528

chapter one

June 17th. A normal day. I started school the same way I always did; walking down the hallway to get the books stored in my old, rusty locker. But when I reached the locker, something was different. An odd smell roamed around my locker. The stench became stronger when I opened it, but I found nothing in there. Just my books. Everything was the same. This confused me. If it wasn't coming from my locker, where had the stench come from?

I thought about this while walking to my first class. I had four periods in total but they were shortened since today was minimum day. Something about a teacher conference. Class started shortly after I arrived. Mr. Bloise was babbling on about quadratic equations but as usual, I wasn't paying much attention. My eyes roamed around the classroom and I quickly realized that nobody else was really listening either. Jeremy Tan was usually the only one who was attentive during math class. That's odd, Jeremy's not here today. We've been in the same classes since grade school and he has never missed a class before. The only time he did skip school was when he got the chickenpox from Nissy Loo. Even then he tried to come to school, but the principal wouldn't allow it. I don't know why Jeremy missed class today, maybe he had a family emergency. But, his absence gave me a weird feeling.

The rest of the day went by pretty slowly. When the final bell had rang, I walked out of the science classroom desperately hoping to find an excuse not to go back home. If you would even call it a home. My alcoholic foster father Bernard and his pet rat lived in that wreck of a house with me. I've been living there ever since my freshman year when I ran away from... from my previous residence. I arrived at the bike racks but as I reached for my helmet, a blue piece of paper sticking out of it caught my eye. As I unfolded the paper the same feeling I got when Jeremy wasn't in math class came back. Slowly, I read the messy handwriting.

We know. If you don't want us to tell, you'll help us. First, unlock the locker right beneath yours. 5567. Make sure nobody's around. You might want to wait till it gets dark. You'll find the item inside. Clean it. Get rid of it. Then meet us in the storage room on Route 331. Make sure its the room on the far right. You wouldn't want to go into the wrong one. We'll leave a key for you next to the yellow fire hydrant. Good luck, 528.

Five. Two. Eight. Three numbers. Numbers that will scare the living daylights out of me. I shoved the piece of paper into the pocket of my ripped jeans and slowly looked at my surroundings. Everyone was already leaving campus and there was nobody around. Lockers. I had to get to the lockers. I pushed my bike back onto the rack and locked it in place. I took the helmet and placed it back on my bike. Then, I made my way to the lockers hoping that no one would see me.

When I got there, my eyes immediately went to the locker beneath mine. The smell. That's where it came from. Right as I was about to put in the combination for the locker beneath mine, I heard the faint noise of paper shuffling behind me. I jerked my head around and saw Vice Principal Samantha walking my way. She was supposed to be in the conference room. Why wasn't she in the conference room?! I tiptoed to the other side of the lockers and tried to make myself invisible upon the corner of a hallway. I looked back to see if Ms. Samantha was heading towards the conference room but to my surprise, she was sneaking off to Mr. Bloise's classroom? What? Mr. Bloise? I thought he was married. Whatever, it was none of my business. I took this as my chance to get the stuff out of the locker and leave. They would clearly be preoccupied with other things and the other teachers were all at the conference.

I quietly made my way back to the locker and put in the combination. 5567. The lock clicked open. I pulled the locker open slowly causing it to make an echoing noise that traveled through the hallways. I looked around me to make sure that no one was watching and when I made sure that no one was, I set my eyes inside the locker.

I thought that I was going to find a body. But I didn't. My eyes widened when I saw the contents inside the locker. Body parts. Dead body parts. Just the arms and legs. I thought I was going to get caught just by the loud thumping of my heart. The odor of the body parts was all I could smell. It clouded my nose and head. I couldn't think straight. I needed to get outside. I needed fresh air. I got up quickly and put in the combination to my locker. Gloves, trash bags, and bleach. Oh, and wipes. Lots and lots of wipes. Right after I got the materials I needed from my locker, I got to work.

First, I put on the gloves and shoved the body parts into the trash bag. As I poured bleach into the locker, questions roamed my head. Where were the other body parts? Who killed this person? Who knew about me? After I wiped the locker clean, I grabbed the trash bag and shoved it into my backpack. Then I quietly closed the locker, and sprinted outside. I didn't stop running until I reached my bike. I hopped onto my bike and didn't even bother putting on my helmet. It was still dangling on the handle of my bike while I sped away.

331. Route 331. That was right next to the pharmacy store near the house. Shit. The house. It's already 4:30. I told him I was going to be back by 3:00. Nothing's going right today. He's gonna have to wait. This is more important. Right at the street of the house, I made a turn the opposite direction to reach the pharmacy.

When I arrived, I grabbed my backpack and walked inside. My eyes immediately went to the gasoline tanks in the corner of the store. While strolling towards the tanks, I grabbed a bag of doritos and a twix bar. Normal people get this stuff when they do normal things. Right? I grabbed one of the gasoline tanks and looked around for the nearest restroom. I spotted one in the corner on the other side of the store. I quickly walked over to the restroom and shut the door.

Right as it closed, I let out a sigh. I didn't know how long I'd been holding that in. I stuffed the gasoline tank into my backpack and set it down. I walked over to the sink and turned on the faucet. I began to scrub my hands and I didn't stop until I felt blisters forming. When I looked up into the mirror, I saw tears streaming down my face. This isn't me anymore. I'm normal now. I have to be.