TOXIC BLOODLINES 1/4

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

KIMBERLY

My phone had been blowing up with notifications as we drove to the lake. Kids from my school were freaking out, all of us trying to find out who died. The Senior bonfire. it was a huge party. The entire class was there. The seniors threw one every year. So, it could have been literally anyone. So many questions. I could barely keep up with what was being said on the class group chat.

From the hundreds of messages, I learned some parts of town were still affected by the blackout, mainly the people who lived near the lake. And Sara's neighborhood has been in darkness and without water since last night.

This actually happened.

Doom scrolling through my socials, I learned the names of some of the seniors who perished. So far, it was Hannah Meyer, Josh Bolton, Kelsey Sanders, and Zach Murry... oh my god. Kelsey was the captain of my debate team. I had to put my phone down for a few minutes to process it. I spoke to her yesterday.

Staring out the window, I could see the grassy fields that led to the park. We'd be there in less than ten minutes if we kept at our current speed. Finding a parking space would be the next obstacle. I could already see all the cars ahead.

Uncle Ahmed was on the phone, chewing someone out about Ian. I almost felt sorry for whoever was on the opposite side while Sara shared everything that happened yesterday night. She gave me a whole breakdown from when she got there, what she did, and when the meteors hit in a series of incoherent ramblings. Listening to how she delivered her account made me smile a little; Sara knew how to tell a story.

Through Sara's messages, I learned that Arik had left the party early. He got into an argument with T.J.

Weird. Those two never fight. They are like brothers. Curious, I carried on scrolling to learn more, then discovered that it had to do with Ian. And suddenly, it made sense. I sent a message to T.J. to ask how he was doing because I knew he had a thing for Hannah. Before I could hit send, I saw a notification pop-up from Sara. 'They just pulled T.J. out of the water. He's dead.'

"What?" I read it again to be sure. "Oh my god." My mind instantly went to Arik.

Did he know? From the texts he sent, I didn't think he found out yet.

The news was...- I wasn't sure what to think- I couldn't process it. My mind was spinning. How could he be dead? He had just told me he had gotten an early acceptance letter into the college of his dreams. He wanted me to keep it secret because he didn't know how to tell Arik he was leaving soon.

Now he's gone, just like that?

I knew there'd be more shockers about the remaining seniors, but this is sad, this is so sad. I wiped the tears from my face.

Before I could spiral down the drain of my grief, thinking about the kids in my school who had died, Sara's bombardment of notifications pulled me out of it. She was sending photos of the scene. Sara's back camera was broken, so she had to use the front one. It looked like she was taking selfies in front of the devastation. I think she was aware of the irony of it; I was sure that's why she did it. This was how she coped with stuff like this. Sara had also sent multiple one-minute voice notes, and I had to play all of them on the lowest volume. She was angry, using a lot of colorful language to describe the injustice happening to Ian. I strained my ears listening to it because her speaker was also broken.

Uncle Ahmed briefly looked at me. "What is she saying?" somehow, he could still hear her.

I pulled my earphones out. "Sara's sending me photos of the lake," I wiped another tear from my face and sniffed.