The Skylar Experiment : The "X" in Apex

Chapter Thirty-Four - Peace Wanted

The day before Emma was cleared for school, I learned that Chuck got expelled. There'd been a parent-staff meeting somewhere along the chaos of this week, one I believed my father attended unless he'd stayed extra late at work.

Nobody knew where he'd go. Some said he'd be shipped off to a camp for disturbed teenagers, others thought they heard he'll be tried as a minor.

I imagined invasive photos of underage girls was grounds for a case. It gave me chills just wondering where copies of his stuff could have went.

But whatever they discussed in that meeting, they also insisted to arrange sexual harassment and stalking awareness workshops in class. Honestly, it was more of a pain than a relief.

I had to sit and take in how many boys did anything but listen. Doodling, scrolling, fighting sleep, winking at friends, anything but paying attention.

And I couldn't even get excused from it, as if I needed the lesson.

Dad's speech before my first day was a total understatement. Rough didn't begin to cut it.

The workshop left me with such an unbearable headache that I hurried to my locker. Maybe it'd be easier to carry the aspirin in my pencil case, but I better see a doctor at this rate.

Did these things create a tolerance? Because I could swear it didn't help anymore. One pill a week used to do the trick, now I was scraping the bottom of the bottle.

I snorted to myself.

Paying hundreds for a smart guy to conclude I was stressed—which I was indeed.

Who needed that with Luc doing it so diligently for free?

I was far on the tangent until monkey-like screams interrupted me, and general gasps in the hall followed. Everyone was riveted to their phones.

Two hands surging from behind startled me.

I twisted, my own scream dying as I fell nose to nose with Jen.

"Have you seen it?"

"I don't think I've seen it, no."

"They managed to obtain more pictures in Chuck's possession. Did you know he was there at the bonfire?"

I stammered at first, then shook my head. "No. No, I had no idea. What's going on? Please don't show me a naked body or something."

Jen bit her nails, staring down at her phone. "Well, it's naked. Except you need to see this. It's not a person. It's... I have no freaking idea what this could be but it's really scary and I'm definitely going to have nightmares over it..."

Before she ever revealed the feed page from the school blog, I realized with numbing hands what I was about to lay eyes on.

I shook my head again. Whatever she was saying, the words didn't process. This couldn't be possible.

Chuck, he... He did it. He photographed a Wanderer.

It appears as though he'd been on the outskirts of the field, near the tree line. Bodies from the crowd blurred as they ran in one direction, like insects sharing the same mind.

And then, a little to the right amid the smudge of shadows, the horrid gaunt face of the creature was visible.

The glowing eyes pierced through the darkness, otherwise one might miss it. Breathless, I took the phone from a rambling Jen. The quality of the photo was good enough that I could make out its hanging jaw and the fuzzy silhouette camped between the trees.