Chapter 2 A Hero’s Heart

Elias pov

"Tell me you're finally done playing hero please..."My roommate Henry muttered passing me another fist-sized cotton ball. I accepted it with a half smile and pressed it against my wound that was thankfully not deep enough to demand stitches.

"Not until justice is served!"I say with a dramatic flair and it looks like he wants to put his head through the wall or maybe mine instead.

"You're hopeless," he says shaking his head, and slumping on his bed, "Just make sure she doesn't end up as another Marne,"

The smile wiped off my face in a flash, Henry picked up on it and apologized.

"Come on, Bro, it was a joke lighten up,"

"Maybe I would if I saw that punchline,"

Henry sighed, "Goodnight, I'm saving my energy for calculus tomorrow,"

He fell asleep but I remained wide awake, thinking of Eloun Reed.

Why did she stab me? I thought we'd become friends. Just this morning she had texted me; "Meet me at the haunted auditorium, 9 o'clock sharp. I know what happened to Marne!"

I came and decided to tease her a bit, I never thought it would end with her hairpin in my thigh.

All of it felt like deja vu.

It reminded me of Marne, and the last time I saw her.

"Marne, could you help us with your English homework? We're in a bind," Jessica one of Haley's lackeys said to her with a patronizing smile.

I was about to stand up for her like I always did but she spoke up first.

"I-if you want me to explain it for you, I will. It's not that hard,"

She had only whispered, but the whole class fell dead silent.

Hollow Creek High had a hierarchy. Students like Haley sat coyly and trampled on those on the bottom.

"I don't think we heard you well," Jude strutted to himself, and both he and Jessica circled her like vultures to a fresh corpse.

She was now trembling, mumbling something that nobody heard.

Jude chuckled, then knocked her desk over the clatter of metal made her shiver and her courage drained out as her entire face bleached.

"Sorry, I lost control of my strength there, where were we? Right your assignment-"

"Can you just let her be?" I finally stepped in, standing up from my own chair, "If you can't understand such a simple assignment then maybe you should ask the teachers to put you and your friends in a grade you can handle,"

Jude's face turned in a violent shade of red.

"Stay out of this Hale," he hissed out, "it's none of your business,"

I walked up until I was standing right in front of him face to face, "Maybe you're the one that needs to step back, huh?"

My eyes caught the trembling of his fingers before he clenched them into tight fists to hide it, within myself I scoffed. He acted so high and mighty when it was someone weaker than him but the moment he stepped into a fight he knew he wasn't 100% guaranteed to win he would tuck his tail between his legs so fast you would think he was beating a world record.

"Now now boys let's not fight..."Haley stepped in, gliding from her chair like she wasn't the cause of all of this.

She stepped between Jude and me.

"Relax Elias, we're just teasing a friend..." she placed a hand over Marne's shoulder like someone stroking an animal  rather than a human, "Marne, we were just messing around weren't we?"

Marne already subdued again nodded her head obediently.

I had more to say but the teacher walked in so I just helped her place her desk back as I was leaving she pushed a clump of paper into my hand, I reacted quickly, shoving it into my pocket, something told me it was important and I was right.

Right in the middle of class, Marne said, "Miss Stone, I need to use the bathroom," She was given permission and sped out of the classroom.

Not long after Jessica and Haley left too at the same time.

Haley and Jessica came back together with wearing satisfied smiles and Haley chuckling like a hyena.

But Marne didn't return.

At first I tried not to worry, she skipped class often to avoid her bullies.

After class I read her note, it said; Elias, you're the only other person that's ever stood up for me in this school. Come to the haunted auditorium by ten o'clock. I have the truth that can finally take them down.

"I'm here, Marne," I called out when I entered the haunted auditorium.

But no response came back.

I waited till the early hours of the morning, then snuck back into my dorm hoping to see her in school.

"Has anyone seen Marne?" I asked the second I stepped into class the next day.

The other students looked at me like I had grown another head, the most I got were hushed mumbles of ignorance.

All the while Haley and her minions were watching.

At one point she even came up to me, placing her palm on my arm. I pulled away like a reflex, something dark flashed in her eyes and she left quicker than she came then she forced a smile.

"I couldn't help but overhear that you were looking for Marne, Did something happen to her?" She looked so concerned, but I knew Haley well enough now to know that was her well-trained mask.

"It's nothing," I said knowing fully well that was my hint.

She had done something to Marne.

And I think she's done the same thing to Eloun.

Every time somebody comes close to discovering the truth, they are 'taken care of'

And Henry is right, if I don't do something now she might end up like Marne.

Wiped off the school's registry, deleted from the database, and clipped out of photos. Like she never existed.

The school heads weren't just unbothered about her disappearance, they were actively protecting the culprits.

Every piece of evidence of her was wiped away, except the note she wrote.

And now for her sake too I couldn't let Eloun 'disappear' either.

Classes ended for the day and there was no sight of Eloun. Do I have to go to her hostel?

This was the thought on my mind that I didn't notice when I stumbled towards a classroom being renovated I was about to turn around when I heard unfamiliar voices discussing

"Don't you think she's going to be a problem ?"

"We already have someone tailing her, they say she can't remember a thing, our secrets are safe,"

"And if her memory comes back?"

There was a pause from the other voice followed by a sinister chuckle before they said; "Then we'll have to take care of her... permanently.”