The Boy Witch

Chapter 15

While the police officers scurried around the cafeteria, it was like the world was running around Sam in an endless tailspin, as he held an unconscious and bleeding Miles. The police gathered the students’ statements, but they could not quite wrap their heads around what had happened. The students could not explain to the officers that a teen had thrown a table at another, killing him, and then brought several victims back to life. But that is what they told the police.

Some officers removed the table from its table-shaped indent in the wall, revealing Ethan’s body, smashed against the wall. Sam was horrified. But the police, seeing the damage, could more easily believe the students’ story.

A policeman walked up to Sam and Miles. “There’s an ambulance outside,” the police officer said. “I’ll get a paramedic to pick up your friend. In the meantime, I need to talk to you.”

“No,” Sam replied, so stunned he had trouble finding his voice.

“What do you mean, ‘no’?” The officer was almost immediately irritated.

“I’m not leaving him,” Sam replied. “He’ll need me, when he wakes up.”

“Surely, we can get his parents to stay with him.”

“I don’t think so,” Sam continued, the image of Mallory drunk and passed out summoned to his mind.

“…Fine,” the officer sighed. “Let’s go outside to the ambulance.”

Sam was stuck in place for a moment, but the policeman guided him with a careful gesture. He understood why the boy was in shock and was trying to be patient. The second they stepped outside, Sam was greeted by an unforgiving sun, much too bright for the dire occasion. They quickly reached the ambulances, where the students who had been shot, but survived, were being treated.

Sam deposited Miles onto an available stretcher, and a paramedic came over immediately.

“What happened to him?” The man asked. Miles had no obvious sign of a bullet wound.

“He strained too much,” Sam replied, measuring his words. “That makes him bleed all over.”

Unsure how to respond to that, the paramedic got to work. The police officer grabbed Sam’s shoulder. “Your friend will be fine,” he said. “I have some questions for you.”

The officer tried to pull him away, but Sam would not budge. “I’m not going anywhere,” Sam let out. “I need to stay with him.” The world Miles would have to face when he woke up was a completely different one and he would need Sam’s support.

“You sure are stubborn,” the policeman sighed again. “Listen, my colleagues watched the security camera footage. Your friend… he… did some things regular people can’t do. You were there, you must know.”

Sam nodded quietly. He was careful with what he admitted.

The police officer continued. “He threw that table at the shooter with his mind… And he seemed to have brought back students to life. Including you. Do you remember getting shot?”

Sam nodded again.

“And you jumped to him. You stopped him. Do you know what’s going on?”

This time, Sam shook his head no, lying.

The police officer scowled. If there was one thing he disliked, it was a lack of cooperation. And liars. But if Sam did not want to talk, there was not much he could do. Sam was too focused on his friend, being treated by the paramedic.

***

After the police arrived, so did the news crews. They tried to make sense of what had happened, taking testimony from witnesses, who all had stranger stories than the other. But they all had the same elements in common. The shooter shot the basketball players, and then shot the tall, copper-haired boy, and then the short blond boy threw the table at the shooter, killing him, before proceeding to seemingly bring the victims back to life.