Chapter 2
2
Raze
Eight years old
“ W e need to get going soon, Bane,” I remind my brother for the third time. He’s been standing in a crouch beside the river for over an hour now, gently plucking bugs from the mud and examining them beneath his portable microscope.
He insisted on coming out here this morning after we had a downpour of rain last night, and Mom forced me to tag along to keep him company. Our parents always do that—put me in charge even though I’m the younger one.
Bane doesn’t have a strong sense of danger, especially when he’s focused on something he loves, like mushrooms and bugs. Mom and Dad worry more than they should. He just has a hard time paying attention to his surroundings sometimes.
Most people don’t like that he’s into such odd things. In fact, most people don’t like anything about Bane, so I chalk it up to being their problem and move on like my dad told me to do. He’s never bothering anyone. Even when they bother him.
Anyway, I usually don’t mind trekking through the woods with him. It’s just that today it’s wetter and muddier than usual, and the river is flowing faster to drain out all the excess water, which always make me anxious. Plus, my friends are meeting up to play soccer at the high school, and I don’t want to be late.
“Bane, did you hear me?” I prod again, more irritated when he doesn’t even flinch.
The river is so loud, he may just be drowning me out. Standing from the large rock I’ve been leaning against, I slog my way through the thick mud to check out whatever he’s looking at.
It’s a round, blue bug lying on its back as he examines the underside. I watch in silence as he blinks down at the grotesque thing, and it begins to squirm around in his palm in a futile attempt to escape the magic he’s using against it.
“Dude, it’s been two hours. Let’s go.”
Since he can’t stand uninvited physical touch, I avoid tapping his shoulder or nudging him in the side, the way I would with anyone else. Instead, I walk around his front to balance on the edge of the river, letting him know I’m here.
Finally lifting his eyes to my chest, he nods and starts gathering his things together in his backpack.
“I’m going to take him home,” he mumbles toward the ground, grabbing some tweezers and gently placing the weird metallic bug into a plastic container.
“You always do.” I sigh.
Ignoring me, Bane zips his pack and throws it over his shoulders. “Something in the water is killing them off,” he says to himself, turning back toward the way we came without another glance in my direction.
Is something in the water killing them off, or are you?
I keep the question locked away inside my mind, unwilling to give it a voice and upset him. Dad says Bane doesn’t understand how he can affect things yet.
“Hold on,” I whisper a few minutes later, throwing my arm out in front of his chest to stop him. He bumps into it, scowling over at me before the voices start again, and his attention snaps over to the direction they’re coming from.
“We’re almost out of here, Con. Why can’t you just leave it alone?” a desperate, female voice echoes off the trees from out of sight.
“Because this entire place is built on a foundation of my family’s blood,” another feminine voice rushes out as a brunette girl storms into the clearing before us with a blonde close on her heels.
I can tell by their clothes that they’re students of Ravenshurst. The second girl grabs the first’s arm and spins her around, stopping her from her mad dash through the woods.
Bane and I immediately fall to the forest floor, sticks and rocks digging into our chests as the air wheezes from our lungs upon impact. Shoving past the pain, we army crawl to a fallen log and duck behind it to remain unseen.
Locals aren’t supposed to be in this part of the woods. Really, we aren’t supposed to be anywhere near the university. Ever . But our property lines up against it, and the river is just on the other side, so we bend the rules.
Still, to be anywhere near a Ravenshurst University student is nothing but trouble for us. No one is usually out here to catch us though, especially with the strict rules the university has for its students.
“This is bigger than you. There are people who would rather see you dead than have your identity revealed to the public.”
Pushing her friend off her so hard, she nearly falls onto the messy forest floor. The first girl replies, “They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this. You know it as well as I do.”
“Then take it up with your family. They’re just as guilty.”
“Oh trust me, I will be,” the first bites back.
“We should go,” I whisper to Bane.
He turns toward me, eyes widened in fear, and nods his agreement.
But how? If we move too fast or make too much noise, the students could easily catch us and turn us in. Our punishment would be far worse than theirs, especially if they come up with an excuse about chasing us out here.
Everyone in Nocturne Valley has heard a story or two about that exact thing happening. Our father is the one who punishes them. It’s why we stay far away from anyone who has to do with Ravenshurst.
The university may be our town’s life blood, but it’s also the deadliest piece of it.
“At least wait until graduation. Keep your mouth shut for a few more weeks, and then you can blow the top off this whole place,” the blonde begs.
“I’m not waiting,” the brunette insists. “They won’t let me.”
“ Who won’t? No one is forcing you to do anything, Connie.”
Holding her arms out at her sides, the brunette—Connie—spins in place with her head tilted toward the sky. “My ancestors, Dee. They won’t leave me alone.”
Shaking her head, Dee crosses her arms over her chest, her eyes darting around nervously like she’s waiting for something to pop out at her.
“They’re just in your head,” she grumbles quietly, and it feels like a reminder for herself more than anything else.
Connie’s head snaps back down, leveling her friend with a glare. “Don’t you dare try that bullshit with me. You know this is how these gifts work.”
“How else do you expect me to respond to that?” Dee practically shrieks.
“They want justice,” Connie says, her voice resolute. Like she’s fully convinced her words are true.
What kind of crazy people are they inviting to that school?
I tap Bane’s shoulder and point toward our left, where the trees are thicker and it will be easier to blend in. It’s the opposite direction we need to go, but we’ve been in these woods enough times to find our way back around.
“Listen, I know you’ve been stressed. This last semester is kicking my ass, too. I know you think this is how your gifts are, but there isn’t anyone else getting these potent urges. Maybe you should talk to someone about the things you’re experiencing. Someone who can actually help you.”
“I don’t need medication. I need this place to burn to the ground.”
Dee releases a frustrated growl so loud my chest vibrates against the forest floor. “Who gives a fuck about random dead people? You should care more about the Syndicate. The very real, very alive group of people who are already catching on to your games. They’re the ones who are going to force you into a padded room for the rest of your life.”
“All their threats do is prove how terrified they are of me,” the brunette retorts, picking at her nails.
“Of course, they’re terrified! You’re threatening the integrity of this entire university. What happens when it comes out that the Landrys somehow have surviving heirs? It could lead to a whole host of issues in the town.”
Bane and I share a look, and it dawns on each of us at the exact same time that we absolutely should not have overheard whatever we did. The Landrys are supposed to have been long gone from a house fire with no trace left behind. Their branch of the Aeternum bloodline has been cut off for good. The only reason our town was ever able to recover from the mess they got us into was thanks to our ancestors jumping in to clean up their mess. There’s even a festival for it every year.
If this girl is who she claims she is, she’s just as evil as they were. Nothing good can come from having another Landry around.
And we know better than anyone that the Midnight Syndicate is like the boogeyman—a twisted tale about the town’s secret society that parents use to scare their kids into acting right. Our own father is the hand that brings down the punishment for anyone who steps out of line.
“What happens?” Connie, the crazy one, seethes. “What happens is they close this bullshit institution and begin repaying us reparations so this town can finally stop pretending they aren’t a bunch of murderous cockroaches.”
“There’s one problem . . . You’re the only one who thinks they owe you anything. Your family has already accepted their hush money.”
“They’ll pay, too.”
“Connie, I’m begging you. Please drop this. You’re messing with the lives of so many innocents and testing some of the most powerful people in the country. We’re leaving Nocturne Valley in a matter of weeks. We can put all of this behind us and let their karma come to them.”
“What if I am their karma?”
Dee scoffs, then tries again. “I don’t want anything to happen to you. I’d die if I lost you.”
“I know you don’t believe me, but I was put here to make a difference. Everything our university stands on is based on stolen property. They murdered innocent people who were only trying to help, and then they used their crime scene as a source to build their riches while suffocating their own town and silencing anyone who speaks out about it. I’ve read the diaries. It was horrific.”
Bane shifts to his knees and a branch snaps beneath his weight. He freezes in his spot, and I watch in slow motion as both girls’ heads twist in our direction, their angry gazes meeting our terrified ones.
“What the hell?” the blonde cries out, rushing toward us.
Bane and I don’t waste any time. I jump to my feet and both of us race back toward the river, zig zagging around to avoid tripping over any twisted vines or fallen branches. The women are right on our heels, screaming at us to stop, but we ignore their demands. We’ve seen what happens when locals are caught out here too many times to fall for their traps.
Just when we have a good lead on them, the trail ends and the river rushes before us, offering no escape. Any other day, it would be calm enough to go through, but the drainage has the current running too fast. We’d be swept up in seconds, and Bane can hardly swim. We could run alongside it and hope they give up their chase, but there’s no guarantee me or Bane can handle that. He’s already panting harder than usual, his weak lungs fighting for air.
“We can go through,” Bane suggests breathlessly, stopping to lean against a large tree.
The feminine screeches approach, and I’m caught between the primal urge to continue running—to escape the threat—and the protective instinct to hang back and make sure nothing happens to Bane.
“The current is too strong right now. We’ll lose our footing. We have to keep moving through the woods. They’re coming up on us quickly.”
As I’m saying that, the two women round a corner and come to a halt a few feet away. The blonde looks absolutely livid, so I focus my attention on the brunette, who seems like she’d be more forgiving.
“You shouldn’t be out here,” Dee warns, taking slow steps toward us. I begin to back away, closer to Bane.
“We were on our way home,” I explain weakly, my voice sounding every bit as young as I am.
She scrunches her nose in a disgusted scowl, her cheeks a deep red. “Is that why you were on the ground, listening to us?”
“Dee, leave it. They’re just little boys,” Connie says from a few steps away, proving my suspicions to be true.
“They heard us. They could run and tell someone, and we’ll both be thoroughly fucked,” Dee snaps, practically barking the cuss word. She looks downright evil.
Holding my hands up in front of my chest to prove I’m not a threat, I reply, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. W-we just want to go home.”
“What’s your plan? We can’t hold them hostage,” Connie points out, ignoring me. Maybe she’s not so crazy, after all. “I don’t care if they say anything.”
Ignoring her friend, Dee takes a few careful steps in our direction, forcing us closer to the river’s edge.
“We have no idea what you’re talking about,” I try to say, keeping an eye on how close Bane’s foot is getting to the water.
With a deep scowl, Bane’s gaze bounces between the two girls and the ground as he fights against his natural instinct to avoid eye contact with them altogether. “Just let us go,” he bravely bites out. “W-we don’t want anything to do with you.”
“I find that hard to believe when you were spying on us a few minutes ago like two little pervs.”
“Dee, drop it. Seriously.” Connie grabs her friend’s shoulder and tries to pull her away from us. Dee fights against her with pure rage in her eyes until she’s free of her grip, and then she’s racing toward us again.
“Fine, you can go,” Dee concedes as she rushes our way. Bane and I freeze in place, bracing for impact as she lifts her arms in front of her and shoves them against his shoulders. “If you can swim,” she adds under her breath.
It happens at half speed. Bane flings his arms around, desperately trying to grab a hold of anything to slow his descent into the rushing waters. But there’s nothing there to stop his fall. I scream his name, shoving my hand toward him a millisecond too late. Our fingers brush, but he’s already too far for me to grasp.
With a heavy, deafening splash, he falls into the water on his back and the current immediately sweeps him up. His body is slammed into random rocks and branches sticking up from the river floor as he flails around, trying to get himself upright and gain purchase against the slippery bed. On any normal day, the river hardly reaches our chests at its deepest part. But today, it seems just high and powerful enough to make standing impossible and Bane has never been able to swim.
The women are screaming at each other from behind me, but I don’t care enough to listen. I’m running alongside the river as Bane is carried away, trying to find the right spot to jump in and help him.
It’s moving too fast.
As I decide to throw all caution to the wind and take my chances, a body rushes past me in a blur, and then a splash as loud as Bane’s sounds off. I’m hardly able to move my eyes fast enough to see the brunette slogging through the heavy waters. She uses the same rocks and sticks that have caused Bane to lose his sense of direction as leverage to get to him.
But his head has been underwater for a long time. Even in my immature mind, I know that can’t be good.
Once she finally reaches him and is able to lift his face above the water’s surface, his lips have turned blue and his body lies limp against her chest. I scream his name over and over. So loud, my throat burns. So piercing, birds flail around above our heads and animals scurry around us.
The woman drags my brother back to the river’s edge, her petite body fighting against the stream that appears angry to have its victim stolen away from it. It punishes her with every step, insisting she be taken in Bane’s place. She still doesn’t yield—not even once. Against all odds, she makes it to the edge and hoists Bane’s sagging body onto the ground beside me, then pulls herself up.
She says something to me, but her friend is screaming hysterically in the background and I can’t hear any of it. Instead of trying to figure it out, I crawl up to my brother and start slapping his impossibly white cheeks, screeching my pleas for him to wake up. The girl places a hand on my shoulder, then gently pushes me backward so she has space to begin pumping her palms against his chest.
I watch for what feels like hours as she continues the process. Pumping, then blowing air into his lungs, then pumping again. The other girl has gone silent as Bane’s body lies there listlessly, never once regaining color or moving on its own.
“I tried to call the emergency line but my phone barely has service and I’m not sure that they heard us. We should go back to campus to bring someone out here,” the blonde suggests, her tone much gentler than before as she holds up one of those new flip phones everyone at school talks about.
“I’m not leaving him,” her friend says breathlessly without breaking her pattern.
Bane’s head lifts off the forest floor with every shove into his chest, and I swear I heard the distinct sound of bones breaking a few minutes ago. She had to hear it, too.
“Connie, he’s gone,” the blonde mumbles in a whisper, and I feel her eyes on me. “We need someone professionally trained to help.”
Connie shakes her head, her upper lip curling in disgust. “Then run and get help, Dee, ” she spits bitterly through each compression. “Make sure you tell them what you’ve done.”
“I-I didn’t—God, you’re so impossible.” She hesitates for a second, staring down at Connie with a look of pure contempt before dropping her arms to her sides and turning away in a full sprint.
I watch her continue the fruitless attempt to revive him, mentally willing his eyes to open.
Come on Bane, I beg in my mind. Come back to me, buddy.
Seconds bleed into precious minutes and I start to panic over the consequences of this horrific day.
What will Mom and Dad do when I come home without Bane? What will I do if the police question me about being out here?
I can’t think beyond that, though. I cannot even begin to comprehend a future without Bane in it. I don’t want to, anyway. He’s my best friend.
I’ve fully convinced myself that this woman will revive him. So much so, that when the medics appear out of nowhere and rush toward him, I attempt to fight them away.
“He’ll come back,” I cry out, swatting at the medic’s jacket. “She’s going to bring him back. Just give her a chance.”
A woman with short, brown hair comes up behind Connie and wraps her palm across her shoulder. I realize then that she’s crying, her shoulders shaking with each sob as dead eyes stare out somewhere in the woods. The woman grabs her elbows and helps her to her feet, then someone hands her a blanket to drape over her back.
The other woman, Dee, trails behind with an identical blanket and doe eyes. She lets someone pull her into a hug, then rests her head on their shoulder as if she wasn’t the one who caused all of this.
“Raze! Bane!” my mother calls out in a panic, the leaves crunching loudly beneath her rushing feet. Her eyes ping pong around in a panic, bouncing off the strangers faces until they land on mine. I can see the shock and horror marring her face the instant she sees Bane beside me.
“Oh, god, no ! My baby!” she wails, bypassing me to fall to her knees beside Bane with a harsh crack in her bones.
Two medics continue to resuscitate him without success. They sit back on their heels, sharing a devastated look before turning their gazes toward my mother, who is shocked speechless.
The rest of the afternoon passes in a blur. More people appear and fawn over my mother and the two women. A medic guides me off to the side to examine a cut across my cheek that he thinks will need stitches.
Conversations buzz around the trees, disturbing the peaceful silence I enjoyed with Bane less than an hour before.
“What happened here, Raze?” the medic asks me quietly.
“She chased him into the water,” I tell him with a voice that doesn’t sound like mine. “She killed him.”
“Who did?”
I lift my arm, surprised at the effort it takes to complete such a small task, and point a shaking finger at the blonde. “Her.”
Her widened eyes focused on me and the finger pointed in her direction, and I do something I’ve never done before.
I wish for her death.
Even worse, I claim it for myself.