Wicked

Chapter Twenty-Eight

At school, the halls were buzzing about the dead girl found at the Docks. Apparently, it was the first murder in twenty-something years. The Police were frantic to find who was responsible, mostly because the town was in an uproar. First, the attacks on the two other girls and now a girl was dead. They had officially connected the two attacks with the murder.

I found out from Addie, that the girls had several bite marks on her body, which had been completely drained. It was sounding more and more like a Draug, but we needed to keep our minds open to the possibility it could be something we haven't heard of. The murdered girl had gone to Salem High School and it was obvious who her friends were because they were clumped together: eyes puffy and tears streaming their faces.

I didn't find out until third period that the murdered girl was Rachel Radley. She was a Junior. Addie showed me a photo of her: we could have been sisters we looked so much alike. Except, her hair was a lighter shade of red and her eyes a deep russet brown. We were both tall and slim and had nearly identical half-smiles. It was eerie.

"Does it freak you out?" Addie asked as we walked to Science class. There were so many things that freaked me out, so I wasn't sure what she was referring to. It had been an interesting couple of months.

"Anything specific, or do you mean in general?" I asked sarcastically. She wasn't in Cosplay today: she said it wasn't the day today. Instead, she wore head to toe black, even her hair was in a short A-line black wig. We probably looked like goth twins walking down the halls because I was wearing all black too. Actually, everyone was, I noticed as I surveyed the halls.

"That Rachel looked so much like you?" I tried to shrug it off, but she could tell it bothered me. "Honestly, Kellie kind of looks like you too, except she has dark brown-red hair. Do you think that means something?" I picked at my cuticles, wishing this day was over. It felt too real that the two of them looked so much like me. I didn't want to point out that the coffee-shop girl and the first victim, had dyed red hair and light eyes, bearing a resemblance to me as well.

"I'm not sure," I confessed. She seemed to get the hint that this wasn't my favorite topic. "Anyways, have you seen Erik? I need to ask him something." Although I didn't believe Levi's warning about Daniel being destined to kill me, I still wanted to ask around. Erik seemed to know a lot about Witches and magic, plus it was a lot safer to ask him about this potential curse than The Coven. I didn't want to give Ivelyn or Kate a reason to go after a specific person, especially that being Daniel.

"Um, he should be here. Don't you have math with him?" I nodded. Erik was notorious for showing up late, sometimes rolling in around third period. I wasn't sure why other than that he seemed to be able to make it work.

"Yeah, I'm just anxious to talk to him," I replied with a shrug.

"Is it about Witch-stuff?" She whispered, leaning forward. The halls were pretty packed, but people were mainly on the other side. It looked like Rachel's best friend: Courtney had about twenty students surrounding her, giving her hugs and sympathetic looks. The pit of my stomach churned: I should have been able to save her. She wasn't supposed to die.

"Yeah, I need to ask him about some rumors, Levi told me about. It's a long story, but basically, he thinks Daniel is going to kill me." The words sounded so nonchalant, but they actually shook me to my core. Courtney and all of the people around her were distracting me, the guilt slid in, soon to take over. I might have saved Kellie Jones, but Rachel Radley was just as innocent.

I felt like I had failed.

"Wait, back up, what?" I looped in Addie about what Levi had been suggesting since day one of hearing I was hanging out with Daniel. I watched her eyes go from narrowed to widened, the same reaction I had. "You're right, you need to talk to Erik. Here, let me give you his number and maybe you can meet up after school. I doubt you're going to get all the info you need from passing in the hallways." She was right, we needed to talk after school.