Chapter 1 : Never saw it coming
“Yes, I knew her.”
The officer adjusted the blanket around my shoulders, shaking me gently as if to pull me back into the world. I hadn’t realized how long I’d been silent. With a sigh, he closed his notepad and walked off toward his partner, leaving me on the edge of the ambulance, feet dangling, mind unraveling.
I was soaked through, rainwater dripping down my face. The cut on my foot bled through the fresh bandage the paramedics had just wrapped, but I barely felt it. Not the cold, not the pain. All I could think about was her.
The one I hated most. The one I could never stand to look at. And now, she lay in front of me, my body drenched in rain, hers in blood.
Her eyes stared back, open but empty. She would never wake up. As the officers pulled the black plastic sheet over her, something in me snapped. I rushed forward. They thought I was a grieving friend, desperate for one last goodbye. But my hands moved with purpose, tugging at the pocket of her jacket until I slipped the tag free.
Cold letters stared back at me through the smeared plastic:
Nora Raith
St. Blackwood Academy
