His Dark Words

21 | Fourteen Names

It's a broken world that lets the Austin Loews get away with twisted, dark acts hidden in plain sight. It's a broken world that pushes people to their breaking point all in the pursuit of money and status. And if society is broken it feels almost impossible to bear being a part of it. I see it in Vanessa when people assume things about her because of the color of her skin, in Alex in the way he keeps his real self hidden from the world and in Macie and her fight against injustice. Whether its self-preservation or something much bigger I think we all want things to be so much better. At least that's what I hope. Maybe you can't save the world, but you can save someone's world... Can't you?

It seems like some ancient piece of history I keep digging up over and over again but he's still out there. And now I need him to see the film. Even if it doesn't make any sense to him, I've pieced it all together and it's something beautiful. It's the best I could do. All the joy I could find and maybe it can be a 'moment of sky' for him too.

Exams are over for us juniors at least. I don't know if it was Macie's stunt that emboldened me, but I find myself at school in the dead of night, dressed all in black with a flashlight and a crumpled playbill from Death of a Salesman in my pocket. He had known the play. Studied it enough to know the lines and feel the emotions of the characters. He had to have been in it. My guess is it has to be Luke Harrison. He played Biff, the character Book-Boy had felt so strong a connection to. But it could've been any of the others, crew included. I highlighted all the boy's names on the playbill. 

Fourteen names. 

Fourteen chances to find him. 

I'm edging through the dark shadows between the school buildings, heading for Mr. Peterson's office (the Vice Principals), where all the exam papers are being kept before sending them out. I know this isn't me. This isn't a Harlow Riley thing to do at all. It's pure Macie Myers. 

Tonight, I'm Macie. 

Tonight, I'm invincible.

The campus is eerily quiet with the wind sailing through the branches of the trees and no sign of student life. The surveillance system was installed during the 80's. The school is such an old building with lots of odd angles and plenty of bushes and trees right up to the walls. Because of this there are some paths you can slip through and never be seen by the mounted cameras. Mostly these are used by the kids who smoke or the seniors pulling pranks in the final days of school. Since the public shaming of Austin Loew, the school has been on high alert for any more incidents and the security guard wanders round the grounds every hour, checking on the spots the cameras don't expose.

I sit in a bush for a good half hour before getting the courage to approach the building. The only way to get inside is to go in directly after the security guard. He'll unlock the side door off the quad, do a sweep of the building then come back down, exit and lock it up again. I need to get in and out of Mr. Peterson's office during that time period without getting caught.

Squatting down so I can't be seen through the windows I turn the handle with a gloved hand and nudge the door open as quietly as I can. 

"What are you doing... What are you doing!" Screams inside my head. 

The old wood whines loudly and I feel my blood freeze. Had the security guard heard it? I hear no footsteps walking back to the door. 

"You're a crazy person... Totally mad..." I steel myself and slip inside.

The hallway stretches long and forbidding out before me. The wooden boards groan under my trainers and at every step I fully expect a flashlight to fall on me and it all to be over. The old building has all of these odd sounds that you never hear during the day when it's full of students. The pipes sound like a subway system humming away in the walls and their constant creaks, bubbles and churnings are probably the only reason I make it to Mr. Peterson's second floor office undetected.