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Authors: S.T. Hill

Fatal (32 page)

BOOK: Fatal
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"I don't know what you're talking about.
You gone crazy or something, Stephie?"

We'd all known he would deny it. Still, it was a bit disappointing. It would have been so much nicer if he'd just admitted to it right then and there.

But that was okay. We had planned for this, after all. I looked at Joseph.

"Really?
Because Joseph told me all about it. Didn't you, Joseph?"

It was simple, really.
Obvious, even. I remembered how pissed Eric was that first day I'd overheard them. It was clear how little trust Eric put in Joseph. Roman history wasn't really my area of expertise, but I still knew a little.

I knew stuff like "Divide and conquer" and what it really meant. However, it was even more impressive to see Julius Caesar's strategy put into action.

"Joe... what the fuck did you say?" Eric said.

Eric's arms, shoulders, neck, face and chest were all flushed a deep, angry red. His face was twisted, his teeth pulled back from his lips. A little wrinkle formed between his
eyebrows.

I almost felt sorry for Joseph, and was definitely happy that look wasn't directed at me.

Joseph recoiled from that look, almost tripped over Eric's desk chair. Eric's letterman jacket slipped to the floor, and Joseph stepped all over it in his effort to move farther away.

"I didn't say anything, Eric. I didn't!" Joseph said.

"Yeah, right. You stupid asshole. I told you when we did her that you couldn't say a fucking thing to anyone. You don't tell other people when you kill someone, you moron!"

Excitement thrilled through me, then. That was it! I had him admitting to killing her, recorded safe and sound on my phone.

"I swear, Eric. I didn't say anything! It's her! She found out, but I didn't tell her!"

Joseph knocked that big computer monitor back, cracking its stand. Eric hit him, then. One punch, straight to Joseph's exposed gut.

All the air rushed from Joseph's lungs as he doubled over at Eric's feet. He was still trying to apologize, even though he couldn't breathe.

I'd been watching, stunned by the display, and enjoying it far more than I thought proper. It was only after Eric turned around and glared at me that I realized I should've run when I had the chance. I had the
recording; there'd been no need for me to stay.

"You... bitch..." Eric breathed. A big vein throbbed in his forehead, looking ready to burst. Hate rolled off him in waves so powerful I took a step back before I could think about it.

"No, you're staying right here!" he said, jabbing his finger at me like it was a spear.

My plan of just screaming if I got into trouble wasn't good enough, I could tell now. He'd be on me before Adam or Vick could race up the stairs, and I knew what he was capable of.

So I ran, gripping my phone through my coat so that it wouldn't jolt from my pocket.

I bounced off the walls in the hallway in my hurry. A big, black and white picture in a steel frame crashed down behind me, sending shards of glass at my heels.

I couldn't look back. He was right there behind me, I knew.

"Stop!" he said.

A few guys poked their heads out of their bedroom doorways, confused about the noise. Most of them had their letterman jackets on.

When I got to the staircase, they started cheering, calling out to Eric to "Get that slut!" and other colorful phrases.

They thought I was just his latest conquest or something, rather than a girl he wanted to chase down and beat.

My grip slipped on the rail. For a moment, I was airborne over the staircase. My stomach tried to stay behind as the panic and adrenaline fueling my muscles made me windmill like crazy.

All I thought about was keeping that phone safe.

Even as I crashed in a heap on the ground floor landing, my left hip and shoulder taking the brunt of the impact, I kept thinking about that. Even as I pushed myself up on
my hands and knees and scrambled for the door, trying to ignore the sweet, sharp pain blossoming across an entire side of my body.

I reached up for the door handle. My fingers touched the cold, chromed metal latch. They slipped off when Eric grabbed the hood of my jacket and used it to haul me backwards.

"Adam!" I screamed, terror flashing through my body in hot and cold waves as he dragged me back.

"Yeah!
That's my boy!" some frat boy called from the top of the stairs. There were more behind him, still cheering Eric on, still not knowing what was really happening.

"Adam!" I screamed again.

I knew it must have only been moments, but it felt like forever as I got dragged backwards, watching that front door waiting for him to burst through.

The door slammed back so hard that the glass in the window cracked. Adam stood there, looking so big from where I was on the floor. He growled. It was a deep noise, from somewhere far inside his chest.

Another fear took me as I imagined what might happen if he transformed here, now, in anger.

"Let her go," he said.

"He's calling you out, boy!" the same guy who'd called out earlier said.

Eric stopped dragging me.

"Piss off, Arnold," Eric said. His shoulders and chest heaved under that stupid wife beater, sweat running down the sides of his face. I could smell it from the ground. It melded with his cologne, making the scent waft from him rank and sickly sweet.

"You get your hands off her..."

"Or you'll what? Look at this stupid emo punk!" Eric said.

"Take him!" another frat guy yelled out.

I was tired of all this macho shit. Balling my fist, I drove it up between Eric's legs. It was a solid hit, hard enough to hurt my wrist.

And its effect on Eric was immediate.

The guys watching from the stairs yelled like it was a prize fight as Eric clutched himself and fell on his side, curling up in a ball and whining.

I scuttled away from him. Adam helped me up.

"I got it..." I said, patting my jacket.

He hugged me, holding me close. His heart slammed against his ribs.

He was about to say something when the room filled with cops. Lights started flashing through the windows and the open door, coming in with that cold breeze.

The frat boys reacted instinctively, running back to their rooms or trying to get out like this was the fuzz
come to crash a kegger.

There had to be at least a dozen men and women coming in with their guns drawn. They all pointed their weapons at Eric, who whimpered even more when he saw what was happening.

"Are you okay?"

Both Adam and I turned. Vick stood in the doorway. He had his big winter coat on, one arm crossed over his chest cradling the bruised ribs he'd gotten trying to stab Adam that night.

A cop knelt beside Eric, pulling his arms out and cuffing them behind his back.

"You have the right to remain silent," he began, giving the cuffs a few extra clicks.

I recognized that voice. It was Unit Four, who'd almost caught me in the bathroom in the student center. He was a big guy, his winter gear making him even more imposing. He manhandled Eric with ease, and there seemed to be genuine pleasure in his eyes at the task.

A female cop about my height, her brunette hair in a tight bun at the back of her head and a severe, sharp face came over to us.

"Mr. Lawson here says you have a recording for us. I'm Deputy Sheppard."

"Oh! Yeah, right here," I said, digging my phone out. It was still recording. I hit the stop button. "It's all here... Is there a way I can keep my phone?" I said. I wanted to call my mom back.

Sheppard started the playback. Even Eric quieted down as we listened to him admit to killing Jenn.

"Go up and grab this Joseph," Sheppard said to one cop who'd just holstered his pistol.

She turned back to me.

"Yeah, you'll get it back. Come to the station tonight; we'll have the file off your phone by then. Other than that... We'll be in touch."

Sheppard went over to help Eric up to his feet so that they could bring him out to one of the cars.

"Do you think they'll go through with it?" I said to Vick, who'd come up beside us.

"Even the most expensive lawyer's going to have a hard time trying to defend him. The cops have no choice to bring him in, even with his daddy paying them off... You never answered my question. Are you okay?"

I could still see that hint of possibility in Vick's eyes as he looked at me. He still cared for me, and I knew I cared for him. But I'd found Adam, and Adam found me. It just felt so right being with him, like I was becoming the person I was supposed to be.

We were discovering ourselves together. I hugged him closer.

"Yeah, I'm fine. We both are."

It was the truth this time, too.

Vick nodded and turned to go.

"Wait... What are you going to do now?" I said, reaching out to touch his arm and stop him.

Vick looked around to make sure none of the cops could hear. The place was getting pretty loud as the cops struggled to bring Joseph down the stairs.

"There are still other, real monsters waiting out there. They don't all have people like you to make sure they remain human," he said.

He and Adam nodded to each other. I don't think they could ever be friends, but they understood each other.

"Good luck," I said.

We watched Vick leave. Then we watched three cops drag Joseph out through the front door.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!" he kept screaming. At the cops, at me.

We didn't go until the cop cars cleared out, going in single file down the road and disappearing around the bend.

When we got back to my dorm room, I opened up my laptop and went to Facebook. We both looked at Jenn's picture.

"It's okay. She can really rest in peace, now," Adam said.

"Yeah..."

I just wished she could still be here. I shut the laptop, catching one final glimpse of her smiling face.

"Come on, if we're going to pass Hackett's exam we're going to have to stay up all night!" I said.

Adam pulled me into a hug and kissed me, our lips staying together until we both ran out of
breath, then we collapsed on the bed.

"I'm up for staying up," he said.

"You!" I said, slapping him on the arm.

It wasn't really an end, I knew. We'd gone through one adventure. But it was really just the start of another. Life goes through stages, and it felt as though we were both about to start the next one.
Together.

 

THE END

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The trip of a lifetime comes with the fear of finding only heartache on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. As lives are ripped apart by war, Eleanor Winters embarks on a journey that leads her far from her small hometown, testing her courage, her resolve, and her heart in ways she never imagined.
Young Eleanor, quiet, pretty, and innocent, only desired one thing from life: to settle down with her fiancé Jeffrey Beech in small-town Kitchener, Canada.
But her dreams are dashed when the government drafts Jeff to fight in World War One.
Opportunity knocks: board the RMS Olympic, legendary twin of doomed Titanic, and chase Jeff halfway around the world to England for one last chance to see him.
Eleanor finds herself stuck in England with no way home.
In the hopes of someday scraping together the money for a return ticket, Eleanor takes a job as a maid at nearby Chestermere Manor, seat of Alec, Lord Chestermere
.
 
Lord Alec is sophisticated, handsome, and clever. But he carries his own wounds from the war, choosing solitude in that big, lonely house
.
 
They find themselves drawn to each other, able to understand the other’s hurts and the other’s needs. But they face opposition from every side.
Can they win their wars of the heart as the entire world rages around them in the greatest conflict of the era?

BOOK: Fatal
7.75Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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