Page 32 of Jacob Michaels is Dead

He was so strange, the boy with dark hair and eyes. Unlike the other boys in the Point Worth Regional Middle School, he didn’t try to prove himself with bravado, bullying, or bragging behaviors. Carrying himself with confidence, or what could have been complete obliviousness in other’s opinions, he was hard not to notice. He didn’t pay attention to rude comments, nor did he seem to puff up when complimented. Like a self-sustaining organism found in the furthest reaches of the world, he needed no one and required nothing from anyone. He was an island. It made the other boys both angry and envious, emotions they were not mature enough to handle at such an age. It made the girls equally enamored and annoyed. The boy never took notice of either.

Lucas found himself staring at the boy during every class that they shared at the middle school. He’d watch the way the boy sat up, paying attention to the teachers, not caring if this made him look like a nerd. Lucas watched the way the boy sat back in his chair with ease and stared off at nothing when he was bored, unconcerned with teachers catching him. It wasn’t rebellious behavior on the boy’s part, the drifting off into daydreams—just starry-eyed childhood daydreaming to which all boys that age are prone. At lunch, the boy moved through the line with his tray, easily making conversation with other kids, even the ones he wasn’t friends with, able to sit down and eat with any group he wished. Even if he sat down with a group of kids who didn’t like him, by the end of their shared meal, the kids seemed to have changed their minds about him.

Robbie.

His name was Robbie. But he preferred “Rob.”

Quick to make a joke that anyone could enjoy. Generous with compliments and positive words for all. Rob was one of Lucas’ favorite people. But Rob had no idea. Just the sight of Rob passing in the hall and flashing his pearly whites made Lucas’ tummy flip-flop, though he had no idea what that meant at such a young age.

Lucas could remember the first time he saw Rob walk into the first class they shared that year. He had already been in his seat, looking for someone he kind of knew in the class to become quick friends with, so he wouldn’t feel like a nerd, when Rob entered, backpack slung over his shoulder in a Devil-may-care sort of way. When Lucas looked up, Rob’s head slowly turned, as if from some slow-motion scene in a teen movie, and their eyes met.

Lightning.

Electricity shot through Lucas’ body, and he had to avert his eyes from Rob’s. Something had traveled through his body, shook him to his core, grabbed ahold of the innermost part of him that he didn’t even have a name for, and turned his world upside down. When Lucas looked up again, Rob was looking away, seemingly unaware of what had just transpired in Lucas’ soul. Finally, Rob made his way to a seat across the room from Lucas. However, before he sat down at his desk, his eyes flashed over to Lucas once more.

He looked…shaken.

Rob looked shaken. Someone like Rob could be unnerved.

It was then that Lucas knew something had been set in motion. He just didn’t know what that thing was.

“Well,” Oma swiped her hand over the arm of her chair, brushing away imaginary dust as we stood at the base of the steps up to the porch, “you boys took your time gettin’ over here, didn’t ya’?”

“Hi, Oma,” I replied blandly.

She considered me for a moment as Lucas’ head turned from mine to hers, then back again, watching our transaction with rapt attention.

“Couldn’t get out, could ya’?”

“We’re standing here, aren’t we?” I snapped.

“Well,” Oma sniffed haughtily, “maybe you just had a change of heart, smart ass. How the fuck would I know?”

“Because no one’s been fucking with your brain.” I tapped my temple with an index finger violently as I snarled up at her. “That’s how, old woman.”

“Wuh-hell. Someone’s pissy.” Oma waggled her head down at me before bringing the tea to her lips and taking a sip. “Someone tell ya’ that even the gays don’t look good in body glitter?”

Before I could snarl back some equally hateful retort, Lucas’ fingers wrapped around my wrist, stopping me.

“Mrs. Wagner.” Lucas piped up. “I’ve never been disrespectful to you.”

“Ya’ haven’t.” She nodded.

“But, we’re here to tell you to stop messing with our memories,” Lucas said. “Whatever you’ve done, we need you to undo it. Now. And we need answers.”

“Ask wise ass over here.” Oma gestured at me rudely. “He knows fuckin’ everything, doesn’t he? Speaking of which—you’re so damn smart all of the damn sudden, why the hell did you not just stay gone, Robbie? Why didn’t you leave as soon as Andrew tried attacking you? You’re so damn smart, but every damn thing that’s gone wrong has made you make one bad decision after another. Instead of runnin’ tail and getting’ away from danger, you just dive in headfirst like a grade-A village idiot. Point Worth’s collective I.Q. went down a few digits since you came back. And it wasn’t that high to begin with.”

“You miserable old—” I began.

“Ya’ just couldn’t stay gone, could ya’?” She interjected. “You got out of town, and things was fine. Things would-a stayed fine a lot longer if you had just done as you was supposed to. But, like always, you had to do things your way. Here we are, Robbie. Good job!”

Lucas was squeezing my wrist tightly, so I kept my mouth shut.

“Why was he supposed to stay gone?” Lucas asked evenly, though I could hear in his voice, and feel in his grip, how tense he was.

“You boys may not got your memories,” Oma crossed her arms over her chest as she turned her head to look at him, “but it doesn’t take memories to figure out what’s going on here, does it? This town is about to be swallowed up. He’s comin’ for ya’. And he shouldn’t’ve been comin’ for another few decades. That was the damn plan anyway—if wiseass over there had just stuck to the plan. I suppose it just is what it is. He’s comin’. Bloody Bones is comin’ for ya’.”

As she said the last sentence, her eyes turned to me. A shiver ran up my spine as Oma said the name of the man in the black hooded cloak. A name we had sworn we would never say out loud again…unless it wouldn’t matter either way. Her saying his name out loud confirmed my theory that he really was returning; otherwise she never would have said his name like that, out in the open, with not a care in the world. Lucas’ hand fell away from my wrist immediately, and he gasped, obviously recognizing the name. In the deepest recesses of his mind, that name had been hidden away. Hearing it out loud had startled him.