COLD

°Chapter Two°

"WHAT THE f**k!!!" 

Tyler gasped in horror, his eyes glued on the dead frog's dismembered body. It was still fresh and had not started to rot away. He glanced away, disgusted.

His best friend, Wesley, was more terrified.

"Who the f**k did this!" he barked at the students, some of whom had turned back to witness. "Is this some joke to you! Whoever you are, you are a creep! A f*****g, sick, disgusting creep!"

Some of his friends, Hunter, Jacob, Rence and Blake rushed to his side. They stood just beside his desk, staring in horror.

"Don't worry dude!" remarked Hunter, who was huge in physique and wore baseball jackets and jeans most of the time. "If you did this, just pray we don't catch you because you won't like what we do to you!"

Rence gritted his teeth. "Someone in this class thinks they can joke around with you. Well, whoever you are satan, we'll turn you into a joke."

Rence seemed like the black sheep of the group. Everyone could see that. He tried so hard to fit in with the 'g**g' as they called themselves. Just when they had started college, he was known to be some 'nerd' because of the over-sized hoodies he wore to school and the faded baggy jeans. It came as a surprise to the entire school when he dropped his glasses and started wearing baseball and leather jackets matched with ripped blue jeans.

The 'g**g' used to make fun of him. Mock him at the cafeteria. Burst out sardonic laughs whenever he answered a question wrongly.

How he joined Wesley's pack, was still a mystery.

He became this completely different person when he became friends with them. The 'g**g' was known to be mean but Rence was the meanest of them all. He didn't know how to fight physically with his lean body so he fought with his big mouth. He left fighting for Hunter and Wesley. He'd just go around school, throwing insults knowing the 'g**g' would protect him.

"Don't Worry, Wes," said Rence. "We will find the sick fucker and kill him! That's a promise."

Hunter narrowed his eyes at him. "You seem to be so convinced the fucker is male."

That caught him off guard and he laughed nervously.

"It's obviously a guy. Girls don't have the balls!"

They all burst out in a guffaw.

Nina turned to glare at them. "Can you all just shut the f**k up? Some of us don't have big companies to inherit from our dads after graduation. Education is all we have."

Rence scoffed. "Now you wanna cry, Ms. Smartpants."

Nina shook her head, rolled her eyes and got back to her books.

Feeling victorious, he burst out into a loud laugh but the g**g didn't.

Wes glared at him and hissed, "My girl is out of bounds. You don't make jokes about her. That's the g**g code!"

"But she just made fun of you, dude," Rence muttered. "She joked about you inheriting your dad's company."

"My dad. Not yours," Wes corrected, not so nicely.

Jacob, the most silent in the group, remarked.

"All of you are focusing on the dead frog in Wes' desk but I'm trying to fix the puzzle of why Wesley Wood decided to wear a suit today of all days. What's the occasion?"

The tension faded and they started teasing Wesley for wearing a suit to school. He tried to shove them off but Tyler was beating his head on one side, Hunter doing the same on the opposite side, Rence and Jacob hitting his back and shoulders.

Blake was just standing still, his long dark bangs almost blocking his chubby face. He was strangely silent that day and didn't find the need to chime in on the play.

He stared at the dead frog, horrified.

"Guys!" he stopped them.

They didn't. They were still joking around with their lord, Wesley Wood.

"Stop!" he shrieked.

Grunts and 'cluck' sounds came from some of the students. This g**g really pissed off everyone and most students felt cursed to share a class with them. It was like the sole purpose of them coming to school was making enemies out of everyone but themselves.

"What? Chubby boy?" Rence pinched his cheeks.

"I told you not to call me that!"

"Geez! You can't take a joke?"

Blake glared at Rence. "You are the joke itself so Hell No!"

"Easy... Easy..." Ty tried to calm him down sitting from his desk.

"Okay... What do you want to tell us, Blake?" Hunter asked him.

"It's that dead frog!" he pointed at it. "Can you see that sketch sign on it's brow?"

"What does it look like?" inquired Ty, trying to figure it out.

Hunter concluded, staring at it keenly. "A cross with a tail at the bottom."

****

Wesley seemed to be so engrossed in a train of thoughts as he left the last class that day.

He really hadn't concentrated much on the classes today. He was deeply disturbed by the nightmare he had and now a dead frog lying inside his desk with what looked like some 'satanic sign'? It was all too overwhelming.

Maybe this was some stupid prank one of his thousands of enemies was playing on him. To prick him. t*****e his head a little.

Or maybe... It was a coincidence.

Maybe that frog wasn't meant to be in his desk. Whoever did the sick thing put it in the wrong desk.

But no. He didn't believe in coincidences.

Wesley felt that, whoever was doing this knew what he was doing. That note covered in blood... The scribbles on it...

An eye for an eye...

A tooth for a tooth...

Blood for blood...

That did not sound like anything close to a coincidence. Whoever put it there was targeting him. Whoever put it there wanted him to see it and get terrified by it...

But... Why?

A dead frog? Why?

His g**g lurked behind, running to catch up with him. Tyler, who was slightly shorter than all of them made a jump on Wesley's back, snaking his arms around his neck like a kid.

Wes laughed it off and shoved him off his back jokingly.

They strolled to the parking lot together, the other boys dispersing to their cars. He was left alone with Hunter.

He trusted Hunter. They had been best friends since the beginning of time and as if this was fated, their friendship was still going strong after all these years.

"Can I come over to do my assignment at your house?" Ty asked loudly, standing a mile away from them.

"Why not?"

"You're my man!" He slid in his blue car and drove off, leaving Hunter and Wesley standing at the pavement.

"Dude, about the frog this morning..."

Hunter scoffed. "It's really nothing. Stop sweating about it. Someone is just messing around with your head and you're letting him. If they really had the balls, they wouldn't kill a frog. It's you they'd kill."

Wes heaved a sigh and stuttered. "I don't know man... It's just... I've started to have nightmares again."

"About her?"

He nodded, shuddering in cold and fear. "But this time... It felt... It felt so real. She was strangling me so hard I couldn't breathe. Her sister was standing, watching as she cheered her on. I woke up drenched in sweat, gasping and panting."

"She's dead, Wes. Dead."

"Because of me... "

"No."

Wes took in a deep breathe. "We all know it's because of me... What we did to her..."

"Shut up!" Hunter hissed. "Let the dead stay dead. In peace."

"But she died in pieces."

"She killed herself. That's on her."

"Could the frog be linked to her?"

Hunter burst out a laugh. "You're really losing it, huh!"

"I'm scared to death. I can't get sleep at night and when I do... She follows me there and tries to kill me..."

"She's Dead!" he yelled. "Dead!"

Wesley buried his face in his hands and nodded.

"She's dead! She's dead! She's dead!" he sang to himself.

"Good..." Hunter paused. "Now can you drop me off at my place? My car is getting repaired."

"Ofcourse."

****

Hunter was right.

She was dead.

Not that he had killed her. She killed herself. She committed suicide and that was on her...

But you pushed her to it, he thought sadly.

No he didn't! He convinced himself. She did that all by herself, as Hunter said.

He really had to move on and let her stay dead. He was willing to go for 'therapy' secretly to get rid of her demon... His demons. There's no way he'd let his g**g know that he had signed up for some therapy sessions.

They'd see him as weak and 'girly'. If there's one thing Wes cared so much about, it's what his friends thought of him... Probably the reason he hadn't begged Nina not to leave him.

He didn't want to come off as desperate and clingy to his friends.

After dropping off Hunter, he drove to a chemist on the east side of town so no one could see him pull up.

He parked his car and walked into the chemist, where he bought a tonne of antidepressants and sleeping pills. Not that they helped much, but he had kind of gotten addicted to them. He couldn't do without them.

As he left the chemist, he saw Nina walking hand in hand with some tall guy in glasses. Her hair was tossed up in a tousled bun and the setting sun was gleaming on her fair skin. She was still in the attire she wore at school, just that she had dropped her heavy coat and had it sling on her shoulder. He didn't bother to scan the guy as much.

He quickly hid the pills he had just bought in the inner pockets of his suit and approached her, puzzled by what she was doing in this side of town.

"Nina?"

She jerked back in astonishment when she heard him call her. She was as startled as he was to see him.

"Wes?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same..."

Wes faked a smile. "Ladies first."

Nina's brow crinkled in confusion. "Are you stalking me?"

"What! No!" he blurted out.

The guy she was with had his hands across his chest as he scanned Wes from head to toe through the rim of his hideous round glasses.

"And who's this guy? Your new boyfriend? The one you left me for?"

She glared at him. "I left you because of you!"

"Now he's the new guy in the picture, huh!" Wes mocked.

But the guy was silent and still.

"He's my friend, Wesley! I don't know why I'm even -"

"Why is he not talking back? Huh! He's scared of me? You're scared of me, boy?" Wesley came on to her friend, hungry for a fight.

Nina shoved Wes off furiously.

"Back off man! Victor here is deaf. He's my friend from The deaf school where I'm learning sign language!" she snapped. "You're always trying to bring up chaos after chaos everywhere you go! Deal with your demons, Wes. Deal with them before it's too late."

Nina took Victor's hand, communicating through gestures as Wes watched.

"Victor just said your suit is impeccable," she told him coolly.

Wes felt immensely embarrassed.

She smirked at him. "But you know what? Expensive suits are not the medicine to dealing with your demons."

Then she strode away with Victor.

He stood still as he watched her leave. He didn't know what it would really take to get her back. He kept f*****g up every time he thought he was working things out.

His phone rang, pulling him from his thoughts.

He looked at the caller and groaned.

Audrey.

Not again!

Wait, she hadn't come to school today. She was so irrelevant to Wes that he hadn't noticed her absence.

"What? I told you we are done! Audrey!"

There was silence.

He heard some muffled squeaks.

A gunshot rang.

One.

Two.

Three.

****