – so loud that it almost blocks out all the desperate screams in the distance.

"Jade, I was waiting for your call," he says, calm and calculating.

"Tell me where they are!" I screech.

"Come alone, or I'll kill them all."

He hangs up.

He texts me a location. It's in the forests behind the school. I know that place. It's the abandoned train. Why there? Why right under our noses? To rub it in their faces?

I can't think. I can't move. I'm hiding under a table and the whole world is crashing onto my shoulders.

There's only one thing I can do.

There's only one thing I can do.

There's only one thing I can do.

I have to.

I duck below the crowds, escaping through them. Then I'm alone, behind the bleachers, running into the forest.

.

.

.

I try to be quiet as I approach the train. Its afternoon now, the sun is setting off in the distance. The sky is a pastel purple, reddening at the edges, like blood moistening cloth.

Two men stand outside the train, silent, on guard.

When they see me, I freeze and suddenly the realisation of what I'm walking into dawns upon me.