Chapter 33 Avery
Avery
The only saving grace I have is that Caulder knows I was with him the entire time and I couldn’t have killed Mr. Jay.
But will anyone else believe me? Or him, if they see that kissing video?
My finger is hovering over the delete button when I hear it.
The scream cuts through me, and I know immediately who it is.
“Kaitlyn.”
I jump up from the couch, and, ignoring Ms. Dorman’s shouts, I throw open the front door and race outside, terror and adrenaline fueling me to run faster than I ever have in PE. I follow the sound through the trees, dodging branches until I see the cliffs just ahead of me.
I have no thoughts in my head except to keep moving, and even as I slip in the mud and fall onto my hands and knees, I force myself back up.
The rain’s stalled, but it’s still basically pitch-black, and I crash through the trees, willing myself to just keep moving, when I hear Kaitlyn screaming again.
Every instinct in my body tells me to turn away from the sound, knowing it can only mean something terrible. But I don’t. I keep going. I have to keep going.
I fight my way through the dark and finally break out of the trees to find I’m mere yards from falling to the rocks below. The only light is from the moon, and it seems to cast a spotlight on the cliff, where Kaitlyn stands, hands in her hair as she wails into the night.
She’s so close to the edge. Too close, given how muddy and slippery the terrain is. As I move toward her, she whips around, blue eyes flashing.
She backs up when she sees me, and I watch in horror as her feet slip in the mud and gravity starts to yank her backward. I dart forward, grabbing her wrists, pulling to keep her here on this side of the cliff.
“Don’t kill me!” Kaitlyn screams, falling to her knees and dragging me down with her. She thrashes against me, but I keep my hands on her, scooting us as far away from the cliff’s edge as I can get.
“I just saved your life,” I say, pointing behind her. “What’s going on?”
But she only sobs and screams. She’s falling apart, completely, in a way I’ve never seen before. I look over my shoulder.
“You have to stop screaming,” I tell her, but she’s too loud, too feral to hear me. She writhes on the ground like a wounded animal, and suddenly, I’m worried that she is wounded. That these are the sounds of pain. I bend down, as close as I dare to get to her, and reach out so she can see my hand.
“Are you hurt?” I ask her. “What happened? Did he attack you?”
Her eyes snap up. Even with nearly all of her makeup smudged, even with streaks of mud on her face, she looks hauntingly beautiful. The moonlight seems to be lighting her in just the right way, making her seem to shimmer thanks to the vestiges of rain still left behind on her eyelashes.
It’s so unfair. Some girls get to look like Kaitlyn in a rainstorm. And some girls—girls like me—get to look like drowned rats that just clawed our way out of the sewer.
“Who are you talking about?” Kaitlyn demands.
“The killer,” I say. “Did he attack you?”
Kaitlyn’s lip trembles. She shakes her head. I’m worried she’s going to start scream-sobbing again, so I inch toward her and take her hands. She flinches but doesn’t pull back.
Behind us, there’s the sound of footsteps slapping through the mud. I turn and see Caulder and Ms. Dorman, flashlight in hand, and…
Mr. McCullough, looking wide-eyed and confused and almost as shocked to see us as I am to see him.
He whispers to Ms. Dorman, but even his reappearance can’t hold my gaze.
It’s Caulder I see, Caulder who looks downright terrified.
He knows that only something horrific could make Kaitlyn act like this.
“Kaitlyn,” I say. “Talk to me. What happened—?”
Kaitlyn pulls her hands back, shaking her head. “There was someone in the woods who attacked us. We split up. I couldn’t find Javi in time. I was too late,” she says, pointing at the cliff.
I stand up, then turn and grab the flashlight from Ms. Dorman before carefully making my way to the cliffside. I lean out, as far as I dare, to look over and shine the light down at the water and the rocks below.
“His jacket’s there,” Kaitlyn says, voice shaking as she points to where the flashlight illuminates what looks like the torn sleeve of a jacket clinging to the jagged edge of a rock. And there’s more. Crimson stains the surrounding rocks, making my heart jump into my throat.
“He must have hit the rocks on the way down,” Kaitlyn says, and I beam the flashlight over the ocean, where red fans out over the white froth that’s formed a circle, like a flower opening wider, wider, wider. I hold my breath, waiting for him to surface. But there’s nothing.
Javi is gone.