Zehra texted me the headlines in the paper – ELECTRICAL FIRE DESTROYS HISTORIC HOTEL. They weren’t treating the fire as suspicious, not even with known arsonist and murderer Hazel Waite in the area.
I sat at my desk in the converted dining hall and scribbled essays in the blue booklets, my mind a million miles away across the stars, where my body would soon join it. I didn’t remember a word I wrote.
The god came to me only once – a faint shriek in the corner of a dream. His power had waned quickly since he agreed to help us. He needed me now more than ever.
The final piece will be raised. You will be my fire, my light in the darkness,he whispered in the screams of his victims.
I will.
I woke from that dream with tears streaming down my face.
And then, just like that, I handed in my last exam and my senior year was over. Miskatonic Prep was out for good, although no one knew that for a fact yet. Students and teachers wandered the halls in a daze, shuffling from here to there like zombies.
The points tables went blank. No more points could be added or taken away. Students crowded into the atrium before breakfast to see the final class list. Trey squeezed my hand, his shoulders tensed, his ice eyes meeting mine with a hint of nerves no one else but I could discern. The King of Kings was a completely different person from the one who greeted me with a jeer on my first day at Derleth Academy. He’d let go of the need to please his father, and the desire to hurt others on his way to the top.
Although not completely different. He still wanted to be first, to win.
“Make way, move your ass, valedictorian coming through!” Quinn shoved his way through the crowd, parting the waters like Moses for me, Trey, Ayaz, Greg, Tillie, Andre, and Loretta.
“You don’t know who the valedictorian is yet,” Courtney grumped.
“Nope,” Quinn beamed. “But it’s going to be one of this lot.”
The blank screen flicked to life. Students crowded forward, jostling each other for the best view. The list streamed past, starting at the bottom. Quinn’s name appeared quickly, and he hooted as if he’d won a grand prize. The screens kept flicking over, getting closer and closer to the top of the list. And still, my name didn’t appear. I held my breath as the final screen showed up, with the top five students listed in descending order.
5. Greg Lambert
4. Tillie Fairchild
3. Ayaz Demir
2. Trey Bloomberg
At the top – me. Hazel Waite.
Valedictorian of Miskatonic Prep.
No fucking way.
Trey’s eyes flicked over to me. Pride leaked through his voice. “You did it, Meat.”
I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. “Not mad at me for beating you?”
Trey shrugged. “I’ve realized there are more important things in life than being first.”
Bodies tumbled against me, Greg and Ayaz and Quinn and Andre and Tillie hugged and yelled at once. I accepted their praise with a stiff smile plastered on my face. In reality, I didn’t give a shit. I wasn’t going to college, so what did it matter?
I barely ate a mouthful at breakfast. The kitchen had put on a mountain of bacon especially for me, but it tasted like cardboard. All I could think about was graduation and what the parents might be planning. I kept coming back to Deborah’s warning about Honduran assassins.
I think we’ve accounted for everything, but we’d be fools to underestimate Vincent.
When I got sick of listening to ‘congratulations, Hazel!’ from students who’d done terrible things to me and my friends, I shoved the uneaten rolls and leftover cakes into my satchel. The boys did the same thing. We took them downstairs, where we had one last piece of our own plan to put in place.
I swung open the door to my old room. The twin bed I’d slept in all those lonely nights rested against the wall, giving the room more floor space for our loot. Duffel bags and designer purses filled with cash were stacked in the corner nearly to the ceiling. A few random bills fluttered loose, settling across the floor.
Our freedom stash. All the money the students would need to start their new lives.
There was something else in the room, too – an old blackboard I’d had Trey and Quinn steal from one of the abandoned classrooms and bring here, along with a handful of chalk sticks. I hadn’t told them what I needed it for – I had a hunch, but I wasn’t sure it would work.
