Wizard (Troy Sanders Trilogy Book 1)

19: Whodunit

I just couldn’t grasp the fact that Jake was right in front of me; dead.

His body looked pale somehow, wrinkled; and his veins were bulging out from beneath his skin. I couldn’t understand what could have caused that. His eyes were frozen in fear, almost as if he had come face to face with the angel of death himself. There were no wound or entry holes but I could swear someone had killed the sweet, loving boy that was my friend.

The pressing question on my mind now, why?

I stretched out my hand to touch him- I kinda half-expected him to slap it away, laughing while telling me it was all a big prank that the school was pulling on me- when someone suddenly shouted, “Don’t touch him!”

I immediately withdrew my hand as I turned and saw Abigail Clark, my guardian, walking towards me; it was good thing Victoria had left earlier or I would have added punishment to my loss of a friend that morning.

Abigail was wearing her usual brown skirt and blouse; and her face was full of sadness, and also a little bit of worry, at the event. “What was his name?” she asked as she stopped next to me.

“Jake,” I replied.

“Huh?” She looked confused.

“Jacob O’Collughin,” I corrected myself.

She muttered something under her breath- a prayer or something- and then touched him. Immediately on contact, a spark shot through his body and he fell like a heavy luggage to the floor; the thud reverberating through the quiet hallway. It was like the indubitable proof that truly Jake was dead and there was nothing that could be done to change that.

“No one is allowed to leave until they have made a statement,” said Abigail as she passed an authoritative stare around before leaving; everyone nodding affirmative in response.

I looked on as they took Jake’s remains away; his wide eyes seeming to be holding a secret that I just couldn’t fathom out. I knew I wasn’t that vast in that area but I knew magic when I saw it; magic and murder. Someone had killed Jake and they had used their magic to do it.

But thing is, Jake was one of the purest souls I’d ever met; why would anyone wanna end that? Why would anyone wanna end him?

I ran over to Victoria as soon as I found her; she had chosen a bench under a giant stone dragon statue. She was still wearing her top from earlier so I knew she had been there since she left the hallway.

“How are you holding up?” I asked as I sat next to her.

She gave a really sad chuckle- I could tell she’d been crying -and replied, “I saw a boy’s dead body floating in midair where I wasn’t supposed to be. I’m sure I can’t feel any better, Troy.”

“Vic, someone murdered him,” I suddenly blurted out, “with magic." I knew I wasn’t supposed to be telling her such things but I couldn’t just hold it to myself any longer.

“I know,” she replied, prompting a surprised look from me; I didn’t know that she had reached that conclusion too, especially because she had to bolt out of the hallway so fast to avoid being caught by the authorities.

“How did you know that?”

“I have eyes, Troy,” she returned. “Plus I could practically feel the magic oozing out from his body when I found him. It was a dark vile thing they used on him.”

“He was just a kid,” I said more for my benefit than hers; I still couldn’t believe that some psycho wizard had killed Jake. “He was a just good, innocent kid.”

“I know,” she replied again. And all of a sudden, she hugged me fiercely and began to sob against my chest.

Truth be told, I didn’t know what to do; crazy Vic, I could handle, but I didn’t really know how to respond to girly Vic.

So I just hugged her back and let her cry. No matter how badass she could behave, she was still a girl and it was okay for her to be afraid- hell, I was scared to death myself.

My mind wandered back to Jake; how I had seen him. I wondered if he had even been able to put up a fight, he certainly looked like the sort of kid that wouldn’t go down without one. The only justice was that they found whoever did it and made him pay; at least I do hope it was a “whoever” because a “whatever” was just a whole big box of dangerous that should never be opened.