In Plain Sight (A Hunted Rose)

Chapter Six

The rest of my day was fairly uneventful.  Amanda was in one of my classes later in the day and she gave me the evil eye all throughout.  Jason was in my calculus class and I sat next to him.  I was surprised when I got a breath of his scent; it was a really metallic scent, not bad necessarily, just unexpected.  He was quiet the entire time, but he gave me a few smiles, one when I first walked in, and one when we left.  My first impression of Jason was that he was quiet and would just follow the leader, but I of all people knew that looks could be deceiving.  I had the feeling that when he had something to say, or he believed in something, he would speak his mind, to hell with the consequences.  My thoughts on the way their group appeared to work were that River was in charge, followed closely by Ryder and then Seth.  Then, at other times, it seemed as if they were all in charge, or that Cameron or Jason was in charge.  It was really confusing, but I wanted to figure it out, otherwise it would annoy me, with my OCD tendencies and all.  

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The final bell rang, and everyone seemed to surge out if their seats at once.  I grabbed my books and walked to my locker, ducking in and out of people’s ways and avoiding elbows and books that threatened to hit me in the face.  I hurried to my car and when I got in I just rested my head against the head rest and let out a deep breath.  I survived my first day without any killing, maiming, or injuries, intentionally inflicted or otherwise.  As I was leaving, I got stuck behind several other cars that all tried to get out of the parking lot at the same time.  Sometimes people had no sense.  Only one car can leave at a time, idiots.   Finally, I was safely in my house.  I lugged my backpack across the room and dropped it on the couch, watching it bounce for a second before it settled into the cushion.  I sat down next to it and got out my math book so that I could start on my homework.

As I worked my way through my calculus assignment, I thought about what Charlotte had told me earlier.  I didn’t believe that the five guys I met were capable of murder.  Ryder was borderline sometimes, but otherwise they seemed really nice.  I put my books back into my backpack and got into my car.  I drove around town until I found the library and I grabbed my backpack and went inside.  I adjusted my backpack on my shoulder as I walked up to the front desk where a librarian was sitting. 

“Hi,” I said as I approached.  “I just moved here and I was wondering if there were any old newspapers that I could read just to know some of the history of the town?”

“Yes, in fact we do have some over there,” she pointed at a row of computers a few aisles over.  “A few years ago we scanned them and digitalized them in order to keep them.  Several of them were getting to be in pretty bad shape.”

“Okay, thank you,” I said as I moved over to the computers.  I wiggled the mouse and found the files on the computers that were labeled newspapers. 

I searched for newspapers from about seven years ago, when Ryder and River and the others would have been in fifth grade.  After a few minutes of searching I couldn’t find any specifically.  I tried searching the words killings, murder, and death, which came up with some headlines.  The one that caught my attention was the one that said, “Mysterious Killings Baffle Local Police”.  I quickly scanned through the article and then searched for the next newspaper that came out.  This one had a different headline, “Kids Involved with Ghost Murders?”  There was a picture of Ryder, River, Seth, Cameron and Jason on the front, covered in mud, and blood.  They looked like they had been in a fight or a struggle.  I read through the article in more depth this time.

“On Saturday September Twenty-fourth, the body of Jonathan Monckton was found on the Liston Park pathway.  It appeared to be an animal attack.  There were bloody trails and footprints leading away from the scene, but no animals that were big enough to cause the attack were found within fifteen miles of the area.  Though, one mile away, Jason Reece, Seth Carmichael, Cameron Wagner, along with Ryder and River Anderson were found, covered in blood that matched the victims, mud and other plants, and another mysterious substance.  The substance appeared to be blood, but did not match the victim’s or any of the children’s.  There also appeared to be a mutation in the substance.  Some people believe that this was not an animal attack and was part of the recent string of murders, labeled the Ghost Murders, which have occurred around Winston Heights.  There will be an investigation on the involvement of Mr. Reece, Mr. Carmichael, Mr. Wagner, and the Mr.’s Anderson.”