Red Rain

Chapter 22 - Reflektor

I'm not sure what time it is when I finally get up and leave the chapel, still wiping my eyes and gulping back tears. Sometime later, I reach my room and collapse onto my bed. Honestly, I have no idea how long I stay there before Luca comes in. Two hours? Three? Time has lost all meaning for me at this point.

"Oh shit, you're back!" Luca cries, grabbing me in a bear hug - he clearly hasn't heard what's happened. "Where've you been, buddy? You never got my message? I slipped that one note in your book when they had me pack your stuff and-" He pauses. "Dude? Are you all right?"

I swallow, making my dry throat hurt for a moment. "The killer's dead."

"The killer? Oh, that guy." Luca breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank God. Was it true that Dani was one of his, um, intended victims?"

"Yeah."

"How did they know that?"

"Turns out, he was experimented on by the military, and he wanted to kill the kids of everyone he held responsible," I say. "Steve, Freddie, Penny, Paul...and he would've also gone after Dani. And Jeanne Darknell."

I curl up, looking away from Luca. "And Fionna," I add in a small voice, sniffling as the tears come again. "Fionna's dead, Luca. He...he killed her. My dad killed her."

"I thought you didn't know your dad," Luca says.

I pull out my phone and find the news article from Hell announcing the deaths of Elijah and Fionna. Elijah's picture, obviously from his military days in the late nineties, covers the top of the page, followed by what I can only assume is Fionna's latest school picture. "That's him. He was my dad - Robert Smythe said so. He was the Aqua Killer."

Luca takes a look at the article, then hands it back to me, any spark of happiness gone from his face. "You saw it happen?"

"I couldn't save her, man," I say, my voice breaking.

We sit on our beds, looking around the room for a while. "I think they're still serving lunch," Luca says eventually. "You wanna come with? Think you can hold down a sandwich?"

"No."

"I'll bring you one, then." Luca steps out. "Roast beef or Reuben?"

"Roast beef. I guess."

"Got it."

Luca closes the door, leaving me to sit in the dark room alone. I try opening the blinds, but the sunlight reacts badly with my teary eyes, forcing me to close them again.

Ten minutes later, Luca comes back with a sandwich and bag of chips on a paper plate. I graze on the lunch absently, barely taking notice of what I'm putting in my mouth. I'm pretty sure the roast beef is green - or is that the lettuce? I can't even tell.

Luca stays in the room with me for the rest of the day. We don't talk about anything else until we both get a text from the school's system, announcing that class has, again, been cancelled all this week. I text Gabe and ask if Castledown's doing the same, and he says they are. He then adds, "We did the same thing after Steve died. Guess it's only fitting that you guys returned the favor."

"Nice little show of solidarity, am I right?" I can barely even type the text. My hands are shaking like I've got Parkinson's or some other neural disease.

"Fionna's getting cremated tomorrow morning at ten. Coldfire Creek Mortuary. You gonna come?"

"Of course I am. I gotta say goodbye, don't I?"

"See you there."

I get up and look in the closet for something remotely dignified, something appropriate for mourning. I don't have a lot of non-casual clothes outside of my uniform, but I decide to go with a long-sleeved black polo and use my uniform to take care of the rest of my clothes for tomorrow.