"... Reported dead, just in these very woods..."
"Approximately at eight thirty last night, highschool student..."
"Police are marking this incident as a suicide."
"... The first incident Witchfield has known since..."
I don't think I ever noticed there was a billboard right above the railroad tracks disconnecting the road between the barber shop and the lonely road going to our highschool.
The bright red letters flew across the screen, the first half of the sentence disappearing before it could finish. From what I gathered, it just read the usual.
HIGHSCHOOL STUDENT, JAXON WALKER, DIES IN BUTCHERS FOREST.
Honestly I didn't even know our town was rich enough to have a screen that moved, you know, like a projector.
We couldn't even afford a middle school, that's why we only had two schools in town. Witchfield school, for grades 1-8, then our highschool, 9-12.
The Walker's must've installed it recently. I swear I haven't seen it until today. Like it was made only for the purpose of telling this road about Witchfield's random student, dying last night.
"Dax!"
Lucas flew onto my back, causing me to stumble forward as he jumped around to the front of me.
He was happy. It would have surprised me for him to be happy on a dopey morning like this, but Lucas is always happy. This is no exception.
"Did you hear?"
Did I hear?
"Jaxon died! Everyone's talking about it." I started to walk around him, continuing my way to school but he joined my side.
"Yeah," I said nonchalantly, watching him shake his head with a sigh. "I bet we won't have to do any work today."
"Why?"
"Everyone's in mourning. Honestly, I'm surprised we still have school."
I'm not. Nobody actually cares enough about him to cancel school. School brings in the money, naturally.
But then again, it was the owner of the town's son who just killed himself last night. This would be a perfect time if any other to dramatically cancel school.
"Excuse me! You, there!"
"Woah," Lucas said as we both stopped on the sidewalk, staring at the front of our overcrowded school, packed with news vans.
A woman with short brown hair shoved a microphone in Jace's face, some random kid in our grade.
"Did you know Mr. Walker!? How do you feel about this incident?"
A cameraman stood behind her, both staring into the soul of the kid who actually didn't know Jaxon Walker at all.
It was all kind of amusing. Jace didn't know a thing about Jaxon, because up until this morning, I don't even think I knew he existed.
Who was he? I don't know. Neither did Lucas, never even seen him before, never heard of his name.
Mason Walker, I did know. The Walker's owned the town, as I've said, but Mason was their youngest son, the one everybody knew because he actually excelled in his classes.
Everyone knew they had two sons, but nobody knew about the older brother. Not even a name. Now, I guess we know.
After barely making it to the first period, late, I put my head down and looked out the dull window.
