Chapter 27

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Even after the four bodies have been taken away, traces of their deaths are everywhere. Spatters of blood across the stone floor, a red stain where the dead girl's head cracked against the wall. Someone cleaned up Camille's blood with wads of tissue, but the red streak along the floor is still there. I see it from where I sit at my table. The trail disappears behind someone's chair, but I can visualize the path it travels, the way it glistens like wet paint.

"I can't believe it," Carson says for the fifth time. He's the only person with me sitting at our table. Willow disappeared once the chaos died down, and Alec returned to Marcus's group and is deep in conversation with Buzzcut. "I go away for less than an hour and four people are dead. Camille is dead. I've never known anyone who died, and to see her like that . . ."

Beneath the fear, his face is etched with sympathy. I haven't told him about the bleeding ears thing. I don't know how to break the news. How do you tell someone he might turn into a monster and either kill us all or die by our hands?

I'm not sure this is the best place to break the news. I don't want it to reach certain ears. When they removed the bodies earlier, I overheard Eli telling Marcus they shouldn't hesitate to take care of any other teens that go crazy like the Blank did.

Marcus didn't agree with him, but he didn't say no either. His silence makes me worried. After the way he talked to Carson and the way he faced off against the Blank by himself, even coming to my rescue, I've come to expect better things from him.

I've come to want better things from him.

"April?"

Carson's voice snaps me back to reality. I give him a confused look and he says, "You've been quiet since I got back. I guess you're taking it pretty bad, huh?"

"I'm okay." My guilt burns like acid in my gut. Marcus's tough-love speech must have worked because Carson has been acting more like himself. He seems to be coming to terms with the news about his family. I don't want to take that away from him so soon.

As Carson chatters on about what could have turned the boy into a freaky creature-boy, Alec comes over and sinks into a chair. His hands are clean of blood, but a big splotch of crimson stains his shirt, right over his heart. I stare at it, my chest hurting as the situation hits me all over again.

"That was amazing, what you did for Camille. Comforting her while she was—" I draw in a breath. "I'm glad it helped her."

He nods tersely. "Where's Willow?"

"I don't know." I wish she were here. She might provide better insight into the Carson situation or help me break the news to him. Alec has proven his compassion, too, but he doesn't know Carson as well as Willow does.

"I'll go get her," I say.

She's not in the shower room when I step inside. I turn for the doorway, deciding to check the gym more thoroughly, when I hear a sniffle. One of the bathroom stalls is closed. I approach it and whisper, "Willow?"

Silence. Then the latch clicks and she walks out of the bathroom. I'm so taken aback that all I can do is stare. She's been crying. She presses bunched up tissues to her swollen eyes and inhales. "I'm fine." She moves past me to the sink and turns on the faucet. "Everything's been piling on these days and that—that thing we saw today—was the last straw."

"The Blank."

She gives me a strange look. "What?"

"That's what I've been calling him." I shrug, feeling foolish. "Because of his eyes—the way they got cloudy. It seems appropriate."

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