Take Me Tomorrow

Chapter 17: He Was Watching Me

"Tasia will cover for me," he kept repeating as if he was convincing somebody of it.

I doubted he had an identity at all anymore. He was stuck as Noah Tomery, and I hadn't been able to sleep, knowing he was in my house. Now that I wasn't home, I had fallen asleep only to dream about his life. The dream was so clear that I wondered if that's what tomo users experienced while they were on the drug, but I didn't know. I would never take tomo. Never.

I glanced around the stifling assembly room, avoiding Lily's eyes. It was the first day we were allowed back in our school since Homecoming, but we were shuffled into the gym for a meeting. I had yet to have an opportunity to talk to Lily in private, but I knew she would deliver bad news. Miles was nowhere to be seen, and he wasn't the only one.

Half of the student body was absent. From what the teachers had told us, they were still being questioned. According to rumor, most of them weren't getting in trouble. The police were convinced the kids had taken it unknowingly, that someone had dropped the drug into our drinks, but I knew it was a lie. Everything was.

"I am deeply disturbed by the actions that took place Saturday night," Phelps spoke without a microphone as if to prove how domineering he could be. Even in his older age, he held his shoulders high. His voice took up the room. His entire presence did. In fact, if I wasn't watching him speak myself, I would've thought he sat right beside me. It had always been that way. 

I had met him too many times to count. My memories were filled with him. He had even eaten dinner at our house, just once, but once was enough. He was a person who could memorize your soul with just a fleeting glance—and make you memorize his too. When he shook my hand, he shook me. I should've known then that my dad's occupation hadn't come naturally, but I couldn't have ever guessed the truth. Perhaps I was blinded by our history.

As a child, I saw Phelps regularly. At one point, he even bought me gifts. A teddy bear here, a jeweled comb there. In my mind, he loved us because my father was his best employee; that was why he let my father get away with weapon building. But Phelps didn't let my father get away with it. Phelps didn't know. I suppose Phelps only stopped making appearances because he thought he knew Dwayne Gray, believed he understood how to control him, was convinced he manipulated the criminal enough. Phelps was wrong about my father. It was something we had in common. That in itself gave me goosebumps, but today the hair on my neck stood up from listening to him. He was electric.

"Unfortunately," he emphasized every syllable, "many will be punished, some of which already have."

Phelps moved his eyes over Lily and me despite our seat at the top of the bleachers. A squeak escaped Lily's lips, and I squeezed her fingers together as if to order her silence. As far as I knew, she was oblivious just as I had been, but I couldn't let her stick out any more than she already had. She had coordinated the party, after all.

"We know your student body president did not prepare for this," he referred to Lily as he turned away. "But we will be pursuing any student or family that seems to be involved with this silly party drug." Noah. "After all," he continued, "the drug is a hallucinogenic—nothing more." A lie we collectively had been told since the massacre. "The drug is potentially fatal, and we—as the Topeka Region—will see to it that this drug is completely destroyed. It is our responsibility as the home of the State."

Phelps paused, and the entire room buzzed with a weak applause. Everyone in the room knew something—or someone—that would give Wheston Phelps reason enough to end everything. He had already taken lives, but that wasn't his goal this time. He needed to destroy the drug, not us, but he needed us in order to do it.

He turned around in a slow circle. "After careful consideration, we decided to cancel school for one week as we continue our investigation. Those we need to speak to should've gotten notices from their teachers, and we encourage everyone to come forward if they have any information. Anyone who has information that doesn't come forward will be seen as complicit to the crime, and they will be treated as criminals upon discovery. You are all dismissed."