THE REST OF MY FOREVER

22: The Death of Buz Susa (Part B)

Eyes... so many eyes. Perhaps, too many; all staring through me. I noticed Brenda was absent from the scene. Her presence may have welcomed me to the circle a little better. However, it appeared I had no choice. My legs took it upon themselves to carry me toward the group, and I found myself reaching out to hold hands.

Sharon flinched away from my chilly palm at first, but quickly recovered. Caleb was on my other side, his face lacking any genuine emotion. Our link completed circle, and people casually adjusted their gazes away from me. Many of them were struggling to blink back tears as they bowed their heads in simultaneous prayer. Some of them prayed aloud, mumbling so low that I only caught bits of what they were saying.

AJ stood across me. He squeezed the hands he held so hard that veins appeared from his arms. After what must have been an entire minute, his eyes flew open and he allowed the rest of his muscles to relax. He looked directly into my eyes with raw innocence, and I shut my own to escape the stare. My lips moved randomly as I pretended to pray.

Once everyone had finished, the circle disbanded and the eeriness vanished. Conversations kicked off as normal- the foggy eyes and snotty noses freshly cleared. I was back to being the pariah.

"Leon," a voice came from behind me. Brenda. "Can we talk?"

For the love of zombies, could this day get any more tense? I choose to believe we are all familiar with the tiny heart attack which always follows these words.

"Sure."

Her face displayed no sign of its usual warm radiance. She was pale, her eyes devoid of true happiness. Instead, they were laces with red. Although her gaze remained steading like nothing was wrong, the skin of her cheeks was marred by streams of dried tears. This was happening because of me, yet she would run to 'Chase' every time. I was eliminating people who stood between me and her, but I could not bring myself to even consider murdering Charles.

Hopefully, this would not all be in vain.

"Do you think we could talk somewhere a little more private?"

"Umm... okay. If we must."

She walked in the direction of the door, supposedly leading me to wherever we were going to talk. We walked down the hallway to the library. I hadn't been in there for months, so the crisp silence of the room caught me off-guard. It smelled mostly of paper, along with the distant echo of feminine perfume. This was certainly going to serve as a good place to plan more murders.

There were a few A-Level students studying at a desk, so engrossed in their books that they seemed unaware of our presence. I followed Brenda to what appeared to be the History section, which was located at the back of the room. No one who entered the room would be able to see us straight away.

"Kusano left something for you," she said, pulling out a piece of paper. "She wrote it yesterday, I think."

I took it from her, but did not bother to unfold it. The sight of it hardly stimulated curiosity. I was more interested in Brenda, who, for an obvious reason, still looked furious with me.

"Hey, I'm sorry for what I said on the call the other day."

"It doesn't matter." She wanted to walk away. Too soon.

"Yes, it does. I was being insensitive and, to be honest, extensively bitter."

"Basically, being a jerk?"

Her comeback got a grin out of me.

"Uhh, yeah. I would never have put it like that, but-"

"But it's the truth."