Chapter 32: Derrick

Saturday, October 1st

MAKING THREATS IS easy. Delivering on them. . . not so much. After Harrison died, the Worthingtons lost their battle at keeping the press at bay, which meant we weren’t leaving the house much. The school had finally given up on trying to return a sense of normal to the community and had closed for “planning days,” which made it damn near impossible to get a hold of the football players. They’d gone radio silent. No phones, no social media, nothing.

The survivors had disappeared into their grief. And since the last time I’d been around Josh he’d ended up in the hospital, the other players’ parents weren’t all that willing to help pass along messages to them either. But fortunately, we knew one place they would be. Harrison’s funeral. Tess and I cornered them after a service that was so reminiscent of Ainsley’s that we were both on edge. “We need to talk.”

Three varying degrees of skepticism, disbelief, and incredulity stared me back in the face.

“Fuck. No,” Josh spat. “You gotta hell of a lotta nerve showing up here.”

“We know what you did,” Tess murmured in a tone I didn’t recognize. “So unless you want them to know, too . . .” She spun on her heel and headed down the hall toward the Sunday School rooms without so much as a glance back to see if they’d follow.

I stared after her for a second, surprised into silence. Everything about that exchange, down to the power in her stride as she walked off, was unlike Tess.

“Ten minutes,” Josh grumbled, glaring at me before he hurried after her. Aaron and Matt exchanged a glance and followed her into one of the classrooms.

I entered the room last, closed the door behind me, and leaned against the scratched wooden door with my arms crossed. The jocks didn’t notice because Tess commanded the room. She sat on top of the pine table, her black skirt short and tight against her crossed leg dangling off the edge.

“You drugged me.” Her voice was pure venom and seemed out of place in a room where kids had obviously been involved in painting. Streaks of dark blue paint and clotted yellow stars had been slathered on top of the cinder blocks.

“Is that what you’re telling yourself happened?” Josh pulled out the chair just in front of Tess and sat down, crossing his arms behind his head and leaning back like he was enjoying the show. “Why would anyone need to drug a desperate whore like you?”

I lurched forward, but before I could take more than a step, Josh’s chair whipped forward in a blur of motion. Tess held him fast by a handful of his shirt, her eyes blazing with rage. “Say again?”

“Whoa!” Aaron cried, holding his arms out in a gesture of surrender. “Let’s everyone calm down, okay?”

Tess didn’t even seem to notice anyone else was in the room.

“You. Drugged. Me.”

Josh struggled to get free, but she wasn’t letting him go anywhere. Matt and Aaron edged toward him like they wanted to intervene, but weren’t sure how. If it had been me, they would have ripped me off Josh in a heartbeat, but Tess was a girl.

“There was something in my drink.” Tess’s knuckles paled. “I would have never—”

“No shit, Sherlock!” Josh snapped, trying unsuccessfully to pry her fingers free. “There was something in all of our drinks. Do you think I’d touch a skank like you with a ten foot pole if—”

I didn’t even remember moving, but suddenly I was up against a wall of muscle in the form of Matt Lee.

“Guys! Come on.” Aaron still held his hands out, like that was going to help something. “Josh, stop being an ass. You”—he pointed at me,—“back the fuck down. We’re not doing this here. Not today.”

I thought of Harrison’s sobbing family down the hall and forced myself to take a breath and step back. “He doesn’t get to talk anymore.”

“Fair enough,” Matt agreed, giving Josh a look that dared him to talk. “But he has a point about us all being drugged. I can’t think of anything else that could explain us forgetting everything.”

I considered pointing out that no drug would impact this many people in such a uniform way, but Tess spoke up before I could.

“Well, he remembers.” Tess motioned to Josh and unfolded the puzzle from her pocket, slapping it down on the table. “He said he watched me burn.”

“Yeah, and you drew pictures of it,” Josh added. “So obviously, you remembered more than you were letting on.”

“Shut up, Josh,” Aaron suggested.

“I just drew it!” Tess protested. “That doesn’t mean I remember it happening, but Ryan said this came from—”

“What is it that you think we did? Burned you at the stake?” Josh waved his hand up and down, motioning to all of Tess’s body. “That would leave a mark.”

“Josh, shut up.” Aaron snapped.

Tess gritted her teeth. “Yeah, about that whole leaving a mark thing—”

“Guys, would you focus?” I yelled, exasperated. “Something happened that night, and for some reason, you guys are the only ones left. Any one of you could be next—”

“Is that a threat?” Matt asked.

“It’s a guess,” I clarified. “And a good one, given what we’re all doing here. What happened to Harrison, Ryan, Finn, Isaac and Chris could be coincidence, but on the off-chance it’s not, I don’t particularly want to wait around and figure out whose funeral I’ll be attending next. The more we know about who or what is doing this, the better chance—”

“It’s her.” Josh pointed at Tess. “Don’t tell me you haven’t figured it out, yet. She’s got more reason than any of us.”

This time, no one bothered telling him to shut up.

“What reason? What did you guys do?” Tess demanded.

“It can’t be her. She was with me when Harrison died. And she had the same dream the rest of you had.” I tried to reel the conversation back in. “Same thing happened when Chris died. Bits of what happened at the bonfire are coming back to her with every death, and I’m assuming that’s happening across the board?”

They glanced at each other and nodded.

“Then if we want to figure this out in time to be of any use, we’re going to have to work together. So how about we start with that book. What was—?”

Josh looked me straight in the eye. “Fuck that.”

“Josh,” Matt interjected. “He just said it can’t be her. So—”

“He’s obviously lying to protect her!” Josh shouted. “He might even be in on it. His mom is the sheriff. You think it’s a coincidence that every death has been labeled a suicide or an ‘accident?’” Josh put the phrase in air quotes, pushing away from the table. “That’s B.S. and everyone knows it. I don’t trust them. And neither should you.”

Tess moved toward Josh, but I got between them before she could lunge for him. “After what you did, you’ve got a lot of nerve talking about trust.”

Josh snorted. “Why? Because I made out with your girlfriend? She wanted it, Hernandez. Right up until she didn’t, when, if memory serves, I backed the hell off.”

“Liar! You did something to me!” Tess yelled, reaching over me. I moved to hold her back.

I wasn’t surprised when Aaron and Matt walked away, pulling Josh with them, but I might have tried to stop them if it wasn’t for Tess, struggling to get around me and shouting after them.

“You deserve whatever is coming for you!” she screamed. “I hope it hurts! Do you hear me! I hope it fucking hurts!”

And so begins the witch hunt, Mom’s voice echoed in my head. I shushed Tess harshly before she caught the attention of those in the church.

“What are you doing?” Tess demanded. “Let me go!” She twisted to face me and shoved me back so hard, I hit the ground before I realized what was happening.

Air escaped my lungs in a painful whoosh. I tried to suck in a breath, but none came. It felt like a python was constricting around my neck.

“Ohmigod!” Tess dropped beside me. “I don’t—I didn’t—”

“I’m fine,” I managed to wheeze, climbing to my feet. “I just got the wind knocked out of me.” After a dragging in a few deep breaths, I felt almost normal. “I think that went well, don’t you?”

Tess’s laugh only sounded a little like a sob.