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“In the principal’s office,” I slowly said, my hands resting on my lap beneath the table. “Sheriff’s here asking questions about Neo. He’s got a list of students, I guess.”
“God,” Angelina muttered, “this is crazy.”
That, I fully agreed with.
They asked me what I was questioned about, and I told them, though I could tell their minds were elsewhere. It was like they listened to me, but at the same time, they didn’t.
The rest of the school day passed in a blur. When the last bell rang to signal the end of eighth period and everyone began packing up in a hurry, I took my time. I walked slowly. With everything that had happened, everything that had yet to happen, there was no point in rushing. Brett sounded like he had it all planned out, and if he wanted to keep up with the pace he’d set, it wouldn’t be too long before another body was discovered.
I went to my locker, got everything I’d need that night, and then followed the crowd of students out of the school. The moment the sunlight hit me, I breathed out a sigh. I waited until the teacher who did car duty told us it was okay to cross the line of cars of parents picking up their kids, crossing over to the student parking. I could see Gareth waiting for me at his vehicle in the back of the lot, and honestly, seeing him, even from far away, filled me with happiness.
Which was stupid, for so many different reasons. So stupid. He was a monster. A serial killer. An artist whose paint was blood.
But he was mine.
Though we were far apart, his eyes were on me as I approached him, and even though everything was crazy, I couldn’t fight the way my stomach did a flip when I neared him and could see his smirk first-hand.
Gareth got in the car the same time as me, and as he started her up, he asked, “Did my uncle talk to you too, or just me?”
“He had me pulled, too. It sounded like he had a list of students he was questioning today, to see if he can find any link between Neo and Erin.” I set my bag between my knees and reached for my seatbelt. “I got pulled because I went to that stupid game with him.”
“Yeah, Rick said some students saw Neo and I arguing at the game.” Gareth huffed, “I know he’s got to keep appearances up, but it was annoying.”
I didn’t find it as annoying as he did, but then again, Gareth acted like everything annoyed him, one way or another. I was seconds from telling him that, but right then, as Gareth pulled out of his parking spot, my phone went off.
Shit. Another call from him so soon?
I leaned up and pulled my phone out of my back pocket, and when Gareth glanced at me, I showed him the screen. “It’s him,” I said, knowing it. No one else called me like this. “I’m going to answer.” Before Gareth could argue with me, because he definitely looked like he was going to, I hit the green button on the screen and said, “I didn’t think I’d hear from you again so soon.”
“We’re on a roller coaster ride, Brianna. You’re about to go around the second loop,” Brett’s voice came off amused, as always, like he found my defiance amusing. “The park. If you hurry, you might be able to see it for yourself.” He ended the call.
Gareth was pulling out onto the road when I lowered my phone to my lap. “I think he left us another body at the park, just recently. He said if we hurry, we might be able to see it.”
Even as I said it, I didn’t know whether or not I wanted to go and see the body for myself. My grip on sanity had been, uh, let’s just say tumultuous lately.
Once we were out of the school zone, Gareth got up to speed by flooring the damn car. He took turns way too fast and made me want to vomit because of his dangerous driving, but he said not a word. He didn’t have to. I knew we were going. I might not know whether or not I wanted to see the body, but Gareth did. Gareth’s curiosity was as morbid as curiosity could be.
There was only one park in Eastcreek. It was near the place where the street carnival was, off a few side streets, where Rick and I had our first time, against a tree—and where Gareth had quietly stalked us from afar, watching the whole thing. A small playground filled a minor portion of the park, along with a basketball court, a gazebo, and a big, grassy field where they apparently hosted fireworks on the Fourth of July.
Would I be alive to see those fireworks for myself?
We made it to the park in record time, and Gareth slowed the car to a halt when we emerged off the side street and came into the asphalt parking lot.
I spotted two sheriff cars, their lights flashing and blocking off a huge section of the parking lot. One was walking around the playground, unrolling some yellow crime scene tape, while the other—Rick—was busy talking to a mother with her two young children in the gazebo. She was busy trying to keep her kids focused on her phone and a tablet while answering Rick’s questions, and if I had to guess, I’d say they were the ones that found the body.
Gareth leaned towards the steering wheel, eyes zeroed in on the playground. “Well, it’s either Erin or her mother.”
I shifted my stare away from the gazebo, away from Rick and the mom and her kids, to the playground. A woman’s body sat at the base of the tallest slide, and though the corpse had to be at least seventy-five feet away, I could see she wasn’t all there.
Her face. Her face was gone.
Not, like, her head had been severed, but more like the outer layer of skin had been peeled off… similar to some of my art. It looked wrong from this far away, so I couldn’t even imagine what it looked like close-up, in the bright light of day.
No, wait. I could. That’s the thing, that was always my problem. The things my mind imagined, what it could bring forth with realistic details, I could imagine what the corpse looked like without the top layer of skin just fine.
“We need to go,” Gareth said, putting the car in reverse and getting us out of there. “That’s two bodies in two days. That leaves one more that we know about. I wonder if Rick called Alistair, or if this literally just happened—”
I couldn’t think straight. All of my thoughts were competing with each other for the top spot in my brain. Gareth probably said more, but I didn’t hear him. Or maybe I did, and the words didn’t register in my head.
