It wasn’t until Wednesday that the code of silence in our group broke. Jess, Dee, Forrest and I had been hanging out, but not saying much. Since the party, Forrest had unofficially joined our outsider club. I guess having a near-death experience together will do that to a group. Although the four of us talked little, there was a new bond between us. Dee was still my best friend and Jess was–well, whatever she was at that point–but Forrest was one of us now.

The other kids at the school noticed it too. We were just as much the outsiders as we’d always been, but our group had grown by one.

A few times someone started a tentative conversation about the party, but one or the other of us waved it off. Usually it was me. The other three respected I didn’t want to talk about it. Even Forrest kept his mouth shut. Everyone knew I’d had it rougher than the rest.

Of course, they didn’t know how rough. Whatever they’d been through that night was nothing compared to the ordeal that kept me waking up in a cold sweat.

I saw Jess talking to Travis - her supposedly dumped boyfriend - one break. A pang of jealousy hit me. I tried to tell myself that if they were getting back together, then it was none of my business. Either way, Travis ignored me the next time he saw me. He looked over my head as if he had more important people to concern himself with.

On Wednesday Jess, Dee and myself got a collective message from Forrest. I’d bought a replacement phone in the meantime, a crappy old handset compared to the sweet phone I’d had before.

The message read: School library, after lessons, all four of us. We need to talk.

I considered not going, but in the end turned up the same as Jess and Dee. I guessed that Forrest had decided enough time had passed, and we needed to get things out in the open. I braced myself for the upcoming cross-examination, glumly wondering how many lies and half-truths I would have to tell this time.

I’d become so used to hiding things from my friends and Mum that it didn’t occur to me to be open and honest. On the other hand I couldn’t afford for my secrets to get out, now more than ever. Before it had just been a case of keeping them hidden because that had seemed like the sensible thing to do.

Now I knew that if Major Wilson found out about me, I was facing a probable death sentence.

*

“This is about the murder, isn’t it?” Jess asked.

Forrest, a copy of the local paper on the table in front of us, looked annoyed.

“Murder?” I said, looking at Dee for a clue.

Dee gave me a palms-facing-outwards ‘don’t ask me, I just got here’ look.

“Yes,” Forrest said, barely hiding his exasperation at Jess having pre-empted him, “It’s about the murder.”

This wasn’t what I’d been expecting.

The four of us were sitting in the school library at the furthest table from anyone else, speaking in low whispers. Forrest unfolded the copy of the Stroud News and Journal.

“Did you two seriously not notice this?” he said, looking at Dee and myself.

“Vaguely...maybe?”

Brutal Murder in Bussage! Ran the headline.

The truth was, I hadn’t paid attention to the newsstands dotted around town on my way into school, all of which had the same headline emblazoned across them. I’d been too wrapped up in my own thoughts to notice. I’d checked the news website over the weekend to see any stories about The Incident - which had led to the brief news article about an escaped lion - but there’d been no mention of a murder.

I skimmed through the article.

Residents in the village of Bussage, just outside Stroud, were shocked by the discovery on Tuesday of a man who had been viciously stabbed to death in his home. Police were appealing for witnesses. The victim was a recluse, no known relatives. They had only found his body because a neighbour had noticed his television was on for several days in a row. Police believe the body had been there for four or five days. The victim had been a collector of esoteric and antique artefacts. A burglary gone wrong, the police thought.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“I don’t get it. What’s your point?”

“Good grief, can you even read?” Forrest said, “It’s pretty obvious, Ethan.”

“He’ll get there eventually,” Jess chimed in. “Here’s a clue, Ethan: The party.”

I frowned.

Having smart-ass friends could be a real downer sometimes. Dee looked over my shoulder, equally puzzled.

I looked again, and then it hit me: Police believe the body had been there for four or five days.

“The same night. He could have been killed on the same night as...it.”

“Exactly,” Forrest said, “I knew you could do it. Well done.”

“Very funny, Forrest. But so what? So this guy was killed the same night as the you-know-what. He was stabbed, according to the article. I mean, it’s sad and stuff, but it’s not connected, is it? It’s a coincidence. The…thing…wasn’t carrying knives or anything.”

Forrest cut in.

“Firstly, Ethan, how many murders happen in this area?”

“Yeah, okay, not a lot,” I agreed.

Stroud and the environs weren’t exactly crime central, UK. Quite the opposite usually. Stroud itself was a small town in the South West of England, nestled in the Cotswold Hills. It had an alternative, independent reputation - or ‘Bohemian’ as the estate agents often tried to sell it. The most exciting thing in the local paper was usually about a pothole crisis on the roads, bus delays, the latest arts festival, or the occasional pub fight.

“Okay, maybe it’s connected,” I conceded, “but it could still be a coincidence.”

I didn’t mind talking about this if it kept the questions at bay.

“There’s more,” Forrest continued, “if you track where the thing was that night, the first sighting was…drum roll?”

Jess drummed her fingers on the table. Forrest grinned."

“…In the Bussage area. About two streets away from where the murder took place.”

That got me listening. I sat up straight.

“How do you know?”

“I dug around,” Forrest said.

“He’s right,” Jess cut in. “The four of us know better than anyone else that there’s been a cover-up, but people are still talking about it. The first sighting I could find was at the bottom of the hill. That was a good two hours before the thing attacked us.”

“Huh,” Forrest said, “I couldn’t track it that far back. The closest I could get was a ‘big black cat’ racing along the road into town, coming from the Bussage direction. But I guess Ethan knows more about this, right?”

Just like that, all eyes were on me. Expectation hung in the air. It was time for me to tell everyone what had happened.

Except I couldn’t.

Help came from an unexpected quarter.

“We shouldn’t be having this conversation at all,” Dee said.

I looked at Dee in surprise. I thought he’d have been the most eager to find out what had happened. I knew he’d not been asking me anything out of respect, but I’d been sure he’d want to know more eventually. I saw a chance to deflect this away from me.

“Yeah, look, Dee is right. And if I’m honest I don’t want to talk about it.”

“We have to talk about it!” Jess said, her voice going up a notch, “That thing was proof.”

Again I was taken by surprise. Jess didn’t flare up without a good reason, but suddenly her temper was up. She bit her lip.

“Proof of what?” I asked, "Look, I really don’t want to talk about this.”

Jess glared at me as if this was somehow all my fault. I had no idea what was going on now at all.

“It was proof I’m not crazy,” she said.

Her voice was well above the ‘acceptable library whisper’ by that point. I stared at her, dumbfounded. What was she going on about? Why was she angry with me?

Jess got up, slung her backpack over her shoulder and walked out of the library, fuming.

“What was all that about?” Dee asked. He was as taken aback by Jess’s sudden outburst as I was.

“Search me,” I said.

“Redheads,” Forrest snorted, “Who knows what goes through their pretty little ginger minds?”

“For the love of God, shut up Forrest!” I said. I didn’t mean it in a bantering way.

Forrest could still be a tool, and this was one of those moments. For some reason, Jess had been furious and all of it had been directed at me.

“Right, well as fun as this has been, why don’t we drop the whole thing?” Dee said, “Whatever happened, it’s over now, right? There’s no point poking around at it. We’ve been told what’ll happen if we talk about the thing and all that. So let’s just drop it, guys.”

Once again Dee’s attitude surprised me. He really was ready to let it all go. I didn’t mind, it was just out-of-character for him.

“Sometimes I don’t get you,” I said.

“What?” Dee said.

We left it at that, and I went home. I thought about what I’d learnt, tried to figure out how the murder and the monster might be connected and how any of it related to me, if it did at all. I drew a blank. I texted Jess to ask if she was alright but got nothing back. Tried a few minutes later. Still nothing.

I got home in a lousy mood and just wanted to be alone for a bit.

“Ethan,” Mum’s voice called out as I stepped through the front door, “There’s someone here to see you.”

Good grief, now what?

Reluctantly, I stepped into the dining room.

Victoria Pryce was sitting at the table with my mum, a cup of herbal tea in front of her.

“Ethan,” she smiled broadly, “How lovely to see you again.”