Chapter Three | Michael

Wednesday morning brought the five together again in the school hallway during homeroom, ready for an update from Jordan on how everything went with the police station and if there was anything new to worry about. Since, for the five of them, there seemed to always be new things to worry about.

Michael walked into school with Mary, trying his hardest not to act suspicious or like he had anything to hide. He felt like he was forcing himself to act that way every day of his life at this point, but there was no getting around it: he had to be someone completely different than the football captain that the entire school knew and some of them loved. There was so much attention on him daily that he felt as if he were unable to have a moment of peace. Moments of peace were important when you were covering up murders and trying not to get kidnapped yourself.

Michael left his friends in the hallway and walked up to Mary, who was standing around with Jordan and Lindsey. The latter seemed to have replaced Kate as the third member of Mary's group, and Michael wasn't quite sure where the bubbly blonde had gone off too—most likely to join a group of friends who weren't constantly disappearing for days at a time.

Roland approached the foursome a few minutes later, head down and eyes moving nervously from side to side. Ever since he had discovered that his sister was alive and actively working against them, he hadn't been speaking much.

"I might just be paranoid, so don't take this too seriously." Mary addressed everyone else quietly, "But...do you guys feel like people have been looking at you all morning? I feel like everywhere I turn, everyone is staring at me and then they look away when I notice them."

"I agree." Michael nodded in agreement with his sister, "I feel like everyone is staring at us and trying to pretend like they're not. It's like when you see someone with bright purple hair and you're trying not to look for too long even though it's kinda cool."

"They're not looking at us like they think we're 'cool,' Michael." Jordan rolled her eyes, "They're looking at us like we're lost puppies or something. They look like they're pitying us."

Michael looked over his shoulder quickly, trying to see what they were talking about. As he did, he made direct eye contact with a girl from his physics class. She held the gaze for just a second too long before looking away, shaking her head slowly.

"I see what you mean." Michael turned back to the group, shrugging slightly, "But I don't see what we can do about it, or what it really matters."

"I just want to know why." Mary replied quickly, "I mean, Jordan did just take evidence that we knew nothing about to a detective who hates us, and we were last seen at his cabin, according to Jordan."

"Wait, what? That cabin belonged to one of the Easton detectives?" Michael asked.

"Barlow." Jordan nodded, "I gave him the evidence and he asked why we were at his cabin. He said that some weird stuff had been going on there recently and he was confused."

Michael shook his head.

"This all keeps getting more and more bizarre."

"All I'm saying is," Mary spoke again, clearly annoyed at being interrupted, "I think that we've done some pretty sketchy stuff over the past few days, and I think we should all be a little worried about it getting out."

"Guys, I think I know why everyone's looking at us." Lindsey had remained quiet during the conversation thus far, scrolling through her phone as if she didn't quite care that they could be on the chopping block for breaking multiple laws, "Look."

She held up her phone and the other four leaned in to read the news article she was holding from the Easton Times.

24-year-old Kaden Marcum was arrested early Wednesday morning from his home in Easton, Maryland. Marcum is being held in relation to the car crash on the 3rd of June earlier this year that took the lives of four of Easton's residents: 18-year-old Erin Green, 19-year-old Neil Conrad, 18-year-old Eddie Hadden, and Marcum's own younger sister, 19-year-old Victoria Marcum. A statement from the arresting officer, Detective Hayden Barlow, stated that Marcum's arrest was due to "overwhelming evidence of abuse in relationship to the death of the four teenagers last June. We are now treating what was previously deemed a hit-and-run case as a homicide investigation, thanks to evidence brought forward by an anonymous source close to the four families who had children taken from them." Detective Barlow was also the lead detective on the case back in June, when it was described and tucked away as a tragic but unsolvable hit-and-run accident.

The four leaned back and were all quiet for a moment before Lindsey spoke.

"I guess that explains it."

***

"Did you find out anything?"

Lindsey shook her head in response to Roland's question as she sat down across from him. The five had decided to meet at a small coffeehouse right outside of Easton after the school day ended, giving them slightly less of a chance of Nathan bugging the place before they even arrived. Mary had already ordered an iced coffee and Michael had ordered at least ten scones, while Roland and Jordan had waited nervously for Lindsey to arrive.

She had been charged with finding out anything she could about Kaden's case from her family when she got home from school. Michael looked at her curiously as she sat down across from him; the soccer star looked like she was simultaneously happy and terrified.

"Why do you look happy?" Jordan asked before Michael could verbalize it, "It's weird."

"I guess I'm just relieved that I'm not in Kaden's position." Lindsey replied, "Which I know is a terrible thing to say because he's my brother, but it doesn't change the fact that that's how I feel."

"Interesting." Mary cocked her head to the side, "You have a little bit of me in you."

"Whatever, Hadden." Lindsey rolled her eyes, "Basically, I was able to figure out that Kaden has a pretty high bail that my parents are trying to get together. They don't know what kind of evidence the police department has against him, but apparently it's more than circumstantial so they're all worried." She shook her head, "I don't know how to feel. I don't want my brother going to jail for something that he didn't do. But at the same time...I feel like if Kaden isn't convicted, Nathan's going to come after us even harder and one of us is going down for it instead."

The other four were silent and still, no one willing to say that they were all thinking the same thing. It was terrible to want Kaden in jail when they all knew he was innocent. But there was something about protecting yourself that made other people more expendable in your mind.

"My parents just don't think Kaden could ever have done something so horrible." Lindsey continued, "I mean, Victoria was his little sister. There was no way he would have hurt anyone if there was a chance she would be hurt as well."

"We obviously know that, Lindsey." Michael snapped, feeling his heartrate start to pick up. "Since we know he didn't actually do it."

"I know." Lindsey replied coldly, "I'm just relaying what I heard from my parents. That was my job, was it not?"

"Yeah, whatever." Michael mumbled, sitting back in his seat and shoving an entire chocolate chip scone in his mouth. "So what are we—"

His comment was interrupted by Mary's phone dinging with a text alert. He glanced over at his sister in annoyance as she sipped her coffee and rolled her eyes.

"Sorry, I'll turn it on vibrate." She picked it up and glanced at the screen before her face went white.

Michael ignored it and continued talking.

"Like I was saying, what are we going to do about—"

"Guys, we have a message from Nathan." Mary whispered, almost too quietly for anyone to understand. But the name 'Nathan' had become something of a taboo in the group, to the point that any of the five could recognize the name from a mile away.

"What does it say?" Michael asked impatiently, "It must be good if it was worth interrupting me twice for it."

Mary nodded and cleared her throat before reading it out loud.

"'Tell Jordan good job. She gets to live—for now.'"

"That's kinda stupid." Jordan spoke up, "I mean...what are they gonna do? If they kill me then you guys can take both Nathan and Erin's names and descriptions to the police. By revealing themselves, they took away their own leverage over us. We can just...turn them in."

The other four shrugged and nodded as Mary put her phone in her purse.

"I guess that's true." Roland nodded, "We don't really have to be scared of them anymore."

They all were quiet. It was strange, not feeling terrified of someone for once in the past few months.

It was a feeling they wouldn't become familiar with.

A/N: Hey guys! Real quick: if you're interested in self-publishing your own books at all, be sure to check out my latest blog post on my blog, Shelf Awareness! It's a step-by-step guide to self-publishing and how I've done it over the past few years.

-Katherine