Chapter 48
PRESENT DAY
I didn’t do it.
I didn’t kill my trigonometry teacher. Obviously.
I didn’t let Jade do it either. When she tried to hand me that carving knife, I ran out of Mr. Riordan’s house and out to the main road. I hitched a ride back to my own house, found my mother, and burst into tears as I told her everything.
Well, not everything. I didn’t tell her about the little blond girl. But the little girl disappeared soon after that. And I never saw her again. I never saw anything that wasn’t really there ever again.
Until tonight.
No. That’s not true. The blood on the floor was real . Will saw it too.
After my mother called the police, thankfully in time to save Mr. Riordan, Jade had a psychiatric evaluation and received her bipolar diagnosis.
It was what saved her from kidnapping and attempted murder charges.
The next time I saw her, she was right here, on Ward D.
She was pumped up with Lithium, lying in a messy hospital bed, staring up at the ceiling vacantly.
I tried to talk to her. I apologized for turning her in and explained that I did it for her own good. I was trying to help her. I babbled on for the better part of an hour while she didn’t say a word. It was so hard to see my best friend pumped full of drugs that made her like a zombie.
At least, I blamed the drugs at first. But then when I was getting ready to leave, Jade finally rolled her head in my direction. The seething look in her eyes was unmistakable.
I will never forgive you, she said to me. Never.
Even so, I stupidly believed she would get over it. Jade and I had fought before, but we always made up. I came back a few more times, but most of the time, she didn’t say a single word. On the final visit, she sat up in her bed, her purple-rimmed eyes filled with venom.
If you come back here again, Amy, I will kill you.
And that was my last visit to see Jade.
But I try not to think about any of that as I sit in Will’s room now, attempting to lose myself in a book—something I used to find easy to do.
I haven’t had much time for fun over the last two years.
It’s been mostly studying the Krebs cycle, loads of pharmacology flashcards, and the intricate details of the celiac plexus.
And of course, occasionally hooking up with Cameron.
But I always made time to read. Whenever I pick up a book, it’s like an escape.
For an hour or two, I get to be part of the book world instead of my own much more boring world.
It’s not easy to escape the world that is around me right now.
There is a very real chance that a psychotic man is currently doing laps right outside the door.
But Will is sitting on his bed reading, and I’m on the chair next to him, also reading, and every five or six minutes, we both look up to make sure everything is okay.
And while I am in this room, reading this book, it feels like everything will be okay.
After all, only a few hours remain until morning.
And then there’s a knock on the door.
Will’s eyes snap up. He looks at the door, then over at me. He puts his index finger to his lips, then he calls out, “I’m not decent! Come back later!”
Jade’s voice flits under the door. “Will, I know Amy is in there. I’m coming in.”
I inhale sharply as the door swings open. Jade peeks her head inside, and our eyes meet across the room.
“Amy,” she says, “can we talk?”
I place my book on my lap, but I don’t budge from the chair. “Sure. Talk.”
“Outside?”
Will shakes his head emphatically. “I’d rather talk in here,” I say.
Jade frowns. There’s something in her expression that throws me off. She doesn’t look like her usual smart-ass self. She actually looks…
Frightened.
“ Please , Amy,” she says. “Just for a moment.”
Will is still shaking his head, but despite everything, I still am not entirely sure I can trust him.
After all, I’ve known Jade almost my entire life, and I’ve known him for less than twenty-four hours.
Yes, my gut is telling me I can trust Will.
But it’s not like my gut hasn’t been wrong before. I dated Cameron, after all.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell Will. “Five minutes.”
There’s a wary look in his eyes as he stares up at Jade, then back at me. “Five minutes.”
I slip out of the room, leaving my book behind on the chair. After I leave the room, Jade closes the door to Will’s room behind us. She doesn’t want him to hear what she’s about to say to me.
As soon as we are clear of the room, Jade wraps her fingers around my arm and pulls me over to the nurses’ station, where Ramona is waiting. They are wearing equally concerned expressions on their faces.
“Are you okay?” Ramona asks me. “Did he try to hurt you?”
“No, of course not,” I say.
“I was so worried!” Jade squeezes her hands together, and to my surprise, her eyes spill over with tears. “I couldn’t find you, and when I realized you were with him, I was so scared he was doing something terrible to you.”
“Not even a little bit.” I give her a hard look. “He did tell me that the two of you aren’t really dating though.”
Jade’s eyelashes flutter. “He said that? Seriously?”
“Yes…”
Jade reaches out and takes my hand in hers. “Will and I have been dating for three years . I swear it. I don’t understand why he would say something like that. Well, I do understand, actually. He’s always been a compulsive liar. What other nonsense did he tell you?”
I open my mouth but I’m not sure what to say. Will told me a lot of things, but none of them felt like lies.
“He loves to make up jobs for himself to seem more important,” Jade says.
“Like that he’s a pilot. Or a teacher. Or a reporter.
Even though all he’s done since we’ve been dating is occasionally drive an Uber, and most of the time he doesn’t even do that.
His parents have been giving him money to keep him afloat, or else he’d end up on the street. ”
I can only shake my head.
“You didn’t believe him, did you?” Jade squeezes my hand. “Don’t feel bad if you did. God, I can’t even tell you how many of his lies I fell for over the years. But after I talked to you, that was the first time I got scared that he could be dangerous.”
“I… I don’t know if he is…” I stammer.
“How could you say that?” Jade bursts out. “You’re the one who convinced me! He’s done some terrible things here tonight. That’s why I got Ramona and told her everything.”
“I don’t think he’s done anything wrong,” I say. “He… We think that Damon Sawyer got out of the seclusion room…”
“Mr. Sawyer is still in Seclusion One,” Ramona says. “I checked on him about twenty minutes ago. He’s sound asleep.”
I remember Will’s response when I asked him if we could trust Ramona. Absolutely not.
But that’s a moot point if I can’t trust him.
“Will is a very smooth talker when he wants to be,” Jade says. “Don’t feel bad that you fell for it.”
“You don’t understand.” I look between the two of them. “Will isn’t dangerous. I know what I said to you, Jade, but—”
“Amy,” Ramona interrupts me. “There’s something you need to see.”
I told Will that I would be back in five minutes, but I’m not sure I’m going to make it. Still, I have to see what Ramona wants to show me. Although I get a horrible feeling in my stomach when I realize where she’s leading me.
Mary’s room.
“I saw him slip out of her room not that long after her episode of agitation,” Ramona tells me. “And then later I came in to check on her, and this is what I found.”
She throws the door open to room 912. It looks about the same as it did when I checked in here earlier. Mary is gone, the blankets are still on the bed, and the scarf is arranged in a way that almost looks like a body. But then Ramona flicks on the lights.
Oh my God.
There’s blood all over the bed. I didn’t even see it when the lights were off.
I cover my mouth with both hands. I think I might be sick. I lean forward and gag a bit–it’s a good thing I didn’t manage to eat much for dinner tonight.
Jade’s hand is on my back. She rubs my back in circles, which sort of helps. But not really. The only thing that would help at this point is to get the hell out of here .
I straighten up, looking away so I don’t have to see all the blood on Mary’s bed. I don’t know what happened to her, but there’s no way she’s okay. Not with all that blood soaking the sheets.
“Where is she?” I gasp.
“She’s lying down in a clean empty room,” Ramona says. “She’ll be all right, thank goodness, but she told us Will attacked her with a weapon.”
I breathe a sigh of relief that at least Mary is going to be okay. I still can’t believe Will would have done anything like that to her, but I don’t believe she’d lie about that.
“Will has always been off balance,” Jade says softly. “But I’m scared now he’s really lost it. I’m scared of what he’s going to do next.”
“We need to talk to Dr. Beck about this,” Ramona continues. “We need to make sure Will can’t hurt anyone else.”
Ramona and Jade are both staring at me, waiting to hear what I have to say. Five minutes ago, I trusted Will. I trusted him, even though I hardly knew him. And now I realize he has tricked me. All along, he had me just where he wanted me.
I wipe my lips with the back of my hand. “What do you need me to do?”