You Found Me

Chapter 20

“Riley!”

I swallowed back tears as four boys came running into the room. There was one missing- he was always at the front leading the charge.

“Hey guys.” I said, my voice heavy with tears as I sat up. They all piled onto the bed and I was engulfed in a pile of warm bodies, legs and arms. I was sick of the feeling of cold tears sliding down my cheeks and I quickly wiped them away, not before I caught Drew’s gaze though. “What’ve you been up to?” I asked, tearing my gaze away from Drew’s.

They all held sadness in their eyes; none so more than Jessie. It was hard on me seeing his pain; I was the cause of his death, had watched with my own eyes and felt his warm blood running through my fingers but Jessie was his brother.

Their parents were back in Ireland and I knew that he either hadn’t told them or that they would be begging for him to go back home.

And so I’d lose another of my friends; for the better this time though, he’d be safe.

“Have you told your parents yet?” I asked quietly, stopping Jessie mid-sentence. I knew that they would hate me forever after they heard what had happened.

When he shook his head I frowned. “They have a right to know; they’ll hate me afterwards and probably wish a thousand bad things on me but,” I swallowed thickly. “They deserve to know the truth; go home Jessie, same for you boys.” I said looking around. “You need to go back to your families, after six months they’ll be missing you.”

It hurt to say these things but it was selfish to keep them here. My birthday was coming up soon, a birthday I had been hoping and praying would change everything. How wrong I was.

Six months ago I never would have guessed werewolves and vampires even existed, let alone that I’d been living with one species my whole life and tortured by the other. I never expected to be rescued; I’d assumed that if I ever did make it to my eighteenth birthday then I would run away as far and as fast as I could.

But then I never really had believed that I would actually make it to my eighteenth, I thought I’d die. Six months later and I wasn’t the dead one- Matt was.

They all shook their heads, except for Jessie. “We’re not leaving you.” Jessie looked absolutely sick at the thought of telling his parents and honestly I felt that it was wrong not to tell them.

Drew took a step forward and rested a hand on Jessie shoulder as I watched a tear slide down his cheek. It hurt to see him like this, everything hurt right now.

“I was thinking about flying your family and pack here for the funeral, and if they wish, I can step up permanent housing if they wish to move here.”

I watched as the boy’s face lit up at the thought of seeing their families again while Jessie tried to paste on a smile but failed miserably. I felt terrible; I’d kept them from their families, I’d put them in danger and now I’d caused so much heartbreak.

I wanted to bury my face in my hands and cry. Again. I felt weak, pathetic, useless.

“Let’s go make the arrangements.” He said. “Riley do you want to wait in my room and read?”

It sounded a hell of a lot better than sitting in this room so I nodded quickly. “Yeah.” Though I’d probably end up lying in his bed the whole time; it felt like I was floating on a cloud.

-

“Riley Tyler, please report to the main office.” The slightly nasal, crackling voice of the admin lady’s boomed over the loudspeaker on the concrete grandstand. I finished the last bite of my sandwich, tossed away my litter, picked up my bag, slung it over my shoulder and walked towards the grey, one story building that served as the school office.