As I watched in horror, the body slid down the tilted stretcher. Paul’s foot hit a tree root and disintegrated into a pile of dust. The breeze fanned it across the forest floor, leaving the hollow hem of his slacks flapping free and a single ash-filled sock lying in the dead leaves.
I think I’m going to be sick.
As I struggled against the rising bile, Nancy threw herself over her boyfriend’s body, clutching his jacket and laying kisses on his forehead. Every time she touched him, more of his body fell away. When she removed her lips, she left a hole in the top of his skull that rapidly filled with dust as the bones crumbled around it.
Rage bubbled inside me.John did this.
My ears rang. John’s words from that night in my room burned over in my head.Spread her legs.
I tried to help him, even after what he wanted to do to me. I ignored the warning in my heart and tried to give him his freedom and convince myself he’d change, or that justice would eventually catch up with him. Now my worst fear had been realized. I’d let a child of the god out into the world and he’d actedexactlylike a spoiled rich rapist bastard, and now Paul wasdead.
I’ll kill him. He may be running around out there as an immortal, but I swear I’ll kill him.
“We thought…” Courtney struggled for words. “Miskatonic Prep is the closest thing Paul has to a home. We couldn’t just leave him on the side of the road.”
“You did the right thing.” Ayaz laid a hand on her shoulder. Courtney’s body stiffened at his touch, and I knew that what had been between them was over for good. She took nothing from his comfort. Courtney needed to be with the person she loved most… herself.
“We’ll carry him.” Trey moved around the stretcher, his presence calming, authoritative.
“Where are we taking him?” Derek gripped the other end.
“To the Porsche.”
“He won’t fit in the trunk.”
“He will by the time we get there,” Trey’s voice was grim.
Trey, Ayaz, and Derek lifted the stretcher. With every movement, more of Paul blew away. By the time they maneuvered him into the trunk of the Porsche, all that was left was a pile of clothes and a torso of dust. Derek climbed in the passenger seat next to Trey and us four girls squeezed in back with Quinn and Ayaz. The car was barely meant for four people, let alone eight. I had elbows in places elbows should never be, and I had to hold on tight to stop myself banging around. Courtney sat on Ayaz’s knees, tears streaming down her pretty cheeks.
Trey drove carefully to disturb Paul as little as possible, so our climb up the peninsula was slower than our descent. Even so, my head banged on the roof with every corner. After a stop to hide our sigils back at their original locations, Trey backed the Porsche into the stable. We all toppled out and he lifted the trunk. I peered inside, wishing I had the good sense to look away. A ring of dust had settled around Paul’s clothing. When the boys lifted the stretcher, more dust cascaded from the sleeves. There was practically nothing left.
“What do we do with him?” Trey asked Courtney. He sensed that she needed something from Paul’s return.
For the first time since I’d come to this school, I saw my own pain and horror reflected back at me in Courtney Haynes’ eyes. “We bury him.”
Paul already had a grave, as they all did – down in the first row, closest to the edge of the cliff, where the trees bent their spindly limbs down toward the churning ocean below. The guys took off toward the forest. Courtney followed, clutching Nancy who still wailed hysterically, while Tillie, Ayaz, and Derek ran up to the school with the bags of cash to gather Paul’s closest friends.
Down we went to the pleasure garden, which still bore the signs of last week’s party – the trash on the ground, the dirt and sand churned up from dancing, a broken table lying on its side. The black pillar jutted from the grotto – reflecting its surface into the pool of water surrounding it, creating the illusion that I was back in the primordial place. A trail of blue flame shimmered on the surface of the pillar’s sigil.
The wind picked up as we neared the shore and I tried not to think of bits of Paul blowing through the air around me. We found Paul’s grave just as Tillie and Derek ran up with a handful of other students and, weirdly, some of the maintenance staff. I glanced at Sadie across the crowd, and she shrugged. She didn’t know why she was there, either. Tillie carried a shovel, which she handed to Trey.
Of course, Trey would be the one expected to dig the grave for the only classmate to ever truly die at Miskatonic Prep. That was the duty of the King of Kings – and he bore it as he bore all things, noble and remote and determined to be the best. Trey set his jaw against the horror of his task and dug the spade into the soft earth. In no time at all, he’d hollowed out a shallow grave and lowered what remained of Paul inside.
That done, he stepped back into the semicircle we’d formed around the grave. I glanced around the stricken faces. Each one looked at me expectantly, but I’d barely known Paul. It didn’t seem right that I be the one to eulogize him. Nancy was still crying, so I nudged Courtney forward.
Now she had an audience, Courtney pulled herself together, wiping over her stricken features with a mask of subdued sadness. She really was an exceptional actress. In a clear voice that rang across the cemetery, piercing through the howling wind, Courtney spoke. “Paul was a loyal friend, a fun guy to hang with, a sweet boyfriend but a mediocre kisser. Most importantly… he was family.”
From behind her, Tillie let out a loud sob, but Courtney’s features remained hard and focused. Paul’s death had shifted something inside her – she stared out at the gathered students with eyes wide open, as though she was seeing the reality of her world for the first time. “Like the rest of us, Paul’s family abandoned him years ago, even before he entered Miskatonic Prep. His parents wanted a son because it looked good for the tabloids, but they spent more time jetsetting off to Milan or Paris with their reality TV show buddies than they did looking after him. Paul practically raised his younger brother, who he was hoping to see again soon.”
“Despite everything we’ve been through, Paul always tried to stay positive. He didn’t always succeed, but he was better than the rest of us. You all know I dated him for a couple of years before Nancy—” I hadn’t known that, but it didn’t surprise me. I guessed everyone dated around when you had the same classmates for two decades. “—and they were some of the best years in this hellhole. That was before Paul got sick of my shit and moved on to someone much more deserving.” Courtney smiled at Nancy, who leaned into Barclay’s shoulder and sobbed.
I’m not sure about that.I remembered seeing Nancy in the grotto making out with Barclay. But I’d just slept with three guys at once, so who was I to judge? For all I knew Paul and Nancy were both dating Barclay. The guy sure looked cut up about Paul’s death.
“And yet, after everything we’ve been through, Paul didn’t die because of our parents’ evil plotting,” Courtney continued. Her eyes met mine, and I saw my own resolve reflected back at me. “He was killed because John Hyde-Jones wanted to escape Miskatonic Prep and screw the rest of us. After everything we’ve been through together, that fuckface put his own desires over the needs of his classmates, and that’s something I know none of us will stand for.”
Students and maintenance staff greeted this news with hard, stony faces. John’s betrayal had hurt more than what their parents had done.
“We’ve had our souls cut up and tampered with, but some pieces of our humanity must still survive,” Courtney slid a backpack off her shoulders and opened it. I expected it to be empty, since we’d dropped the sigils back out in the forest. Instead, wads of cash toppled out. “This isn’t about our stupid pride. It’s about so much more than that.”
