Kelly Hill (26 page)

Phillips Academy

Charleston, West Virginia

June 16th, 2010

Rachel

Rachel didn’t answer any of Ethan’s questions when she got back to the hotel. She didn’t have time to talk to him about everything he had read, about everything he had heard and Kelly was characteristically missing from the group.

Rachel locked herself in her hotel room and began to write her speech for the memorial. A speech that would have to say everything and nothing at the same time.

Rachel felt herself sigh again, wishing that she could be as bold as Shakespeare's Ophelia. Damning the king and queen with flowers but saying nothing at the same time.

Speeches were something that Rachel was good at. She could form just the perfect words to make the audience like her. It was her way of connecting with people. As long as she was a version of herself they liked she found herself to be acceptable.

But everything was different now. She couldn’t just work for the approval of others; she had things she had to do. She had to protect the one person that actually mattered to her.

So Rachel sat in her room in the dark and she wrote her speech. When everything was all said and done Rachel had just enough time to go to the florist and buy the necessary objects.

The stage for the memorial was set up in front of the library, looking out into the quad. There was a pretty picture of Melody next to the podium surrounded by dozens and dozens of flowers.

People had gathered in the seats provided and Rachel was glad to see more than one news crew had shown up. This was going to be an event to remember.

Grear stood up and made some noise about propriety and how Melody was the model student before she disappeared. How everything was sad, but how everyone needed to carry on in strength because that’s what Melody would have wanted.

Then it was Rachel’s turn. She cradled her flowers in the crook of her arm and laid her speech out on the podium.

“When I was first asked to speak at Melody’s memorial I was in fact speechless,” Rachel smiled, reassuring the audience that she took this charge as seriously as possible. “Most of you who remember me, remember my short time at Phillips Academy and my bittersweet parting, but it’s good to be back now. Standing here I feel as though I’ve come home.”

She smiled once more and kept going, “I would like to invite my friend Jefferson Williams up here to help me with my flowers.”

Quickly, Jefferson obliged and Rachel bid him to stand next to her. “Melody had a love for flowers and so to honor that, I would like to lie some of her favorites down. Jefferson?” Rachel looked at him, holding out a bouquet of fennel and rue. “Won’t you be so kind?”

Jefferson gave her a look that would chill her, but the plan was already in motion.

“And the daisies.” Rachel handed Jefferson another bouquet.

Quietly Jefferson put the two bouquets down and stepped back, waiting for more instruction.

“Those were always her favorites.” Rachel smiled up at the picture, “The fennel, the rue, and the daisies.”

“
And last I have my own selection. A bouquet of Rosemary and Pansies. They represent thoughts and remembrance because I will never forget Melody or the many lives that she touched.”

Rachel laid down the last of her remaining flowers and took a step back. “Melody Jeffords was a kind soul. And she didn’t deserve what happened to her. I only hope that she’s found her peace now.”

Rachel left the podium and took her seat in the front next to Ethan and Logan, noting that Kelly was still absent.

Jefferson looked as though he was becoming emotional and disappeared around the stage.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Phillips Academy

Charleston, West Virginia

December 12th, 2008

Rachel

No one had seen Ryan or Jefferson for days. Even after Caleb’s body was discovered and his death ruled an accident they stayed away.

Rachel wanted to know what they had gotten up to but at the same time she had no desire to follow them into that unknown. In her quest to uncover the secrets she had forgotten that Jefferson wasn’t a man. He was a monster and no one could control him.

Melody and Rachel sat in their dorm room in silence, Melody reading one of her various questionable novels and Rachel studying her Russian, she was almost fluent in the language which she felt gave her a leg up in the mystery department.

Melody sighed heavily but said nothing. Alerting Rachel to the fact that she wanted to talk about what had happened, but didn’t want to be the first one to start the conversation.

Rachel put down her pen and closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure what to say to Melody about any of it. She wasn’t sure how much Melody knew and how much she had decided to ignore.

“Do you think Caleb was scared?” Melody’s soft voice came from her position on the bed.

Rachel turned in her swivel chair to face her roommate. “I don’t know how he felt.”

Melody frowned and closed her book, “It had to be scary.”

Rachel swallowed, “Probably, yeah.”

“I was scared.” Melody was honest with Rachel. “I’m still scared.”

Rachel made a face, “We promised not to say anything.”

Melody shrugged, “I just don’t know if it’s okay. What happened. Ya know? I mean, he’s dead now.”

Rachel dropped her gaze and looked down at her feet, “Yeah. He is.”

“Someone should do something.” Melody was more adamant now. “But it can’t be me.”

“
Why?” Rachel frowned, looking at Melody. “Why can’t you do it?”

Melody gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes to push back the tears that were threatening to form, “Because you don’t know everything, Rachel. If I said anything I would probably wind up like Caleb. I know that.”

“Then I’ll do it with you. And you don’t have to be alone.” Rachel offered, wondering if Melody was really going to do something about it. Could this scared little girl really defy powerful men that influenced doctors and lawyers and law enforcement?

Melody shook her head, backing out once more, “I can’t.”

“What could possibly be worse than this?” Rachel pushed, hoping that there wasn’t anything. Hoping that Melody was just letting the fear get the better of her.

Melody shook her head, the tears falling now, unbidden, unbridled. “You don’t understand anything, Rachel. You think you know what’s happening because you’re friends with Kelly, but don’t you understand? This is Kelly’s fault!” Melody was shouting now. Shouting through her tears. Shouting through her fear. “He started this whole thing. Caleb is dead because Kelly Hill couldn’t just stay away.”

Rachel shook her head, “I’m not going to blame Jefferson’s actions on Kelly.” She gritted her teeth, “That’s not right. That’s not okay.”

“
Seriously, Rachel, you weren’t there, you don’t know what happened.” Melody persisted.

“
Then tell me!” Rachel shouted, “Dear lord! Why will no one tell me what the hell happened between everyone? Why is it such a big secret? Everyone wants to warn me and control me, but no one wants to be honest with me!”

Melody shook her head back and forth, “You wouldn’t get it. You just, you wouldn’t get it.”

“Fine.” Rachel grabbed her coat from the hook on the wall and wrenched open the door, “But I’m going to tell the world. I have proof that Jefferson killed Caleb and I’m going to tell everyone what happened.”

Rachel was halfway to the library before she realized where she was headed. The library was her safe haven, her place of refuge in the dark.

When she got there she sat down at an empty table and texted Kelly.

‘
We need to talk.’

He didn’t respond.

Rachel closed her eyes and sent him another text.

‘
I’m at the library; I’ll wait for you to get here.’

Hours passed by without a response and finally, Rachel gave up hope and decided that she was going to brave the dorm room once more, wondering if Melody was still going to be there, crying about how no one would understand.

Rachel walked out of the library and saw that the sun had set long ago.

She shifted her books in her arms and cleared her throat, instinctively wanting to check the watch on her wrist, but knowing that it was too late to even be out. She was safe during the day. Night was a different story.

The sidewalks were empty and the lamps that lit them glowed dimly, as if all the bulbs needed changing. She couldn’t see far past a few feet in front of her and she wished for the second time that night that she had listened to Melody and just left well enough alone.

Rachel swallowed the impulsive fear that kicked in whenever she was alone in the dark and tried to walk as steadily as she could to her building near the end.

The library was at the heart of the campus, and all roads lead to it. It was always open and almost always in use by one student or another, but this night Rachel had stayed in it far too long for her own good and she knew it.

Her need to relax, to calm herself down after everything that had happened that week was stronger than her knowledge of just what might happen to her if she was found out in the dark. Alone.

Half way down the path and Rachel became very much aware of the fact that someone was behind her.

Probably just another student, but she couldn’t be too careful. Jefferson had threatened them all at the sports club and she had told Melody that she was going to do something about it.

Rachel knew she shouldn’t have trusted Melody with the secret, but she thought maybe Melody was coming around to her side.

Now, the steps behind her quickened their pace and she felt her heart quicken with them. A rough hand gripped her bicep and pulled her backwards, causing her books to spill to the ground.

Rachel turned, trying to wrench out of the strong grasp but couldn’t.

Her fingers encircled around the pen she had stuck in her ear and held onto it tightly.

“Did you really think he could protect you?” Jefferson snarled, “He’s sitting over at the Prescotts right now, pretending like he’s never heard the name Rachel Gunn. And you wanna why? Because at the end of the day, Kelly knows what’s good for him and he’s not going to stick his neck out for anybody. Especially not you.”

He was dragging her off the path now and towards the trees that surrounded Phillips on all sides.

“Let go of me, Jeff.” Rachel’s voice was hard and firm. She wasn’t going to let her fear get the better of her; she just wasn’t that type of girl.

She would not go screaming and mewling into the night.

Rachel’s weakness did not reside in how she controlled her own actions, but more or less in her sense of morality, as that was what had now gotten her into this mess. Her control was the only strength she had left.

Jefferson let out a strange laugh, one that made Rachel think he was having second thoughts, but his pride was getting too much in the way for him to see that he was making a huge mistake.

A mistake that he wouldn’t be able to recover from.

He threw Rachel hard against the trunk of a tree and she coughed as it pushed the air from her lungs.

“I mean, it only makes sense, doesn’t it?” His right hand held her jaw tight, squeezing it in his anger. “That it would be you that would bring it all down; you never did wear jealously well.”

“
I didn’t do it out of jealously, Jeff.” Rachel spoke through a clenched jaw, past the fingers that felt as if they might crush her cheekbones.

“
No?” Jefferson sneered, and his eyes seemed to glow in the dark, staring at her, a malicious glint in them that chilled Rachel to the core. “That’s not what Melody says.”

“
But it’s alright. We’re gonna make this right tonight. Just like Kelly should have done a while ago. Can't trust anyone these days.”

Rachel felt Jefferson’s left hand push against her side and tug at the new scar from a fall that wasn’t really a fall.

Rachel still held the pen in her hand and she swallowed, bracing herself before she plunged it into his shoulder, pushing as hard as she could, her right foot pushed off from the tree, using her weight to embed the writing utensil further into his body.

He reeled backwards just far enough for Rachel to get away so she could run.

As fast as she could, she made for the headmistress's house, knowing that the older woman would still be awake.

But Jefferson was on her in a second. She could smell his sweat, blood and fear as he tackled her, bringing her to the ground.

“You just don’t get it, do you, Rachel? I tried to save you!” Jefferson was shouting now. “I tried to help you!”

He roughly pulled Rachel to her feet and led her through the woods while she fought against his grasp. “Now look what you’ve made me do!”

They reached a utility road in the middle of the woods and Rachel saw a car parked off to the side.

Jefferson opened a car door and pushed Rachel inside next to Melody whose face looked like it had been badly bruised. “You couldn't just stay away.”

He shook his head and got into the driver’s seat, turning the key over in the ignition, bringing the car to life.