What do you say? What do you say when everything comes crashing down, like the climax of a horror movie? What can you say? Sure, you could scream, cause a scene, tell someone, or you could do exactly what Alex and his friend Kevin did; run away. Like the two 14-year-old cowards that they were. They stood in front of that red-stained snow, hands covering their quivering mouths, shaking like lady leafs. It was like Kool Aid spilled all over the ground. At least, that’s what they thought it was before following the trail and finding out that it was the blood of their teacher, Ms. Kelly. Alex threw up on the ground. Kevin just stood there, paralyzed. What do you say? What do you say to that? What can you say? The boys swallowed hard as they observed their teacher’s dead body. Kevin was shaking. He grabbed his own hands and finally worked up all the courage left in him so that he could speak to his friend.
“We…We gotta tell somebody about this,” he said.
“Are you kidding?" replied Alex, “no frickin’ way! They’ll think it’s us that killed the old broad. Remember what happened yesterday? We’ll be top suspects for fuck’s sake!”
“W-What happened yesterday?”
“You don’t remember?”
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Alex and Kevin were hanging out with their two other friends, Marvin Murphy and Craig Monroe, behind the school. They were just chatting about whatever subject came to mind…how bad math was, how great action movies were, whatever whatever. Just normal guy stuff. That was when Ms. Kelly - their math teacher - showed up behind them with an angry expression that seemed to be plastered onto her face. Like cement that was fated to stay against the skin of her face, forever. She never smiled at anything. Ms. Kelly stared down at the boys angrily.
“What are you four doing here?” she asked.
“Uh, nothing,” replied Craig.
“Yeah, sure. I know that you are all going to make trouble if a teacher isn't supervising your tiny little behinds, so get back in the school before I call Principal Baltwood and tell him that you were carrying firecrackers and threatening people with them.”
“But we didn’t do anything wrong,” complained Marvin.
“No matter,” she said, “I know you are up to something.”
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And she walked away, her high heel boots clicking and crunching against the light dust of snow placed on the pavement. The boys glared daggers at her through the cold of winter. They hated no one more than that dumb teacher that they truly did dislike everything about. Craig laughed.
“What a buzzkill,” he said.
“Yeah, what’s her deal? Does she just hate everything that’s fun?” asked Marvin.
“I’d kill her if I could,” said Alex.
“Hey!”
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They turned their heads and saw the English teacher, Mr. Church. He was somehow worse than Ms. Kelly. He was known throughout the school as the worst teacher to have if your average is lower than 97%. He was even rude to those with over 97% of average. His balding head, his glasses that were too small for his head, his pointy nose, everything about him was antagonizing.
"Yes, Mr. Church? Is there anything we can do for you?” said Marvin innocently.
“Who were you talking about, just now?”
“Why, I don’t know what you’re talking about-”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Murphy. Although, you don’t need to play very much. I heard you say that you would kill someone if you could, who?”
“No one. Killing is violent and gruesome,” said Alex.
“And you referred to one person as a ‘buzzkill’,” said Mr. Church.
“Oh yes, we were talking about our own dear old friend, Kevin,” said Craig, placing his arm around Kevin’s shoulder as the latter just smiled awkwardly toward the teacher.
“Ah. And does your ‘dear old friend, Kevin’ use the pronoun ‘she’? Because I heard you say that you would kill her if you could,” said Mr. Church.
“I-uh-...”
“Listen, I’ll let you off with a warning, this time, but if I hear Ms. Kelly’s name in your throat ever again, I’ll rip out your eyes and shove them up your nose, got that? This is no way to talk about a teacher, and I’m sure that all of you boys know that.”
“Yes, Mr. Church,” they all said in unison.
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Mr. Church walked away and the boys waited until he was out of ear shot for the inevitable shit-talking that they did of teachers right after being admonished. It was their ritual. Craig scoffed and opened his mouth; he was often the one to initiate it, since he was the most opinionated.
“What an assclown,” he said.
“Yeah, definitely,” said Marvin, who always just went along with whatever Craig said.
“I swear to God I’ll burn this place all down one day,” said Alex, the second most opinionated.
Kevin never initiated, but this time he decided to, “yeah maybe,” he said.
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Alex and Kevin got a good look at Ms. Kelly’s lifeless eyes, her gray skin, the chunks of hair and skin that were separated from her body and placed all around the snow. The way she laid down on the ground; her position… It was one of the most terrifying things the boys had ever seen. After staring for a while, Kevin finally unclogged that memory.
“Oh shit, you’re talking about when Craig said he was gonna kill ‘er, right?”
“No, it wasn’t Craig, it was me. I said that I would kill the old broad.”
“Jesus, Alex, that’s not gonna bode well for you in court.”
“We’re not going to court, Kev, we can’t!”
“What? We’re not reporting the body?”
“I already told you, we’re not gonna. We’ll be their top suspects and we’ll get arrested.”
“But we didn’t do it.”
“I know that, Kevin, but the law system’s shit and we’ll get our asses in jail in six minutes tops!”
“So we're not telling anyone?”
“We can’t, I’m sorry.”
“Hm.”
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The boys stood, snow coming up to their ankles. The silence overcame the deep part of the forest that they were in. After seeing this, neither of them could come back from the trauma of this situation. Kevin sighed and furrowed his eyebrows before looking over at his friend.
“We gotta tell Marvin and Craig,” he said.
“No, we can’t tell Marvin and Craig,”
“Why not?”
“Cause Craig’s a Goddamn blabbermouth and he’ll tell everyone!”
“What if we just told Marvin?”
“He’ll tell Craig and then shit his pants.”
“Alex, we can’t carry this burden alone. This could traumatize us for life. What happens when the police do find her body, and we get suspected just like how you were scared of, and they find out that we didn’t tell nobody ‘bout finding her body. That’s even more suspicious! If we tell Marvin, we’ll have an alibi. Marvin will trust us, he won’t think that we killed her, so he’ll defend us for sure. And he’ll know that when you said you wanted to kill her, it was just a joke. It’s the perfect solution; we tell Marvin,” said Kevin.
“Mh…Maybe.”
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The silence returned. They looked back at the body. The missing limbs were visible and you could tell which ones were gone; an eyeball was missing, an arm was torn clean off, half of the hair on her head was missing, there was a gaping hole in her upper stomach, her teeth were almost all non-existent, her mouth hung open and they could almost hear the sharp high pitched, terrorized scream that she let out of it, as whoever did this to her made their move. Maybe it was a wolf; this was too intense for a weak human. Maybe it was a human in a car who decided to run her over many, many times. Maybe it was another animal…a coyote or something like that. Maybe someone just killed her and then left her body for the wolves to eat. No matter what happened, who did it, why and how, both boys - who were quite dumb and had no concept of being detectives or police officers - knew that this awful scene, this gruesome pain, this disgusting picture was no accident.203Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgZ8fSIipKX
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Chapter 2
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Kevin stared at the ceiling, mind clouded with the events of that day. It felt like his childhood had gone away; he was a murder witness. He didn’t eat dinner that night, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to sleep. The image of Ms. Kelly’s torn up dead body couldn’t escape his mind. He tried everything; thinking of other things, trying to remember a catchy song to get stuck in his head so he eventually forgets about what he saw, he tried comforting himself, eating, going to the bathroom, even shutting his eyes for a few moments, but no. Nothing emerged from all of this effort. There was no way that he was going to sleep the night he basically witnessed the murder of Agnes Kelly without the ability to tell anyone in order to protect his closest friend. Speaking of Alex, Kevin was having some conflicting feelings. Alex was a pretty bad kid, and not in a good way. He did some pretty awful things, with Kevin by his side - of course, Kevin never participated in it, but nonetheless, he was there - and he never told on Alex or admonished him…He always stood by his side quietly like the good little puppy dog that he felt like whenever he was with him and shut his own mouth. Everything that Alex did, no matter how horrible, Kevin got behind him. Always and forever. But this…this was different. No matter how hard Kevin tried, no matter how hard he closed his eyes and remembered the good times, no matter how much he really did love Alex, he just couldn’t find it in himself to get behind him. What Alex did was awful; if Kevin was alone, he would have called the authorities in a heartbeat, but Alex just insisted on not telling anyone, not even Marvin and Craig - their two closest friends in the whole world. Kevin felt like some sort of fugitive or criminal. He felt like the police were going to break down the door and arrest him. Kevin turned on his side and shut his eyes slowly. This will all be gone in the morning…or, at least, he sure hoped it would.
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As soon as Alex arrived at school, the first thing he did was enter the cafeteria. The first thing he did after entering the cafeteria was catch up with his best friend, Kevin. And the first thing he noticed after catching up with his best friend, Kevin in the cafeteria was that there were huge purple-blue circles beneath his eyes that made the brown of his iris pop out like a traffic light. Alex was slightly concerned at his friend’s clear and obvious lack of sleep.
“Hey, man, what’s up with you?”
“What’s up with me?! What do you mean! How are you acting normal?”
“Why wouldn’t I be acting normal,” said Alex, unbothered.
“Well maybe because we found the most disturbing thing, in the woods, the other day and you refuse to tell all authorities cause you think we’ll get arrested.”
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Alex’s expression slowly turned to panic as Kevin said more and more. He clenched his jaw and grabbed Kevins wrist, digging his nails into his skin a little, making Kevin wince. He pulled his friend away from the crowd and brought him into the empty handicap/unisex bathroom - that only had one room, no stalls - and stared at him through angry eyes.
“What do you think you’re doing,” he asked, his teeth gritted.
Kevin tried to be brave, but he just couldn’t. He looked at Alex with big glossy eyes, full of tears and bit his bottom lip, trying his best not to cry. He swallowed hard before speaking.
“Alex, I-...I don’t think I can do this,” he mumbled.
“Aw, come on, Kev, don’t cry, I-I’m sorry…” he said as if he were trying to convince his sibling not to cry so his parents wouldn’t find out about the harsh beating the sibling just took.
“I feel awful! I can’t eat, I can’t sleep…I just can’t help but feel like this is somehow my fault.”
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Alex frowned and stared down at his feet. He didn’t mean to upset his friend. The boy looked back up at Kevin and tried his best to push out a smile in the hopes of comforting him, but it didn’t work. He couldn’t push out a smile to save his life. Instead, he slowly placed his hand onto Kevin’s back and gave it three light pats. Kevin thought it to be a little patronizing, so he glanced back over at his friend with those tired, sad, distraught eyes that were plastered on him.
“Can I hug you,” he asked quietly, like a mouse that lost its voice.
Alex responded by pulling his friend into a hug. Kevin couldn’t hold it in much longer and he cried into Alex’s shoulder. He cried. Over and over. The quiet sobs were heartbreaking for his friend to hear. He felt like he was the one who triggered those tears. He also didn’t know what to say. For their friend group, it was extremely taboo to cry, so they didn’t really know what to do with themselves when someone actually did cry. Alex felt himself tearing up a little but he bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself. He then let go of Kevin and looked him in the eyes.
“Come on, just hang on a little longer; Christmas break is in four days,” he said.
“Y-Yeah…I guess.”
“We’d better get to class, now, the bell rings in three minutes. Are you alright now?”
Kevin sighed “as I’ll ever be,” he mumbled.
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The two friends made their way to class as Kevin wiped his eyes with his sleeve. He was no longer crying, but he wanted to get rid of the last remnants of tears that could tear away his fragile masculinity in a second. He had an image to maintain, after all. As soon as they walked in the classroom, they saw Marvin and Craig. Marvin waved with a smile as Craig did that two-finger salute thing. The two boys put on fake smiles as they walked toward their friends, trying to act as normal as possible in front of them. They were sort of failing.
“Hey, guys,” said Alex.
“Craig and I were just saying; who’s stronger, me or him? It’s me, right?” said Marvin.
“Well, Marvin’s got the physique, but Craig’s got the anger,” said Alex.
“Hey, Kevin, you good man? You look awful,” said Craig.
“Y…Yeah, whatever, I’m fine.”
“Okay…”
“Just wait ‘till break and we’ll tell Marvin, okay? Just don’t worry,” whispered Alex.
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Kevin just nodded. In walked a replacement for Ms. Kelly. It wasn’t just any substitute, it was Mr. Church. A couple of groans were heard throughout the room because a substitute that was already a teacher at the school means that they already know the rules, so no trying to make stuff up and do whatever they want, and also no screwing around. Mr. Church’s scowl deepened somehow, if that was even possible. He then lifted his chin.
“I will be Ms. Kelly’s replacement for the rest of this week,” he said coldly,”I don’t know much about maths, but I’ll try my best.”
“Why does he say ‘maths’ instead of ‘math’?” thought Alex to himself.
“Alright, so where did you all leave off?”
“Mr. Church,” asked one of the students, “where’s Ms. Kelly?”
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Mr. Church froze. He stared at the student, his chin high and his eyes full of panic. As he did this, Alex furrowed his eyebrows. Why was he acting like this? Like he had a secret that he didn't want anyone to know…Could Mr. Church know anything about the true reason for the absence of Ms. Kelley? His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard and nervously.
“For personal reasons,” he said, “none of your concern.”
Alex glanced at Kevin, who seemed to have come to the same conclusion.
“Why’s he acting like that?” whispered Alex.
“Yeah, he’s being really suspicious… Do think he-”
“Maybe. After all, he was the only one who heard me say that I’d kill ‘er if I could. Maybe he’s trying to frame me…Maybe he’s a little more cold-hearted than we thought.”
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Both boys went back to ‘paying attention’ to class. They tried to concentrate, but they could think about the fact that the man attempting to teach them math in front of their eyes, could be a murderer involved in a homicide. He spoke loudly, but neither boy was listening. Alex turned toward Kevin and made sure that he was close enough so his friend could hear him whisper without getting caught by the strict teacher/Mr. Church/murderer.
“Are we really going to tell Marvin?”
“We better. I don’t think I can keep it in much longer,” Kevin whispered back.
“You know he’s gonna crap his pants, right? You’re prepared for that?”
“Yes. You’ve said that already.”
“I know…Just make sure you know that this isn’t the type of secret that we just giggle and call it a day; this is a Goddamn murder case, and he can’t tell nobody-”
“He won't tell nobody, I promise. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Boys!”
Both boys looked to the teacher.
“Is there something you would like to share with the class?”
“Uh, n-no, sir…No Mr. Church,” said Alex semi-confidently.
“Well, then, shut-up! If you don’t, you can blabber all you want in principle Baltwood’s office.”
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The boys stayed quiet and as soon as Mr. Church looked away, they looked at each other, eyes full of a mix of concern and fear. Then, Kevin glanced over at Marvin. He had made a promise to Alex that he would make sure that Marvin wouldn’t tell a soul about Ms. Kelly. To be honest, he couldn’t be sure if his friend would tell anyone or not, but it was worth a shot. 203Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvEYCBAiDHb
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Chapter 3
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Alex sighed as he checked the clock for the millionth time, that day. The hand that counted the seconds on the clock seemed to always get slower and slower each day. At the beginning of the school year, one hour felt like one hour. Now, it felt like nine. It was only the beginning of the week and he already wanted to die. It felt like the arms on the clock were moving so slowly. Kevin hadn’t ever noticed how long a second really was. So incredibly long, that only a couple of seconds had passed and it felt like an eternity. Maybe it was the fact that Mr. Church’s voice was like one of those white noise machines that rich people had, or maybe it was the fact that he desperately needed to confess to Marvin or else he’d explode of guilt. Kevin internally scoffed; he was talking - or, I guess, thinking - like he actually did commit that damn murder, which he didn’t, of course. Finally, the loud sound of the bell interrupted his thoughts. The boys caught up with Craig and Marvin. Craig walked away saying something about ‘needing to take a piss’, leaving Alex, Kevin and Marvin alone. Kevin played with his sleeve - a nasty habit - before speaking with a shaky voice - as he was exceedingly nervous.
“Um…Marvin? Can we…Can we tell you something?”
Alex immediately jerked his head toward his friend. He was really about to do this.
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“Well… we…um…” poor Kevin couldn’t get a word out.
“We found something in the woods yesterday, me and Kevin,” said Alex, helping his friend out.
“Oh…? What’d you find?”
There was a silence.
“Let’s just say we know why Ms. Kelly’s not here today.”
. . .
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School was finally over, and Marvin, Alex, and Kevin were walking in the cold, snowy forest with determination. Although, Marvin didn’t really know where he was going, where his friends were taking him and why Craig wasn’t coming too. Marvin started to think that they were luring him to his death. He internally laughed at himself and at how ridiculous he was being. After a while, Kevin and Alex stopped him and blocked the trail ahead.
“Marvin, you have to understand this…” started Kevin.
“If you go forward and look at what we found, you’ll never come back from it. You’ll never be able to think back to a time where you hadn’t seen what we’re about to show you. After you see this, you will be truly traumatized. You won’t be able to eat, sleep, laugh or smile almost ever again,” said Alex dramatically.
“Geez what are you guys gonna show me?”
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Kevin and Alex looked at each other almost furtively. They didn’t want to traumatize their poor friend, but Marvin could be their only chance at being proven innocent of the crime. Kevin sighed. 203Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwgQwzu5XSj
“Just, follow us,” he said, avoiding eye contact.
Marvin placed his shaky hand over his mouth as his eyes filled with involuntary tears. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the body of the teacher that they had to look at every single day. Marvin didn’t know what to say. He wanted to run away, like a coward, but his feet wouldn’t move. Like they were super-glued onto the ground with no escape or way to unstick them. He tried to swallow, but his throat was too dry and he just couldn’t. His hands were shaking, but he still couldn’t move. The entire world was spinning round and round…Marvin couldn’t hold it in anymore, he fell onto the ground, unconscious. He had fainted. Alex glanced at Kevin.
“Well, what now?”
“I guess he really couldn’t take it…He’s still alive, right?”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry about it, Kev.”
“Too late; I’m worried about it.”
“You’re worried about everything,” said Alex, rolling his eyes, “and anyway, he’ll wake up soon.”
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As soon as he said that, Marvin arose with a small yelp. He squinted and cupped his hand against his forehead. He then looked around in confusion. He noticed Ms. Kelly’s dead body and his eyes went wide before he rolled them into the back of his head and fell down onto the snow again. Kevin and Alex looked at each other.
“Now he’s really dead,” said Kevin with a hint of panic.
“He’s not dead, Kev, he’s just, uh…resting his eyes…”
“That’s what my mom said when I found my hamster, Elton, upside down in his cage.”
“Your hamster’s name was Elton?”
“Yes. Why?”
“You named your hamster after Elton John?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Well,-”
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Marvin sat up again, slower this time, his hand against the small part between his forehead and head. He made a small grunt and his hair was full of snow, as well as everything else on him. His mittens were wet, so that was probably why he was pressing them against his head; it was cold. He then swallowed and looked up at the two boys with a confused expression that had a slight bit of - not so well - suppressed panic. He then shifted his eyes to the ground, then back up at them. He repeated this motion many times, still sitting on the ground.
“You fuckin’ killed Ms. Kelly?” he asked, trying to stay calm, but the wobble in his voice gave him away.
“No, see, that’s just it, Marvin, we didn’t kill Ms. Kelly. Someone else did,” said Kevin.
“Yeah…We found her body in the woods yesterday, and we don’t know what to do with ‘er.”
“But we swear on our whole lives that we did not kill Ms. Kelly. We swear! You gotta believe us, Marv, you just gotta! We’re innocent. All we did was find her, and we-”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone, then,” asked Marvin, cutting Kevin off.
“Because of what I said the day before yesterday…remember? When we were with Craig…I had said something like; I’d kill ‘er if I could. Anyways, that didn’t really help my case, so we were scared to tell anyone about the body or else they’d think it was me. Or us. By us, I mean me and Kevin, or you, me, Kev and Craig. In a way, I didn’t tell anyone to protect us. To not have to be involved in all of that crime stuff, you know?”
“Bullshit, Alex! You didn’t do this for us! You did it for yourself! Screw you, I’m telling the police about this…”
“Marvin, no, wait! You can’t,” said Kevin, stopping Marvin from walking away.
“Why shouldn’t I?! You want to tell the authorities too, I can see it in your face!”
“Because… Y-You just can’t, okay?”
“Stop trying to protect Alex when he does his dumb shit. You always get the blame for it!”
“No he doesn’t…” mumbled Alex, almost to himself.
“I know that, Marvin. I know I always take the fall for Alex and I know it’s dumb and I should stop doing it, but this is different. You need to trust me on this one, okay? This has to be a secret.”
“No. I can’t. I can deal with the normal ‘throwing rocks at squirrels’, or ‘stealing homework from nerds’, but this is just-...This is just a whole new level that I can’t find it in myself to stoop down to,” said Marvin, “not to mention that the police know everything. They’ll find out about this, and you’ll be even more suspicious than you were! Or, you’ll already be in jail! I can’t be involved in this. I just can’t. Especially not before the holidays; I’m supposed to go on vacation, and I can’t go if I’m in prison. I’m sorry guys. They need to know.”
“Kevin, you promised,” said Alex, adding onto Kevin’s nerves.
“I know, I know…I-...Marvin, please. We’ll do anything.”
“Anything?”
“Anything in the whole world.”
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Marvin turned around to face them and smirked. For a minute there, you could have almost thought he was mature. Now, you’ll realize that he isn’t, as he is about to ask Kevin and Alex to do his homework for the rest of their time in jail high school. Marvin placed his hands in his pockets, the same little cocky smirk on his face as he approached the other two boys. He then squinted and looked them up and down before raising his eyebrows and biting back a smile. Not the good kind; the kind of smile that means you want something from someone.
“Anything?” he repeated.
“Jesus, Marvin, anything,” said Kevin.
“I want you to do my homework until we graduate. I don’t care if you find someone else to do it for you, or if you use some sort of textbook and copy paste, or if you ask your mom…Just get it done. Every single time.”
Alex groaned, “fine, whatever,” he said.
“Alright then; my lips are sealed.”
Both boys sighed with relief.
“Thanks Marvin, you have no idea how much this means to me,” said Kevin.
“Yeah, yeah… save the mushy shit for someone else. Just don’t mention it, okay? Oh yeah, and one more thing; if you guys get caught; I have nothing to do with any of this, got it?”
“Got it,” said Alex.
“Deal,” said Kevin.
Marvin just nodded and turned around to face the body. His hands were still in his pockets as he narrowed his eyes at the sight of their torn-up teacher. He had calmed down, but he was still a little freaked out. He then lifted his chin to examine her a little more. There was complete and utter silence throughout the woods as Kevin and Alex just watched Marvin as he observed the body. After a long time, he sighed and looked back over at the two boys.
“She’s pretty fucked up, eh?”
Marvin laughed at his own comment and Kevin and Alex just looked back at him, emotionless. Marvin could tell that it was a miss, so he just looked back over at Ms. Kelly. It was strange; usually, she’d walk in the room, her bouncy brown hair against her back, her pink cardigan always on, her thick black glasses over her eyes and her beige skin constantly tanned as if she had just come home from a vacation in Mexico. Now, her hair was either taken off in a bloody chunk on the side of the snow or thinning on her greasy head, her shirt was covered in dry, maroon-coloured blood, her thick black glasses were broken and stabbed into her cheek and her usually tan skin was as pale as a ghost - almost purple. It was disgusting. Marvin felt vomit rise up in his throat, but instead, he just spit onto the ground in front of the body. ‘Too bad she ain’t in a ditch’, he thought, ‘makes it easier not to find’. Marvin cleared his throat and checked his watch; 5:45. He thought he should probably get home.
“I should probably get going,” said Marvin, “my mom's gonna freak. See ya.”
“Bye Marvin.”
“Bye Marvin.”
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Marvin walked away, trailing his hand onto both boys’ shoulders on his way out. They watched as Marvin was reduced to a tiny speck, getting further and further away until he was completely gone. Alex was feeling something inside of him…It was a feeling that he’d never felt before. His heart felt like it was being pulled down with a rope, his throat was dry, his brain was overflowing…For the first time in his life, Alex felt bad. He was feeling guilty. He turned to Kevin, trying to say something, but failing for a long time. They had to stay in silence until Alex felt strong enough to finally work up the courage to say something to him. He still couldn’t. They began walking the trail that Marvin had walked, so they could go home themselves. As they made their way out of the woods, Alex deemed it the perfect time to finally say something. He cleared his throat as the silence overtook the entire forest.
“Was that true?”
“Hm?”
“What Marvin had said back there… That you’re always trying to protect me when I do dumb shit and then you always get the blame for it?”
They continued walking in silence; Kevin wouldn't answer.
“Kev?”
“Huh?”
“Is it true…?”
Kevin sighed. “It’s not not true…”
“What? When have I ever done that?”
“Oh, yeah, you’re right, never…What was I thinking, I’m so dumb, sorry,” said Kevin trying not to cause a fight.
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Alex grabbed Kevin’s wrist and pulled him back toward him. He then looked his friend square in the eye before smiling and sitting down on the ground, right there in the snow. He patted the spot next to him so Kevin could join him, but Kevin just lightly placed his hands on his pants. He didn’t really want to, since he didn’t have snow pants, but he just sighed, and sat down anyway. They sat in silence for a while. Kevin looked at the ground. Alex swallowed.
“Be honest,” he said.
“I really don’t want to have this conversation here and now…It’ll just lead to a big fight, and we need each other, right now. Especially in a time where we’re both terrified of our murderer English teacher… What I’m trying to say is; don’t start this, Alex. It’s not worth it.”
“Yes it is. I wanna know what I did wrong… You know, Kev, it doesn’t show all that much, but I care about you. So much. And I just wanna know if you don’t feel the same-”
“Yes. I do,” said Kevin quickly.
“Okay, well, then, tell me this; have I ever done some dumb thing and dragged you along with me, and then you ended up taking the blame. Did I ever do that? Please.”
“Yes. You did. You do that very often, even. But I don’t care, I like being around you and stuff…you’re my best friend, I mean. And I dunno, it just doesn’t really matter to me that much. It’s never really bothered me before… And I still don’t think it doesn’t.”
“If one day, you wake up and decide that it bothers the hell out of you, I promise I’ll change.”
Kevin smiled and the two boys hugged.
“I love you,” whispered Kevin.
“What?” said Alex, not having heard.
“Nothing.”
They then stood up and began walking home. Kevin’s heart was a little lighter than it was before. It used to be full of guilt and regret, but after having told Marvin and seeing someone else freak out over it, he felt better. He internally patted himself on the back for having the idea of telling their friend, while Alex desperately did not want to tell anyone. The only problem now was that they had to do his homework for the next handful of years to come. Kevin didn’t want to do his own homework, let alone someone else’s. And this was all for Alex’s sake. They would be able to tell the authorities if it weren’t for Alex’s slip up. This was pretty much all his fault. He caught himself getting mad at him again, and quickly stopped. ‘There’s no point being mad at Alex now,’ he thought to himself, ‘after all, what’s done is done.’
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What’s done is done indeed, but neither Kevin, nor Alex, nor Craig or Marvin knew that that expression was about to become way more real than they had ever thought in their fourteen years of living in this cruel, violent, indescribable world. 203Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgo068ul06w
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Chapter 4
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The next day, at school, Craig started to notice a small ‘alliance’ between Marvin, Kevin and Alex. Like he had missed something. Something important. They would just throw little looks at each other in class. Like, they would squint and clench their jaws and nod at each other. Like they set a bomb in the school that was about to blow up. Finally, break had started, but before Craig had the chance to ask about this behavior, they got called by Mr. Church.
“Latchkey, Monroe, Murphy and Steinman,” he said menacingly, “in my classroom, now.”
They walked into their English classroom and sat down in their respective places. Mr. Church shook his head and patted the four spots in the first row. They all got up from their chairs and sat down where their teacher implied for them to sit down. He then cleared his throat. Since he did that, the boys assumed he was going to start speaking, but he didn’t. He sat down at his desk with his chin resting on his hands. His fingers were entangled in each other. He looked like he was about to give them shit for something, even though they did nothing.
“Ms. Kelly didn’t show up, yesterday. She didn’t mark herself absent or anything…she just never showed up. No one knows where she is. She won’t even pick up her phone.”
He paused.
“And I have a feeling that you four know where she is.”
The three boys stayed quiet, while Craig laughed a little.
“We don’t know where the old hag is. Why would we,” he said.
“That’s a foul way to speak of a dead woma- shit, I mean-”
“I knew it! You know she’s dead too! You have something to do with it,” exclaimed Alex.
“I-...I don’t have anything to do with it, I swear!”
“Your stammering is giving you away, Church, you know something that you don’t want to share with us! Come on, out with it, old man!”
“Shut-up! How do you even know that she’s dead?”
“We could ask you the same thing,” said Marvin.
“Okay, okay, how many people in this room know about it?” asked Mr. Church.
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Mr. Church, Kevin, Alex and Marvin all lifted up their hands. Basically, everyone knew except for Craig, who was internally freaking out. He was relieved to have figured out that the reason his friends were acting so weird was because they knew about Ms. Kelly’s murder, but at the same time, he was worried. How did they find out? Was Mr. Church actually involved? Craig got even more nervous as he realized that he was in a room full of potential murderers.
“Jesus Christ,” mumbled Craig, “so she’s dead?”
“Yeah, she is…Sorry we didn’t tell you…” said Marvin.
“H…How long…How long have you guys known?”
“Me and Kev were walking in the woods and we stumbled upon her…that was two days ago. Yesterday, we showed Marvin in the hopes that he could be some sort of alibi,” said Alex.
“Mr. Church, how did you find out?” asked Kevin.
“Well, I was-... You know what, it doesn’t matter how; it’s done now.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Kevin.
“Quiet, Steinman. Does anyone else know why this happened or who could have done it?” asked Mr. Church.
“We thought it was you,” said Alex, “and we still do, by the way.”
“Well, it wasn’t.”
“How can we believe you?”
“Because, Latchkey, how do I know that you didn’t kill poor, defenseless, weak Ms. Kelly?”
“Uhh…I guess that’s a fair point… but I didn’t.”
“Neither did I. I swear on my mother’s grave.”
“Well that’s fantastic. I’m not really enjoying the constant view of square one,” said Alex.
“Your sarcasm doesn’t amuse me. Who said you could speak to me like this?”
“Ms. Kelly’s torn up body, possibly caused by your knife or gun or whatever…”
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Mr. Church opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it back up after, clenching his jaw and looking away from the boys. For the first time in his entire career, his twenty-two years of teaching at school with the grubby kids, he was scared - no - terrified of a child. He shouldn’t feel guilty; he didn’t kill her. But he somehow saw the end of his teaching career in that boy’s eyes. He gulped quietly, still trying to assert dominance, but it wasn’t working anymore, like it used to. When he instated fear into the souls of these barely-not-infants.
“You boys better get to class now,” he said.
“Yeah, we better,” said Alex, not taking his eyes off of Mr. Church, almost as if his darting gaze was telling him; I know what you did - or, I guess - could have done.
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The four boys left and made their way to science class. Craig was surely distraught, while the three other boys all had different views on the whole ‘Mr. Church is the murderer’ situation. Marvin, who trusted adults way more than he should, thought that Mr. Church was one-hundred percent innocent, while Alex, who never trusted anyone without cold hard proof, didn’t believe him at all. Kevin just didn’t know what to do. Alex thought he was guilty, but Mr. Church’s eyes were genuine. He could just be a good actor, but Kevin liked to believe the best in people, even if they don’t really deserve it. As they sat down in their spots, Annalise Chester, a blonde, preppy, incredibly obnoxious girl made her way to Alex’s spot. Alex already knew that something awful was about to happen, based off of Annalise’s cruel smile, like the Grinch kind of smile. Alex internally sighed at whatever she was going to say or adresse.
“I know your secret,” she said in a high-pitched, sing-song voice.
Alex got nervous. “W…What secret?”
“I think you know…”
“Enlighten me.”
“You know…the thing with Ms. Kelly…”
Alex’s eyes grew wide with panic as he jumped up from his chair.
“Shut-up!”
“Oh, so you do know what I’m talking about…how fun!”
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From the way she was talking, Alex could tell that she wanted something, much like how they bought Marvin’s silence by agreeing to do his homework until they graduate. Alex tried to keep a straight, intimidating face, so she’d back down and not ask for anything, but she didn’t move. She stayed right there, staring at him in the eyes, with a smile, but intimidating eyes. He sighed.
“What do you want?” he said, exasperated.
“Ah, so you know why I’m bringing it up…I guess you’re smarter than I thought-”
“Yeah, yeah, cut the crap, just tell me what you want.”
She smiled and stayed quiet, just to antagonize him a little longer.
“I want to see it.”
“See what?”
“The dead body. I want to see it.”
“No…That’s not such a good idea.”
“I want to see the dead body, or I swear to God, I’ll tell everyone.”
“No way! Trust me, you don’t even want to see it, anyway.”
Another girl walked by, a brunette this time, Analise grabbed her wrist delicately to get her attention.
“You’ll never guess where Ms. Kelly is, Jo,” she said to her.
Alex panicked again.
“Wait, wait, stop!”
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Annalise let go of the other girl, mumbling ‘never mind’ to her. She then looked over back at Alex with widened eyes. Alex didn’t want to show another person the body. Already, him and Kevin freaked out and ruined their own lives…Then they showed Marvin, who completely freaked. Now, they have to show it to someone else. Alex didn’t know how she’d take it.
“So? Is that a yes,” she asked.
“Yeah, fine, whatever… We’ll go this afternoon after school, okay? Just, promise you won’t tell anyone. Even if you don’t like what you see.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s a pretty awful sight…If you freak out and think it’s gross, don’t label it uneventful and tell everyone, anyway, okay?”
“I promise I'll be fine. I also promise that I won’t tell a soul if you show me, like you promised. But you have to actually show me. None of that fake bullshit.”
“You have my word. Now get away from me. I don’t want people to think we’re friends.”
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She scoffed, rolled her eyes and walked away. As soon as Kevin came into the classroom and sat down next to him, Alex explained everything. The entire exchange between him and Annalise. They agreed that they’d show her - they being Kevin, Alex and Marvin - that afternoon, after school, all together. No one wanted to deal with an unconscious body or a panic attack, alone. They thought for sure that she’d freak and, like, die or something. And just like that, the circle of people who knew about the Agnes Kelly murder, grew a great deal.
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Chapter 5
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The four children - Alex, Kevin, Marvin and Annalise - stood in front of the area that held the dead body of their math teacher, Ms. Kelly. They were taking Annalise to see it, purely because she had specifically requested it. Of course, neither boy liked her at all. In fact, no one really liked her, except for the popular girls. Everyone found her genuinely annoying and an overall bad person. And of course, for public image purposes, no boy was allowed to be friends or friendly with a girl. Either you dated her, or you hated her. Hey, that rhymes. Anyways, after finding out about the take-Annalise-to-see-the-body plan, Marvin and Kevin were less than pleased, but there was nothing they could do about it. They kept their distance to her while walking and started up the least amount of conversation possible. They got close to the area, so the boys stopped her and looked at her with serious eyes, much like they did before showing the body to Marvin. They needed to do ‘the talk’ to everyone who wished to see it, and hopefully, this would be the last person…or so they prayed, because they didn’t want anyone else to be involved or suspected or added into the murder case of their math teacher.
“Before we go ahead with this…you should probably know,” started Alex.
“That once you see this…thing…there's no going back,” said Marvin.
“It’ll ruin your sleep, your eating schedule…I’d even go as far to say your childhood, or even your entire life. Trust us; this isn’t a fun thing,” said Kevin.
“I’m aware of the risk,” she said, “now show it to me.”
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The boys glanced at each other giving the look of ‘oh gosh, she really doesn’t know what she’s getting into…’ . They then cleared the path for her to walk ahead. Annalise saw the hollow part of the ground that held the body. She approached it. Since it had been there for a while, some of it started to decompose and you could see some of the bones. Just because some of it was gone, didn’t make it less disgusting. Marvin had his shaky hand over his mouth to stop himself from throwing up. Kevin looked away, throat dry and mind clouded. Alex was pre-flinching, ready for Annalise’s over dramatic reaction, no matter how bad it was. Instead of screaming, or flailing or calling the police, she walked even closer to it, a thought that made the three boys uneasy, and crouched down to level with it. They didn’t even want to look at it for longer than eight seconds, and she was over there looking at it from very, very close. She lifted Ms. Kelly’s unresponding arm, making the boys gag, and picked up an object that was beneath her. After they were done being grossed out, the boys walked a little closer to see what she had found. Annalise just nodded with her eyebrows raised and stood up, still holding the mysterious object. She walked over to the boys and placed it in Alex’s hand.
“She has an air freshener,” she said, “and I don’t think it’s hers.”
Annalise left. They waited until she was truly, truly gone to finally speak a question that was on their minds freaking them out intensely.
“That’s Craig’s air freshener…” said Marvin with panic.
“Yeah, it is…That’s-”
“Weird,” said Alex, finishing Kevin’s sentence.
“Holy shit…”
“I think Craig…”
“Fuck.”
. . .
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The next day, they walked to school, and everyone around them was ecstatic. That was completely normal; it was the last day before Christmas break. Normally, the boys would be laughing, crying of joy, debating putting ice packs on their cheeks from too much smiling. What I’m trying to say is that they despised school and loved the winter break, so usually they’d be happy on that 22nd of December morning. But instead, they were panicking. Marvin held the dry blood-covered air freshener as the three boys looked around for Craig. They found him in the school library, doodling on a piece of paper. They walked up to him and Marvin smacked down the air freshener onto the desk that Craig had his paper on. The boy looked up at his serious-looking friends with confused eyes. He looked back down at the air freshener, then back up at them. He did that a bunch more times before laughing a little, although his friends were completely unamused. This concerned Craig a bit. Like he was in trouble.
“Why are you handing me my air freshener,” he asked and then examined it, “full of purple-tomato ketchup…?"
“That’s not ketchup, Craig, that’s blood,” said Marvin.
“Ms. Kelly’s blood,” said Alex.
“What…?”
“Aw, are you confused, Craig? Well, let me break it down for you,” started Alex, “we know you killed Ms. Kelly. Just tell us why and how you did it, okay? There’s no point hiding, we know it’s you. That’s your air freshener that’s always in your dad’s car that we found on her body.”
“What the hell are you on about? I didn’t kill her!”
Craig paused for a while.
“Can we talk in private for a minute,” he said.
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They all made their way to the handicap bathroom that was a bathroom with no stalls. Very useful for private conversations and mental breakdowns. People assume that’s why they’re there; there aren’t any wheelchair kids at the school, anyway, so there’s not much of a point. Anyways, the four boys were in the bathroom and Marvin, Kevin and Alex were awaiting Craig’s big explanation that would prove him completely innocent of the crime.
“It’s just…” his voice was full of tears, as well as his pitiful eyes, “m…my brother just got his driver’s license, a-and I thought, ‘well, that looks like fun’, so I-I took m-my dad’s car and I drove in the forest, and I-...I didn’t know that sh-she’d be there, I-”
“Bullshit,” said Marvin.
Craig immediately stopped crying and looked at Marvin.
“Okay, okay, ya caught me,” he started, “What really happened was that, well, Mr. Church called me after class and said ‘hey, Monroe, you should totally kill Ms. Kelly with a car’, or some shit like that… He was paying me quite handsomely, so I said yes. It was a lot of money…As you guys know, money is money, no matter what the job. I was waiting for the right day to do it, and you said that you wanted to kill Ms. Kelly, so I thought that if I killed her then, everyone would think it was you. Smart move huh? Thought it up myself. Anyway, I drove my dad’s car up to the forest, where Mr. Church told me she took her evening strolls and rammed into her skull a handful of times and then left the animals to take care of the rest.”
“Dude, what the hell? You framed me?”
“Framed is a pretty harsh word, there, Alex…Let’s just say that I made it look like you committed the crime, even though I’m the one who did it.”
“So, you framed me.”
“Never mind that,” said Kevin, “why did Mr. Church want to kill Ms. Kelly, anyway?”
“No idea. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that if someone’s payin’ you, you don’t ask questions. Ever. Especially when it comes to six-thousand dollars.”
“Six-thousand dollars?!”
“I guess he really wanted her dead,” said Kevin.
There was a pause.
“You guys aren’t going to tell anyone about this…right?” asked Craig.
“Are you nuts! Of course we’re going to tell someone,” said Alex.
“Oh, so when I say not to tell anyone, everyone’s all ‘but we have to, Craig!’, but when Alex says not to tell anyone, you guys are all ‘well, then, let’s ruin our whole lives, then! Yipee!’.”
“How did you know about that?”
“Marvin told me.”
“Marvin?! You told on us?!”
“Sorry, Alex…I had to tell him; he’s my best friend. You’d tell Kevin if you were in my situation, admit it! And I didn’t know he killed her. I had no idea, I swear!”
“Yeah, we believe you, but we told you not to tell!”
“I’m sorry, Kevin, but I think we have bigger fish to fry, right now…”
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All three boys looked at Craig, who slowly started to back away. They grabbed his wrists and dragged him out of the bathroom, kicking and begging them to let him go, but they didn’t. This scandal would be properly handled with the police involved and everything. Finally, this case would get the attention that it deserved.
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Chapter 6
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The three boys - Alex, Kevin and Marvin - stood in front of the large, stone tomb with a marking that read; ‘AGNES KELLY’. The usual grass and flowers all around the graveyard were covered with a thick layer of snow. It was Christmas day, but instead of playing in the snow, drinking hot cocoa, playing video games, watching TV or spending time with their families, they were staring at the tombstone of their late math teacher in complete silence. They had suffered a little; Craig was no longer with them. After they told the authorities about everything, there wasn’t much of a fight. Craig confessed about everything and went to jail or juvie, or something…somewhere far away enough so that they were sure that they’d never see him again. Mr. Church was also charged and was sent to prison for God knows how long. After the amount of time spent worrying and crying and all that pain, a little silence was all they needed. After all the loss they had taken from the past week…
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Marvin lost his best friend.
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Kevin lost his innocence.
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Alex lost his ability to trust.
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As they stared at the grave, they all thought the same thing, without saying a word outside of their heads; they thought that Ms. Kelly was buried along with a part of them that they once felt important. Maybe it wasn’t important enough to keep, anyway. It was all just childish. Everyone becomes an adult at some point, leaving that bit of themselves that they deemed important in the frozen, harsh ground of life. This whole thing was a metaphor. Alex hated metaphors; they reminded him of how he failed that one creative writing project in English class. They looked at that grave for a very long time. So long, that after a while, they forgot how to leave. Their feet were glued to the ground and their legs were hollow. Marvin shed a tear but quickly wiped it away; he couldn’t have them see him cry. Not here, not now. But it was too late, Kevin had noticed, but he didn’t say a word. He didn’t have the energy. It felt like all of their voices were taken away and replaced with this weird, annoying lump at the bottom of their throats, like a barrier that held the words that they were itching to speak. The three of them knew that nothing was ever going to be the same ever again, after this. After all, their quartet was now a trio and two of their main teachers were either dead or in prison. Of course nothing was going to be the same again, but there was just nothing they could do about it, no matter how much they wanted things to go back to normal, like they used to be…Calm. Warm. Familiar. No, that was gone. They were never going to feel that again.
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Their legs finally awoke, and one by one, they placed three fingers onto the tombstone, a pretty whisper in their minds as they passed by. The wind would lightly graze each one of them as they did this, as if Ms. Kelly was acknowledging their presence. You might be thinking; why are they doing this? They didn’t like her. And to that I say; weren’t you listening? I said that the grave held a part of each of their souls. So they weren't really saying goodbye to Ms. Kelly, they were more saying goodbye to life as they knew it. After having done this, the three boys walked off into the sunset, like the ending of a coming of age nineties movie starring a group of friends composed of teenage boys.
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The end.
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