Sarah Benadine is Dead

Chapter XX, Part II

I suppose it stood to reason that, of the seven children at the heart of this awful matter, Ollie O'Brien was the most fearful. Ollie was the youngest of all of them, having only turned eleven in December. She was only in the grade she was because she'd been homeschooled by Florence Wilkins with Jared, Ginger, and Dexter before she'd started her time at Briargate. Her age compared to the others was not always obvious, but in this way it showed. Ollie O'Brien was so very afraid.

Ollie's brother Archie often said that she spent far too much time thinking. Ollie was generally inclined to agree with him. It was why she spent so much time dwelling on things she didn't want to dwell on. She couldn't help it. She noticed things others didn't, made connections many overlooked.

Sarah Benadine was bothering her now. Unbeknownst to her, she was thinking the same thing Clifford Dent was: it all began and ended with Sarah. She was certain there had to be some overarching connection between whoever wanted Sarah Benadine dead—and Shannon Malone, for that matter—and the creatures that had been causing the rest of the damage in town. And perhaps she was right. Either way, it was all that occupied her thoughts one afternoon after classes were done and she was waiting for her siblings to be done working with teachers. It was a Thursday, one of the days designated for gifted students to learn how to better control their gift. That included Ollie's brother and sisters, as well as everyone else she normally walked home with. Everyone but Ollie herself. She waited on the steps in the entry hall, nose buried in a book she could not focus on. She was too busy trying to find the connection she could not make.

She was about to be the closest thing to a witness to a murder that anyone that year had been since Angela Carson.

The entry hall was quiet; most students were with teachers and the pockets of non-gifted were in their dormitories or perhaps the library. Only two students had passed Ollie in the time she'd been in the hall. For all intents and purposes, she was alone. It was raining outside, hard and heavy, and the sound of raindrops was most of what Ollie heard. It was much like the day of Sarah Benadine's memorial: muggy and dark and ominous. Like an omen for what was coming.

Diane Merriweather had snuck into the dining hall without even Ollie O'Brien noticing.

The hour gifted students spent with their assigned teachers was approximately three-quarters of the way over when Ollie heard the scream. It was very faint, but it startled her nonetheless, so badly it nearly caused her to drop her book. She looked with anxious eyes towards the large wooden door that blocked the dining hall from her view. The scream had not been long, just a short burst of sound. For a moment, Ollie debated with herself whether she had heard anything at all. She knew she had.

Ollie set her book down on the steps and hesitantly got to her feet. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she padded her way to the door. It suddenly seemed beyond quiet; even her shoes on the marble floor made no sound. She expected more noise to come from the dining hall: a shout, a shriek, a laugh, anything. There was nothing. She put one hand on the door handle and paused, mustering all of her courage. Squeezing her eyes shut, she threw the door open with one mighty thrust.

When she opened her eyes once again, she at first thought the dining hall was unoccupied. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room—and once she was looking in the right place—she realized that that was not true.

With a moaning gasp, Ollie ran from the room.

***

Afterwards, Dexter, Ginger, Jared, and Caleb found her outside, sitting in the rain. The trees provided some cover, but not enough. She was slowly getting soaked. She had her arms wrapped around her knees and she was staring sightlessly off into the distance. There were water droplets in her hair and running down her face.