Reckless

Reckless - Chapter Thirty-Five

R E C K L E S S . . .

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

“I can’t believe this,” my mum said for what seemed like the millionth time. “I can’t decide whether I’m madder at you or that school of yours.”

I sighed and closed my eyes, leaning back in the car seat and trying to block her words out.

“I mean, expelling you is a bit too far – especially with your exams coming up in less than a week,” she continued. She had her ranting voice on, which was a clear indication that nothing could stop her from getting her point across as vehemently and dramatically as possible. I was only thankful that her anger wasn’t wholly directed at me; otherwise I would’ve literally been cowering away from her words. “It’s a wonder that they’re even letting you back for exams after everything that’s happened, though!” she said, disproving my thoughts that she wasn’t mad at me. She was in a roundabout conversation with herself, building my defence up one second and barging it down the next.

“Mum, I-“ I started, but to no avail.

“What were you thinking?” she interrupted me, clenching the steering wheel hard. “Sneaking out like that when there’s a murderer on the loose? That teacher of yours was killed last week, not to mention that boy who went missing. Dan, wasn’t it?”

Flashbacks of that night came back. Dan in his half man, half beast state… Blake stabbing him… his dead body lying on the floor, shifted back into human.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said firmly.

“What do you mean you don’t want to talk about it? You’ve been connected to every murder and attack that’s happened this year. I want to believe that this is a coincidence but you’re making it really hard for me to have faith in that right now.”

“I’m not a murderer,” I growled.

“Then you know something about them,” she immediately insisted. “Tell me what’s happening, Anne. You can’t keep all of this bottled up. Has anything strange been happening recently? Is there anything you know that might lead to solving these attacks?”

“I don’t know anything.”

“Don’t be scared… if you tell them who the murderer is then the police will do everything possible to protect you, all the suspicion against your name will be cleared. Nothing good is going to come out of you keeping quiet about things that could speed up this investigation-”

“I said I don’t know anything,” I snapped, cutting her off. I squeezed my eyes shut, took a deep breath, and then turned to face her again. “I’ve told you, mum: I don’t want to talk about it.”

She sighed. “Well I do. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, Anne.”

Too late, I thought.

We stayed silent for a few minutes, each absorbed in our own thoughts.

“When’s your first exam?” my mum finally asked, grasping onto the first normal subject that she could think of in order to get the conversation going again. “I’m going to have to drop you off and pick you up every day, you know, and the journey isn’t exactly short,” she added as an afterthought, her eyes narrowing.

“I have Ethics on Tuesday,” I said. A feeling of dread was filling me at the thought of the exams. Not only had I not paid attention to anything happening in my subjects since Chris had come along, but he was also going to be in the exam hall with me. How was I going to be able to focus on an exam paper when, somewhere in that room, Chris would be there?