The Little Dove #3 ✔️

20. The Divergent Nightmare

My phone vibrates again, I gasp out in shock, my legs numb as I stumble with the bag in my hands and my trembling thumb that answer Lorraine's call, I shake ceremoniously when I place the speaker to my ear, "Thank the Lord, Melanie. What took so long to return our call?" She says, bubbly. Cheerfully.

My chest is in the dirt.

"Melanie."

What the hell did I just see?

I knew there was something wrong with her, but I thought it had something to do with Professor Forthright, I was so damn sure that there was something going on there, the way she looked at him, she was...obsessed, in love, maybe.

"Melanie? Are you there?"

Maybe...No, Professor Forthright is guilty of something, and so were Claude Borne, and Principal Jewel. She's sleeping with a student.

What does Claude Borne have to do with this? Why is he in the middle of this? He sounded like a good man, like a respectable student. He was anything but. Why was he a part of this messy, sticky maze of horrifying nightmares and murders? What was this?

"MELANIE!"

What did this have to do with Professor Forthright? Why would Principal Jewel, sleep with a student, when she was clearly in love with another teacher, a professor, a fucking creepy one?

"Speak to me, please. What's going on?"

What was going on? This made no sense. Everything was connected, but it was impossible to attach those red threads, to see that network that I couldn't untangle in my head. Professor Forthright was at the centre of this, he had those files, he attempted to use hypnosis to hide his true feelings, his delusional feelings.

"Melanie, take deep breaths-slow breaths. Speak to me, where are you now? Damnit Mel, if you can hear me, speak up." Lorraine snaps at me.

I take a shaky breath, "I'm going to have to call you back." I tell her, ending the call before she could say anything else.

What if it was Claude who tried to make me fall in the library that one time? What if it was him who broke into my room? I didn't recognise the voice though, it was familiar but nothing clicked when I had heard the bastard speak to me after hurling me across the room like a banshee. Claude couldn't fit in that peep-hole, in Professor Forthright's office. It was small, thin; thin enough for someone my size.

I swallow, looking back over, to the main hall, Professor Forthright was on that terrace, I saw his profile as he looks out, watching something out below, in the dark. I ignored the intent look on his face, that was before I heard voices down below and I trailed my eyes towards the bridge, where I catch Edmund standing on the bridge, wearing a dark coat and just staring straight out into the water.

I watch Lorraine jog over to him, and obviously the rest of his group behind him, because Erik stands. I can't hear exactly what she says, but it instantly has Edmund's attention, he turns to her. The look on his face, something between concern and rage, I wasn't sure.

I turn away, moving back towards the forest when something silver glints in the pale moonlight, I step over towards it, kneeling down on the damp grass, using my sleeve to pick up the small anklet, when I read Bella's name engraved on the stem of the strange design, I clench my jaw, just as my phone vibrates in my other pocket. I stand in the grass, moving through on the side of the path, not the path itself back towards my car.

It was quiet, almost too quiet and there was no way for me to silence the engine that I was forced to rev to life, I reverse from the grass and back onto the road in a quick, swift movement.