Welcome to the Darkness

Chapter 7

The clock on my bedside table read 2:37 PM when I woke up, a haze had settled over my vision and I rubbed at my eyes in hopes of making it go away. Brandon and I had gotten back from our all-night excursion at five this morning, Korey was asleep in his hut and the donut box had a freshly broken seal.

Brandon and I had said our goodbyes in the boy's dorm common area, as I had made my way up the stairs, I caught a glimpse of him making his way over to the coffee bar, it looked like he wouldn't be sleeping.

I forced myself to sit up, my back screamed at me in protest as it cracked as I straightened out. Swinging my feet over the edge of the bed, I noticed my shoes were still on, the shirt had been tossed to the floor and my dress pants were nearly sideways.

As I stood to grab a change of clothes my phone's display lit up with a number I didn't recognize. I let it go to voicemail and made my way to the boy's communal bathroom, towel and fresh clothes in hand. Some of the boy's had their doors open, a few had some other boy's peeking in for a brief conversation and a casual air had taken over the boy's dorm.

Several boy's walked past me in just a towel to return to their rooms and once I'd gotten to the showers I learned that several more of them were walking around naked. Sure, it was a shower, but these people had no decency. I was definitely not the only gay guy in the dorms, for one.

I always wondered how the school could feel safe that us queer kids wouldn't be injured while staying with straight boys with preconceived notions of what is right and wrong. In the past, there were boys here bullied severely and there were boys here who have killed themselves all because of some bastard in a bathroom. I have no idea where that rant came from, honestly. But as true as it was, the school had done nothing to help prevent it. Maybe adding bathrooms to the dorm rooms so no one would have to walk the halls at night, in the dark.

The shower helped cool me down, if even a little. Back in my room, however, my phone was going nuts. 7 missed calls from the Police Department, why would they be calling me? As I was about to call them back, their numbed flashed up onto my screen once again and I answered it. "Hello?"

The voice of a woman filled my ear, she sounded familiar. "Marcus? It's Officer Plummont, do you remember me?" I clenched my jaw, my hand tensed and untensed around the phone. "Hello, Marcus, are you there?"

I bit my lip, contemplating hanging up. She was the officer from back then. He hadn't heard her voice in a long long time. "Is this important?" I asked, I knew the answer already. She wouldn't have called if it wasn't.

I heard her sigh from the other side of the phone, a chair creaked. "Marcus, I need to talk to you in person. It's important." Her voice sounded stressed, like she hadn't had a good night's sleep in a while. There was one reason, and one reason only that'd she'd have called. She told me a long time ago that she wouldn't call again unless it was about him, and if they had no other leads.

I could feel my throat constricting, I didn't want to talk to her. I didn't want to have anything to do with her. "What do you want, Marianne." I ground out, I'd sat down on my bed at this point, a towel still around my waist. "Can't you just tell me now? I have school."

Another loud sigh and a gentle, ceramic thud. "You know that I can't talk to you about this over the phone. You need to come down to the station, I'm sorry that you have to miss class but... This is really important."

"Fine." I stated, she'd started throwing out apologies when I'd hung up. So that was how today was going to go. Last night, into this morning was the best time of my life and here I was, hours later, a mess. Sitting on my bed, sulking like the child I was back then. The clock on my side table read 3:46 PM, my last class of the day began in 14 minutes and here I was, bailing last minute. I hadn't shown up to the class that Brandon and I shared, and now I would have to miss the class that Danni and I share.