Exceptional

The Living Dead

        So we ran.

        We bolted out of there just as soon as he let us. We must have looked so stupid, but what would you have done? Stayed there with that creepy weirdo? A world of no!

        I was so scared, I just left Safirah behind and darted straight back to the dorm. I slammed the door heavily, and fumbled with the lock until I heard the click. I was safe.

        "You sure got out of detention fast. And I mean that in more ways than one." Arthur looked at me skeptically. "You okay?"

        "Yeah, no, yeah, fine," I stammered, still casting glances over my shoulder at the still locked door.

        "You're a terrible liar," Arthur scoffed. He set down the book he had been reading. "Spill," he intructed.

        "Well, it's just that Jonason is actually not Jonason but some weird emo guy with some kind of disease that hopefully isn't contagious, and he might want to kill Safirah and me because we found out, but it's probably no big deal, right?" I laughed awkwardly, and Arthur just stared at me.

        "Did you fall asleep during detention or something, dude? Cos that just doesn't seem real. Are you leaving anything out?"

        So I told him the whole story, everything that had happened, from the voices to the tingling to the scars. Everything. Needless to say, we got no sleep that night. We had A bloc classes the next day, and we couldn't get through the day without running into... not Jonason, Truman. And we couldn't skip classes, either, because Arthur cares more about his GPA than his life, and he thinks I should be just the same way.

        I probably failed that math test epically, and in creative writing, I couldnt even write a single word down. Rivers noticed too, stating that he never knew me as someone to get writer's block. Lunch rolled around, with no one asking it to. I couldn't eat a thing. Neither could Safirah, who looked just as down as I did. She had let Kira in on it too, but Kira looked worse than both Safirah and I put together. We asked her what was wrong with her, but she shugged it off, saying it was nothing.

        The bell rang, and the time came. I trudged to History, dragged along almost literally by Arthur. When I entered the class, everything was sickeningly normal. It was like yesterday never happened at all. The class passed as slowly and uneventfully as usual, and I thought, just for a second, that maybe he had forgotten. Maybe Safirah and I were safe. Safe from what, I don't know, but it doesn't matter now, because we would be safe!

        The bell rang, and I was one of the first people to reach the door, when a familiar voice called my name.

        "Oh, Sean? I think you need to stay here for a bit. You too, Safirah, Arthur, Kira. I have something to discuss with you." This Truman guy stood up from his desk, and walked over to the door where I stood, closing it slowly, all while staring directly at me.

        Stammering, I managed to explain that we needed to get to English on time, or Bones will give us all demerits.

        Truman just laughed, saying quietly that he knew how to deal with Bones. One quick phone call later, he swiveled his chair back around to look at us.

        Arthur piped up with a good question. "Why are Kira and I here? We didn't do anything wrong."

        Truman turned and focused his frighteningly pale eyes on Arthur, grinning. "The fact that you know that it's only Sean and Safirah who need to be here proves that you know my secret too."

        I looked around at everyone else. Safirah was calm, but she was freaking out inside, I could tell. So was Arthur, but when I looked at Kira, I was shocked to see that she had almost completely lost it. She was holding back tears, and trembling a little. It couldn't be that she was such a goody-two-shoes that she had never been yelled at by a teacher before, and I doubt she'd be the sort to know anything about the severity of identity theft, or whatever this guy had done.

        I lost my train of thought when Safirah abruptly asked, "So if you aren't Jonason, where is he? Did he ever even exist?"

        "Oh he existed, all right. But I killed him." Staring out the window into a dark, rainy afternoon, he did look like a killer. But he cast a glance and a grin over his shoulder, and laughed, "Just kidding!" He walked over to the chair that faced the four students he kept after, sat down heavily, sighed, and started to speak.

        "So, I guess you're all asking the obvious question- Who is this guy, really? Well, I'm Truman, as Sean and Safirah learned. Truman Tide. And-"

        He was cut off by a gasp from Kira. Everyone looked over at her.

        "Tr-Truman...? ...Brother? But... You're dead!"