Sons of Night

Mayden’s POV
Monday morning was worse than any other day of school I’d ever experienced. Usually I was that person that everyone just sort of didn’t notice, unless they were picking on me that is. I tried my best to just slide like a shadow from class to class, and I was content with that. I had enough people to talk to with just my family, I didn’t feel like having friends was necessary. That Monday, it was impossible. The eyes of students, teachers, and other faculty members bore through my back all day. I couldn’t shake the feeling of their eyes. They all had seen my face on the news and all over the school social media. Even though I did my best to keep my eyes on the linoleum floor it was near impossible to block out the whispers.
“She did it for attention.”
“He really did get her, he just brainwashed her so she thinks that he didn’t,”
“I kinda wished she was dead,”
“Did she even go to school here? I’ve never noticed her before,”
All these things, and others of different wording but the same general meaning where whispered throughout the day. Clearly I wasn’t supposed to hear them. They just assumed that because I was so quiet I was deaf or something. I wanted to scream at them as I passed through the halls. They were wrong, and the truth was burning inside me like a hot coal in my stomach that I wanted to cough up. Wouldn’t they be shocked. I’d been living in the woods with Andy Biersack, and a bunch of his murderous friends. They’d been nicer to me then the school had ever dreamed of being. He’d even kissed me. The more I thought about that, the angrier I got.
They all thought that he was some sort of monster, but they were more wrong than they could even begin to imagine. I thought about his anguished blue eyes, the raw guilt was obvious in them. I shouldn’t have pitied him after what he’d put me through, emotionally that is. I did pity him though. I forced myself to view him as a disgusting little man groveling in the dust and whining about his problems. If I didn’t make myself view him as revolting, the only other thing I could view him as was beautiful. Enchanting, and someone who I wanted to be around. So I forced myself to remember only the bad about him. I tried to return him to the monster that the school folklore had drawn him out to be. For my own sanity.
I dreaded calculus class. The scene of the incident. It was my final bell of the day and I willed something to happen that would prevent that class. There was no fire alarm, or animal in the school or random earthquake to save me though. So I slunk into class my head down to my chest, and the eyes bore into me harder. I wanted to scream and cry and beat everyone who was around me to a pulp until they stopped looking at me. I shifted in the blue plastic chair as Mr. Schrock started class. I had to look up to take notes, and as I did I stole a quick glance around the room. The only person looking at me was Braden. He and his ornery grin, and his sparkling eyes like he was ready to tell a joke. We made eye contact and he turned back around to face the white board. I took notes like normal, feeling my fingers gripping the smooth plastic of the mechanical pencil. The whole class was just a blur in my brain, so I was glad that I wrote it all down. As I left I passed by Mr. Schrock’s desk, I was surprised that he hadn’t said anything to me yet.
“Mayden,” He said, and I stopped. I didn’t know what to say so I didn’t think anything of it at all. He barely looked up from his test grading. His eyes were glaring, giving an almost malicious look that I’d never seen on his face before.
“Consider yourself lucky,” His voice was quiet and grave, it sent a shiver down my back. I’d never felt uncomfortable around him before, but at that moment I did. I hurried on my way out the door, sending prayers that begged for the next day to be better.

Andy’s POV
So there the plan sat. Crudely drawn out on a whiteboard that we’d lugged up from the basement of my parents house and squeezed through the door of CC’s room. He knew almost everything that we could know about the school. So he sat propped up on a pile of pillows and swaddled in blankets like a child directing us as to what to draw and where to draw it. Little by little we worked out a crude map of all three floors of the school. What he knew, combined with my freshly dug up and previously repressed memories gave us a drawing of the school that was really quite good.
“Now how and when do we get in?” Jake said, stretching his back and yawning. It was getting close to dinner time and we’d been working since a few hours after breakfast. Everyone was lethargic, and tired of looking at the board. CC looked like he was about to drop off, the pain meds were starting to make him groggier by the minute. In fact the only time he was really awake was when there was some sort of breakthrough or a large decision was made. We didn’t know how much he’d remember so we wrote him a list of the important things. For the rest of the time we discussed he dozed peacefully.
I leaned back in the kitchen chair that had been moved up to the room. My fingers meticulously uncapped and recapped the dry erase marker we were using without me thinking about it. My brain was fried and I felt like I was in a fog. I ran a hand through my hair and my stomach rumbled. No one answered Jake’s question.
“CC, how do we get in?” I asked him. He snored. I sighed and ran my hand over my face.
“Wow I’ve seen more motivation out of a morgue freezer,” I glanced up to see my mom standing in the doorway, Chinese takeout was in her hands, a welcome sight.
“You guys hungry?” She said. There was a chorus of approval and she began to hand out different orders to people. CC even managed to wake up to get his white rice. As we began working on the boxes people finally began to wake up a bit.
“What are we trying to figure out?” CC asked staring at the board like it was math class and he’d just been hit with a question while he wasn’t paying attention.
“How and when do we get in?” Ash said.
“Well I have no idea about the schedule or when the doors lock or anything,” CC said, looking disappointed.
“I don’t know if this would help or not but there’s been some complaints about the roof of the lunch room,” My mom said.
“What sort of complaints?” I asked, my interest piqued.
“Well the ceiling in there is a sun roof, and some of the windows just open without locks or anything for easy roof access and cleaning and stuff. People think that it’s unsafe,” My mom finished. We all looked at each other. My mom smirked at her own idea and left the room looking proud.
“If we have some climbing ropes, I see no reason as to why we can’t repel down into the school and go from there to the security office to get the tapes,” Jinxx said, everyone else nodded.
“So that’s the plan, I think someone had ropes in their bag so we should be able to manage that,” I said.
“So now the question is when. When are there no school events happening and when are the times that we can get in there without being suspected, and look natural. I’d say we go in the middle of the night but that will be really cold and the roof will probably be icy, so that’s less than ideal,” Jake said.
“Why don’t we just get a school schedule and see when the last group of kids will be leaving the school and show up thirty minutes after that, as early as possible and get in then,” Ashley said.
“We can’t just get a schedule, they have that type of thing very secure so that people like us can’t just see when the school is going to be open and closed. We may have to take someone who already has one,” CC said. I felt my stomach starting to sink.
“It’s a good thing we know someone who probably has a school schedule, and lucky we know someone who knows where she lives,” Jinxx said eying me.
“No, absolutely not. I refuse. I will not break into her house and steal a school schedule from her,” I said.
“Oh don’t make that big a deal out of it, you’re going to break into a school surrounded by security guards to steal footage, what’s the big deal about breaking into a girl’s house to steal a schedule?” CC said. I set my jaw.
“The only reason I could see it being a big deal is because Andy doesn’t want to have to find her in her bed, and wake her up to ask her where it is. The idea of being in bed with her again makes him uncomfortable,” Ashley said raising his eyebrows. I felt my cheeks reddening.
“Never had sex with her!” I nearly shouted.
“Oooo, someone’s defensive,” CC chided.
“Yeah, and I never said anything about having sex with her,” Ash said grinning.
“Funny how that’s the first thing that comes to your mind as soon as we mention her,” Jake said. I was so flamingly embarrassed that I could barely see straight.
“I think Andy’s got a crush,” Jinxx sang. I stood up.
“Fine, I’ll go get it from her, but just to get away from you guys,” I said.
“Maybe you can lose your virginity while you’re there,” CC laughed.
“Shut up, I’m not a virgin,” I glared at all of them, it was beginning to feel more and more like I was fourteen again.
“Yeah right, you’ve been stuck in the woods for years you never had a chance to fuck anything but your hand,” Jinxx chortled.
“Remember when Ash left the woods about six years ago and he went and brought a really drunk girl back, and he had to get her drunk again the next night so he could take her back home while she was passed out and she wouldn’t know where we were,” I shouted.
“Yeah I remember her,” Ash said, “ What about her?”
“While you were out hunting that day and she stayed back cabin with me, and she totally came onto me, so I didn’t stop her,” I said. They all stared at me, shocked.
“Wait, really?” Ash said
“Yes really,” I said.
“Well congrats. We spent all these years making fun of you behind your back, and little did we know that it was you that had the last laugh,” Jinxx said.
“So there, I’m not a virgin, and I’m going to go take that schedule from Mayden,” I said standing up and leaving the room.
“Maybe they’ll have hot stockholm syndrome induced sex anyway,” I heard someone whisper as the door closed and I left them alone to laugh.

Notes

Hey guys! Good to see you! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'd love to hear what you guys think. Thanks so much for reading, I'm finally getting time to post this a bit more properly. See you later.