A week passes. And what a week it was, too!
On Monday, I come back to school and the place is in a huge uproar. Toby had kept his word by publishing the "confession" in the city's newspaper, which has drawn some considerable ire from many people living in Charleston. Declan's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Caesar, were arrested and charged with aiding and abetting a known criminal while many other adults and students were questioned about how much they knew Declan Caesar.
Speaking of which, no one has seen him. The police have now gotten involved, seeing as a dangerous criminal such as him shouldn't be allowed to roam the streets of Charleston where children attended school or played on the playground. Child safety has never been of more concern to the people of Charleston.
Speaking of which, Tara Pope came to me, thanking me for telling the truth about Declan. (According to Claire, Tara had a daughter and gave her up for adoption soon after the baby was born; she herself is living in a home for developmentally disabled people in Newberry, South Carolina.) She was so happy that Declan was been exposed as the monster that he was and she is now free from the pain she had been in for the last five years of her life.
But I knew that she would never be free, as being a victim of someone's cruelty will eat at you for the rest of your life. That's why so many people who survive a violent crime based on their disability commit suicide about two years after the crime was committed. I shuddered to think that maybe that happened to Uncle Zach many years ago. Did someone attack him and leave him to die? Who would want to attack him?
But that doesn't compare to Tuesday morning, where the student council made a new rule: the special ed building was strictly out of bounds. Which means no one was to go there unless they worked at the special ed department. Plus, for their own safety, all disabled people attending mainstream classes were temporarily moved to an empty classroom.
(Of course, Claire's guardians were angry about that and they tried to take Claire out of school for that, but they failed. What else is new?)
Wednesday saw the police investigating the school. Everyone was questioned and the police took those who knew Declan away. Their parents had to come to the police station and collect their children. (I was so lucky I dodged that bullet, as Declan wasn't in any of the advanced classes I took.) But what do I know? Declan is a monster, or was he?
Or was he a misunderstood person?
Wait, scratch that. I really need to be careful about feeling sorry for people who others despise. I'm already in enough trouble for being friends with Milton and helping Claire escape from her tormentors, so I don't need any more problems.
Anyway, today is Friday and I learned something strange happened last night. It didn't have anything to do with the Declan Caesar scandal, but the people of Lochland knew about it nonetheless.
A huge Burmese python was spotted fighting a king cobra in someone's backyard a few houses from mine. Luckily, no one in the house was bitten or eaten, as the owner wisely got his family (plus the family's three cats) out of the house before the snakes showed up.
(My reaction: TAKE THAT "NOPE" SOMEWHERE ELSE, WILL YOU? WE DON'T NEED *THAT* HERE!!!) Anyway, our neighborhood was put on high alert and our block was evacuated for safety reasons, or until animal control came and took command of the situation. By then, the python and the cobra both died killing each other; they were eaten by a crocodile that apparently hitched a ride here from the Florida Everglades.
(Once again, NOPE!!!)
Anyway, today is now Friday and the excitement over Declan's confession was beginning to die down. Mr. and Mrs. Caesar were sent home, as the investigation revealed that they didn't have anything to do with their son's crimes. But the school was now on lockdown, as rumor has it that Declan knew someone had penned a confession from him and exposed his crimes to the public.
That someone was Claire and I.
"Well, here's a fine mess you got me into!" I cried out as Claire and I hid in the library. Many other people had gone to the gym or the computer lab, leaving us geeks and nerds to hide in the only place where Declan would never go. The library.
"I hope our scheme was worth it," said Milton as he sat at a table.
"It will be, as soon as Declan is behind bars," said Claire. "Remember, Milton, we're not safe until that monster is behind bars."
"And what about Adrian and Dorian?" I said while thinking about the twins. Holy crap! In all the excitement over the Declan Caesar debacle, I had forgotten about them! Were the boys safe wherever they were? Were they kidnapped or anything like that? Or even worse, did Declan find them? Is he torturing them for information regarding Claire or me?
On the other hand, I better shut up before my imagination escapes from me again.
Before long, I heard a window being opened, and speak of the devil, Adrian and Dorian came through the window, with Dorian helping a smaller girl through the window and Adrian following them. The twins were covered in blood, with Adrian holding a large butcher knife and Dorian holding an axe. Everyone in the library gasped in horror as they turned to see them.
"Well, that was tedious," Adrian snapped as everyone stared at him.
"Yeah, where's Joanna?" said Dorian. "She was supposed to meet us here an hour ago."
"What's going on here?" said Claire. "And why are you guys covered in blood and carrying WEAPONS into the school?"
"Joanna owes us a lot of money for forcing us to do her dirty work," said Dorian.
"What dirty work?" said Claire.
"Not so loud," said Adrian. "Plus, we need to take this to another place where we won't be disturbed."
"Very well then," said Claire as she glared at the twins and the little girl. "Follow me."
She led them to a room that should have been for tutoring, but was long since abandoned. Milton and I stood in the doorway, just out of sight but not out of earshot. And this is what we heard:
Claire: OK, you two. Now kindly explain to me why the hell you're all covered in blood and carrying weapons into the school.
Adrian: Well, when Joanna learned that we disowned our family, she killed us.
Dorian: I mean, she caught us at that bar where we were hiding and screamed at us for nearly two hours.
Adrian: She called us 25 versions of the word "fool", saying that we had no right to disown our parents because they cared more about Lulu than about us. Plus, she caught Alicia Vasconcelos as she boarded a plane back to Rio and forced her to resume her job as our nanny, as JAVIER was paying her to keep an eye on us.
Claire: I see. Now, why are you covered in blood?
Dorian: Well, Joanna and Toby recruited us into hunting for Declan while Orlando looked after Lulu.
Claire: Indeed. Go on.
Adrian: And as we spied our target staring at Lulu, Orlando sprang the trap.
Claire: What trap?
Dorian: We had Lulu as bait and met Declan in an empty house near Norwood Village.
Adrian: Then Joanna led him to the room where Lulu was and Toby got her out while Orlando and Joanna attacked him. Of course, we finished him off.
Claire: Really? Why?
Dorian: Because that butthead tortured us while he was in our classes. We never got over it.
Claire: Tortured you how?
Adrian: He teased us for having a disabled sister, called us orphans for not having parents, and implied that our nanny was a whore. We just couldn't let that go.
Dorian: And if we told him the truth, he laughed at us, calling us a bunch of liars. When he boasted about how he messed up those kids and what he was going to do to Lulu when he caught her, we snapped and tore him to pieces.
Claire: Well, I don't blame you for doing that. I would literally tear him into pieces if he threatened to mess with my sister.
Adrian: Just be grateful you didn't have to deal with him.
Claire: Oh, you had better believe it, dude. If he was in any of my classes, I'd torture him so much that he would have jumped off a bridge before the semester was over.
Well, I don't know about you, but all I know is that Claire Evans, Adrian, and Dorian Johanssen are the strangest people I had ever met. I had gone from a normal boy living in a normal world to a world where monsters exist and people aren't what they seemed. Was it the world Uncle Zach lived in before his death? Did he know something he wasn't supposed to know? Was that the reason he died?
Whatever the answer is, I'm not ready to hear it.
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