No Smart Kids Allowed

Chapter 19: Aaliyah's Atonement

Rachel and I are the only ones in the hall. As we walk to the gym, tears are pouring down my eyes. I just can't help it. I still hadn't get the blood on my mouth cleared off. Rachel had told me that we would get all cleaned up after the atonement.

We inch closer to the loud yelling and cheering coming from the gym. When Rachel opens the door for me, my knees almost buckle. It takes all of my energy to keep me up. She gently pushes me inside. I see Aaliyah in the middle of the gym and two teachers holding her by her shoulders. There's a blindfold over her eyes so she can't see.

Rachel points to the first bleacher. "Front row seats for you and your friends." She smiles.

Sure enough, Scott, Mulan, Gemma, and Felix are on the front row bleachers. Rachel wants this. This isn't just an atonement, it's a lesson for us. Shaking, I take my seat next to Felix. His eyes are flowing with tears and he keeps using the scarf around his neck to wipe them. As soon as I sit, Felix takes my hand. He squeezes it and I can feel him trembling with fear. 

"I can't believe this is happening," he says.

The lights in the gym begin to dim and two more teachers stand by Aaliyah. I can't help but squeeze Felix's hand as I stare at Aaliyah. I can't imagine how hard it is to stand there knowing you're about to die.

There is nothing I can do to stop them. Even if I try, we'd all be dead. 

Two teachers are holding Aaliyah by the arm, while one stands behind and in front of her. The woman behind her is holding a bottle of acid. The person in front has a knife that's red. I can tell that it had been heated onto something. This is just too horrible for me to watch, so I just look at the floor and cry.

"Disrespectful, know it all, rebellious young child. Today you will pay for your mistakes and today everyone here will learn from them!" I look up and see the teacher with the knife, holding out Aaliyah's hand. She isn't fighting or screaming as the heated knife slides down her wrist, melting skin, bone, and flesh. I can hear the sizzling sound it makes as the hand falls from her arm. Her little stub of skin and flesh left is still sizzling, making no way for the blood to escape just yet. The blade somehow remains heated. They probably had some type of chemical on it to keep it burning.

He does the same with her other hand. There's that same burning sizzling sound as her hand melts off of her joints. The hand plops down on the floor next to the other.

"I can't look," I whisper.

"Watch," Scott says.

Felix and I turn to Scott. "You sick bastard," Felix says out of anger. 

I agree. I can't believe Scott told us to watch.

 "Disrespectful, know it all, rebellious young child. Today you will pay for your mistakes and today everyone here will learn from them!" The woman behind Aaliyah yells out. She raises the acid in the air. As much as I want to look away, I can't. I watch in horror as the yellow acid pours over the blindfold, burning through it and entering her face. The cloth burns, exposing her eyeballs. The eyes sizzle, then pop out of her skull, burning as they rolled onto the ground. 

I let out a loud scream but the cheers and shouting from the audience floods my voice out. "Look," I hear Felix say. 

"No," I cry, covering my face with my hands.

All of a sudden, I hear a loud gasp the crowd. I look up and see something I was not expecting. The face begins melting and black gooey stuff ooze onto the ground. The hands begin bleeding out the black stuff as well. 

A smile almost crosses my face when I realize it. Scott winks at me, then looks back at the black mess the teachers are stepping away from. That isn't Aaliyah. Hope returns to me and I have to hold back my smile.

"Everyone back to your classes!" Rachel orders. Her voice is loud and sharp. I could have sworn I felt the ground vibrate when she had yelled out.

Kids begin to flood around us. Scott takes my hand after we walk past Rachel. "What happened?" I whisper.

"Aaliyah is okay, but we can't talk now. Too dangerous. I have a plan. Tell you about it later." He then disappears into the crowd.

I turn around to find Felix looking at me with his mouth wide open. "What the bloody duckling was that!"

"Shush, Felix," I whisper. "We can't talk now, but Scott will tell us everything later."

"I can't hear you very well." Felix let out a breathy and nervous laugh. "She's okay. Oh my Jones, I thought...oh my God. Oh my God, I'm going to have a heart attack."

I smile at him. "You're okay."

Before we turn into the hall, I feel someone grab my hand. The twins. One grabs Felix's hand as well and they both pull us away from the others.

 "And as your body continues to relax you can just let go, which means you're so relaxed now that your mind just calms down." The twins say.

Felix and I struggle to let go. ""And the more you relax, the more comfortable you feel. The more comfortable you feel, the more relaxed your body becomes."

 "No," I fight, feeling my body relaxing and my breathing slowly down.

"Every time you take a breath, you'll feel more and more relaxed. To feel what it's like when every muscle in your body is completely relaxed, completely stress-free. Suppose you were relaxing like that right now." I feel them massaging my hand.

I stop struggling. My body is relaxed. I've never felt so...calm. The noise around me fades. I feel like I'm in an empty room that's so quiet if a butterfly flew by you would hear it breathing. The twins voices are soothing as they tell us to follow them.  

"Scott is your enemy. He knows where Aaliyah is." They say.

"Scott is our enemy," Felix and I repeat. "He knows where Aaliyah is."

The twins let us go. "Find out for us."

Felix and I take a step back and nod our heads. "We will find out for you."