Chapter Six
“Orion…what are you doing?” Gavin asked. “He’s going to get away.”
“Leave him.”
“Orion…” Gavin said. “Don’t do anything stupid. At least no stupider than what you’ve already done. Drop the damn gun. You’re already in a lot of trouble and you should let us go before—”
“Before he kills someone else,” Ellie croaked weakly. “Orion, she never cheated on you. She loved you…”
“Ellie,” Gavin muttered, going to her.
“No. That won’t be necessary,” Orion said, pointing the gun at him. “She’s dead now. Leave her be.”
“You sick bastard,” Gavin spat out. “People are dead. Try to understand that.”
“There’s going to be more dead if you don’t shut that hole in your face,” Orion warned. “I have nothing to live for now. I could pull this trigger without a second thought because it doesn’t really matter, does it? I killed Dev. Could Archer really have betrayed me like that?”
“He did!” Gavin said, holding up his hands. “Devony would never cheat on you!”
“Liar! It can’t be true! It can’t be! What would Archer gain by lying to me?”
“You heard Ellie! He was jealous of you!”
“I have nothing to be jealous of!” Orion said. “I know what people think of me! I hear their jokes in the halls! I was never accepted here! Even my girlfriend saw me as an outsider!” He rubbed his forehead with the gun in his hand. “She’s dead,” he croaked out. “Devony’s really dead.”
“Drop the weapon!” a loud voice shouted. “Drop it now, boy!”
“Boy?” Orion said, turning around to look at a policeman with his gun drawn.
“Whatever you are, drop the weapon.”
“Lucas, be careful!” Gavin shouted as he saw him walking back from the woods with a few others in tow.
“We found Archer,” Lucas said as the old policeman and Mason came into focus, leading Archer between them. “Orion, just drop the gun! We have him so you don’t have to do this!”
“Do what?” Orion asked, pointing the gun at Archer. Several more police showed up with their guns drawn but Orion didn’t take notice. “Kill this monster? Murder this abomination? Why not? It’s like looking the devil in the eye.”
“Drop the weapon!” one of the police yelled.
“I should kill him!” Orion said, as the police advanced on him. “You deserve to die!”
“You won’t kill me,” Archer said, smiling. “You only kill women.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Orion shouted as his hand holding the revolver quivered.
“Stop, Orion!” Lucas said. “They’ll take you out! Drop the gun!”
“Not until he’s dead!”
“He’s not yours to kill!” Lucas shouted. “Please! Don’t shoot him!”
“Say whatever you want, my mind’s made up. What’s going to happen when I drop the gun? I’ve already killed two people. What’s one more? Why should he get to live when he started this whole thing?”
“Orion, he’s admitted what he did,” Lucas begged.
“DROP THE WEAPON!”
“Did you really want to kill Devony?”
“I wanted to teach her a lesson.”
“And you really believed that she was sleeping with Micah?”
“She was!”
“That’s not true!” Micah shouted from behind the line of police, his injured arm and shoulder in a sling and a paramedic trying to pull him away from the scene. “Orion, I never did! Why didn’t you talk to me about this? Why didn’t you try to find out the truth? You blindly believed Archer’s lies but you never asked anyone else!”
“I’m going to have to take him out,” a policewoman said in a low voice. “He’s unstable. Look how his eyes are darting around. He’s probably on drugs.”
“Micah…” Orion said. “I believe you…I should have talked to you but that…that demon over there, tricked me. I should have talked to you.”
“Give him a moment,” another policeman whispered. “He looks like he’s calming down. He’s lowering the weapon.”
“Do we really want to take that chance?”
“Archer!” Orion shouted. “Can’t you tell me why you did this to me? Why did you ruin me? Were you really jealous?”
Archer lifted up his head, a tight smile still on his lips. His eyes were empty and grim. “You’ve made your bed, now lie in it. I won’t say another word to you.”
Orion started to lift his arm again and one of the policemen fired. The bullet struck Orion’s leg, causing him to stagger backwards but he kept his footing somehow. His gun fired into the air.
“Orion, relax!” Lucas said. “It was all Archer! He even told Roderick to hurt Micah! Can’t you see? You need to stop!”
“What the fuck?” Orion groaned, lowering the gun again.
“He’s a monster!” Micah said.
“We found all sorts of messages on Roderick’s phone. He was too stupid to delete them.”
“You devil!” Orion shouted. “Micah, just tell me how you ended up with my girl’s ring.”
“It was in my locker. Archer admitted he put it there.”
“I’m so stupid for believing you!” Orion shouted in the air as he glared at Archer’s smug face.
“Don’t make us shoot you again,” a cop bellowed. “Put the gun down.”
“Do what he says!” Micah shouted. “Orion, you may not want to hear this, but Archer’s also the one who got me drunk at my parent’s house. He put something in my drinks, I don’t know what it was, but I couldn’t control myself, just like you’re acting now. It was Archer, Orion. It was all him.”
“You’re going away for a long time,” the old policeman said, tugging on Archer. “You kids today. What’s wrong with you lot?”
The policewoman yelled again. “Put down your weapon!”
“I won’t!” Orion shouted back.
“Don’t shoot him,” Lucas said to her. “He’ll calm down.”
“He’s standing there with a bullet in his leg,” she replied. “We’ve got no choice.”
“Just wait a moment!” Orion said, keeping the gun in his hands but holding them up to the dark skies. “Don’t shoot yet.”
“So put down the gun,” an officer warned.
Orion swallowed hard and began to speak. “My family was happy in South Africa for many years – we never planned to come to America. My parents had a good friend who would travel with us around the country. One evening about four years ago we were staying in a small village when our friend suddenly went missing. My father was nervous so he started the car to go looking for him. We came out to see him off, which saved our lives. As he kissed my mother, gunfire erupted from the hills and struck all around us. We leapt into the car and managed to escape with only a few wounds, but we feared that our friend was dead.” Orion looked at Archer with haggard eyes. “Our friend was found days later trying to leave the country with a suitcase full of money. He betrayed us – my father – who trusted him like a brother. It was my mother’s wish to come live in this country so that such a thing could never happen again.”
“Orion…what are you—”
With a quick motion, Orion suddenly brought the gun down to his own temple and pulled the trigger. Blood spurted over the grass and his body fell limply to the ground.
Lucas ran to his side and shouted into his bloody, expressionless face. “No! You didn’t have to do this!”
“Get the stretchers,” the old policeman said sadly. “This is the worst night of my life.”
“Stupid idiot,” Lucas said, collapsing over Orion’s body. He turned to look at Archer, who still wore a satisfied grin on his face. “I thought villains like you only lived in horror movies, Archer. Do you see what you’ve done? This blood bath is on your hands. I would love to see you dead but I hope they keep you alive so you have to
think about this day for the rest of your pathetic life.” Archer’s expression never changed as he went silently with the police.
“W-what…what do we do now?” Gavin asked.
“Has anyone tried to get in contact with their parents?” Lucas asked. Gavin shook his head. “Start trying. And track the headmaster down as well.”
“What should I tell them when I get ahold of them?”
“Tell them whatever you like. We may never know what really happened.”
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Also by C.E. Wilson
Standalone Novels:
To Nowhere
The Boy with Words
The Promise
This is Me.
Shakespeare for Everyone Else
Othello
Coming Soon:
Untitled Beauty
Cruel and Unusual
Playing Human
Circus Folk
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