Chapter 60 – Articles of Concern – Erica Henson

It took an embarrassingly long time for me to find the staircase leading to Holly’s garden. The map she gave me helped get me to the general area, but the staircase itself was hard to spot. This part of the school was poorly designed and cryptic in nature. The staircase wasn’t on one of the main hallways, but on the back end of a lesser used branching hallway. This was the school’s interior design showing its age, amongst other things. This school could double as a military fortress.

When I made it up the stairs and went out the door my gaze became immediately transfixed on the beautiful view of the school property ahead of me. I started to walk towards the fencing and walked right by Holly without noticing her. Holly whistled sharply to catch my attention like I was a dog. She was on her knees tending to a plant box right up against the school wall. Going by the amount of work that was done on this place it looked like she had been managing this area for a while.

Holly was dressed differently than normal. Normally she wore the school’s cardigan over her uniform. Now it was tied around her waist, with her long uniform sleeves rolled up to her upper arm. She was wearing gardening gloves that were covered in dirt. She was wearing a wide-brimmed sunhat that she must’ve brought from home. Her getup made me smile. She reminded me of a little old neighbor lady I knew back in middle school.

“Isn’t it a little too early to be pruning those seedlings?” I asked as she tore something out of the gardening box.

“That’s not what I’m doing.” She said as she worked, “There are already weeds trying to take root in the gardening box. I can’t believe they made it this high up already.”

“The wind must be working against you.”

“It’s a poor way to start out my garden boxes. I need to fix this before I have to get back to the student council. I don’t have much time.”

“Which means you should get to the point. Did you have something important to tell me?” I asked. “Or did you call me up here because you needed an extra hand?”

She finally stopped working to look back at me with a smile.

“Both!”

She pointed to another pair of gloves against a bag of supplies. I rolled my eyes and went over to put them on.

“Just pluck out the little weeds as you find them. These weeds grow quickly so this is something I need to stay on top of. The more we can get rid of the better.”

“How do I know which are the weeds and which are the seedlings?”

“Trust me, you’ll know. The weeds look like little blades of grass at this point. Just yank them out.”

“Fine,” I said as I sat down next to her.

Before I started working I watched her pull weeds to get a sense of the job. Her explanation of the weeds was apt. It didn’t take long for me to understand what I needed to do. I started pulling them out one-by-one at a much slower rate than Holly. Looking at the sheer efficiency that she operated with made me wonder if she was joking about needing help.

“I’ve got a way for you to talk to Val.” She finally said.

“How…?”

“The Fall Festival is coming up.” She said and looked over at me. “We’re going to have a masquerade.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“That’s the idea the student council came up with… A masquerade…?”

“The Fall Festival takes place in October. This school doesn’t usually have any special events for Halloween. This will be like an early Halloween event.”

“That sounds good, but what did the teachers say about it?”

“I haven’t talked to Ms. Sampson yet, but so far the staff thinks it’s a good idea. It’s like a two-in-one event, and on top of that it’s cheap. Everyone will be asked to make their own mask. I’m going to ask Ms. Sampson if we can have time off so that everyone can study for the upcoming exams and make their own masks.”

“I think she’ll agree to that! That’s actually a great idea!”

“Plus, this makes us even,” She said, “I’ve stayed true to my word.”

“You have! Finally… After all this time I’ll be able to talk to her… I just need to figure out the right thing to say to her so that she doesn’t ignore me completely. Do you have anything in mind that could help me?”

“I don’t advise it.”

“You don’t advise me asking you for help?”

“No,” She said as she clapped her hands clean of dirt and stopped working for the moment. “I don’t advise you talk to Val at all.”

I let out a half-hearted laugh.

“You’re joking… You’re saying that now, after all the trouble you went through to set this up?”

“I did that to pay you back for dropping out of the race. I don’t think talking to her right now is a good idea for you.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“What makes you say that?”

“I spent the past weekend with Val and stayed the night with her in a hotel she rented. After talking to her for much longer than usual I’ve got a good sense of where she is psychologically right now. I don’t think she’s ready to have the sort of confrontation with you that you desire. I know you want closure, but I don’t think that’s what you’ll get if you talk to her during the Fall Festival.”

Holly sounded honest enough but this was a 360 from our plan. Her reasons I could understand, but was that for her to decide? She almost made it sound like fact that my conversation with Val wouldn’t work out no matter what. She was speaking to me almost like she was a fortune-teller. It was obnoxious. Nothing was going to change between me and Val unless I made the effort.

“I don’t believe that.” I said firmly. “There has to be something I can do to fix things.”

“Val has a lot on her plate to deal with at the moment. If you walk back into her life at a time like this she might do something unpredictable.”

“Ha! You’re telling me that you know her so well?”

“I know her well enough to know this.” Holly said unflinchingly, “I’ll tell you the same thing that I once told to Lilith. Humans aren’t cog powered machines. You push someone the wrong way and they’ll push back the wrong way. I’m warning you as a courtesy. If you push Val too soon then she’s just going to push you further away.”

I took off the gardening gloves and tossed them by Holly’s side.

“You sound like the psychiatrist that I used to visit.”

Holly smirked.

“Maybe we visited the same psychiatrist at some point. I learned a lot from her and she recommended me several books on the human condition and now…”

“And now you’re an expert…?” I asked in a laugh, “I understand that you mean well but please don’t get in my way. Now that you’ve set up the masquerade I’ll fly solo from here. Thank you for your time.”

It looked like she still had more that she wanted to say but I wasn’t willing to listen. I left Holly to her garden. My business now was with Zoe. Jackie wanted heads to roll over the rumors going around about the basement. From the way that it sounded, these members of the occult club would be the first sacrifice.

When I went into the newspaper clubroom to talk to Zoe in private I found another person I didn’t expect. Megan was sitting in a chair not far from Zoe.

“Megan…?” I asked her, “What are you doing here?”

“She’s our guest.” Zoe said as she swung her office chair towards me when I walked in. “She wants to tell her side of the story regarding her suspension. She’s helping me write an article.”

“It wasn’t my fault the basement was left unlocked!” Megan said like a toddler, “It’s the schools fault! My dad’s lawyer told me my suspension may not have been strictly within the school rules! It’s their duty to keep off limit areas locked up and to properly warn students. No one even knew the basement existed.”

I closed the door behind me as I walked in.

“If that’s your argument then I wouldn’t go talk to Jackie about this. If you bring this up again you might just end up getting yourself suspended again.”

“Why…?” Zoe asked. “The basement is public knowledge now. We’ve had proper warnings now, but one thing is clear. They were keeping the basement a secret. Never mind what’s down there for a moment, the fact they never told us about it is suspicious.”

“You can’t publish an article about the basement right now. Ja-… Ms. Sampson won’t allow it.” I said.

“Why?” Zoe asked again. “You know as well as I do rumors about the basement have been floating around the school lately. The mystery of the Killing Cat is more popular than ever! There’s no way I’m going to let this opportunity go to waste. A few good articles on this will double the amount of followers I have on social media.”

Megan gasped.

“That could work for me too! I should make a video about the Killing Cat!”

“Are you two listening to me?” I asked. “This is the very fire Ms. Sampson is trying to put out! In fact, she asked me to come here today to tell you to email her the information about the occult club. She believes they had a big role in circulating these rumors.”

“You want me to oust my sources? No way! Then I’d never get anyone emailing me with information ever again!”

“Didn’t Ms. Sampson just buy the newspaper club a fancy new camera?” I asked.

“If her plan was to buy me off then she’s mistaken. I have a duty to report the truth as I get it. It’s just that this time the truth happens to not be in her favor.”

“What do you think she’ll do once she finds out you’re writing this article?” I asked.

“Well she can’t suspend me, not like Megan here. She’ll make her threats but she can’t hold my tongue. I run the school website with administrative level login. She needs me.”

I looked at Megan.

“And what about you…? Are you willing to risk being suspended again?”

Megan folded her legs and leaned back in her chair with a smirk.

“Are you kidding? My suspension was great! It was like an early vacation! My dad said Ms. Sampson wouldn’t return his calls and then he went off about it. He totally has my back if I get suspended again. I told him that our school is corrupted! Maybe Zoe’s article will help convince him that he should send in the lawyers after all…”

This was all very bad. Zoe was plotting straight up treason against Jackie. Earlier I thought she was on Jackie’s side but it sounded like she just wanted a good scoop. The curiosity I could understand. I wanted to know more about the basement also, but that needed to be handled in secret. If the fire spread about this then it would only make Jackie’s problems that much worse. I wanted to spare her the trouble of more stress. She was already working hard on a day-to-day basis without all this drama.

I came close enough to put my hand on Zoe’s shoulder.

“Are you sure it’s wise to publish that article right now? Can’t it wait? Think about it, Zoe. Do you really want to be the subject of Jackie’s ire? She’s been trying to squash information about this ever since it went public.”

“That’s exactly what’s suspicious about it!” Zoe said. “Why is information about the basement worth squashing? Doesn’t that make you wonder?”

“It does.” I said, “But I don’t want to see you squashed in the process.”

Zoe leaned back into her chair and sighed. Megan folded her arms and gave me a snobbish look.

“I still want my side of the story published! It isn’t fair!”

Zoe rolled her shoulders in contemplation.

“Maybe I could reduce the scope of the article a bit…” She said, “Maybe… Maybe we could focus purely on Megan’s defense against her suspension instead of the basement.”

“Thank you.” I said.

“I’m still not handing over my sources,” Zoe said, “I’ll email her majesty and tell her that personally. This doesn’t mean I won’t make an article about these rumors either. I’m just putting those plans on hiatus. I’ll wait for things to cool down to release the article I have drawn up.”

“If you wait long enough Ms. Sampson may not even bat an eye when you release it.” I said, “I think that’s for the best. Besides, I have another story for you to write about.”

“What’s that?” Zoe asked.

“I just got done talking to Holly. She says the student council came up with a theme for the upcoming Fall Festival. It’ll be a masquerade in honor of Halloween spirit.”

“That’s perfect!” Megan said. “I’m glad I was here to hear this! I’m going to begin making plans for a costume as soon as I get home. My followers on social media are going to want to hear this too!”

“I’m guessing the student council is going to make an official announcement before the end of this week.” I said. “You could have an article ready to go by the time they do.”

“Hmm…” Zoe said as she turned her office chair back towards her computer. “Maybe I’ll use this masquerade to get close to someone else that has information about the basement.”

“Who…?” I asked.

“Lilith.” Zoe said.