CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
ELLIOTT WAS CERTAIN HE WOULD catch his death bathing in the frozen river, scouring himself of blood and grime. Move quickly. The pair couldn’t be seen drenched in someone’s blood. Don’t die out here, Elliott.
A hazardous blizzard was coming from the Marlborough Mountains with lethal intentions, and Elliott was already beginning to lose sight of the distant mountains due to the vicious maelstrom.
His limbs were numb, already lost of sensation. The shock of the situation kept making him hyperventilate again. The ice crept through his lungs, the temperatures were dropping drastically.
It was as if nature itself had witnessed their crimes and sought to enact brutal justice itself against them.
Their only solace was that no one would be in the wilderness.
Everyone heated themselves inside their brick homes or colonial mansions for the winter as ice congealed everything from the gable roofs to the empty streets.
The arbitrary malice of winter storms often kept the residents of Banebury from the outdoors, restricted even sensible deer hunters from their normal hunting grounds, and barred the hikers from their common trails near the summit.
However, in Elliott’s worried mind, that also meant no one might find their hypothermic bodies until the next day.
7:51 AM. Next to the streamlet, James kindled an open fire for their survival.
Which was a risky decision since the massive fire could only exist for an hour before the dark fumes would become a smoke signal in the wintry sky instead of a source of heat.
Someone might see them. They might search for the source of the smoke.
However, James was intent on burning the body. 8:38 AM.
Not for the first time, Elliott urged, “We need to extinguish the fire. It’s too large. It will draw attention.”
“Not yet,” James responded. As if he were lying in wait for danger.
Elliott worried for him deeply. The fire was rapidly growing, devouring all of the wood and air in its path–a living creature of destruction. It would soon be a beacon of light.
“James, we need to get rid of the fire,” Elliott exclaimed.
Suddenly, a deluge of water sprayed his eyes.
James submerged into the waters next to Elliott’s body. James’s skin was still warm, despite the freeze of the gale force winds. James warned him, “Keep your voice down.”
James lowered his body until only his peculiar golden eyes were visible.
Elliott’s cheeks burned raw, realizing he heard someone.
“The blizzard is getting intense. Let’s leave…”
“He’s probably indoors somewhere. But we need to make sure…”
A distant voice caught Elliott’s ears. Elliott’s head spun quickly to the fire, but James held him back. It was the voice of two men–two well-clothed men.
James had burnt their own stained clothes to ash already, Elliott discovered. James had obscured the paths of blood where Lucien had been killed then dragged the body to the fire. It looked like Elliott’s body was burning.
“…Lucien should have returned by now.”
Elliott picked up the wind-thinned voice of the second elector.
“Think Lucien might’ve refused to kill the sophomore?…”
Their footsteps grew close as they questioned Lucien’s change of heart. James narrowed his eyes on the two men and their dark, wool coats, their formal student ties, and leather shoes that were braced with metal at the soles. James glared at the sacrificial axe in the taller man’s grip.
“…I’m not convinced. Lucien seemed excited for it…”
The first voice was nearly behind Elliott’s numb ears.
If it weren’t for the stream’s overgrown foliage, Elliott would’ve been immediately spotted.
Instead, the electors treaded towards the fire with vapors of white breath.
“I guess Lucien didn’t kill him yet. It’s one thing to fantasize about murder, it’s another thing to actually commit the… ”
The voice stopped. “What the fuck is that stench?”
Belatedly, the young men squinted at the flames that they had tracked deep into the hiemal summit. Without a word, the taller man shifted his position in the early winter sun, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes.
He bent down, plucking one of Elliott’s silver fox rings from the ground.
“He burned the kid?”
“Oh, fuck…” Callum retched into the snow. “Hell, Lucien.”
“He…immolated him?” The elector concealed his nose with his woolen sleeve, the pungence of human remains permeating the air. He grimaced at the skeleton. “…Do you think he burned him alive?”
“What do you think?” Callum hissed. “Didn’t I warn you that Lucien was weird as shit? He seemed too eager for the sacrifice. He forced Elliott to eat a boar head. I warned all of you!”
“You did warn us, Callum.” James emerged from the half frozen rapids, startling the two young men.
Perseus Swann quickly glanced at the fire to ensure what he saw was real. Lucien’s hair and skin had long been unrecognizable–cauterized to crisps, his teeth blackened with inferno. Neither of them knew it was the wrong body.
James’s eyes were as wet and lost as a fawn.
James’s lips trembled faintly. “I came to see the aftermath myself. How could he…?” A defeated look deepened in his features. An immeasurable tragedy was caught in his eyes. “How could you let him…?”
Every facet of James’s superlative acting was deftly exhibited.
Instinctively, Perseus set the axe aside on the ground to remove his expensive coat.
Then, he wrapped the Yves Saint-Laurent overcoat around James’s bare shoulders to blanket him from the polar chill as James stepped out of the ice-thickened waters.
Meanwhile, Callum Han stared in confusion at James’s broad chest, his slightly bruised abdomen, and his naked, sun-tanned thighs in the low-temperature wind. Callum’s eyes searched the mountain grounds for the man’s clothes as Perseus dried the young man’s hair with his sleeve.
“Valeria volunteered herself to kill the sophomore. That would’ve been better than…
this inhumanity.” To console him, Perseus fitted James’s arms through the sleeves, and he patted his back.
“Valeria would’ve had pity on Archway, she thought of a few methods that were swift and painless.
I know what he meant to you, but it’s best when the orphans die instead. ”
Silence consumed the burnt atmosphere. James tilted his head at him with a wild, vacant expression. “What?”
Perseus squeezed his shoulder blade. “Listen, it will hurt now, but the orphan will be better for it. The town won’t have to pay for his lodging and meals any longer. No one wants to live as a burden. He would’ve thanked us later on.”
“Elliott wasn’t on welfare.”
Perseus tipped a brow. “He was an art student. He would’ve been a starving artist.”
“Elliott’s father had money. His pension went to Elliott.”
“Except Elliott couldn’t inherit it until he was twenty-five. Besides, his father was from Boston, wasn’t he? How much money could that fireman’s pension have been worth, a second-hand pick-up truck?”
Elliott felt the air leave his chest.
James asked Perseus, “You think it’s better for the orphans to die?” He stopped in the snow tracks. “That’s why Elliott was chosen by all of you?”
Perseus nodded. “There are fewer familial members to mourn them. Even Finch Hudskin had parents to grieve him. It’s only fair, James.
Besides, I’m marrying Lucy Upton on New Year’s.
Sofía álvarez was one of the seven victims caught trying to escape the campus.
Imagine if her hallmate had been chosen, it would dampen the entire nuptials. ”
Callum assured him, “It would’ve never been you, James. Your father would’ve sued us to hell and back. His political reach is powerful enough to bankrupt even our lawyers.”
Perseus smirked with pride. “Not to mention, you absolutely stole the entire recitation as Apollo. Why didn’t you tell us there was a new play this year?”
Elliott kept still as Callum separated the berry bushes near the nape of his neck.
His heart rate was fleetly paced. Soundlessly, Elliott went beneath the coarse water to hide himself, the ice attacking his eyes, pain spreading through his veins.
He heard the gargled voices above. “Where are your clothes, James?”
“My clothes were taken while my back was turned.”
“You went swimming in this weather?”
“I was swimming to get my mind off of the sacrifice.”
“Did you see Lucien? Here, keep my coat.”
“Yes, he left the same way you approached. How suspicious that my clothes are mysteriously missing after he left and you arrived…”
All of their words sounded underwater, even though Elliott was the only one beneath the glacial water, bereft without oxygen. All too suddenly, the commotions began.
“–James, put the axe down.”
“Enough of the bullshit. You two didn’t come out of nowhere. Where are my clothes?”
“James, for shit’s sake, we don’t have your clothes–”
“We were out here looking for Lucien. We’re not here to tamper with anything, I swear.”
“Hand over your clothes; I might believe you then.”
“No way in hell. What will we wear?”
“James, we didn’t steal your clothes–”
“Someone stole it.”
“Lucien obviously stole your clothes for his petty revenge. He’s unhinged. He just burned someone alive. He’s on a rampage. We have nothing to do with it.”
Dying for oxygen, Elliott’s lungs ached with agony, as if sharp barbs had pricked into his organs. He was rapidly losing air. His lungs were bloated, swollen with the dwindling oxygen. He needed to breathe.
However, if he resurfaced his body, he’d be seen near the bushes.
“James, your problem is with that asshole. You’re grieving, I get it. But we didn’t come here to hurt you.”
“Put that down–”
Elliott’s ears burned. Their voices were becoming warbled, panicked shouts to his ears beneath water. He could hardly focus, no matter how desperately he tried.
“Don’t you dare swing that axe again! Have you lost your–?”
“Put that down! You could kill us–”
“I’ll only ask one final time. After that, I won’t ask for my clothes back.”
“Fine! Take the damned clothes. After you get back to the dormitory, we will need more than an apology, Wilde.”
“James, we could die of cold before we reach the town.”
“Then you should run to keep your bodies warm.”
Elliott felt the edges of his vision tint with darkness. Every instinct in him urged to greedily gulp down air. His mind, slowly, painfully, retreated from him. He didn’t realize he’d lost consciousness, until James pulled his body out of the stark waters and into the bracing December air.
“Breathe, Elliott. They ran away.”
Elliott weakly withdrew northern boreal air in through his nostrils. His enervated body had breached the limit where everything stung so powerfully, he could no longer feel what precisely hurt any longer.
James quickly concentrated on whether Elliott would live. After all, his lungs often failed in the winter when he was young.
Elliott felt his limbs hauled near the fire, but it took several long minutes for feeling to return to his rimy skin, thawing him as snowflakes decorated his thick, long eyelashes. He gazed with frailty at James and smiled. We have blood-free clothes now.
Furtively, James smirked in return, then glanced at the Bruin Bell Tower striking eleven in the distance.
“Perfect timing.” James heaved Elliott to his feet for the second time. “Head for the train. I’ll tell Kitty everything.”
James averted his gaze from Elliott’s eyes, because he knew if Elliott was the one to say good-bye to Kitty, he’d never compose himself.
Elliott would be overwhelmed with distraught emotions and remorse.
He’d get himself caught, because he would stay too long with her.
If only to be with her. He’d spend his last moments at her side before the law enforcement came for him.
He’d leave James behind.