Torn // In Stereo (Jakob Delgado, Ethan Karpathy & Chris Lanzon)

49. |

// Chris' point of view //

Lara and I went out for the day, and we arrived back to flashing lights and sirens. As we tried to stay clear of their work, we were pulled over by Mr Thomas.

"Chris, Lara, I need you to stay here with Detective Jim. Please stay calm while we wait for Ethan." He says, gesturing to a Detective waiting behind him. I look to see his expression blank, and I can't work out what's going on.

"Follow me, please." Detective Jim announces, leading us inside the academy to a little conference room I've never been to.

Once we're inside, I'm surprised to see Jakob already sitting on one of the chairs placed in front of the desk. What the hell is going on? He's got a stare that matches the way I feel; confused and a little annoyed that we can't get answers. The detective gestures for us to sit down next to Jakob, so we do. Jakob sits on the left, Lara sits next to him and I sit next to her. The one empty chair next to me is Ethan's.

"Excuse me, but what's going on? Have we done something wrong?" Lara asks.

"No, you haven't done anything wrong. I'm just not allowed to tell you everything until all of the people listed are here. Please stay seated, I'll be back in a minute." The detective answers, walking out of the room.

"What the hell is going on?" I ask Jakob, leaning over Lara to look at him.

"I don't even know. It looks serious, and there were heaps of paramedics here before. I think someone's hurt. I've been sitting here for forty five minutes." He replies, shrugging his shoulders and looking down at the floor.

The three of us sit there for at least another half an hour. Every time someone would walk down the hallway, we'd sit up as the footsteps drew closer, but always end up slouching back down again. I can feel the impatience in the air as I sit here, Lara next to me saying nothing either.

Then suddenly the door opens, and Ethan walks in with the detective trailing behind him.

"What's going on?" Ethan mouths as he comes in and sits next to me. I shrug my shoulders slightly and watch as the detective sits at the desk, shuffling papers around. It seems to take him an eternity to open his mouth and speak.

"I have some shocking news for you four. I understand that it might be hard to hear this, but I need you to cooperate here. There's something you can have at the end of it; Something that might mean a lot to you." He says, saying each word clearly as though he was stepping on ice, and saying one thing wrong could break it, causing him to fall to death.

"I've been sitting here for almost two hours. Can you please tell us what's going on?" Jakob asks, his voice serious but still polite.

"I'm sorry for making you do that," Detective Jim looks down, taking a deep breath and fiddling with his pen before continuing, "and I'm also sorry for having to be the one to tell you that your friend, Zane Kratil, has decided to take his own life."

The room goes silent, and the air turns stale. I look to Lara who's staring at the detective, her mouth slightly open in shock.

"What happened?" I ask on Lara's behalf.

"We've come to the conclusion that he jumped off the top floor of the academy at around 5:45 this evening. I'm so sorry, but I need you to help me now."

•••

// Zane's point of view //

I've said too much, and I'll never forgive myself for it. When I was younger, I promised myself that I'd never tell; that I would keep the same lie until someone was torturing me from the truth; that even then, I'd probably just let them kill me. I had waited so long for that day, and it never came. There's no point in me taking up space and oxygen that other people deserve more. So that's what I'm going to do: save everyone else. For once, I'm going to help everyone else and get rid of myself.