Freaks

17 • mythos

The entire process typically ran longer than the suggested approximate of 30-40 minutes, but luckily, with the low number of students at the DA, everyone is done well before breakfast is served.

At the exit, waiting by the door for me, are Markus and Willow, who had already had their check-ups.

Markus looks tired and bored while Willow like she might explode if she didn't say what was on her mind.

"Have you heard?" is the first thing she says when I'm close enough.

I tilt my head to the side curiously. "Heard what?"

We let Markus lead the way, walking slightly in front of us. Not too far behind us is Logan, though he wouldn't join our group— he maintains a slow pace until Cass catches up with him, after which they both silently agree to maintain a certain distance away from us.

"The boy in the basement," Willow elaborates.

Oh.

Cole.

I force myself to keep on walking forward and not reveal my true emotions. In a leveled voice, I reply, "Not more than everyone already knows."

I don't know why I don't tell her everything. That I'd actually seen him, that I knew who he was. (Or well, I did at one point.) I don't know why, but I am overcome with the urge to keep the little snippet I know to myself. For some reason, I wanted Cole to be my secret.

Because without even showing his face, Cole had already become the stuff of legends.

It had not been so bad last semester. Towards the end, everyone was too excited over the prospect of getting back home for the news to properly circulate, but over the holidays, somehow, it did. No one knew a lot— most knew barely anything at all, but everyone knew enough to formulate their own theories, to fabricate their own intricately woven mythos of lies on the history of Cole the Mysterious Boy of the Basement.

Frankly, you'd have to have been dead for the last four weeks to not have heard about Cole.

"I heard he isn't on the system, at all. They have no idea who he is, except he's one of us."

"One of us?"

"She means a freak," Markus contributes. "Though, Wil, it could all be gossip. Has anyone even seen the guy? If he does exist, I pity him."

Willow blushes, embarrassed. "I'm just saying what I heard." She shrugs. "I pity him too. Allegedly he was here all Christmas."

"He... didn't go home?" I ask hesitantly. I couldn't imagine how it felt, being stuck here at a correctional facility for wayward freaks all Christmas. He must have gotten lonely...

"Home can be a difficult place to go when you can't remember where that is."

To my surprise, that reply comes not from Willow but Cass.

It is an offhanded comment as she sidles past us, dragging Logan along with her into the breakfast queue, but it makes me think. There was a chance Cole couldn't remember anything. Not even me — but no, my subconscious reminds me, he'd said your name, remember?