CHAPTER 1
Friday, November 20th
Tarah
Everyone remembers where they were when the second U.S. civil war began. And how simply it started, with just two big bangs out of nowhere. And how it ended up setting the whole world on fire eventually.
Only minutes before it all began to fall apart, I was standing outside Mr. Sherman's senior World History class with my friend Aimee, her obnoxious boyfriend Gary, and his two usual mindless sidekicks. I was trying my hardest not to lose yet another set of friendships in my life. But lately it wasn’t going too well.
“Come on, Tarah, you said yourself this guy used to be your best friend,” Aimee whined, clutching Gary’s upper arm. “How could he possibly say no to you?”
“’Used to be’ being the operative term here,” I said. “I haven’t even spoken to Hayden Shepherd in years. And now you want me to just go up to him and tell him to—”
“Just to come to a meeting with us, is all,” Aimee said. “It’s not that big a deal. He’ll probably love it! You always have fun with us, right? Why wouldn’t he?”
Why wouldn't he?
A hundred reasons raced through my mind...
Reason #1: Because he’s Hayden Shepherd, only surviving son of the most conservative United States senator ever, and his father would kill him if Hayden was even seen with us in public, much less caught in the woods with us at one of our meetings.
Reason #2: Because we were best friends for six years, and then I went and destroyed that friendship with my big mouth.
Reason #3: And because of Reason #2, he probably hates my guts now.
I opened my mouth to list these reasons along with a whole bunch of others to her. But I never got the chance.
“Aim, let it go already,” Gary said before I could speak, his thick, dark eyebrows dipping still lower over equally dark eyes. “Hayden’s never going to speak to anyone like us, much less actually help us. He’s a rich kid, a one percenter from birth. He's never going to help someone unless there's something in it for him.”
“That’s totally unfair,” I found myself blurting out. “Hayden’s not like that. Money’s got nothing to do with who he is.”
“Oh yeah?” Gary turned those dark eyes on me. “If Hayden’s such a great guy, then why is his best friend Kyle Kingsley?”
I didn’t have an answer for that one. Hayden had replaced me with Kyle the Vile as soon as I stopped hanging out with Hayden and his brother in junior high. Hayden’s choice in replacement best friend didn’t make any more sense to me now than it had back then.
“What about that night in the woods?” Aimee insisted, her voice dropping to a hushed murmur. “Hayden was the only one who survived. So he has to know something that can help us too.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, Gary growled, making the flow of traffic edge further away from us as students hurried past on their way to class. “Why do we keep having this argument? I’ve told you, the only reason Hayden could have survived was because he caused all those deaths in the first place! Which is just another reason why we’ve got no business even considering asking for his help. Which, like I’ve also said a thousand times before, we don’t need. All we need is a little more practice and—”
“And we’re going to end up getting ourselves killed,” I muttered, unable to stop myself though I knew how Gary would react.
He didn’t disappoint. “No thanks to your help,” he snarled. “You know, if you’ve got such a problem with the way I’m running things, you don’t have to come to the meetings.”
His implied threat to kick me out of the group hit its target, and I flinched in spite of my best efforts not to. Even if I didn't exactly fit in among them and could barely stand Gary and his stupid sidekicks, Aimee and the others in our group were the only friends I had now. If I lost them, I would be truly alone in this school.
“Hey, she’s not the one suggesting we get help!” Aimee ducked out from beneath Gary’s arm so she could step closer to me. “This was my idea, remember? And none of us are trying to replace you as leader, so relax already. We’re just looking for a few tips from someone who might have the answers we need to keep us safe.”
“And you really think a mass murderer like Shepherd is going to help us out?” Gary smirked, his tone making the question rhetorical.
I knew he was baiting me just to get a rise out of me. But I still couldn’t keep my lips zipped. “Stop calling him that. That’s a crappy rumor, and you know it. If Hayden actually caused all those deaths, even his dad couldn’t have saved him.” No one had enough money or political clout to get out of killing that many people. Not even the Shepherds. “Besides, why would he kill his brother too?”
I had to fight to keep my voice from wobbling on that last part.
“Obviously because he lost control,” Gary said.
My back teeth ground together hard enough to hurt the muscles in my jaw. I took a step closer to Gary. “You don’t know him. Hayden’s a good guy. And he adored his older brother. There’s no way he would have killed Damon, not even by accident.” Not Hayden. And especially not in those woods, our woods. The Hayden I'd once known had slain dragons, not innocents.
Unfortunately that was the exact moment the subject of our debate chose to walk around the corner of the hallway where we were standing. And the dark scowl on his face didn't exactly make him look innocent of murder.
I froze.
A muscle in Hayden’s jaw clenched into a hard knot as he circled around us and disappeared into the classroom behind me.
Had he heard us talking about him?
“You don’t think that guy is a killer?” Gary hissed, leaning forward into my face and stabbing a finger in the air in Hayden's direction. “Then obviously you're letting your little school girl crush on him totally delude you. He's a murderer, Tarah, plain and simple. Everyone knows it but you. Don't let his money and family name blind you to the truth."
"I'm not!" I had to fight not to shout the words as the blood roared into my head with all the unexpected force of a tidal wave after a dam wall breaks. How dare Gary accuse me of being so shallow? I had never cared about Hayden's family name or money.
"Really?" Gary stared at me, disbelief written all over his face. "Then if he's so innocent, tell me just what do you think happened in those woods that night?”