Amazing Wings
By Lauren
Lauren
Prologue
Monique Ledger was sitting in her kitchen along with her husband, Keith
Ledger.
Monique was a young woman in her mid-twenties. Her blue eyes were
radiant against her tan skin and blonde hair. Her hands were gentle and her nails
were long, but not pampered. Her face looked flawless, though she didn’t bother
herself with beauty products.
Her husband, Keith, was an athletic man, also in his mid-twenties. His hands,
clasped around his wife’s, were strong, yet had a gentle feel, along with his arms.
Though his hands were gentle, they were scarred.
His light brown hair and green eyes shined. His eyes, when looked at
closely, sparkled, and were soft and kind.
The couple saw that the mail truck had gone by their house and they went
out to check it. The papers
mostly consisted of ads, and bills. At the bottom of
the stack, however, there a letter addressed to Monique and Keith. This letter had no
return address.
The letter said:
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Ledger,
You have been cordially invited to East High (our old high school) on Friday October
15. You will be here for a few days, so I suggest bringing clothes and any necessities you think
you may need. I do hope you will be able to attend.
Thank you,
Anonymous
“I think we should go,” said Monique almost instantly.
“What?” asked Keith. “We don’t know who this is from, and besides the
high school’s been abandoned for twelve years now. What do you think is going to
be inside but dust and spiders?”
Monique waited.
“I just think we should go. I have that feeling in the pit of my stomach.” She
looked up at Keith. Keith stared down at her, green eyes to blue.
“Fine. I guess I’ll go too. But I’m not leaving you alone.”
Monique smiled and the Ledger’s continued their breakfast, each thinking
about what would be awaiting them on the 15th.
Along with the Ledger’s, five other former high school students had received
the same letter. And every one was dreading the 15th, which was just three and a
half weeks away.
When the guests arrived at the high school on the 15th, they all stood awkwardly,
wondering if their unknown host was already here, or was yet to arrive.
Abigail Fairview was the last guest to arrive. She pulled up in a new black
car. Yet, no one was expecting the person they had just laid eyes on.
Abigail had always had beautiful hazel eyes, but they were always covered
by the mop of long hair that covered her face. Now her blonde hair was shorter and
her eyes were as radiant as ever. Her teeth looked perfect and white.
She walked cheerfully into the group of people.
Their high school had been abandoned for about fifteen years, but none of
the guests could have guessed what was awaiting them when they walked through
the front doors again. The group did a tour of the old building which had changed
drastically and mysteriously over the years.
The gym had been carpeted and filled with furniture. Walls divided it into
four rooms. The upstairs classrooms had been turned into bedrooms, containing
beds, dressers, side tables, and other necessities.
The food area had been refurnished and looked like a very modern kitchen.
The cafeteria had been carpeted and was turned into a large dining room with a
chandelier hanging from the top.
The group of people stared in awe at everything while they passed the new
sections of their school.
Once the tour had been finished, the group went into one of the rooms that
had been a classroom, but was now a living room. There was an assortment of
couches, chairs, tables, and a rather plain white clock on the wall, which clicked
unusually loudly.
After everyone had gotten comfortable on the chairs and couches in the
room, Monique suggested everyone introduce themselves again.
Monique introduced herself and told everyone it was great to see them. Keith
did the same.
Next was Kit Eshelman. He was a young athletic man. His brown hair was
cut short and his hazel eyes stood out with the outfit he was wearing. His shirt was a
blue button up with the collar undone. He was wearing khaki pants, and tennis
shoes. His greeting was more of a snort.
Cassandra Astin was the youngest of the group. She wore jean shorts, and a
pink tank top with a gray sweatshirt. Regular sandals covered her feet. Her sandy
blonde hair fell in locks down the sides of her face; her brown eyes were twinkling,
and the freckles on her face popped out. She had been awaiting this day since she
got the letter, and was ecstatic to see everyone again. She gave an enthusiastic,
“Hello!”
Abigail had hazel eyes and was wearing a green dress which showed them
off. Her blonde hair fell down to her shoulders. Her nails were perfect, but had not
been worked on. Her face was glowing, and she looked truly happy to see her old
classmates again. This was kind of surprising.
(In high school, Abigail had always been one of those people everyone made
fun of. Monique and Keith, due to peer pressure, had become a part of this group of
people. But in reality, they had always like Abigail.)
Karen Henderson had been everyone’s biology teacher in high school. Karen
had enjoyed everyone’s company in her class, except for Abigail. (It was very
unfortunate that Karen had to give someone, though she couldn’t remember who, an
“F” in the first quarter… David, maybe it was David. Yes it was David.) She gave a
friendly “Hello” to everyone, though she avoided Abigail’s gaze.
Clara Peterson had taken her career as a student very seriously, but had had
some fun as well. Her blue eyes, with streaks of gray, looked critically at everyone.
She wore her red hair back in a tight bun and wore pants, and a jacket. Her freckles
had been covered up by powder, which made her face paler than it already was. She
gave a simple, sharp nod as a greeting to everyone.
David Nickerson’s build was that of an athlete. His blonde hair swept off to
one side while his eyes, brown, stared at the ground. He was dressed in jeans and an
aeropostale t-shirt.
David had liked Monique since they met in 6th grade when she stood up for
him. And on top of her unnatural kindness, she was a stunning woman. And then
Keith went off and asked her to marry her. Of course Monique is not to blame; Keith
must have brainwashed her to want to marry him. Poor Monique.
He gave a convincing smile, though, directing it to Monique, who smiled
warmly.
“I’m thirsty and I think I saw some drinks in the kitchen downstairs. If
anyone’s thirsty, I’ll get their drink orders.” Everyone said what they would like,
and Abigail left the room.
“I think that I will use the restroom while we’re waiting. Will anyone care to
join me?” asked Karen. Cassie, Monique, and Kit all said that they would.
Monique and Cassie headed to the water fountains which were right across
from the bathrooms. Karen and Kit went into the restrooms.
The two girls at the water fountain chatted some small talk while they
occasionally sipped from the water fountain, all the time waiting for Karen to come
out of the restroom. Minutes passed in which Kit came out of the bathroom and
headed for the sitting room again.
When far too much time had passed, Monique and Cassie headed into the
bathroom to check on Karen. When they entered the bathroom, Karen was on the
ground. There was a post-it note attached to her coat she was wearing. It simply
said:
Lawgiver
Bafwaii
Cassie screamed. Monique was speechless. The face of her old biology
teacher, with sunglasses over the eyes, was staring up at her. Monique tried to keep
her cool and bent down to lift up the glasses. On her teacher’s forehead was an “F”
in bright red letters. Heavy footsteps could be heard running towards the girls. There
was a knock on the door when Monique sputtered, “Come in.”
The men looked at their old biology teacher on the floor with the big “F” on
her forehead.
“Is she dead?” asked Kit, a bit abruptly.
“I don’t know,” replied Monique. “She was fine when she walked in here, or
a least I thought she was.” She bent down and leaned her ear to Karen’s chest, and
listened. There was no heartbeat.
“Yes. She’s dead.”
“Well, can’t say I’m going to miss her,” said Kit.
“Come, I think we should all go back to the living room,” suggested Keith.
“Abigail’s probably got the drinks all ready and will be waiting.”
Thoughts were running around in people’s heads about the phenomenon they
had just experienced.
How could this happen?
What the devil is going on?
This is just an accident, surely this is an accident. We’ll all be okay. Nothing
else will happen. This is just an accident!
Why did this happen? Our poor teacher! Why her? She was so nice to
everyone.
Poor girls, they had to see it firsthand! That’s something they shouldn’t’
have to endure. Who cares about the teacher? She was never nice to me, or to
anyone else for that matter.
Thoughts continued while the group walked into the living room, where
Abigail and Keith stood with the drinks. There was a puzzled look on their faces.
“Is everything all right,” asked Abigail. “Where’s Karen?”
The group remained silent, all eyes on the ground.
“Well, where is she?” Abigail pressed on.
“Come with me,” said Clara stiffly.
Clara led Abigail out of the room and down the hall to the restrooms, where
everyone’s biology teacher laid on the ground, the “F” on her forehead.
Cassie, Kit, Keith, Monique, and David all stood in the room, each one
thinking over what they had just witnessed. Kit was the first to break the silence.
“Well, I’ve had enough of this.” He looked around at the expressionless
faces.
On a granite counter were the drinks. He headed over and picked up his. On
the other side of the counter, there was an orange pail, filled with what looked like
sand. Curiosity getting the best of him, Kit sauntered over to the bucket, and looked
in. Nothing but ordinary sand. Still, there could be something in there. But the only
way to find out would be to look around in it. After all, sand in a place like this, has
to have some meaning right?
As his hand touched the cool sand, he suddenly was on a beach, or maybe it
was a desert, somewhere. His hand hovered above the bucket with sand slipping
through his fingers. As his hand felt a prick he suddenly felt tired, and colored spots
appeared and danced around his eyes. His hand dropped the sand back in the bucket,
as he fell to the floor.
Everyone’s head turned in the direction of the loud “thud” that had just
occurred, right as Clara and Abigail walked back into the room.
“What’s happened? What are you all staring at,” asked Abigail looking in the
direction of Kit’s body but her view was blocked by furniture.
“Kit’s dead,” answered David, with no sound of emotion in his voice.
“Well, are you sure?” asked Abigail. “He could just be lying on the floor.
Maybe he just fainted or something. Or maybe—“
“Just stop Abigail; he’s dead!” David told her harshly. She recoiled back for
only a moment, but quickly regained her composure.
“Well then, I suggest we all sit down and talk before we head upstairs to our
bedrooms,” suggested Abigail.
“Do any of you know what was on Karen’s forehead,” asked Abigail. She
waited for an answer, but when none of the guests had one, she continued on.
“Whatever marker was put on her forehead, had chemicals in it, which I’m
assuming, are deadly. I found the marker in the trashcan. Does anyone here have a
dictionary, so that we can determine if any of the chemical’s in the marker killed
that poor woman?”
“I have a dictionary in my bag,” said Clara. “I’ll go get it.”
“Thank you,” said Abigail graciously. “Oh, I think the bags are upstairs
outside your room. I don’t know how they got there, though.
Ms. Peterson left the room and turned to head down the right hallway.
During the period in which Clara was gone, no one talked, just listened to the
quiet of the school.
“Did you get it?” asked Cassie earnestly when Ms. Peterson walked back
into the room.
“Yes,” she answered.
She opened the dictionary and tried to remember the chemicals that were on
the side of the bottle. She licked her finger and turned several pages until she was in
the correct section. She licked her finger again. There was an unusual taste left in
her mouth; it tickled the back of her throat. She cleared her throat and continued on.
With each lick, the taste became stronger, bitterer, and the tickle at the back
of her throat worsened.
When at last she reached the page, she had to cough so hard, her throat
turned sore. She sat on the couch to steady herself. Her eyes widened, and she felt a
pang of fear, that flittered across her eyes, which all the guests noticed.
“Everything all right, Clara?” asked Monique worriedly.
Clara looked up, shook he head, gave one last cough, and closed her eyes.
Then she rested her head on the couch and everyone knew she was dead.
No one talked, just stared. Abigail sat silently and started crying. Monique
and Keith sat next to each other, grasping each other’s hands.
Cassie, turned away from Ms. Peterson, too scared to look.
David looked back and forth between Clara and Monique wondering which
one he should settle on.
“Well,” said Abigail, wiping her eyes. “I suggest we all head up to our
bedrooms and go to sleep.”
The remaining guests headed out the arched doorway and turned right
towards the stairs.
When the lot reached the upper hallway, six bags were sitting outside the
five classrooms. Only three of them would be occupied.
Keith and Monique headed to one room while Cassie made her way to the
other room. Each room was at opposite ends of the hall; as far away from each other
as they could possibly be. David’s room was smack dab in the middle.
“Are you going to have a room up here?” Keith asked Abigail.
“No. My bedroom’s on the first floor for some reason. I hope that won’t be a
problem?”
“No, of course not,” Keith answered.
The people headed inside their bedrooms and looked around. On the ceiling
there was a miniature chandelier. There was a TV, a queen bed, two bathrooms, and
two side tables on each side of the bed. But the most peculiar thing was in the corner
of the room, it almost went unnoticed by all the guests; a music stand with the music
“Pop Goes the Weasel” on it.
Everyone got their pajamas on and crawled into bed.
Such a foolish lot. The final steps of my plan will come into play soon. It’s
just a matter of timing.
What am I going to do? Get out of here is what I need to do, but how? I’ll
run away tonight that’s it. I’ll run away. But how? No. Such a foolish idea.
How on earth could this happen? This all must be some sort of trick. Or
maybe an optical illusion. Who knows? I am getting out of this place tomorrow, as
soon as possible.
I’ve got to make it through the night, and then we’re home free. I’ve just got
to. If I don’t and something happens, I’ll never forgive myself.
Who is there left? Everyone’s a suspect, except for me, and Abigail. It’s not
possible that she could have done everything. She was out of the room when Karen
died. As a matter of fact she wasn’t’ anywhere near her. She had been downstairs
getting drinks. For Kit, she would have to have been right behind him to kill him.
Unless he died someway else. We only know how Karen died. And for Clara, she
was in the room with everyone. We all were. Oh I don’t know what to make of it all!
I’ll just sit tight through the night and hope for the best.
The morning arrived far too late for everyone. Cassie woke up and warily
moved about the room, trying to wake herself up. When she was up, she took a
shower, and got dressed. As she was coming out of the bathroom quite content with
herself she had made it through the night, it occurred to her that her scarf which she
had worn all day yesterday, was missing. She left the room and went down the hall,
in search of it.
When Keith woke up, he automatically looked over to the side of the bed
where his spouse sleeps. He was startled to find her not there.
He got out of bed and checked the bathroom and the hallway, the only two
places he could think she would be, but couldn’t find her anywhere.
He quickly got dressed, and went down the hall to David’s room. The knock
on David’s door, brought him groggily to the eyehole. He peered through.
“What?” he croaked.
“Monique’s gone,” replied Keith. David was immediately awake and out the
door, not bothering to get dressed.
“Where’s Cassie?” asked David.
“I don’t know, but if she’s not in her room, we know who the murderer is.”
“What about Abigail? She could be the murderer, right?”
“No. We already ruled her out; it’s not humanly possible that she could have
done the murders. Now let’s go!” bellowed Keith.
The men rushed to the end of the hallway and rapped on Cassie’s door.
There was no answer.
“We’ve got to go tell Abigail!” said Keith.
“No let’s find Cassie first. For all we know, she could be ready to murder
Monique right now. Maybe she has Abigail too.”
“Good idea! I’ll take the upper floors, you take the ground floor.” said Keith.
“Alright!” David headed off down the stairs, while Keith went around.
Cassie found the scarf hanging in one of the rooms in the gym. The lights
weren’t on, so it was hard to see, but there it was on a hook hanging from the
ceiling. The scarf was tied in a knot at the top with an opening at the bottom.
The ceiling was just out of her reach, even when she jumped. She looked
around for a chair. There were several fold up chairs along the wall. She grabbed
one and placed it under the scarf. She stood on the chair, and reached up to unhook
the scarf from the hook. Then the hands hit her in the square of the back, she fell
forward, and the chair was removed from underneath her feet.
Downstairs David looked in the living room, gave a satisfied nod, and then
headed to the rooms in the gym. He had gone through three of them, and when he
came to the fourth, he stopped dead in the doorway. Hanging from the ceiling was
Cassie, in what looked like a scarf. Wait. Hadn’t she been wearing that scarf
yesterday? Yes she had. Hung by her own scarf. How sad!
The footsteps coming up the stairs startled Keith, and he prepared himself for
someone to come running at him. But when he saw the look on David’s face, the
fear in Keith’s eyes, changed to concern.
“What happened?” asked Keith. “Is Monique okay?”
David shook his head, and regained his breath.
“It’s not Monique. It’s Cassie. She’s been hung.”
Keith stared at the ground, as he looked at his choices. He knew Monique
didn’t commit any of the murders, and Abigail had been cleared long ago. He had
thought Cassie was the culprit. But now that she was dead, it meant the only other
person was…
“You killed them all,” said Keith, with a snarl in his voice.
David’s eyes grew until they were as far open as they could get. He did the
only thing he could think of at the moment--run.
Keith darted after him down the stairs. Keith had expected David to charge
him with a knife or some other weapon, so when he ran, Keith was caught off-guard
and was therefore behind.
When Keith reached the bottom of the stairs, David was no longer there.
There were three possible ways he could have gone; straight forward, down the left
hallway, or down the right. Keith had no possible way of knowing which direction
to try.
He decided to go forward because that way led to the ground floor, which
had the most hiding places.
David, however, had taken the left hallway, which led to the second floor.
His plan was to hide in one of the rooms, but instead when he got into the hallway,
he found a trash bag that looked like it had something moving inside it.
He bent down to look inside, and didn’t realize how long he had been there.
Then his vision went black.
After searching the whole downstairs with no luck, Keith headed up to the
second floor. He saw a black trash bag lying on the ground. It wasn’t until he walked
around to the other side that he saw David’s body protruding from the bag. David
had been suffocated.
Abigail walked out from one of the doors, her arms crossed, a sneer on her
face. “Missing your Monique?”
Keith spun around on his heel and stood up almost instantly at the mention of
his wife’s name.
“Where is she, Abigail?” asked Keith and a calm, even tone.
Abigail answered just as calm. “Well, I could tell you, but I think I’ll have
more of an effect if I just show you.
She gestured for Keith to walk with her down the stairs. When they reached
the living room, Abigail walked over to the table where the drinks still sat on the
tray. There was a large blue piece of paper spread across the table.
“This is, as I’m sure you can see, are the blueprints for the school. And if
you’ll look here,” she pointed to a small hallway under the school. “You’ll see a
hallway that only the superintendent knew about. That’s where Monique is.”
Keith remained silent and just stared into Abigail’s hazel eyes. He raised his
eyebrows as if to say, “well are you going to show me where my wife is, or not?”
“Follow me.” Abigail lifted up the top of the table. Keith looked down.
Below him was a large shaft with a ladder leading down to the bottom hallway.
“So the underneath of the table is just a screen made to look like the floor?”
asked Keith.
“Yes.”
Keith nodded his head and climbed into the hole. He held onto the top of the
table until he found the first ladder part with his hands.
The climb took about three minutes. When Abigail reached the bottom, she
walked down a passage lit with strange orange lights. There was a door at the end of
the hallway with and electronic padlock. She pressed in a code and the doors swung
open, revealing a spacious room, where Monique sat in the center, unconscious, her
hands tied behind her back, her feet bound together.
Keith began to run towards her but, Abigail stood in front of him. “Try to run
and this place will explode. I have a bomb set up, the clock in the living room,
which will go off if I press a certain code on the padlock. We’ll all be blown to bits.
Keith stopped in his tracks.
“Now, I suppose you would like to know how all this worked out. Am I
right?” asked Abigail. Keith remained silent; he knew he was going to get an
explanation, whether he wanted it or not.
“In order to do this, I’ll go through each murder one by one. We’ll start
with Karen. From being in her biology class, I knew that a few minutes after I left
the room, she would ask if anyone needed to go to the bathroom. So right after I
left, I walked around the hallway that leads to the bathrooms. I waited on top of a
toilet for Karen to come in. How did I know she would come in alone? Well it was
risky, but I figured no one would really need to go to the bathroom, except her.
“As soon as I heard the door close, I came out from the stall and wrote an
“F” on her forehead. Yes. I framed David. I also had the deaths set up so that you
would think he had murdered everyone when you found out Cassie was dead. The
marker had an acid on it that I knew would affect Karen’s skin, and kill her. I then
left the note, Lawgiver Bafwaii, which is an anagram of my name.
“When the others girls came in I went back into the stall and stood on the
toilet and waited for them to leave. Then I went back into the hallway, where the
drinks had been from the moment you all set foot in the school; I figured out what
everyone would want for a drink.
“As for Kit. When everyone was coming back from the bathroom, and I was
coming back from getting the drinks, I set up a pail with what looked like just sand
in it; I had hid it on the ground. Right before everyone came in, I placed a scorpion,
which had been hidden in my purse, right under the sand.
“Again, I knew that curiosity would get the best of Kit, and that he would
look through the sand. When he picked up the first handful, the scorpion stung him.
As he fell backwards, the sand in his hand, containing the scorpion would fall back
into the bucket. The sand would collapse on top of the scorpion, suffocating it.
“As for Clara, when I had placed the bags in front of the bedroom doors, I
looked through Clara’s bag, knowing she would bring a dictionary with her. When I
found it, I took a turkey baster and put some poison on the pages that had the
definition of the words Clara would look up. When Clara would lick her fingers, the
poison would be transferred to her mouth, and she would die after a severe coughing
fit.
“Cassie was easy. I have all the keys to all the bedrooms, so when I knew
Cassie was asleep; I unlocked her door and stole her scarf which was lying on her
dresser.
“I then went to the living room and tied it in the shape of a noose and hung it
on the hook that’s on the ceiling.
“When Cassie came looking for it the next morning, I was waiting in the
shadows of the living room. She grabbed one of the metal chairs against the wall and
reached up for the scarf, at which point I pushed her, so her neck fit in the noose,
and moved the chair out from under her feet.
“As for David, when he came up the stairs, I dropped a trash bag on the
ground, so it gave the illusion that there was something moving inside it. When he
was on the top step, I stepped into a room. When his head was in the bag, I came
behind him, and tied it around his head.
Now for my motives.
Karen: She never appreciated me for who I was. She judged my book by my
cover.
Kit: He was the one who was behind all the teasing. He had started it.
Clara: She was always the one tattle-tailing on me to everyone. Then she
would cover it with her “good girl” thing that tricked everyone. She died trying to
prove a point, like she did so much in school.
Cassie: She took the job that I had been trying to get for two months. The
boss had a crush on her and picked her good looks over mine. She didn’t deserve
that job. That was how I was going to make my living. If I hadn’t come into money
from my grandpa, I would be out on the streets now.
David: I hated that he had a crush on Monique and then when she got
married, and I was open, he still went after a fruitless mission. I decided to kill him
for being so ignorant and selfish.
“And now we’re where we are now,” she finished with a satisfied nod.
“And I assume you took Monique after you set up Cassie’s scarf.”
Abigail gave an impressed nod. “Good use of deduction.”
Keith stared at the ground, his eyebrows knit in thought.
“Have you thought about what you’ve done?” asked Keith. “You’ve killed
innocent people, because you held a grudge against them. And now you’ve gotten
the person I love, the happiness in my life tied up. Did you think that would make
me happy? I hope you realize that for me to be happy, I would need to be with her.
If you think you’ll make me happy, well, you’ll do just the opposite. If you want me
to be happy, truly want me to, you’ll let Monique, and I go, and turn yourself into
the police.”
Abigail stared; her eyes hard, her arms crossed, at Keith.
He plowed on, “Do you remember when Monique and myself and all the
other guests that were mean to you, made fun of you? Well I think you should know
that Monique and I never wanted to be mean to you; the other kids pressured us, so
we were. But yet you still liked me, why? Why like me and not Monique? We were
both equally mean to you.”
This still had no effect on Abigail. Keith remembered as hard as he could to
find the one thing that would get Abigail where it mattered.
“In 7th grade, we had to write a story based on our two favorite songs. You chose
Amazing Grace, and Take These Wings, am I right?” Abigail looked at the ground,
remembering back to 7th grade when she wrote that.
Keith spoke the first few words of each phrase:
Take these wings
And learn to fly
To the highest mountain in the sky
Take these eyes and learn to see
All the things so dear to me.
Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost,
But now am found
Was blind, but now I see
Abigail stared at the ground motionless. Keith went in for the kill.
“Think about both those songs. Truly think about them. Think about what
you’ve done. You’ve done a terrible thing, and have had too many victims. You
deliberately set up red herrings, so that for the time being, you could steer clear of
trouble. And then you disposed of any clues to substantiate the murder you’ve done.
Again you cleared yourself because you were too afraid to get caught, and face the
consequences. The perpetrator of this horrible crime is you.”
Keith let what he had just said sink in.
“You’re right,” said Abigail at last. “I’ve done something terrible. You were
right about the song. I was blind and now I do see. Thank you.” She nodded her
head as if deciding something.
“I want you to take Monique out of the school right now and get as far away
from it as you can. But first I want you to try and take all the bodies outside with
you. Place them in the bomb shelter. Their families deserve to see them and know
what happened. All the evidence you need to prove that I committed the crime, is on
their bodies. I’m talking about fingerprints,”
Keith didn’t’ have time to respond before Abigail cut the ropes binding
Monique’s hands and started pushing the two out the door and towards the ladder.
Keith, being the strong man he was, was able to gently carry Monique up the
ladder, at which point she gained consciousness. He then got Cassie from the ceiling
and carried her through the front door. He looked around for a bomb shelter. He
found the building and walked over to it, opened the door and placed Cassie gently
down at the foot of the stairs. He did this for the remaining victims.
Once the door of the bomb shelter had been shut, Keith took Monique by the
hand and led her as far away from the old high school as he thought he should be.
He knew what was going to happen: Abigail, as soon as she knew Monique and
Keith were out of range, was going to type the code into the padlock that sets off the
bomb. The clock, being in the living room, which is in the center of the house,
would blow up the whole thing. Knowing the explosion was near, he braced himself
and put Monique’s head into his chest. Then he heard one thing he was not
expecting. Music.
Abigail had, somewhere in the house, turned on the song Amazing Grace.
The song was clear to hear out in the middle of nowhere. Keith and Monique stood
both staring at the building, listening to the peaceful song.
All the lyrics played, and the song ended. There was a pause in which Keith
pulled Monique, who was now crying, back to his chest.
There was nothing left. The whole building went up. The police arrived 10
minutes after the explosion. Monique and Keith were far enough away that they
could slip past the police and walk to their car.
They didn’t want anything to do with what had happened at their old high
school. One thing they would never know though, and something that the police
would never be able to explain, was a single piece of paper that somehow survived
the whole explosion. A paper that read:
Lawgiver Bafwaii, Abigail Fairview, once was lost, and then was found. Was
blind but now she sees. Take her wings, and learn to fly.