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You’re out of time, Ophelia. I look over to Emmett. His face softens with acceptance as if he knows what I have to do. And he’s okay with it. Just like when he told me to run to Theo. He just wants me to make it out of here alive.
“Ophelia!” Theo sobs, slipping further down towards the put below.
Without wasting any more time, I swing down the chain. I hear crashing waves all around as he climbs and the moment he claws his way back onto solid ground, I turn to take off running again. This time, I’m smart enough to stop and look around for the bobbing beam coming from Theo’s flashlight. It’s trapped among a cluster of debris. I race over, snatch it up, and take off. Not even caring if he’s following behind me. I did my part. I made my choice. Now I have to survive this and get the hell out of here.
By the time I reach the darkness I got lost in before, I am nearly swallowed up by a gushing stream of water. I manage to grab onto something sticking up and use it to climb to slightly higher ground. The rest of my escape is a blur. All I know is that eventually, I find my way back out onto the road. My feet stomp across the flooding pavement. A few of the dips in the road are so flooded I have to swim through them, using passing sticks and logs to propel me forward.
As the lights of Jameson finally come into view up ahead, the rain stops. The downpour grows silent and all that’s left is the sound of trickling water all around. I never thought I would be so happy to see this fucking town again. I hate it with every ounce of my being, but in this moment, I’ve never been happier to see anything. That is until I finally arrive home. I burst through the door and crash into the arms of my mom, still sopping wet.
I drag her down to the ground, crying the whole way. She holds me and rocks back and forth until I calm down. Not asking any questions or demanding I tell her what happened. She just takes me in and lets me get it all out.
30
Chapter Thirty
As the band wails its way through Pomp and Circumstance, I am amazed that I am actually sitting here. I think back on how many times over this last year of school that I was certain I was going to die, and it seems unbelievable that I actually survived every time. Even the bout of pneumonia that I had after the flood couldn’t kill me.
I smile and nod my way through the ceremony, mostly just feeling impatient to get to the pizza party Mom and Brendan have promised me once it’s over. I zone out through the speeches and the assembly line we form to collect our diplomas. The only person I would be anxious to see here would be Bridgett, but I already know she was planning to skip this whole thing. She was too ready to take off to whatever comes next.
As another round of music blares and we all excitedly fling our caps up into the air, I think how funny it is that this seems like such a crucial moment to so many high schoolers. Every teenager laments their way through those four years, convinced they’ll never make it out alive. But none of them can really appreciate this in the same way I and everyone around me can. At WJ Prep, it is a very real fear that we’ll never make it out of the walls of this school. Not everyone has.
The thought makes me all the more eager to bound through those double doors with the crowd of students around me. I flip a bird over my shoulder as I pass through, back out into the fresh, free air. I did it. I actually lived. I survived the Elites of Weis-Jameson Preparatory Academy. And I can honestly say their mission statement is true. Nothing could have better prepared me for whatever life has to throw my way after this.
I make my way out onto the school lawn, watching the groups of hugging and crying friends bid each other farewell. I listen to them congratulate each other and shout out in excitement. I marvel at how shockingly normal it all looks. Like any other high school graduation. Is this all it took for everyone here to become ordinary people? Is it just the status of being a student at WJ Prep that makes them all evil and crazy?
But then I notice the fear lingering in the haunted eyes of the younger students glaring at their older siblings with envy. They know what I had to learn the hard way. Emmett and the rest of the Elites of our graduating class may be gone. Malcolm may be gone. But someone new is waiting in the wings to rise and unleash the fury of the nightmare they’ve been silently living in. It’d be nice to think that with each new death of a round of Elites, the whole hierarchy could just crumble and be gone forever.
But that’s not how human nature works. One soul will be so hurt and twisted from the wrongs done to them that they’ll be waiting for their chance to seek revenge. They’ll claw their way up, doing to others what has been done to them all along. I do feel sorry for those left behind and everyone that will come after them. But it’s not my problem now. I’m done shouldering the burden of WJ Prep and Jameson.
I scan the crowd, looking for the smiling faces of my parents. I spot my mom and Brendan waiting patiently for me under the shade of a nearby tree. They wrap me up in hugs with the perfect blue sky and vivid green grass all around us.
“Can we please get out of this hell hole now?” I beg in laughter.
“You bet,” my mom winks, scooping me to her side as we walk to their car.
A couple of hours later we’re at home, digging into the boxes of delivery pizza scattered across the dining room table. We ordered way too much, but I think they’re both just so happy I’m okay that they went a little overboard.
“I can’t believe it’s really over,” I say with a content sigh after I’ve polished off another helping.
“I can’t believe any of it,” Brendan grunts.
“I can,” my mom groans. “I’d go back and live through it all in your place in a heartbeat if I could. But I’m not surprised. WJ Prep has always been a living nightmare. I just wanted so badly to believe that it could be different for you.”
I see a look of guilt flash through her eyes, prompting me to take her hand into mine. “You couldn’t have known,” I assure her, squeezing her fingers tight.
“Just promise me if you ever find yourself in that kind of trouble again, that you’ll just tell us right away,” she begs. “I don’t care what you think will happen, or if you think we can handle it. Tell us.”
“Deal,” I nod.
But truthfully, I don’t know that telling them would have helped. The forces at play in this town are so much bigger than them. I learned that quickly. And the scary thing is, I know they would have done anything to protect me. Which is likely what would have ended up getting them killed. Miraculously, that never happened. And now that I’m on the other side of it, I don’t know if I’d change anything.
“No regrets,” I add.
“What?” my mom laughs in disbelief. “I can think of one or two regrets I would have if I were you. None of it was your fault, of course. You were just doing your best, but…what if we had never come here at all?”
It’s the thing I’ve been wishing for so long now. That we had never come to this stupid place. The moment Vivian and Bernadette first came speeding up in their fancy, expensive car, knocking me over and warning me about what was to come, I wished I could go back home. But then who would I be? What kind of person would I be right now if I had made it through high school without everything that’s happened?
My old idea of home is distant and foreign. I realize now that this is all home was all along. Laughing and eating pizza with my parents. With Brendan, who I now refer to as my real dad. My mom happily goes along with it, probably wishing that’s what we had done all alone.
