Fear Games

7. I'm Back

KAEL

When the naked pictures of myself leaked online because of my bullies, I thought that was the worst thing that was ever going to happen to me. Then, shortly thereafter, my friends and I were kidnapped and taken to an underground bunker where I watched one of my closest friends get his head blasted off in front of me, and we were left for dead. When we we were released and finally got to go home to our families, I thought that my nightmares were over. I thought that I would finally be able to say goodbye to the horrors that were happening in my life and just enjoy the rest of my freshman year, despite my humiliation.

That Monday morning I was in for a rude awakening. As I was sitting in the courtyard with German, my only remaining friend in my group, and my girlfriend, Arya, we were talking about the Fear Games and what it was like losing both Harlin and Freddy in different ways.

"It's just so weird," Arya said. "Why would Harlin be helping the killer? What kind of motive does he have?"

"I guess that's what we have to figure out," I said. "I just can't believe he would be part of all of this, especially helping them kill Freddy. All of us were just so close..." My voice trailed off because I didn't quite know what else to say. It was awful, everything that was happening, and I felt somewhat responsible for it. I kept telling myself that if none of them were friends with me, that none of this would have happened. But the truth of the matter is that I had no control over Harlin or what he chose to do. We didn't know his motive, but even if it did have to do with me and my family, he still made these decisions on his own. I couldn't keep blaming myself for everything, no matter how easy it was to do so.

And believe me, it wasn't difficult at all.

"I'm so sorry, Kael," Arya said as she reached out to grab my right hand. "I wish I could make all of this better for you."

"Arya's right," German said. "You don't deserve to carry around of all of this weight. The world isn't yours to hold on your back."

"Thank you both," I said. "I just really—" I stopped right in the middle of my sentence, my mouth dropping all the way to the ground. Looking off into the distance, I saw someone. There was no way in hell that could be who I was thought it was, could it? "Dear God, please tell me this isn't happening."

"What's wrong—?" Arya started, but stopped right when her eyes fell on the same person that I just caught a glimpse of. Then she said, "Oh shit. What the fuck is he doing here?"

German caught wind of what was going on, and they saw the guy we were looking at too. Then they said, "Oh shit is right. I thought he was expelled!"

But nope, evidently he was not. Standing off in the distance with his buddies that made my life hell while he was gone was my bully, Brett. He was dressed in khakis, a blue polo shirt, and his hair was slicked back, but no amount of nice dressing would show me that he was a different person. He was a monster and the fact that he was back here after what he did to me made my skin crawl.

He must have noticed us staring, because his head turned and he smirked at us. Then he started walking right over toward our table.

"Crap," German said, "should we try to run?"

"No," I said, planting my feet firmly on the ground. "I'm not running away from him."

When he reached our table, he said, "Hello, Kael. Nice to see you're still alive, even after the Fear Games, huh? It's quite a shame. When I first heard there was a victim, I hoped it was you."

"I see you haven't changed a bit," I said, smirking right back at him, even though inside my heart was ready to burst out of my chest. "I thought you were expelled."