Frozen Mate (boyxboy)

Chapter 11

I can't stop shouting for help. When my voice sizzles off, my throat tightens till I squeeze a belligerent wail out. If my eyes weren't so dry from hardly blinking I imagine my face would be soaked with tears. Why is no one coming to help?

My twitchy fingers reach for her pulse, but with her heart ripped from her chest, I'm not surprised when I'm disappointed by the verdict. She's dead. Still warm, with the heat quickly being sapped from her body. Her blood stains my sleeves but I'm not bothered by it. This girl is dead and I'm still breathing. My problems mean nothing in comparison.

Who is she? I've never seen her around school. Or maybe I wasn't looking close enough, so caught up in trivial drama. Is her mom waiting at home, wondering where she is and when she'll be home?

Now I'm really at risk of crying. Picturing my mom at home cooking dinner listening to the Rolling Stones and waiting for me to come home, only to hear hours later from the police that I'm dead. She would be heartbroken. My whole family would be. And this girl's family has no clue. They're living their day as if they won't soon receive the worst news imaginable.

A hand grabs my arm. I scream and jolt my elbow backwards into the assailant's abdomen.

He grunts. "Fuck, dude!" Reed grunts. "Chill out!"

I slide my arm from his grip, trembling madly. The entire archery club forms a half circle around me and the dead body. Rachel, Bridget, all those familiar faces. Most of them look stoic. Distress filters through Rachel's mask of indifference.

"Get him away from the body." Bridget commands. Reed and another large boy pull me away from the dead girl.

Bridget and blond, identical twins girls, tall and lanky, approach the body. They look down at the girl in an unsettling manner. Not the way most people would react to seeing a fresh corpse. In this girl's death, they're objectifying her as an interesting item to study. And then they push the envelope even further.

One of the twins inspects the girl, feeling her skin, moving her limbs. I almost vomit at the sight of her lifelessness.

"Only one penetrative wound," She reports. "Several bruises along the forearm suggest a struggle before the extraction."

"Lycanthrope?" Bridget suggests.

"No," she responds, eying the hole in the girls chest. "The wound is pretty clear cut, not much ripped skin. I doubt any claws were involved."

"Vampire?"

"With all of this blood pooled around her body, wasted." She says. "Unlikely."

Bridget sighs. "What the hell are we dealing with here?" She breathes, and I wonder if she's talking to the others or herself.

I realize that Rachel is rubbing my arm soothingly. Through tear-blurred vision, I make eye-contact with her. Her face reads pity, but not surprise like I would expect. Her cult is so calm and collected, I'm unsettled by how unfazed they are by death. A part of me wants to suspect that I shouldn't trust them, but I can't help but feel safer now that they're here.

"I'll take Jack back to the barn," Rachel says.

"Good idea." Bridget says. "We'll meet you guys there soon. Reed, Lauren, and Jasen, you three check the perimeter of campus. Look for any trail that the perpetrator might've left. Call me if you find anything. Thomas and Charlie, take the girl's body to the road. The police will find her and alert her parents. Elizabeth, take the footage from this afternoon from the security cameras. Make sure there's no trace of us being here. Let's meet by the end of the hour at the barn."

One of the blond twins approaches the apparent leader. "Where are you going, Bridget?"

She looks serious. "Drastic times call for drastic measures." Bridget answers. "I'm going to talk to the wolves. They might know something."