Bloodlust

chapter ten

-10-

 

 The drizzle sticks to my clothes and hair. The water sinks in slowly and taking even more time to spread the chill through me. I get to the church and Scarlet pulls me immediately into a hug. She smells amazing; it must be a new perfume or something. I laugh bitterly at myself, I shouldn’t be thinking about Scarlet’s perfume at a funeral…

“Oh my god Anthony!” she says and then she pushes me away, her happiness fading quickly. “What’s wrong with you? You go missing the day after we found out our friend died with a murderer loose and then you skip school!” As she rants at me, I can’t help but feel rage towards her. She’s wearing a form fitting dress and a small sweater, all of which are doing great things for her, but this is a funeral, she’s supposed to be mourning, not flaunting.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Drew asks angrily as he shoves my shoulder roughly. “Do you want us to think you’ve been killed?”

“I’m sorry,” I say, and we both know how pathetic I must sound.

“Sorry my ass,” Drew says. He continues, bitterly sarcastic, “In case you’ve been out of the loop, there’s been another murder and the police have declared that we’re dealing with a serial killer.”

“No evidence and clean kills,” Alex says as he joins in. “They’re saying it’s the same guy. Everyone is freaking out.”

Luxford is a considerably good town; even the bad side is relatively nice. The crime rater is virtually nonexistent. I think at one point the town was labeled as one of the safest. I barely see anything about crimes on the news. I think most of the problems that people have are kept secret, like the situation with my parents. The police have it really easy here. Or at least they did.

“I’ll see you guys inside,” Scarlet says as she goes in the church doors. She clearly doesn’t want to get involved. Scarlet avoids or ignores anything bad that doesn’t directly affect her. I don’t think she can handle it after living a life where she’s been shielded from anything that’s remotely criminal.

“Me too,” Drew says as he shoots me a glare. Alex holds me outside.

“Are you okay?” he ask. “You’re really pale.” Part of me longs to tell Alex everything that’s gone on these past few days but I can’t. As much as Alex is my best friend, I can’t trust him with this. I know he’ll jump to conclusions and I’ll stress him out even more.

“I’m as fine as I can be in a situation like this,” I tell Alex as we head inside and show our respects to the closed casket before sitting down next to Scarlet and Drew. We’re right behind Christopher’s family and we all nod at each other offering silent condolences. They lost a family member and we lost a great friend. Jeff comes in and stands at the coffin for a moment before he scoots past us and next to Scarlet. She grabs his hand and cries silently on his shoulder as the funeral starts. I try and fail to hold back tears as Christopher’s parents and some of his family members say words about Christopher.

Christopher’s mom goes back up and I notice just how much Christopher’s death has aged her. Her skin looks grayer and she has far more wrinkles than the last time I saw her. “I know it’s last minute but could Christopher’s closest friends, Drew, Anthony, Scarlet and Alex, please come up to say some words?” Her voice isn’t the casual confident tone it normally was either. It’s weary and broken.

  We all stand silently and make our way up to the front of the church. Scarlet steps in front of the microphone first, her eyes are teary and her voice is shaking.