The Thorns Under Pedals

Chapter 2:

A hallway full of High School students that were grouped together loudly chatted about news. Fear was in their eyes while some held amazement in the details that news stations shared. News traveled quickly from one group to another. It was early in the morning where lots of people would usually be quiet from just waking up. The noise was irritating for the people that were not interested in rumors or news this early. There were too many people blocking doors for the classroom entrance.

“Have you heard?” One guy that wore a football jacket in our school's red and black colors asked another jock in his group.

“Can you believe it? How can someone shred another person? I almost threw up.” One girl gulped, turning pale at the memory and her voice came out shaky.

“Was it just a random victim?” I heard another group go on as I passed by. Really all these theories and thoughts were laughable. How was such a body cut up to bleed out randomly? If I was not looking for any clues that would help me with the Williams family reaction or information on them, even rumors then I would just be ignoring them. It was not like I gave a rats ass what my school mates thought.

Thankfully I reached the door of my History classroom. Hearing so many people talking was giving me a headache from the information they gave me. Not any helpful information but I shouldn’t expect any from the idiots around me. Silently I walked through the crowds to my desk located in the middle row closest to the window. We were on the second floor and the view always had a calming effect on me. However, one thing stood between me and my seat which caused me to sigh.

He stood in the way talking to one of his buddies that sat in front of me. My eyes glared at him. My hands were thankfully wrapped around the strap of my black messenger backpack that was sitting on my shoulder. If they were free I may very well push him out of the way. He turned, feeling my gaze. When his eyes met mine he split in a grin. What was he smiling about this time? This was an annoying habit of his. I could not remember any sign that I would be on friendly terms with him. All he was useful for was information that came from being the sheriff's son.

“Hi Liz.” He said in his annoyingly cheerful voice. My hands tightened against the strap. Soon they would turn white from it.

“Elizabeth.” I was automatically correcting him. I hated being called Liz. No one was allowed to get away with it. The only people that I was not angry at were my siblings. Now every time I hear that nickname their faces pop into my mind then their corpses replace them.

His smile dropped slightly. He was out of his mind if he thought we would ever be friends. If he ever found out that I was the one who killed that woman in the news several weeks ago I’m certain he would want to stay far away from me. As the sheriff's son he would not be afraid of me like all my other classmates but he would want nothing to do with me anyways.

“You’re in my way.” I rudely stated. I was blunt with a few words to get straight to the point all the time. Wasting time doing circles around what I wanted was not something that I did. Talking to people was frustrating since they did not see things the way I did so I saw no point in bothering with it.

He moved out of the way with an apologetic look. His friend however just glared at me. “Rude much Goth Queen.” The friend snapped facing me with his body turned sideways. His eyes were like the blue sea trying to drown me. I had tried that before. The Lake did not want to have my lifeless body floating in the depth of the water along with Miss Williams.

A small object flew from one part of the room straight at the friend's head. His head was pushed back and there was a red mark from the impact. His attention was now on a girl close to the entrance. “What the hell Isabella?!” He shouted as he rubbed at his cheek where the pencil bag had connected.

Instead of paying attention to these idiots I shifted into my seat. My foot touched the pencil bag since it landed at the edge under my desk. I thought about leaving it there but I did not want either one of the guys to come near me or Isabella to pick it up. With a sigh I leaned over and picked the purple dotted bag up.

“You know what Arthur. Elizabeth may be cold to you but she wears those colors out of grief for her family. Show some common sense to not point at it.” Isabella spit the words harshly at him.

“Are you her protector now Bella?” Arthur dug in his annoying voice.

“Enough. Can’t we just get along for one day?” The sheriff's son tried to calm the two down, acting as the mediator.

Let them go at it, I thought. It would make my day to see Arthur bested by Isabella. As the thought settled in, the group's conversation about accusing the other for being rude drowned out. My chin found its way to my palm that was resting on the desk by my elbow. Casually my eyes followed whoever was speaking but instead of their actual words my mind made up its own conversation.

“You never learn Arthur.” Isabella said in an acidic tone glaring daggers at him with murderous intent. Her hands were on her slim hips trying to be intimidating. She would look better with fitted jeans that held a pouch of knives at her hip belt while a comfortable baggy dark shade shirt hid any other knives or poison from view. Isabella had wavy long brunette hair that loosely rested at her hips. The locks brushed the back of her arms from how she swayed, shooting the words out. “Maybe a few scars will teach you.”

Arthur would laugh dangerously before venom would spit out in response, “You can try but your daggers wouldn’t be sharp enough to graze me.” Anger shined through his lighter shaded eyes. A hand brushed through his straight parted black hair making the locks messy.

Isabella was not too happy to hear that which made her step closer to get in his face dangerously close. Her next words were whispered softly in a chilling tone that left no room for doubt. “I’ll gladly show you by your blood staining the floor.”

I felt a smile creep up the corners of my mouth before a voice pulled me out of my head. My eyes would have fluttered in confusion but I was getting used to the sudden shifts between the dark thoughts in my mind to reality. Though the dark thoughts were appearing more frequently in the days after my first kill. It was like something opened after I had cried and had to clean up the mess. The day after I had come to school like normal and acted much like I would any day but my thoughts drifted to violence. Most of the time the thoughts dragged my classmates into an imaginary kill fest like a horror flick for cannibalism or a Hunger Games situation.

“Are you ok Elizabeth? The i***t just doesn’t understand when to be sensitive.” Isabella shot another glare at Arthur before turning kind concerned eyes to me. She was now sitting in her seat that was next to mine while the sheriff’s son sat in front of her. Isabella acted all kinds that anyone would think we were friends. She did not know that I caught onto the hidden agenda in the beginning. Everyone would be surprised so I just played along. After all, she could be useful in some situations if she believed I bought her friendship act.

“Don’t worry. I only let intelligent people’s words get to me. So I can’t even remember what he was talking about.” I plastered a smile on my face. Who was I again? My mind was trying to shift back to normal teenage mood but it felt like a fake identity now. Before I used to somewhat enjoy watching the group bicker back and forth and would automatically tease with a smile. This time it all felt fake to me. However, the others didn’t notice I could see it in their eyes that they thought I was my normal self.

“Not you, Elizabeth.”

I raised my eyebrow at the sheriff’s son. “Arthur does it to everyone. Why should we not get him back, Erik?” I said calmly though I wanted to growl it at him. Their names left a bad taste in my mouth. It could be because I felt uneasy around Erik or just how much Arthur tried to get on my nerves.

I have known these three since we were in elementary. We didn’t form this group until the beginning of high school though. Mainly because of how Arthur and Isabella acted around each other. They were always at each other's throats leaving Erik feeling responsible to try to calm them down. I usually just left them alone unless they were getting too close to me. I did not need them trapping me in their mess over stupid things. Honestly, under the harsh words and actions in the past years I could see a glimpse of affection between the two. Mainly I would see Arthur’s eyes twinkle for a second as he watched Isabella walk away when he thought no one was paying attention. It left me to wonder if Erik saw it or knew too.

He did spend a lot of time with his father at the station. Since Junior High Erik had been interested in detective work. Criminal studies seemed to intrigue him by the type of thick dictionary looking books he usually kept caring around. He had one now on his desk that was about homicides or something. Arthur was the only one he really discussed what he was learning with unless he was at the police station. Luckily for me since we had been forced to sit next to each other throughout the years in some classes I got to eavesdrop. The knowledge that he carried should worry me about being found out. It should be a reason to feel stressed and paranoid. Yet I was not. I was feeling the opposite. Excitement filled my veins at the thought and adrenaline began kicking in my system.

Weird how it felt similar to when I held the knives and bat ready to strike Miss Williams. That was not something I considered. I knew from watching horror movies that pretending I was the killer got my blood pumping. Instead of being scared like any girl seemed to be, I was excited to see what the killer did next to his victims. My little sister used to scritch out and hold me tightly in fear. Even my brother shivered with all the gory scenes. They used to always turn to me surprised and amazed that I could watch it like any other movie. Well there was one genre I could never stomach. Romantic movies made my skin shiver and chills crawl over me while my stomach knotted in a nauseating pain.

Arthur started laughing as if I was messing with him when I had been very serious even if it had sounded like an innocent question to him. Would he still be laughing if I used his pencil bag to be a muffler? Maybe it would actually kill him if I shoved the bag down his throat. Guess I could always find out on the next person I use to get information out of Andrew.

Before Erik could say anything the teachers' heels clicked against the tiled floor after the door shut closed behind her. The room hushed down as the students realized she was here. Anyone that was out of their seats hurriedly shuffled to their empty seats. The teacher didn’t even look in our direction until she got to the putiom in the middle where she gave her lectures. She opened her bag with all her material for the day quietly. The papers were organized neatly then she went to set up the projector machine to show the powerpoint she had for the lesson. All this was done without acknowledging her class who were muttering amongst themselves.

“Good morning class.” Her voice bombed to cover every corner of the room.

“Morning Mrs. Smith.” Some students chimed in reply. I however stared at her in silence. Mrs. Smith looked to be the usual let’s dive right in. My eyes widened when I saw the topic of today's lecture. There were numerous gasps.

“For the next several weeks we will be going into the Middle Ages in England's history. This age lasted from 476 to 1453 AD.” Her voice calmly went through facts on what made that time period the Middle Ages. Everything faded away as I intently listened. I was not the only one who leaned forward interested. Erik quickly started to write down notes. We both were absorbed in the history lesson but for different reasons. He wanted to get as much information about how the law worked in those times. This made him pause Mrs. Smith’s lecture several times to get answers for his curious mind.

There were some annoyed glances that went his way. The answers the teacher had given to each question would make them all queasy. Everyone had a light stomach for the torturing methods that were used in those days that the “law” performed. I got weird stares from others by asking the questions that were eaten inside me. We both probably were seen as odd people. The teacher thankfully was patient with them answering to the best of her knowledge.

It was a rare occasion that I was extremely detailed in my note taking. Methods upon methods in deep description filled the pages as well as reasons for each. I even wrote down why the King or lawful citizens would use each method on someone. Erik’s notes were much the same except he did not cover in great detail what each method did to a person. Time went by quickly as we learned about the cruelty from history. Some tortures were for the simplest things like going against the King.

As I looked at the pictures of the tools used I began to wonder if the laws now and what I had done to Miss Williams were not in a way similar. After all, at this point in history they would have done worse methods such as flaying alive which was having a person tied up while their skin was stripped off. This was used for criminals or traitors mostly. These times also used a breaking wheel method which was tying people to a wheel just to bash them with iron cudgels to break bones and left there to die days later as a Capital punishment. I could just hear the shrieks and screams in my ears. Both where the wrong ones were held responsible for what they did yet I had performed the old school way that would seem too dark for these times.

All too soon the bell rang signaling the end of the period. It also told the students they had five minutes to get to their next class. With a heavy sigh I put my stuff away to head out. Before I could close my notebook however, someone grabbed it off my desk. I jerked my head in the direction it had gone. Erik was the one who had taken it. I raised my eyebrow as if my heart was not going a hundred miles per hour right now. Was he starting to suspect me? How could he just look at my notebook?

After a while that felt like minutes when really it had only been seconds Erik gave me back my notebook with a shine to his eyes. No, he didn’t suspect anything. That shine told me that I had impressed him. His words just confirmed it. “Wow Elizabeth. I didn’t know that you were so interested in the Middle Ages system.”

He thought it was based on how the system worked in those times. Erik was off on that one but there was no way I was going to suggest the real reason to him. “It’s just fascinating.” I calmly responded.

“Fascinating? Yuck. All that talk about how people were torn, beaten, impared, and whatever else has made my stomach queasy.” Isabella whined. She was holding her stomach like she was going to throw up on the floor at any minute.

Arthur did not look much better from her. His face was pale like my brother's face had been while watching horror movies. The guy acted tough but he was soft under his skin in reality if this made him sick. I shrugged at her words while we all packed up and started heading our separate ways. Erik and Isabella went to the left side of the hall while Arthur and I went to the right.

“For a tough guy you sure are bad at gory things.” I teased trying to stay like my normal, now fake self. I would rather be silent walking to our next class that was science but I had to appear normal. No signs could be given that I was changed.

Arthur snorted. Though he was still pale there were no other signs. At least I did not have to worry that he would be sick on me like I would with Isabella. I’m sure even at this moment that she was throwing up somewhere. Honestly, the girl was disappointingly weak. When Ethel had been alive she had a stronger stomach for violence then Isabella does. Nor was Ethel a whiney baby when it came to seeing stuff like torture in movies. Sure she screamed and was scared but the girl used to own up to it then laugh about how she acted later on.

Oh how I missed having her around to talk with. She would have been interested in what I learned today even while being terrified at the same time. My brother would have probably added some more facts that he might remember from the history books he loved to read. Most of the history he would read was in England anyways. When I get home I should go through the few boxes I still have of my family's stuff to see if there was a book of his. He might have owned a couple on this topic. It was worth a look to see. My mind was going through each of the methods remembering as much as I could in my brain. I could not wait for tomorrow to learn more on the subject.

“A normal girl would be sick from listening to that s**t but you're all calm.” Arthur grumbled trying to get at me but it was weak in the delivery. His tone was too quiet and he didn’t bother to pen me with his glare.

“You’re not going to throw up on me are you?” I asked while stepping a few feet away from him to make sure.

“Seriously, how can you stomach that?” His tone was different than normal. Even his stance as he was walking seemed tense.

“My brother would make my sister and I watch one horror movie classic each day. Pictures are nothing after seeing the effects movies make on cannibalism and tortured movies.” I answered honestly. There would be no point in lying when it wasn’t going to hide something I needed to keep to myself. No clues were given so there was no harm.

“Geez.” He sounded sympathetic. Most likely he was probably thinking I had been held down and forced to watch them but really it was not close to that at all. I enjoyed it and even got to pick what movie we would watch. I’ll let him think what he wants though. At this point we stood to the entrance of our science class and we pretended not to know each other like always. That was fine with me.