Page 14 of Apathy
“Yes, you are.” He was suddenly closer, too close. I couldn’t see him, but I could feel every inch of him. “I thought we were getting to know each other back in the crypt.”
I swirled around and crossed my arms across my chest. “You thought wrong.” Dammit, being this close to him I could see all the colors playing around his irises—cobalt blue with yellow spots. But what fascinated me more, what kept me enthralled in his icy stare was the anger threatening to swallow me whole.
He kept a cool façade, a pretty mask for the rest of the world to see, but what I was seeing now was far from the cold and indifferent Ash I met today. I never knew true fear until I looked in his eyes. I never knew that one person could hold so much power in their eyes, but he did.
While my brain told me to run from him, to hide and save myself, my body started betraying me, wanting to be closer. Just like a moth to a flame, I was drawn to him, and I couldn’t understand why.
I broke the connection before I could do something stupid and turned around to look for Lauren again. I didn’t know how much time passed, but as I started ignoring the blazing inferno standing behind me, I could see her walking toward us, seemingly concerned.
“What happened?” I asked as soon as she reached us. The whole atmosphere was creeping me out, and the fog that was slowly descending from the mountain, definitely wasn’t helping.
“You know Megan?” Her voice trembled as she asked. Gone was the carefree attitude and happiness she carried around.
“Uh—”
“Tall, blonde, annoyingly chirpy.” She started describing her. “Always sitting in the first row during physics class?”
“Barely,” I murmured. Megan was just one of those girls you knew but didn’t necessarily talk to. Or at least, I didn’t talk to her. Truth be told, I didn’t talk to most of the people outside of our circle. Being a Blackwood in this town meant that almost everybody wanted something from you, and I was tired of fake smiles and polite answers because they were too afraid to anger me.
I wasn’t my parents, yet nobody wanted to see that—except for Dylan.
I shook my head, clearing my thoughts and trying to focus on what was happening around me. “Why are we talking about her again?” I asked Lauren. I didn’t like the terrified look on her face, or the pale color of her skin.
“Because she’s missing.”
Missing.
Just like the others over the course of the last couple of months. Girls and guys our age were disappearing in the middle of the night, only for their bodies to be found days later. Just like…
“Since when?” Ash asked, while I kept staring at Lauren.
Missing.
Oh my God.
“Do they…” I cleared my throat. “Do they know anything?”
Lauren shook her head, her wild red hair bouncing around her shoulders, the only splatter of color in the otherwise dark day. Ash stepped in front of me, talking to Lauren, but I couldn’t hear a word. I could see his profile, his lips moving, his throat working with every word said, but my mind was as far away from here as possible.
I used to love memories. I used to look at pictures from my childhood, from school, and think about the happier times. But now… Now all of my memories always go back to one I would rather forget. They always go to the place, to the person that wasn’t here anymore.
They always go to the smell of burning flesh, that first disappearance and fear like no other.
They always go back to May and that godforsaken night.
“Skylar!” I jumped at the sound of Lauren’s voice, waking me from the trap my mind was laying out for me.
“What?”
I could see the worry in her eyes because we both knew what this situation reminded me of. And not only me.
“They’re sending us home for the day. Most of the students are frightened and they want to talk to some of the students that were there last night with Megan.”
There? Where were they?
“They went out last night?”
My limbs were heavy, and I knew I was having a hard time understanding everything she said.
