Hamilton Academy: He's Always Watching

Part Two ~ Chapter Thirteen

“What happened to the Matt I once knew, the Matt who was so carefree and would crack a joke every second or two?”

-Amy

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I woke up with a pounding headache, the memories of last night coming back to me with a painful slam. I still couldn’t believe that the minute we were about to open that box, the whole place had went up in flames. What had been so important in that box that we had almost died?

Last night when I had gotten back to my cabin, both Tanya and Nancy were awake. They were peering out the window at the fire, watching as firetrucks arrived and started to hose the place down. Both Julia and I tried to sneak in unnoticed, but that didn’t work.

“You’re okay!” Tanya came and embraced us into a giant hug. She then pulled back and gave me a weird look. “Wait, are you okay?” I could sense that she smelled the soot on my skin, and my charred face probably wasn’t much of a help.

I waved aside a hand. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just fell trying to get back through the woods, Julia and I were at the dining hall for something to drink…”

“Okay…” But Tanya didn’t seem too convinced.

“More importantly,” I said, trying to change the subject, “what is going on outside?!”

“No idea,” Nancy said, leaving her gaze from the window. “We both got back here and saw that Kathryn’s cabin was ablaze. Quite strange if you ask me, that Kathryn died and now her cabin’s burning down…”

“Huh,” I gave a nervous laugh. “That’s quite a coincidence.”

Julia sent me a look, and I decided to shut my mouth. “I’m tired,” I mumbled. I flopped down on my bed and pulled some sheets above my head. “Night guys.”

“But the fire-” Tanya protested, worry in her voice. But I pretended not to hear her, drifting off into sleep.

But I guess I couldn’t get off that easy, because the minute I got out of my bed in the morning, Tanya bombarded me with information. “Guess what!?”

“What?” I groaned, clutching my head.

“Kathryn’s whole cabin was burned down to the ground! There is absolutely nothing left, just a bunch of ash!”

Hearing this news, I ran to the window and peered outside. Sure enough, there was only a sad little pile of ashes that was once Kathryn’s cabin. My heart lurched as I saw this, it was as if all memories of Kathryn were trying to be pulled away from me.

“I’m going to go take a shower,” I muttered, grabbing my towel and a pair of nice, clean clothes that weren’t covered with soot. As I locked the bathroom door, memories of me blacking out and falling flashed in front of my eyes. I gripped the side of the sink to stop myself from swaying. A little part of me was even more terrified than before, knowing the incredible power of Mr. Grey was even worse than I thought. I had almost died last night. If Andrew hadn’t carried me out, I would’ve. I had to give that boy more credit than I’d been giving him… Maybe he wasn’t that bad.

Suddenly, I remembered that night when he had run out of the dining hall for absolutely no reason. When I had to burn his secret before Mrs. Grey read it. The secrets Andrew was hiding.

Huh. He was so strange.

***

At breakfast, I greeted my friends with a happy smile, sitting down with my pancakes and hot chocolate. No, I wasn’t close to being happy, but my shower had made me feel refreshed and right now that was all I needed.