Breaking the Curse

Chapter 14

"Micheal, look there. The winking boy is coming in hot," Nathan points at Simon, who just walked through the front door with a missing person's paper in his hand. He pinned one of the papers on the school's information board.

"Oh, God, that's depressing," Micheal whispers to his friends.

"Should we say something?" Adeline asks.

"I don't think he speaks," Chloe jokes and laughs with her other friends including Micheal but not Adeline and Naty, who are still looking at Simon, dying to talk to him and ask how he is holding up.

"How much do you want to bet he killed his brother?" Nathan asks.

"Shut up, Nathan. Show the man some respect will ya," Micheal says, after seeing the look on his girlfriend's face.

Ignoring everyone around, Adeline walks toward Simon with sympathy in her eyes. He is still in the process of putting up his brother's missing person poster on the school information board.

"Hi, Simon," Adeline says and leans her hand toward for a handshake.

"Hey, Adeline," Simon replies while still busy with the poster.

"I just... I wanted to say, you know, um... I'm sorry about everything. Everyone's thinking about you... it sucks to have to live among these kind of people, right?" Adeline tells him.

"Yeah," Simon says under his tired breath.

"I'm sure he's fine. He's a smart kid, everybody knows it." Adeline says and smiles.

The school bell rings, signaling to Adeline that it is time for her to go.

"I have to go. (chuckles) Chemistry test." She says.

"Yeah," Simon responds in his tired voice.

"Good luck," Adeline replies while walking slowly away from Simon.

"Thanks. You too. It means a lot to me," Simon mumbles and gives a smile back to Adeline, then walks out of the school to continue his search for his lost brother.

After Simon left the hallway, the school's speaker crackled to life. It was an announcement from the principal.

"ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! Faculty and students. At seven pm this evening, there will be an assembly on the football field in support of Sabastian and his family. All are encouraged to attend. Volunteer sign-ups for search parties are still available in the office. That will be all."

Meanwhile, in the science class, Miles and Ellis take their seats at the front of the class while V and Alice take the seats behind them. Mr. Oliver is going from desk to desk, handing out today's classwork.

"It's been three days since Sabastian's been missing, and the police still found nothing. We need to do something," Miles whispers to his friends who sit behind him.

"Do what, Miles? We searched every corner of the neighborhood and found nothing too," Ellis responds.

"There must be something. Sabastian can't just vanish into thin air. There must be something we missed," Miles adds.

"I heard what weird shit you guys' discussed, and I have a suggestion," V says to her new friends.

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Ellis asks in his usual 'being an asshole to V' tone.

"The last time we went out to look for Sabastian, we only looked around the forest. What about this time we go inside the Forbidden Forest instead? We might find something in there," V says.

"We've been there. There's nothing. Not even a trail," Alice says.

"No, I'm not talking about the woods near the main road. I'm talking about we go in deep, inside the Forbidden Forest. I heard weird shit happens and kids go missing near that forest every time I talk to old locals," V adds.

"What? Are you insane? Are you gonna get us missing too? No way! I have a life to live! I don't want to die this early!" Ellis replies.

"Seriously, Ellis?" Alice says, looking straight into Ellis's scared pair of eyes.

"What? I'm just speaking facts, you know."

"No, you're not going to be missing, Ellis. Stop being a paranoid asshole," Miles steps in, calming his paranoid brother down.

"No, don't say you're also thinking about going in there. There's no way in hell I'm going with you guys."

"Oh, come on, you little rat. You that scared?" V jokes.

"I'm not scared, and stop calling me a little rat I'm not your best friend, you Freak," Ellis responds.

"Ohh you called me a freak now, huh, you wanna fight com on your little piss of shit I am not scared of you."

"Stop, both of you! No fighting, okay? Christ, you guys act like you're eight years old all over again or something," Alice shouts, staring at both V and Ellis's eyes with her crystal blue pair of eyes. She hopes to calm them down before they start throwing punches at each other.

V and Ellis glare at each other, still fuming from their argument. They don't like each other very much, ever since V joined their group of friends. V thinks Ellis is a paranoid asshole who always makes fun of her ideas. Ellis thinks V is an insane weirdo who always suggests dangerous things.