Shattered (The Academy)

Chapter 29: Skull.

When I wake up, the first thing I notice is the warmness of the covers over me. In this moment, it's like time gets frozen, just for a little bit. Just for a little while, where I feel calmness and a good night sleep.
  And then is over.
Something explodes in my mind, almost like a car hiting another. Something so violent, so fast and breathtaking. Images. Words.
  I remember.

North's point of view.

We all stayed the night, except for Mr. Blackbourne because it's still hard and Dr. Green because he had work to do. He asked us to call him when Sang woke up, though. He worries. We all do.
We are all in love.
How the fuck did this happen? When did we fall this fast, this deep, this unexpected. When did this happen? I try to look back in time and realize the first time I noticed I had feelings for this little girl, but I can't exactly remember. All I can see is her green bright eyes looking up at me, the moment they changed from fear to trust. The sweetness.
I remember me picturing myself touching her mouth with my finger tips. Touching her hair. Hiding my face in her neck, breathing her in.
  There is still this small tension between us.
Now, looking at the rest of my brother, I catch them looking at everybody else, thinking the same as me. Sang.
"Are we broken?" Luke asks. He left her room after Mr. Blackbourne left. I guess I'm not the only one who can't handle it too well.
"Not broken" Kota says, pushing his glasses up to the bridge of hos nose "Cracked. A bit"
"That's bullshit" Gabriel speaks up "We are a family. We can't be cracked!"
Kota sighs.
"I agree with you, Gabe. I do. But we have to admit right now we're..."
"She kissed me" Luke interrupts.
For a moment, there's a silence.
Then the monster inside rises.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?"
"She kissed me!"
"SHE IS DRUGGED!"
"So a girl has to be drugged to kiss me? Thanks for the tumbs up, bro!"
"Fucking shit" Gabriel mutters, pacing back in fort in front of Victor, who looks heartbroken and empty. Silas looks as mad, but dissapointed and sad.
Kota counts, watching as we crumble down.
Is falling all we know?
And then, as fast as it began, it's over. There is no noise in the room but heavy breathing and broken hearts.
"She chose him" Kota breathes in "It's the end"
"No" Luke stands up, shaking his head "I can't. Not if this means... I can't"
"I thought we had something" Says Nathan.
"We had something" Gabriel mutters "I was so sure"
"We need to get ourselves together now " Kota says "The only thing that is sure for now is that we need to get her help right away, our feelings are... Sang?"
Looking up to the stairs, I see her naked feet going down. She isn't looking at us. She is crying.
Helpless.
"Sang Baby?" I walk to her slowly, ready to hold her in my arms . But when she sets her eyes on me, I freeze.
She looks right through me. There is no a warm glitter in her eyes the way it used to be. Her eyes don't recognize me: They look at me just like I was a piece of forniture.
Is she someone else now?
"Sang?"
She keeps quiet, walking straight to the door at the end of the room. The basement.
"Sang?" Kota intervenes "Is that your name?"
"I remember"
It's just a whisper, but it echoes through the room.
"What is what you remember?" Luke gets close to her, and the monster inside wants to rise once again, but  I can't. I know I can't.
"Marie!" She cries, opening the basement door and dissapearing. We share just one look before following after her.
When my eyes get used to the darkness, I see her standing looking down at her feet in the wooden floor. The little light through the small window at the top of the wall allows me to see her face. In pain. Broken.
"Is here" She mutters, her tears rolling from her face until the teardrops hit the wood.
"Princess, talk to us" Victor begs.
"Is here!"
Sang drops to her kness and starts hitting the wood in front of her, scratching it, looking for something. Silas and I hurry to her side and hold her before she hurts herself.
"Marie! I'm sorry!"
"North, Silas" Kota starts, his voice bossy "Take her upstairs and try to calm her down. Nathan, look for something to lift that wood. I think there's something underneath"
Silas and I go upstairs, carrying a crazed paranoic Sang. She is... she is starting to scare me.
"I never ment it!" She yells.
"Aggelle mou, hold on!"
Then we hear a crack and turn our heads back to see the guys staring at something in the whole. Luke takes his shirt off and wraps it around his hand, tucking it in. Then outt.
There is a human skull.
"It was Shannon" Sang mutters "It was Shannon"
And then she fades away.

Mr. Blackbourne's point of view

"I will admit I am to blame for the reckless decision I have taken, but as you well know we are a family and... No"
  I rip off the page of the notebook and throw it away in the can.
I don't know how I'm gonna fix this family. I don't know how she has sneaked into them. And I don't know who I am if I'm not able to fix it. I have to fix it. There must be a way. And until now, my speechs aren't working. My speeches always work.
  I have to apologize. To North, to the rest of the team, to that little girl. Even when I don't like her a lot right now.
  I will not allow anyone to break us. Not even someone I owe.
This is the true.
My phone rings. I doodle over another notebook page , not even bothering to see the ID caller.
"Hello" I rush it, the ink of my pen leaking in drops on the paper.
"Mr. Blackbourne" Mr. Lee is on the other side, soundind really bad.
I let the pen fall.
"Mr. Lee?"
"You need to come right away here. Mrs. Sorenson was right: Sang killed Marie. We found a human skull underneath the wooden floor. Sang says she remembers, and it's Marie's"
The pen rolls over  my desk and falls on the floor.
"Mr. Blackbourne? It's time. We need to get her help. We need to get her into a clinic"
"I'm on my way".

Sang's point of view.

I cry on North's chest while he holds me tight. Some other hands run through my hair, but I don't see whose.
I don't wanna see no more.
"I'm sorry" I hear a voice whispering in deep "You had to know. I'm sorry for the memorie"
All their voices sound the same, just like mine, but I'm guessing that's Shannon, with her sweet and sorrowful tone. Shannon, who killed my sister. Shannon, who is a part of me.
Is every part of me this sick, this deadly, this horrible?
"And you will know"  Jojo says.  She has that empty voice, voidness, hardness. Maybe that's why I know, they know, even when our voice is the same "It wasn't only her memory  you got. It was mine"
Then it flashes once again  behind my eyes: Burning her bones, burying it. But it's not complete. I know it. There are only scenes of a part, one I can't unlock.
"Let's not rush it"  Jojo says "Breathe deep. Stop crying"
The flash is now gone, but I force myself to remember it, to bring it back. Me hiding the skull underneath the floor after washing it carefully. Me cleaning the blood. Trying to make it look normal. A good crime scene.
The perfect crime scene.
A noise makes me jolt. Is the door opening and a suitcase falling to the floor.
And I see the face I wasn't expecting.
"Father?"
He looks at me, but that's the only recognition I get before he looks at the boys on my house, at North holding me.
"I leave you home alone for a few weeks and you become a whore?"
Hos words shock me.
"What?"
North gives me to Silas to hold me and stands up, standing straight.
"Your daughter is not a whore and  I won't allow you to cakl her that way"
"Who the fuck are you to allow me or not? Get out of my house"
Kota faces him too.
"We are her friends. We don't think it'a whise to leave her in this state"
"I will handle my daughter. Now diasapear before I call on the cops. I imagine you won't like a permanent record"
Around me, I see them starting to work up. Angry faces, fists, frowns.
"We will go" Kota says "But we care about her, and we'll come back"
They hugh me or kiss me before leaving. When my father closes the door and take his tie off, he looks at me, finally.
"Let's make some tea" He nods towards the kitchen, and I can barely believe it. Is he... is he caring about my tears? Are we gonna talk?
I sit on a chair as he boils watee and hands me a kleenex.
"Wanna talk about it?"
I'm breathless.
Speachless.
Yes, yes! No, wait. What to say?
"I... There were some mean girls at school"
He nodds, taking and apple and a knife, cutting it into pieces. He... remembers? That's what I do. I cut an apple in pieces and eat it until tea is ready. He remembers? He payed attention?
Happiness bursts in me.
"What did they do?"
"They just... They don't like me. I think they think I'm weird"
He nods, still cutting the apple.
"School is hard" comments.
"Yeah"
Now what, now what? Think, Sang! He cares!
"Maybe they're just jelous" He says.
"Of what?"
"You're pretty"
"But all the other girls are gorgeous"
He smiles lightly, shaking his head.
"You look just like your mother"
I arch an eyebrow.
"Mom? I don't look..."
Ans then something clicks: Mom is alive, but he never knew. Did he? Mina did this, but what's his version of the story?
  He catches my eyes, and I think I see something in them, but I don't think I know what it is.
"Can you get the mint tea out of the cabinet?"
I stand up  and get to the cabinet, but dad's tea is on the top and I can't reach it, so I have to take a chair and stand on it.
  I never saw it coming.
A knife stabs my lower back.