The early morning rays stirred Alex awake, ending the magical dream that he had been having. He’d dreamt that he had made up with Abram and they had gotten carried away with their making up. But when he finally willed himself to open his eyes, he quickly remembered that his dream had manifested itself in reality, especially when he saw a naked, slumbering Abram to his right.
Alex’s eyes grew, peeking underneath the sheets, seeing that they were both definitely nude. He looked around and took in the interior of the St. James RV. He scoffed, the fact that the dream had actually happened finally setting in.
Moving in his sleep, Abram began to wake up, fluttering his eyes until Alex came into clear view, the cloudiness of his eyes rapidly fading with each furthering blink.
“Hey.” Abram said, his voice groggy.
“Hey.” Smiling awkwardly, Alex bobbed his head, his mind still filled with static over last night’s excursion. “Abe—”
“Before you start some speech,” Abram said, sitting up and twisting to face Alex. “I don’t regret what we did. We could sit here and analyze everything in excruciating detail, but right now... I just,” he sighed, staring Alex down. “You were there for me last night, something I’ll never be able to repay you for. Right now, let’s just...I don’t regret last night, okay? Can we just leave it at that for now?”
A little taken aback by Abram’s admission, Alex gave a vague smile and nodded slightly at him.
“Yeah. Yeah, sure.”
A sonorous series of knocks on the RV door snapped them both to attention.
“Oh shit.” Abram scoffed.
“You expecting someone?” Alex whispered back. “My parents think I’m at Mercer’s.”
“Abram, wake up!” the voice from outside bellowed.
“Who is that?”
“Get dressed.” Abram answered him, flying off the bed and retrieving his own previously discarded clothes. Alex scurried to grab his various items as a now fully dressed Abram opened up the door and saw a fully alert Ben outside the RV.
“Ben, I’m up.” He told him, gesturing wildly. “Go wait in the car.”
“Because of this car out here?” Ben grinned. “Who’s the lucky girl?”
Alex appeared behind Abram, seeing Ben and automatically flaring his nostrils, clearly caught off guard.
“Oh.” Ben cleared his throat.
“You told him where you’ve been that past couple days?”
“I had to.” Abram sighed. “He’s my chauffeur, remember?”
“Right.” Alex groaned, his phone blaring over and over. “Faith is blowing up my phone for school, I have to go.”
“Uh, we’ll meet at school?” Abram whispered.
Alex just nodded, moving past him, and then Ben, to get to his car, quickly getting in and driving away from Westbrooke Parking Lot.
“You and Alex?” Ben tried his best to hide his inquisitive tone, but Abram shook his head, quickly dodging it.
“It’s none of your business. I’ll grab my stuff and we can not talk about it all the way to school.”
Abram, quickly as he could, grabbed his backpack and locked the RV, hoping that Ben could keep his mouth shut long enough for him to enjoy a quiet car ride to school.
“No, I haven’t told Kirby yet.”
Kirby froze in place at the top of the stairs, overhearing her mother’s conversation on the phone. Creeping slowly and silently down the stairs, Kirby kept quiet as she made her way to the living room, listening to her mother continue her electronic exchange.
“Soon, I will.” Kirby rounded the stairs, inching closer and closer to the living room, quietly passing through the foyer. “I know. I’ll ask her.”
“Ask me what?”
Athena watched her daughter appear in the living room, arms crossed over her chest in anticipation. She went to answer her as she hung up her phone call, but Kirby’s eyes flexed as her mouth opened.
“Does this have anything to do with Priscilla calling me yesterday?”
Her mom looked surprised by her disclosure. “Yes, that was her actually. She mentioned trying to call you, but you wouldn’t listen to her.”
“Why should I? Moving to Armor Falls was a fresh start, Mom. What happened in Maine...part of starting over here is forgetting about Priscilla and Nathan.”
“She just thought you would—”
“No.” Kirby said harshly. “I listened to her offer and I politely declined her invitation. End of story.” Grabbing her purse from the nearby love seat, Kirby headed toward the door, her concentration a carafe of hot coals. “We better get going or both of us will be late. I’ll be in the car.”
As the front door blundered to a close, Kirby wished, just for a fleeting moment, that she wasn’t harboring a guilty conscience when it came to the past by deflecting Athena’s persistence.
Mercer made his way to an outside table on the patio just beyond the cafeteria. He sank his teeth into a savory steak biscuit when Bridge sat down next to him, sipping on a venti caramel latte, mewling at the taste.
“God bless your dads for getting us coffee before we left.”
He laughed a bit, chewing his food masterfully. “I take it you're enjoying your stay at Chez Meadows so far."
“Are you kidding? I love your dads. Just the food alone.” Bridge kissed his fingers in faux satisfaction. “Utterly fantastic. Last night was better than any gourmet.”
Finishing the rest of his food, Mercer begged for a swig of his own coffee to wash it down with, swiftly enjoying his coffee bean infused beverage.
“Speaking of last night, did Kirby seem a little...distracted to you?”
Bridge thought about it for a second. “Maybe a little. Is everything alright between you two?”
“Yeah. She got this phone call yesterday and she’s been trying to avoid the subject ever since.”
“Maybe it’s family stuff,” Bridge shrugged. “She’ll tell you when she’s ready, Merce.”
“I’m just worried about her.” He said, scratching underneath his new sling to relieve the itch on his arm.
Bridge gestured with a nod toward his sling. “How’s that going?”
“It’s annoying as hell.” Mercer groaned. “But I’ll only have to wear it for like a week or so.”
“There you guys are.”
They both followed the voice and saw Abram, with Alex close behind him. They found their seats together in front of them.
“Where have you been?” Bridge looked at Abram. “Why did you tell your parents—”
“Let’s,” Alex jumped in, answering for him with a small look from Abram that told him it was okay to do so. “Not hound him with questions, okay?”
“It’s fine, Alex.” Abram decided, giving Alex a wobbly smile before locking eyes with his other two friends. “I’m sorry I’ve been so quiet lately. Arclan just brought up some old stuff and I’ve been staying at the RV to just sort said stuff out. I’ll tell you more about it later.”
“We get it, Abe. We were just worried about you.” Mercer stated. “Seems to be the running theme anymore.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” Bridge shook his head, telling them to forget it silently. “Continue.”
“I didn’t want my parents to freak out or anything so I said I was staying at your house. And I’m sorry if I got you in trouble with your dads.”
Mercer offered Abram his second steak biscuit, which was eagerly taken by the latter. “It’s cool. You might want to talk to your parents though.”
“I will.”
Bridge awkwardly cleared his throat. “Have you guys thought about the papers Mercer and I found?”
“Bridge—”
“No, Mercer, this is serious.” He kept his voice at a low murmur as students went by them to enter the cafeteria. “Someone broke into Paige’s house and took those papers. Sumner obviously wrote something important on them or else they wouldn’t have taken them.”
“And Sumner is probably the one who took t
hem back.” Alex determined.
“I doubt it.” Bridge shook his head, disagreeing instantly. “Sumner practically left Mercer for dead at Arclan two weeks ago. Even he’s not stupid enough to risk showing his face around town again to break into some stranger’s place.”
Abram let out an exasperated sigh. “So we’re back to this anonymous person messing with us.” He flexed his fingers against each other, cracking his knuckles.
“Maybe you’re right.” Mercer said, sad to be agreeing with the situation of an unknown assailant toying with them like they were this freak's personal playthings. “They figured if we got something of Sumner’s, we might finally know something about what in the hell is going on here.”
“Why would this person care if we found something that would help us understand Sumner’s motives?” Alex asked.
“Because this person, whoever they are, wants us to tell the police about what all happened before Sumner attacked us that night.” Bridge explained, looking away discouragingly. “About what I did.”
“Stop blaming yourself, B.” Abram diverged. “We were all there that night. You reacted the way any of us would have.”
“The point is, is that we need to figure out who the hell is doing this to us and how much they know about that night.” Bridge nodded.
The bell rang, signifying a fiveminute warning to get to class. They all rustled about their seats, standing up from the table.
“Let’s meet after calc to bounce some ideas off each other about what to do on the way to lunch.” Bridge suggested.
“Good idea.” Alex nodded, slinging his backpack over his shoulder, pushing down his shirt a little.
“Alex,” Mercer tried to hide his smile, but was failing miserably. “Are those hickies on your neck?”
“What?” Alex reacted immediately, pulling at his shirt with unsteady fingers.
“Oh my god.” Bridge chuckled, vibrating his vocal chords. “Abe has them too.”
Abram put on his book bag and cleared his throat nervously. “I have to get to physics.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna be late for home ec.”
Practically running from Bridge and Mercer, they faded from them as fast as their legs could carry them to get them away from their gawking and questions about the halo of faux lesions on their necks.
“Are they seriously hooking up?” Bridge giggled.
“Could just be a coincidence, I guess.”
“Come on, Merce. They’re exes, and Alex just confessed his love for Abram a couple weeks ago.”
“Go to class, B.” he cackled. “I’ll see you later.”
“Later.”
Laughter settling, he grabbed his stuff to head to class when he spotted Ben out on the quad just below the outside patio, laughing as he walked hand in hand with Paige. Not needing another reminder of Ben, Bridge stormed off to class, trying his damnedest to try and move on from further thoughts of Ben Magnus and his perky and perfect fiancé.
“Dude, wake up.”
Straton stirred in his sleep, barely registering the words from the disembodied voice close to him. He tried his best to will his dream back to the forefront of his mind, the one where he was free of police ridicule and being happy with Faith, but was quickly shaken awake, blinking through blurry eyes to see a familiar face standing over his bed and disrupting his slumber.
“Hugo?” His roommates' red hair and green eyes quickly came into focus. “What’s going on?”
Straton sat up in his bed, adjusting to the lighting that Hugo must have flipped on, finally taking in his dorm room and the panic that was rapidly taking over his best friends’ normally tamed and handsome features.
“Hugo…”
“You know what, I’m sorry I bothered you. Isn’t Faith leaving her second class early to meet you for lunch?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Straton threw off his blankets and grabbed a tshirt to throw on, standing up next to Hugo. “Now tell me what’s wrong.”
Hugo paced in front of him, not helping Straton with restraining his impending freak out episode. Sweat beaded down the side of his chiseled face. His eyes wore heavy dark bags, signs that he hadn’t slept all night, worrying about whatever it was that he felt the need to break to Straton before he even woke up for the day.
“I remembered something.” Hugo said, shaking before his best friend. “I guess I blocked it out because I was drunk and thought I had imagined everything on my way home that night.”
“What night?”
“The night that Sumner visited you, here at Heartmyth.”
Straton stared blankly ahead at Hugo, feeling unnerved beyond comprehension. “You were at a party the night Sumner showed up here.”
“I was.” Hugo nodded. “But on my way back to the dorm, I saw him. I saw Sumner.”
Straton scoffed. “You saw Sumner? You’re sure?”
“Well, no, I wasn’t at first. But now I’m positive that it was him I saw that night, just outside our building.”
His eyebrows flexing their inquiring muscles, Straton felt his nachos from his midnight binge last night finding their way back up, his whole body feeling uneasy. “Hugo, you have to be one hundred percent sure. I mean, you were sauced out of your mind. I still remember the severe degree of your hangover the morning after.”
“That doesn’t mean that what I saw wasn’t real, Stray.” Hugo huffed, Straton ignoring the nickname that Hugo knew he hated. “And I saw him call someone.” he blinked away tears of terror. “I’m afraid to go to the police after what they put you through.”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re not telling them anything. No one has to know about this, you hear me? No one can ever find out you saw him that night.” Straton pulled Hugo into a caring embrace as Hugo struggled to keep his wits.
Just outside Hugo and Straton’s dorm room door, a horrified Faith leaned next to the closed door, a hand over her mouth in shock at Hugo’s possibly huge revelation.
Faith rushed back to Westbrooke High at record speed, quickly cancelling on her lunch with Straton, all while replaying in her mind what she had heard to keep every word fresh on her zealous tongue.
Running from the parking lot to her brother’s calculus class, she flung open the back door of the building and heard the end of second period bell blare. Faith ran through the math and history building, sifting through the surge of students to get to the front of the building and almost ran right into her brother.
“Jesus, Faith.” Alex laughed. “You scared the hell out of me. Didn’t you ditch the rest of second period to have a lunch date with Straton?”
“Alex.” Faith breathed in large gulps, saying his name like it was the remedy to an age old hex. “Where are your friends?”
“They went with Abe to his locker before we went to lunch. I hung back to use the bathroom.” He gave her arched eyebrows for the surge of fear rolling over her eyes. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Hugo, Straton’s roommate.” Faith gulped again. “The night that Sumner went to Straton for help. Hugo saw him.”
“He what?”
“Hugo saw Sumner after he left the dorm. There’s a couple other details, but Alex, he saw him. Hugo saw Sumner.” she explained, struggling to not scream. “And he saw him call someone.”
Abram and his friends made their way to his locker, looking around for Alex as they came up on it.
“What the hell is taking Alex so long?” he wondered aloud.
“Who knows,” Bridge said, smiling. “Although I’d say you would, judging by those hickies.”
Abram sighed deeply. “Please don’t. I’m already gonna have to dodge questions from Willa when I ask to borrow some concealer.”
“I don’t think she has your shade.” Mercer said, still laughing at Bridge’s sentence.
“She does.” Abram added. “For emergencies like at the pep rally last year. Just please, no more hickie or Alex related berating
.”
“But you were together last night, right?”
As he put in his locker combination, Abram thought about Bridge’s question and decided to just give him something so he and Mercer would shut up and quit playing The Hardy Boys when it came to him and Alex.
“Yes.”
Mercer and Bridge shared a grin of Cheshire Cat proportions as Abram got his locker open, something falling out and landing on the dirt ridden floor.
“What’s that?”
Ignoring the question, Abram picked up the folded piece of paper and opened it, his eyes widening as he read it.
“Shit.”
Bridge ripped the paper out of his hand, holding it out so Mercer could read it with him, their hearts pumping faster after they read each word. Alex came sprinting up to them then, about to blurt out what he had learned, only stopped by all of their somber looks.
“What?” he said.
Handing him the note, Bridge looked him over to see his reaction while Abram and Mercer turned to do the same, waiting for Alex to read the ominous message. A river of anxiety, Alex felt his veins tense up as he read over the handwritten letter twice to get the full effect of its meaning.
Missing those Paiges? Come find them. 1661 Karder Cove.
Alex let out a gasp as he finished rereading the letter, though he didn’t exactly recognize the address at first.
“Oh god.” he sighed.
“Two weeks with nothing and we’re back to this psycho ruining our lives.” Bridge said begrudgingly. “I’m so over this.”
“That’s not the worst part.” Abram said in a paranoid tone.
“Abe, this is the worst part.” Alex exclaimed, trying to keep his voice between them and not the entire school. “This person stole those papers. Look how they spelled pages. They definitely broke into Paige’s house while Bridge was staying there.”
Abram looked at them all widely, disbelief reveling against his pores. “None of you remember that address?”
“Should we?” Mercer inquired.
He scoffed, wishing so hard that what he was about to say wasn’t the truth. “1661 Karder Cove is the address for Shadows Manor.”
12
THE SIREN SONG