User: infinitywordlover

The shock of their deaths ring through every hall, every classroom and every mind. Fear presses in on us heavy and dark. My room is filled with strangers almost 24/7 as they try to figure out why someone as gentle and outgoing as Beth would be murdered. Yellow tape splits the room: now from then, life from death. It's almost as if stepping across the line would plunge me into another world. A world of murder.

For us kids, of course, we're still filled with more curiosity than fear. We stand firmly on the other side of the tape. We still don't believe that it could happen to us. Other than the time my cousin, Dani, sprinted across the courtyard to hug me in relief that I was alive, no one really showed any concern about the prospect of death. After all, we still had exams, and homework to worry about. 

I step out of the bathroom, quickly stuffing my pajamas into the closet with a surreptitious look over my shoulder at the policemen roaming the other side of the room. I sigh inwardly. There had been absolutely no privacy since Beth had died.

 My eyes slant to my watch gauging my time, and I jump in panic.

"Oh no, oh no," I mutter to myself. "I'm gonna be late!"

Dashing around my bed, and dodging a chair, I scramble around the room scooping up my pens, books, and other essentials.

"Excuse me, miss?"

I look up into the face of a young police woman who is staring slightly concerned at me.

"Yes?" I ask. She takes a breath as if to launch into a long winding speech and I cut her off with another irritated glance at my watch. "Sorry, Madeline," I say squinting at her name plate. "But with all due respect, I'm really running late, and I can't talk right now. See you later! Maybe during lunch break?"

I make for the door, but she grasps me firmly around the elbow. "I'm afraid that's exactly what I have to talk to you about."

"Sorry?"

"In light of the...circumstances," she says slowly, which I take to mean the murders. " The owner of  Carter Hollow has hired a guard of police officers to accompany students and staff everywhere."

"Everywhere?!"

"Yes, quite literally everywhere."

"So say if I needed to use the bathroom..."

"Everywhere," she says emphatically. I heave a loud groan. Now I would have even LESS privacy if that's even possible. She jerks her hand towards the hall. "Now let's go."

I glance down at my watch and my panic reinstates itself. "I'm going to be so late!!" I stare accusingly at Madeline but she holds up her hands in a gesture of peace.

"It's ok. I can excuse you. I'll say it's my fault."

"Thanks," I say sprinting out the door. We trample through the lawn- a decision I would later regret as the grass is wet from the morning dew.

 Thirty seconds later I crash through the giant oak doors of the main Hall and stumble breathlessly into my homeroom. The teacher, Ms. Jordan, who is coincidentally also my science teacher raises her eyebrows as I come in.

"Late!" one of the boys hisses as I walk by. Rolling my eyes, I give his chair a light kick.

"Ariadne, lateness is not tolerated at Carter Hollow. Not now, nor ever, so you better have a good excuse up your sleeve or you are in big trouble missy."

"Ma'am, it's my fault," Madeline interrupts stepping forward. " I had to ask her a few questions about you know... her roommate" she says lowering her voice on the last few words. But they're still loud enough to be heard by the rest of the class and there's an audible intake of breath as they flinch from the reminder of her murder. If only they knew...I think darkly.

"Of course I understand," Ms. Jordan is saying. She gestures for me to sit, to which I oblige. She hands out a sheaf of yellow papers instructing us to return it no later than Wednesday, and tells us to read in silence for the remainder of the time.

Fifteen minutes later, I stand uncertainly in the doorway of english lit. Our entire class stands assembled outside the locked door craning our necks around the hallway trying to glimpse a sight of our missing teacher.

At last he appears, encircled by a group of black clad men. As they get closer, I can see that these policemen aren't the fresh faced guards that had been assigned to the rest of us, these are experienced, weathered policemen.  There's a rustle behind me as my classmates instinctively bunch together with fear.

The guards' eyes glide coldly over us and shunt Mr. Knightgale forwards into the classroom. He stands in front of the classroom gazing nervously out at us.

"Welcome class to English Lit. We'll be starting our unit on the Taming of the Shrew. Now if you, can all come up and get a book, we can get started." His eyes dart anxiously towards the disapproving silhouettes of the guards as he speaks, and through the rest of class he's distracted and scared. He stutters and trips over his words, and flinches at every noise. It's strange what the threat of being jailed can do to a man.

I slug through my classes keeping an eye on the clock waiting for the time, I could just eat, and enjoy myself. At last the time comes, but it is accompanied by a surprise and not a very pleasant one.

"Bryn Hafer and Lily Le will you report to the main office, thank you."

I freeze in my tracks. LILY?! My cousin?! I quickly dismiss my darker thoughts, as she would never even hurt a fly. She must be there for something else, maybe her parents called. Yes, that must be it.

Still I cannot ignore the whispers that trail into my hearing.

"They think they're the murderers."

"I hope so, then this could just be over and we can go back to normal."

It takes all my effort to resist the urge to slap them all in the face, and afterwards, I bury myself in my classwork with a single minded intensity. I refuse to think about the murder. I won't. I won't. I won't.

The rest of day passes with little to no change but it's becoming increasingly annoying having to wait for an escort from class to class. And added to that, they feel the need to give advice every chance they get.

"Oh you guys are doing Shakespeare eh?" one of the guards says glancing over my shoulder. I grit my teeth and nod tightly, snapping my book shut.

"Yeah."

"Oh, I remember doing shakespeare. You'll love it. Just remember to not overthink it!" I nod in acknowledgement and he leaves with a satisfied grin probably believing that he had just helped me in a massive way. If only he knew I had already read the play over the summer.

We spill out of the hall out onto the grass, but we don't relax. Dark shadows follow us everywhere, watching us. I know that they're there to protect us but really they're just making us more scared. They're a constant reminder of what had happened, and what COULD happen to us.

Slowly, their presence seems to grind on my thoughts, rubbing me down to a stub. Everywhere I turn, they're there. Even my room isn't safe.

My heart begins to race, and my throat chokes up with panic. There's no escape. No rest. Suddenly I feel like prey, constantly hunted and trapped with no way out.

I can't survive much longer like this, the mental strain would be too much, I have to do something.

My mind is set, and I glance up anxiously at the guards but thankfully, they're as bored as we are nervous, and most of them are on their phones. I walk slowly around the main buildings trying not to appear suspicious, and practically sprint off towards the music building when I clear the central area.

I wasn't a totally serious pianist, but I had grown up playing the piano, and now it serves as a comforting mechanism. Like I had suspected, there weren't enough guards to cover all the buildings so the music building has none now that band practice is over. I glance around behind me just me make sure I wasn't followed and dart forward through the glass doors.

It doesn't take me long to find a piano, and I plop with a sigh of relief onto the bench in front of it. And then I let the music flow. There's something so comforting about the steadiness of the notes, the certainess of the beat, and melody. I surround myself in the sound, reveling in its freedom.

At last, all the tension fades away and it's just me and the black and white keys.

So immersed, I am, that I don't notice the door opening behind me until I hear an apologetic cough.

"Shit," I mutter, whipping around.

"Hi," the boy says, and I relax.

"Theseus! You scared me!"

He laughs. "Yeah, well looks like you had the same idea as me!"

"What do you mean?"

He slides to the floor leaning against the wall closing his eyes in a relieved expression. " The murders, the guards, AND school work. It's just too much. I had to get away somehow."

I nod emphatically agreeing. It was exactly what I felt.

"The obvious answer is the music building. I didn't think anybody would be here so no guards, and I've always loved music anyways," he continues. His eyes flutter open and his mouth twitches into a grin. "Of course it got even better because you are here."

I flush slightly at the compliment, and duck my head trying to hide it. "Um, do you want to...?' I ask gesturing at the piano. Now it's his turn to flush in embarrassment.

"No, I uh... don't play. I've always wanted to, but I never got the chance."

"Really?!"

"Yeah, I just play the saxophone. That's it."

I smile, suddenly feeling generous. "Do you want me to teach you?"

A brilliant grin lights up his face at the suggestion, and there's no question what the answer is. "Yeah, could you really?"

I pat the spot next to me on the bench, and he leaps eagerly into it. Thankfully, he already knows the basic notes and all that stuff so I only have to point them out to him for him to understand the basics. Now we just need music.

Eventually I found the answer to our dilemma where I always find the answer to everything- the internet. I rested my phone of the top of the piano, and began guiding his hands through the accompaniment of Heart and Soul.

He is a quick learner and soon he's a pro. I shift over to my spot and begin playing the top part of the duet. At first, we crash and burn as we set different tempos, and we giggle and laugh at our many failures.

In the end however, we get it down, and I have to say, we sounded amazing. We high five and laugh at our achievements but suddenly he glances at my hand and his face goes slack.

"It's 8:20."

"What?!" I pull my hand up to my face, and unfortunately, he's correct. I snatch my bag, and with a vague good-bye, we set off for our dorms.

The policemen barely look up as I enter the room, and I dump my stuff as casually as possible on my bed. I quickly duck into the bathroom, and as I review the events of the day, a silly grin spreads uncontrollably across my face.