Whitethorn Academy

Chapter Seven

The room around me was dark, save for the digital clock on my bedside table. A quick glance told me it was only three in the morning. I'd barely slept for three hours. My body was still sore and exhaustion still tugged at every part of me.

Part of me wanted to settle back down into bed and try to get some more sleep. But I didn't want to have more strange dreams. Thankfully, the screams hadn't haunted me, but the strange conversation hadn't calmed me either.

I stood from the bed, needing to do something. Turning on the bedside lamp, I looked around the room for the first time. Ms. Rose had left me quickly after unlocking the room and handing me a small key decorated with the school crest.

A desk was on one wall of the room, with a desktop computer. A welcome booklet sat next to the keyboard, but I didn't have the energy to flip through it.

There were two doors beside the one I'd entered through. The first door was a closet, which was half-full of blazers in a few colors, each emblazoned with the school crest. White shirts, devoid of wrinkles, hung next to the blazers.

A suitcase sat on the floor, but I ignored it for now. Too many memories of my mother crashed to the surface when I looked at it.

Outside of the closet, I had a single dresser, which I assumed would hold the pants for my uniforms. Opening the other door, I found myself entering a bathroom. Thankfully, there was no other door leading into it, meaning it was private. The thought of sharing a bathroom with a random stranger made me feel weird.

There was a large bathtub with a shower head, which I was also grateful for. My hand brushed against the shower curtain, which was a solid blue. Some dirt still clung underneath my nails and I realized that my hair still stank of smoke from the bonfire.

At the thought of the bonfire, nausea swirled through me.

A shower sounded nice, I decided quickly. I rummaged through the dresser and found a set of clothes that weren't a school uniform and some undergarments before heading back into the bathroom and stripped off my borrowed clothes.

The logo for the Halifax police station seemed to mock me as I tossed the clothes into a pile on the bathroom floor.

Turning my thoughts away from the police station, I stepped into the shower. The hot water that poured out of the shower head was like Heaven. It soothed my aching muscles. But as I washed away all the traces of dirt and grime, I could feel pieces of me breaking away. Even when I was devoid of any traces of the night of the bonfire, I still felt unclean.

One night forever changed my life, and it was a night I couldn't even remember. Why couldn't I remember?

My thoughts shifted back to the police station.

"This is serious, Selene. Two teenagers are dead. And we found you, alone in the woods, blood on your hands."

"Who is dead?" I'd asked her the detective with a shaking voice.

Detective Brennan reached for a manila folder that had sat in front of her the entire time. She flipped it open and pulled out an image. She sat it in front of me, her eyes focused on mine. "See for yourself."

A blonde girl, her hair fanned around her in a halo of blonde. Leaves and twigs were tangled in the strands. Her blue eyes were lifeless and empty, staring up at the camera. Blood soaked her yellow bikini top and wounds were streaked across the tanned skin of her stomach.

My stomach roiled and I shoved the photo away as I swallowed the vomit that threatened to rise.

"Her name is Samantha Harris," Detective Brennan told me. "And you killed her."