Heartbeat Academy: Chapter 33

The sun guarded the ashen sky like a watchful mother on that frigid afternoon so many years ago, a thick smell of vanilla and oak wafting throughout the air, the brutish winds tugging at trees, chilling our bones and jostling the three of us around like the tepid little ragdolls we were destined to soon become.

"We couldn't have picked a warmer day to go to the park?" Mom complained, tightening her tan duffel coat around her body, acutely unaware that the man standing to her left would be dead in just a matter of days. "Honestly, now. You and your weird impulses."

"I just wanted to spend some time with you guys,” Dad said, his voice trailing off as he stared out into the distant clouds.”

“Toby, go ahead and play while I talk with your father about how to check out the weather report,” Mom said.

She looked out at the park and winced. "Omigosh!" she cried, jumping back and using Dad to shield her body. “We've got to go!”

Her sudden shift in mood perplexed both Dad and I, as we looked at each other in sheer bewilderment. "Look! Over there!" she added, pointing to a posh, blonde-haired woman standing by the swing set, her fingers curled around the leash of her pet poodle. “Do you see her? Do you see her?”

Dad nodded, taking in a deep breath of cold air. “Yes, sweetie. I see her,” he confirmed with an exhale. “What about her?”

"Her name is Cindy," Mom snarled, curling her nose, crossing her arms and turning her head in disgust. “We used to be friends back in high school. Then her mother married a pawnbroker and she became all rich and condescending. Never talked to me ever again. Bah.”

Dad chuckled, seeming to find the bitter, almost goofy look she had shriveled on her face to be amusing. "Maybe you should go up and talk to her," he suggested. "Who knows. Maybe she's changed since high school."

Mom twitched her muscles and heightened her eyebrows, scoffing audibly in disbelief. “You cannot be serious,” she bellowed, her eyes beginning to murk with tears. “Become friends again with that spoiled brat? Not a chance. Just another person corrupted by money.”

Dad sighed as Mom started for the car, muttering curse words to herself along the way. “Come on, sweetie," he pleaded with a sigh. “You're going to do that to your kid”

"Yes, I am," she said. "Money, money, money. Does anything else even matter anymore besides golden jewels and green dollar bills?”

***

Nope. The answer was simple as far as I was concerned as I readied to begin my hunt for Christmas presents, years removed from that day in the park. I needed to start a search to come up for those golden jewels and green dollar bills, and I needed to get started right away.

I went to leave my bedroom on that Saturday morning, only to be greeted by Chelsea Peters standing in the doorway, dressed in a black tank-top and blue khakis. I flinched at the sight of her tall frame and chiseled figure, sweat shining precariously off her toned, round biceps. “Hey there, Toby Chobie,” she greeted, waving a medium-sized green box in her large hands.

"Oh, uh...ha...hi,” I muttered, trying my hardest to contain my translucent shivering. “How are...the...ugh. S-sorry. You're just intimidating, is all.”

"You're the only one who thinks that," she sighed, extending the box out to me. "Here. Give this to Mr. Tyler when you see him; it's my Secret Santa present.”

“T-thanks,” I said, my hands trembling uncontrollably to the point where when I reached out to grab the box, it slipped onto the floor. “Ha! Whoops!”

I scooped it off the floor as fast as I could, struggling to keep my face from turning unseasonably warm. "What are you doing today? Where's Melissa?”

"She's out getting her hair done with Diana," Chelsea lamented, rolling her eyes. “They wanted me to go but...it's not my thing. So, what are you up to this morning? Trying to get Bailey to come out of her room again?”

"Actually, I was going to go look for the Goulagh brothers," I responded.

"Oh, okay. Then you'll want to head to the library. Theodore always hangs out in the library every Saturday morning."

"Guess I'm headed that direction then," I said.

"And I guess I'll go with you," Chelsea said with a shrug. “Got nothing better to do.”

***

“To be honest, I didn’t even know we had a library,” I admitted as the two of us stepped out of the main building, making our way through the forested path to the Headmaster Barnes fountain. “What’s the librarian like?”

Chelsea said nothing as we neared the heart-twisting fountain, seeming to ignore my question completely. “Toby? Why do you find me intimidating?” she asked instead. “Is it because I’m black?”

I shook my head vehemently, my mind electrocuted by the forceful shock of the bizarre question. “What? No! Of course not,” I responded. “That's ridiculous. I think it started that night where you bumped into me, and you looked like you were about to go crazy…”

“Yeah. Let’s not talk about that,” Chelsea said with a heavy breath, clutching her chest as we crossed the fountain, making our way across another cobblestone path surrounded by heavy forests. “So…the library. I’ve never actually been in there, actually. I hear stories about the place, though. Things like a teacher murdered a student there. And if you go there at night, you can still hear them screaming.”

“Chelsea, come on.”

“I also heard that sometimes Dr. Sembagh goes in there and runs out crying,” she whispered.

“You don’t really believe that stuff?” I asked. “People just like to talk. Like Mr. Tyler being a part of Mensa, that sort of thing. It’s all lies.”

“How can all of it be lies, though?” Chelsea beckoned as we neared the main building, her eyes wide and full of fear. “Some of it has to be true. Doesn’t it? Whatever, come on. The library is located in the basement of the main building; straight through the senior hallway, the stairwell at the very end.”

She marched up to the double doors and pressed her sweaty palms against the metal plate, bending over as she shut her eyes and winced in excruciating pain. “Are you okay?” I asked as she scrunched her lips and tucked her eyebrows, a look of overwhelming discomfort taking siege on her body.

I walked closer to her and extended a hand, only to be met with a stinging elbow to the chin. “Don’t touch me!” she cried as I clutched my jaw in agony, her breaths heavy and her heart pounding. “Let’s go. Library.”

We made our way in through the lobby as she paced left and right and up and backwards, nearly bumping into me once again. “H-here. Down this way,” she said as she wobbled towards the senior hallway.

“We don’t have to do this,” I evinced as we made our way through the narrow, dimly-lit hall.

“Shut up!” she shouted as her heart pounded loud enough to even be heard from feet behind her, garnering the attention of the seniors standing idly in the hall, sweat dripping from her head to the floor. “You…don’t…get it! W-we’re…we’re going to die.”

The sudden tranquility in her voice sent shivers up my spine as we reached the end of the hallway, and my heart skipped a beat. “We’re…what?”

She turned her head towards me, a wicked, almost creepy smile now formed on her manic, sweat-ridden face. She wasn’t all there; like it was another person controlling her entirely. “I know you know more about him than you think,” she said. “I’m talking about Ben.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about—”

“You hide things,” she added. “I know you hide things! And someone set us up! This isn’t about the Goulagh brothers, is it? This is about someone trying to kill us! My chest hurts! My chest hurts!”

She shook her breasts, hyperventilating as her pupils dilated and her feet kicked violently towards my direction. “Get Dr. Pam out here! I’m going to die!"

“No you’re not,” I sighed. “Just calm down…”

“Don’t tell me that! Run! It’s not safe!”

It just then hit me what was happening; I knew from my time in the hospital. I had an anxiety attack the first time I tried to look in the mirror.

I tried to my put hand on her shoulder, but she blasted off through the hall. As the seniors pointed and laughed as she disappeared out of my sight, I couldn't have helped but frown at how useless I felt. There was nothing I could have done but hope she was alright; I felt is if I had chased her down, I'd only make things worse for the both of us.

With one more daunting thing stored to the back of my mind, I turned back towards the double doors and breathed deeply.