Monsters, monsters,monsters.
“May I have this?” Dr. Reul slid the notebook from Andrew’s hands before he could think to argue.
Loss hit him like a fist to the stomach and he stopped breathing as he stared at his empty hands. No one read his stories, no one touched them. He should have held on—why hadn’t heheld on?
Dr. Reul paged through and then shared a meaningful look with the principal.
“The groundskeeper found writing on the trees,” the principal said. “Strange little stories. Then after Bryce Kane shared what he had seen with us, Dr. Reul seemed to recall you often wrote tales in a little notebook.”
It was a leap. They couldn’t pin this on him. But all Andrew could think of was the way they could confiscate his notebook, match the handwriting, pin him to the wall with their disapproving, disgusted looks. This belligerent, rule-breaking student. Dr. Reul was still paging through the notebook, and Andrew’s brain felt like a fogged mirror, his stomach so seasick he thought he’d empty himself all over the floor. He knew how those stories looked.
Violent. Macabre. Wicked. Twisted.
“I’d like to know why.” Oddly, the principal had lost her sharpness and she swept an almost pitying look over Andrew.“I would think you’d have little interest in the forest now. You’ve always been such a nice, mindful student. I must admit, I’m disappointed, Andrew.”
“I’m…” But he couldn’t find any words.
The only thing he could cling to was the fact that they’d only brought in him. Not Thomas. Bryce must have seen both of them walk out of the woods, so the fact that he’d only ratted on Andrew meant he had some sort of warped plan at play.
“We’re sympathetic to what you’re going through.” Dr. Reul took off his glasses to rub at a lens. “But we’re concerned you’re not thriving here, Andrew. You’ve not completed a single assignment from my class this year and, unfortunately, the other professors have concurred the same. Perhaps a break is needed. For your mental health.”
He said it in such a comforting way that for a moment Andrew didn’t register what it meant. A break.
They were kicking him out.
“We care about your well-being,” the principal said. “I have been in contact with your father and we all think it’s wise if he picks you up this weekend. We can discuss where to go from there.”
Andrew cupped a hand over his ear. Ithurt. Everything pounded too loud, too fast.
He needed
Thomas.
“Wait,” he said. “I’m f-fine. I don’t need to leave.”Thomas can’t be left to the monsters alone, he won’t survive.
No one would ever believe that they were protecting the school from the horrors crawling the forests at night. They were screaming for help, and no one could hear.
The principal gave him a long, careful look. “I don’t think it’s productive to bring disciplinary action against you for exiting the school boundaries, Andrew, so understand that this is a lenient outcome for us all. I understand you’re not… well.”
They saw him as a fragile thing, made of fractured glass, full of hairline cracks, and this was the gentlest way they could say: expelled.
Dr. Reul handed him back his notebook and he took it too fast, his head low so they didn’t see the moment when his eyes shone bright as the surface of a river. He had to get out of there before he vomited leaves into his lap.
Outside the office, it was all he could do to keep moving, to stay upright when what he most wanted was to curl into a ball. No point going back to class. One look and Thomas would know. He’d explode. He’d go after Bryce—
Andrew pressed his face into the crook of his elbow for the barest second, but as he turned the corner, someone ducked out and crashed a shoulder into his chest so hard he tripped. He hit the ground with a breathless gasp, his chin clipping the carpet, teeth sinking into his tongue until copper bloomed against his teeth. All air left his lungs. He was twelve years old again with scraped knees, looking up at Bryce Kane’s leering grin as he stood like a lord over his fallen prey.
“Hey there, you little shit,” Bryce said, his affable tone not matching the fury in his eyes. “Your friends slandered me, and now they’re going to regret it.”
Andrew pulled himself shakily to his feet, his notebook clutched to his chest. The hall was empty, lined with closedoffice doors and not a teacher in sight. Blood ran down his chin and hit the carpet in a vermilion kiss.
“Did they kick you out? Sounded like they were going to. But don’t worry, I’m sure Rye will cry for you.” Bryce folded his arms, smirking. “It hurts that little murderer more, you know. Losing you. Way more than if it had been him.”
Andrew wiped at his chin, his breathing shallow, his eyes unfocused.Walk away, just walk—
“Why do you even hate him so much?” he whispered.
“Pfft, I don’t. I couldn’t care less about him.”
