The Garden of What Once Was

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Throughout the day, Jared couldn't stop thinking that there was a lack of a certain blue-haired vampire. That vampire would be Casper. There was no trace of him anywhere in school. That studious teacher's pet would never miss a single day of class. Neither would he leave without saying anything. His disappearance was just too odd for Jared to brush it off. Though Jared already had his suspicions about who was responsible for Casper's lack of a presence.   

"Time to give that sonuvabitch a good ol' smackdown," Jared trilled happily.

With the thought of punching Cohen dancing around his head, he roughly kicked open Cohen's door, breaking the lock. The dorm was empty with no ginger in sight. Unlike Jared, Cohen was still attending his last period of the school day. His whole badass entrance was completely ruined. He clicked his tongue, thoroughly disappointed in his poor timing. As he sulked over the lost opportunity of seeing Cohen shit his pants when he barged into the dorm, he looked at the various paintings hung on the walls. While Ember had been enamored by the beautiful paintings, Jared only snickered.

    "Seems like this guy has an obsession with foxes," He thought out loud as he did a full 360, scanning the paintings that hung around the whole room. "It's fitting though. That cunning fucker is exactly like a fox."

    Jared stopped his eyes on a painting hidden behind a bureau resting against the left wall. It was sort of stuck between the wall and the oval shaped mirror. He slid his hand through the small space, grabbing the painting. For once, this painting didn't have a fox in it. Instead, there was a coyote walking beside what looked to be a person, except the upper body of this person was missing. A hole was created where their upper body should have been, and it looked like it was done on purpose. From the figure, Jared guessed it was a woman depicted in the painting. Behind the woman and the coyote was a vast forest with a moonlit sky above. Jared let out a little laugh as he noticed a fox peeking out from behind a tree in the background. It seemed like there were foxes in every single painting in this room.

    He cleared his throat, realizing that he was actually taking a liking to this painting. "Yeah, this one is shitty too."

    Trying to act as if he didn't like the painting, he let it drop down to the floor. He glared down at the painting, repressing the urge to pick it back up and place it nicely on the bureau. As he stared at it, he noticed the initials on the corner of the painting weren't C.A.. Rather than being C.A., it was S.S.. This prompted Jared to pick the painting back up. He turned it over to reveal a message written in loopy letters on the back. I love you to the moon and back - Selene. A crescent moon was drawn next to the name. The distinctive curls at the ends of the moon were strangely familiar. He could have sworn he saw that same drawing somewhere around the school before. Before Jared could figure out where, the door was pushed open to reveal a not-so-pleased Cohen. His uniform was a mess. Two buttons were missing from the top of his white collared shirt and his sports jacket was hanging off of one shoulder. Judging by the blood dripping down Cohen's nose, someone had gotten to Cohen before Jared. This should have angered Jared since he was the one who was supposed to beat up Cohen, not some other person. Instead of angering him, it only made him surprised. The source of his shock was coming from Cohen's watery eyes. It looked as if he was on the brink of tears. Now that was something Jared would pay thousands to see. He smirked, waiting patiently for Cohen to notice him. Once Cohen did, Jared was sure that Cohen would start crying. Much to Jared's displeasure, Cohen brushed past Jared like he wasn't even there. In response to this, Jared turned on his heels with a scowl, did I somehow gain the power of invisibility overnight? While Jared stared Cohen down, Cohen nonchalantly threw his jacket onto the bed. His eyes landed on Jared, yet he didn't say a word. He only cast them away before stripping off his shirt. Another wave of shock went over Jared. Cohen was absolutely jacked, even more than Landon who had a six pack. His muscles rippled with the simple movement of placing his shirt on top of his jacket on the bed.