Secrets Can Kill

Chapter Three

~~~ One Month Later ~~~
The hallways of the school were always so crowded. Whether it was because all of the students were changing classes at once, or in the middle of classes when we all just left the boring classroom environment to go for a walk. You would never be alone in one of these Williston High School hallways. I played with the strings on my sweatshirt as I made my way to my next class, Art. I stared at my feet as I walked to avoid talking to anyone, and also to make sure I didn't trip. My headphones in my ears played music so that also helped my block out my surroundings. I glanced up to make sure I was actually heading to art and leaning casually against a locker that lined the corridor was Jay. He was talking with the girl that had bright red hair and I now noticed many tattoos lining her right arm. I wondered if Jay had a girlfriend. It could be her, she was beautiful, and looked extremely mature for a high school student. Jay still looked intimidating as usual, his long hair that drifted into his face, his leather jacket that was unbuttoned, revealing his dark gray tee shirt that was tight against chest. It was so tight I could see the entire outline of his abdomen. He was fit. I didn't mean to observe him so closely, but at the same time I couldn't pull my eyes away. He glanced up and me and his smile vanished as soon as his eyes connected with mine. I frowned and returned to looking at my black boots as I walked to class.

I knew Jay was in my class so I knew he would be close behind me. I walked into the classroom and took my seat next to Lilly who was already seated.

"Hey Kayc'." She greeted.

"Hey." I casually replied. "I do not want to do those portraits today. I hope we do something new." I complained. I needed something new to get my mind off of everything. I saw Jay walk in and take his seat without even glancing my way. I suppose his ignorance of me shouldn't bother me, but it did.

Mr. Collins stood up from his desk and began speaking to the class.

"Today, those of you who have finished your portraits will be starting a painting of this fruit bowl..." I smiled at Lilly because I had finished my portrait so I was excited to get to painting today. I stopped listening to Mr. Collins and instead my eyes traveled to my right, my gaze being caught by Jay, writing in his book again. I tried to not turn my head to make my 'investigating' obvious.

"Okay grab your things and get to work!" Mr. Collins said louder while clapping his hands, snapping me out of my daze.

"Come on Kay let's get the brushes." Lilly said poking me as she got up. I stood up slowly, watching Jay as he put his book away in his backpack. He came up in the line to get our materials behind me, and stood silently. As Lilly grabbed her things in front of me I turned to him not controlling my curiosity anymore, I just had to at least say hello. Our eyes met and I widened mine as he raised his eyebrows surprised to see me confronting him.

"What?" He asked coldly. I was taken aback by this a little by the lack of emotion in his voice.

"Can I ask you something?" I said. He shrugged.

"Not really." He said. I widened my eyes slightly.

"Okay well I'm going to ask anyway. What is in that book that you don't want me to see?" I whispered so everyone around us wouldn't hear. I wasn't even sure that I actually cared about the book as much as I made it seem like I did. I just needed an excuse to talk to him sometimes. He looked a bit shocked.

"Look, Kayce, it's not you, so don't take it personally, but there's a lot of things in this world that some people are just not supposed to know about. That book, is one of them. So stay away from it." He said gritting his teeth. I nodded a little frightened. He was at least a foot taller than me making him more intimidating than he had been when I looked at him from a far. I turned back around and grabbed my brushes with a shaky hand before sitting back at my seat. I wasn't sure why he made me so nervous, but I didn't like it. As he walked back, he glared at me. Maybe he really did hate me. I think that deep down, part of me knew that he hating me did matter, a little too much. And the new found hatred that he had for me, fueled me to discover that book, and Jay.

We finished art and I went to my locker shutting the door slowly hoping he wasn't behind it. He wasn't. I sighed in relief and started walking to Kyle's car. I saw Jay leaning against the side of the building hanging out with some of his friends, the red haired girl and the other guy about as tall as Jay was there too. He was laughing. For once that freakishly secretive boy looked happy. I also noticed something maybe I shouldn't have. His backpack, which contained that book, wasn't on his back. In fact, I recalled that he left the art room before me and he didn't have it. This could be my chance to get that book, and learn more about him. I knew that snooping was wrong, but I just had to know. Everything about that boy intrigued me. Curiosity was killing me and I couldn't ignore it any longer.

"Kayce! Let's go!" Kyle yelled to me from the side of his car. I shook my head.

"I forgot something. I will have my mom pick me up." I said. He nodded and got in his car.

I carefully watched Jay as I made my way back into the school unnoticed. I was successful. I walked back down the hallways to the art room. For once, I was the only one here. The hallway seemed to be twice as long when  I was doing something I knew was wrong. The door was open so I let myself in and shut it behind me. I saw his backpack under the chair he had been sitting at. I walked over to it carefully looking through the windows making sure no one could see me. No one was around; No one was in sight. I was in the clear. I unzipped his backpack and found the book. I carefully took it out and sat down at the table. It looked old, way older than us, and the front was brown swede with leather lacing. There were some encrypted pictures covering the front and back of the covers that looked more than unfamiliar to me.

I flipped it open and all that were written in it were some notes in a different language that I couldn't understand. He was bilingual I see. I flipped though some of the fragile pages and found some drawings. They were pretty frightening. Some had people being brutally dragged underground but it wasn't in like a hole. It looked like they were being dragged to hell. As graphic as I had imagined hell, I had never thought that anyone could illustrate it so violently. I flipped some more and saw all the drawings had the same concept. The same boy being dragged under. I assumed it was just an active imagination of his although the boy in the drawings looked familiar, almost a bit like Jay. The same black hair and light eyes anyway, except this boy looked more innocent. I studied them closer. The boy's right arm had weird engravings or scars in the drawings, they looked like hieroglyphics to me. It was a small circle drawing, with different lines and shapes inside it.

I looked very carefully at any Clues as to if this could be real. I was going crazy. Of course it wasn't real! This wasn't a diary! There was no way that anything like this could happen. But why had he drawn the same thing from multiple points of view? Maybe he's just a psychopath. Active imagination was an understatement. I turned to the back of the book and there were a list of dates in a chart. The first one was January 20th, 1845. Just a date. The last one, was dated back to about a month and a half ago. So this kid liked calendars? Collecting dates interesting hobby but I wasn't here to judge. I was here for answers.

I looked through some more of the brutal drawings. In one the boys right arm was being carved into and that must be how the design appeared. Once again, the graphic drawn had been excruciatingly detailed.

"What are you doing?" A manly voice said from behind me. I froze. I didn't even need to turn around to realize Jay had busted me. I didn't hear the door open or close, or footsteps. I didn't need to, none of those clues that someone was coming could've helped me now. I felt my chest tighten and I couldn't force the air out of my lungs to allow me to continue breathing. "Give me the book." He said reaching his arm over my shoulder. I felt the coldness of his arm as it reached over, and lightly grazed my right shoulder. He was grabbing the book but I pulled it away. I don't know why but I did. He reached farther and I looked down at his right arm that was trying to grab it. The sleeve of his leather jacket was rolled up and I saw his forearm. It had the same scars as the boy. The carvings, they were there, on his arm.

The boy in the drawings, was Jay.