by Eden O'Neill
I had no idea what the fuck he was talking about, and when I tried to bite him, he literally grabbed my mouth. This accompanied a quick punch to my face, knocking me out enough where my head sagged and I groaned.
I choked, hacking, as he tied my ankles to the train tracks. He got my wrists next, muttering to me the whole time.
“The fire should have worked,” he said, over and over. “The fire… Why didn’t the fire work?”
“What fire?”
He barely listened to me, shaking his head and making the job he did on my wrists extra tight. His jaw clenched. “The fire should have worked. It should have taken care of all this, but he got you out. The little shit got you out.”
My eyes widened, the tears blinking down my face. “You started the fire at the vet clinic?”
He shot me nothing but another wild look, all he needed to do to prove I was right. He’d tried to kill me…
What. The. Hell…
“You came for your sister. You…” He stopped, his loose hair whipping all over. He pushed it away, going back to my ankles to double-bind them. “I told you to stay away, but no. You and your goddamn sister…”
My sister?
He bound my ankles so tight I feared he’d snap them. I whimpered, but that only got me a kick to the kneecaps. I screeched and immediately weight pinned me. Principal Hastings pressed a finger to my lips, a rough, salty finger as he hovered over me.
My stomach rolled, on the cusp of vomiting, and his hand moved from my mouth to my throat.
“You’re making me do this,” he said, frowning. “Both of you.”
“Do what?” The words shook from my lips, and his finger returned there.
He tsked. “I told you to stay away from Royal Prinze. That he would get you in trouble. You’re so much like her… Always in trouble and putting your nose in things that have nothing to do with you.”
“What—”
He shushed me again, more crazed muttering as he sat beside me. Propping his legs up, he rested elbows on them, shaking his head. “The Prinzes… so elite, aren’t they?”
The tears fell down the sides of my face, the sun in my eyes, as I realized the open air and where we were. I was at Route 80, on train tracks at Route 80. My sister died here.
Would I die here?
I closed my eyes, every ounce of my body quivering. “Principal Hastings… please.”
No way was he listening to me, not listening to anything, but eventually, he faced me. He frowned again. “They think they own the world but do nothing but cause trouble. You should have stayed away from him.” A chuckle curled his lip up, a complete fucking loon. “He made your sister believe she was a god. That she could take anything she wanted. That she could take what’s mine…”
“What’s yours?”
Finally, I got his attention, and when he shifted on top of me this second time, I believed I actually would vomit, right in his goddamn face.
Long fingers folded over my mouth, biting into my cheeks. “She was mine, and look what you made me do to her? You’re always looking at me, Ms. Lindquist. Always looking…”
A finger drifted over my lips, and I shuddered. He touched my throat. “Daisy loved me, you know? We were together. We were in love, and I did everything for her. Messed up things with my wife…” He gripped my throat, squeezing slightly. “I did everything.”
He leaned in, and I closed my eyes, his hot breath on the shell of my ear.
“Your sister only stood in the way of that,” he said. “I told Daisy we could be together. I told her I just had to leave Lena. She could leave her husband, and we could be together, but then your goddamn sister and her Prinze god complex!”
My eyes squeezed tight, not believing what I was hearing. I couldn’t be hearing this.
The hand around my neck gripped tighter. “So I took care of it,” he said, my breath leaving me. “I took care of everything, our obstacles… I got rid of the only thing between us, but it still wasn’t enough. Daisy didn’t want me. She’d been with your sister… she didn’t want me.”
My mouth trembled, my head shaking. “You… You murderer!”
The words didn’t leave long before the hand around my throat squeezed, cutting off all sound. Principal Hastings guided my head over via my neck, his nose and mouth against my ear. “And you knew that, didn’t you? You knew. You’re always looking at me. Always looking, seeing the truth…”
“I didn’t. I don’t. I swear.” And I didn’t. Not until now.
I thought back to those stares I recalled him giving me. Every “look” I gave him, he obviously interpreted as something else, every glance his own goddamn guilt. He took my sister out and thought I found out his secret.
He gave himself away.
Ignoring me, his head whipped again, his crazy hair just as insane as he was. He didn’t believe me, and now, considering the obvious, that didn’t matter. He showed all his cards here today. He squeezed my throat again. “I really didn’t want to kill your sister, Ms. Lindquist. I didn’t want to. She left me no choice, and Daisy… I didn’t want to do that either.”
Either?
I struggled, those words repeated over again as he breathed them into my ear. He kept saying he didn’t want to do something, something having to do with Daisy.
Oh my God, did he kill her too?
That’d make sense, his jealousy and insanity driving him to the brink. If he couldn’t have her, he’d end her too. Just like he did my sister.
“Please.”
He responded not one word to my plea before grabbing my thigh, and I screamed, biting at him.
His punch hit again, my head slamming against rocks as he palmed my legs way too close to my shorts. He unbuttoned them, attempting to work them off, and no doubt doing exactly what he’d done to my sister and maybe even Daisy. He assaulted Paige, murdered her over Daisy and some fucked-up illusions he had in his head. This man was completely crazy, and here I was with him alone.
My life flashed before my eyes as I wriggled, as I fought with every fiber of my being. My hands and ankles bound, he got little resistance, my shorts undone and tugged down before he reached for his own. He wrestled with those for a second, and I closed my eyes, not able to look. I wanted to numb and disconnect myself from my body. I only opened them when a charged force blew Principal Hastings’s body clean off me, a blur of size and mass ending up on top of him. Immediately, a round of never-ending hits rained down on the principal’s face in a sea of punches. They wouldn’t stop, and squinting, I made out Royal’s big body in the sun.
A wash of dirty blond hair shrouded his face as he threw down punches at our principal again and again, the educator’s face turning into mashed meat. Royal pummeled him with never-ending blows while his fists became coated in dark red. Royal didn’t care. He just kept going, wouldn’t stop, and in his rage gave room for opportunity. He didn’t see Principal Hastings reaching. He didn’t see him go for the gun that was positioned right at Royal’s hip. It’d clearly been reserved for someone else, not this moment.
No…
The shot fired, and Royal’s expression blanked, my shriek lining the air as the smoking gun clouded between us. I was that close to Royal, could see the dread and fear all over his beautiful face as he fell, fell beside me.
“Royal!”
Pistol whipped for my cry, I silenced, my eyes on Royal. His eyes were on me too, the pair of us in our own world as a shadow hovered over us. We didn’t even look, only staring at each other. I wouldn’t close my eyes. I’d only look at him, those green eyes if they were going to be my last thing.
Maybe Royal felt the same way, staring at me too. I had no idea where he’d been shot, but he reached for me, taking my hand. He threaded them together, with me to the end. I flinched when another shot fired, and I believed that was it.
That was until I saw the body.
Holding his chest, Principal Hastings’s fell to his front, his face slamming gravel beside us. In shock, I t
urned to see a figure running, coming right at us and calling my name.
“December!”
My dad dropped to his knees, his phone at his ear. He was calling 911 with a gun in his hand, a smoking gun.
I faced my principal again, unmoved before turning back to Royal. He no longer had his eyes on me, his lids closed.
“Royal? Royal!” I attempted to move toward him, but my dad shouted at me to stay still. He didn’t want me to move, but I wasn’t hurt. Royal was. “Dad, I’m fine. Help him. Help Royal!”
He wasn’t listening to me, on the phone with emergency. I had to lie there, stewing in moments of wonder as I stared at my boyfriend, who lay incredibly still on the ground beside me.
I didn’t even know if he was breathing.
Twenty-Two
Graduation Day
December
A lot of people didn’t make it across that stage the day of Windsor Preparatory Academy’s graduation. A lot of people had their lives stolen away from the darkness of this town, and one of those people was my sister. She’d had an affair with a married woman and that sole decision resulted in a chain of events that I still was reeling from. The choice left people widowed, Daisy’s husband, the mayor’s chief of staff, included in that number. We found out Daisy’s life had also been taken by a madman, Principal Hastings’s jealous rage concluding in a way that not only left this town bloody but a graduation stage filled with a somber mood. Someone else’s sister had to stand on that stage and hand out diplomas, Lena Hastings left both without a spouse and a sister. She’d been designated temporary headmaster until the position could be filled in the fall, the woman so strong. She stood there with pride as if she hadn’t lost it all, her sister and dear friend betraying her. Who knew how long the affair between Daisy and Principal Hastings had gone on. It’d been long enough for him to know Daisy had been unfaithful to him, long enough for my sister to come in and get swept away in something she never should have been a part of. She ultimately paid for that decision, left so many of us behind, and Mira was also not present at this graduation. Mira, a girl I’d never been crazy about but who hadn’t deserved to die. It’d been captured on tape what actually happened to her, the footage coming out not long after the dust fell, and the true horror of who Principal Hastings was came to fruition. He had cameras in his office, ones no one thought to check until he gave the world a reason.
The world got to see everything.
They saw Mira coming to his office the day of her death. She’d gone there trying to throw, of all people, Royal under the bus because he hadn’t wanted to be with her. She’d decided to tell the Windsor Prep headmaster about the haze on my sister for not Paige’s well-being but her own. She wanted to hurt Royal, going to the one official she believed would care and help her. All that did was alert the true murderer of that night. It let Principal Hastings know someone else knew about something that went down at Route 80. It didn’t matter Mira probably knew nothing else, knew nothing about what he’d actually done in the end.
Always looking at me…
Mira became another set of eyes to him, a witness and another thread that needed to be closed. He’d strangled her, right in his office, and once that came to light, everything else fell into place. He’d broken into her house and staged her suicide, clear evidence of that after the video surveillance surfaced. He’d had all the means, her house keys, and the suicide letter even matched his own handwriting when analyzed. He’d even tried to set up Royal as the one who influenced her. It’d been him to plant Mira’s cellphone in Royal’s locker in the end.
Principal Hastings had been sloppy, careless and clearly unhinged, but no one had had reason to suspect him. That was the only reason he’d gotten away with things for as long as he had. He was sick, fucked up and twisted. He’d even kept Mira’s house keys in a treasure trove in his home…
That’s where they’d found my sister’s cell phone. It’d been there the whole time with the principal’s other tokens. He had locks of Daisy’s hair in there, underwear. It didn’t take the authorities long to find out what happened to her. She’d been found, dead like so many others, in her own home. She’d been strangled, another “suicide,” and how Principal Hastings had perfected the art. The sheriff’s office themselves even said they wouldn’t have known the difference. Principal Hastings had been skilled.
Swallowing hard, Lena read off my name on the stage, handing me my diploma in front of a gym full of my peers and our family and friends. As she handed it to me, a sheen coated her eyes, but I was sure it wasn’t for me. I had no idea how she’d handle things after all that had happened, but I hoped the best for her. She was so good, kind and didn’t deserve what had happened to her surrounding the people in her life. She shouldn’t have been married to a madman. She shouldn’t have had a sister betray her, and she shouldn’t have to do this today, but she’d at least chosen that.
“I want to make up for this,” she’d told me that night at the sheriff’s office. “Make up for him and her.”
And this was her trying, being strong. She handed my diploma to me, myself the last thread who Principal Hastings tried to shut up. I wouldn’t be shut up…
I had too many people in my corner.
I found them all out there in the audience, Aunt Celeste and my dad the biggest cheerers in the crowd. They both stood with cell phones, my dad actually smiling. He’d found me that day at the train tracks, saved me using what I’d later found out was an app. He’d snuck one onto my phone to keep tabs on me, something I couldn’t even be mad about for obvious reasons in the end. I guess Dad had been worried the days leading up to my assault, and it’d been for good reason. It turned out his employer, Mr. Prinze, had threatened him to leave town, but not overtly. There’d been flippant comments made here and there, ones that put my dad more than on edge, hence his heavy hand when it came to me and my safety. Dad later told me prior to the comments had been more threats, but in the beginning, only in nonconventional ways. Mr. Prinze had bribed him, given him gifts, bonuses, and even a car. These gifts came with conversations, ones that implied my dad could find better work and Mr. Prinze himself would give a personal recommendation if Dad ever did. The thing was, Dad hadn’t chosen to leave and that’s when Mr. Prinze got more aggressive. He cornered my dad more than a few times at work, enough to bother him. Dad had no idea why, but it all came out in court when Mr. Prinze had been forced to testify for his role in the murder of my sister. As it turned out, the man did have reasons to cover up a murder, but that had nothing to do with his son.
Mr. Prinze found out Royal and the other boys had been there out on Route 80 that night, and obviously, that didn’t look good. Mr. Prinze covered things up to protect only himself and prevent scandal. He was watching his back and only his alone, not Royal’s. Mr. Prinze admitted the whole thing in court, his hands completely bloody. He got a conviction that day, along with several others, life convictions for Principal Hastings and jail time for the sheriff as well. He’d helped with the whole cover-up, the police needed in all this, but I was sure the man had no idea how far our principal would go in the end to conceal the truth. Had he, he wouldn’t have bothered to help. The man killed the sheriff’s daughter in the end.
It’d been a long and painful trial, but one of the sweetest convictions by far had been Mr. Prinze. He was told right there his entire life as he knew it would be taken away.
And he had to do it in front of his son.
I stood as Royal’s name was called, our valedictorian. Would you know it, he had the best grades in our class despite being hospitalized for weeks. A gunshot to the abdomen wouldn’t slow him down. He had me, Knight, Jax, and LJ and even some of my friends bring him his work every day. We stayed with him, supported him until he walked again and ultimately, out of that hospital. Even then, I didn’t leave his side. I couldn’t. I’d been so close to losing him.
My boyfriend had actually jumped in front of a bullet for me. I mean, who could actually say tha
t? It just proved his loyalty to not just me, but Paige as well. I guess he did look out for me in the end.
I stood tall, clapping as Royal stepped to the podium to give his speech to our class. He wore the same dark robes we all did, but by far, filled it out in ways not even the average Court guy could do. His muscular shoulders framed the whole thing, fitted perfectly over his big body, and his blond hair was moussed and shaped divinely under his cap. Lena gave him a hug once he got up there, sharing a few words with him. Whatever they were, he smiled at her, so many smiles these days. It was like actual light came back into him once his dad was locked up and Principal Hastings had been shipped out to a high-security prison in bumfuck nowhere. Justice was finally served, and we all got to see it.
The crowd had calmed down, but I still clapped. I couldn’t stop. He deserved it so much.
Royal’s gaze made it out to me during my applause, his chin raised, and I didn’t care that only my applause radiated in that room. I’d still keep on, until my hands hurt. In my periphery, that applause was joined, and when I turned, Knight was there backing me up. His claps were boisterous, radiating in the room, and quickly followed by two more.
LJ, our salutatorian, applauded too from the stage. He sat with the teachers, Royal’s empty seat beside him. Well, once he clapped, there went Jax too. He was closer by, closer to me. Jax whistled loudly with his thick fingers, and the crowd laughed.
I found my second wind with my applause still going on, and my friends at my sides joined me. I spotted Kiki, Birdie, and Shakira with a few of our other friends from the basketball team. Court boys popped up from various seats after that, and once they stood, the whole audience did, a shower of applause. They knew what Royal had been through, what we’d all gone through to be here. We all deserved the applause, this whole town.
In the middle of it all, Royal spotted me, and once it concluded, he kissed two fingers, placing them out to me. He pointed right after, taking his spot behind the podium with his speech in hand. Stepping in front of the microphone, I knew this was finally it, the last part of himself he had to give to anyone else around here. After today, he was free.
