Spoiler! :
Chapter One
Liam
Liam
It’s like I’m the cause of everything, the cause of them disappearing, the cause of Mum and Dad’s divorce, the cause of–
“Liam.” My best friend James nudged me, while our teacher wasn’t looking.
Next, I’ll be the cause of World War Three.
“Liam, concentrate.” He waved his hand in front of my face.
“Huh?” I turned to look at him.
“I was saying that you aren’t being yourself–”
“’Course I am,” I replied.
“–wondering if you’re sad that you didn’t get through yesterday or something?”
It’s not about that... it’s about what happened after...
The events of the day before were played back in my head. I just wanted to get rid of the memories! But no.
x-x-x
“They’ve just wandered off, that’s all. I bet they’re on the beach now–’
“Are we really going to leave them?” I had said. “That’s not normal. People don’t just vanish like that.”
“What do you expect from us to do, Liam? Hmm? Dive off the cliff? It was your stupid idea anyway–”
“Yeah, Liam.”
“–and now you want us to do–”
“You told them to do it! It wasn’t an actual–For God’s sake, who’s got a phone? We need to call the police,” I had said, backing away, slowly.
“You’re not getting us involved. It’s your own problem.” The three of them walked off, leaving me alone on the dark, eerie cliff, alone.
Alone...
Apart from the sound of the waves gently rolling into the beach and the sound of my fingers tracing “It was your stupid idea” on the floor, there was silence. A spine-chilling, silence. All because of me.
Where on Earth did they go? Maybe... Maybe they swam back and went home.
Yeah, probably. It’s getting late.
x-x-x
“One common mistake is to...” Our teacher rambled on, unaware of the paper planes that glided over our heads or the quite conversations behind his back.
“Liam!” he muttered. “Where do you go? One minute you’re here and the next minute you don’t respond.”
I go to my imaginary world where dolphins fly and where it’s possible to drown a fish. “Sorry,” I said, watching our teacher write some unintelligible crap that only a Maths geek could understand.
“What’s wrong?” Leave me alone!
Turning my head, I shrugged, looking at his brown headphones that poked out of his polo shirt, camouflaged to the colour of his hair. “Nothing.”
“I want you to complete questions one to four from page 267,” said our teacher. At last! I didn’t need to worry about James extracting the answer out of me yet.
I hastily scribbled some answers before getting up and walking to Omar Kareem, who was the best by far at Maths. I was pretending that I couldn’t solve the equations in front of me. The last thing I needed was to drag someone else in the mess I had made.
“Omar,” I said, as I walked to his table. “This equation’s confusing. Can you help?”
“Yeah, sure!” he said, in his usual friendly and enthusiastic tone. With a swift movement of his arm, he cleared the mess of books, papers and a pair of glasses in front of the empty seat next to him onto the floor. “Sit here, I’ll show you.”
Five minutes later, I left the table and went back to my seat
As I came closer to my table, I could hear James’ conversation.
“The Valentine’s Disco is on Thursday, you coming?” said Dan, the guy behind James.
“Maybe,” replied James. “I’m thinking to ask them to go with me on Wednesday or something. Are you?”
I sat down, dragging James’ book in front of me to copy the answers.
“Yeah,” said Dan. “I’m going with Hannah. Is he?”
“I doubt it. He never goes.” James turned to face me. “You’re not going are you?”
“Dunno. I might...’
James was a bit surprised. “Oh.”
“...but then again, I might not.”
He seemed to have breathed a sigh of relief, but I wasn’t sure what for.
“Don’t mention it to them lot then.” Dan gestured with his head to some of the girls on the other side of the room. Please... Just don’t even start that. Why did they all seem to judge by looks. What was so good about me? Looks don’t mean I’m different from any other normal dude.
Before I had anytime to reply, the door opened, revealing the head teacher. I shoved James’ book out of the way.
“Sorry to interrupt you, students, but I have been asked by a parent if anyone has seen Damien Thomas?”
My heart began pounding. They did disappear. I knew all the answers. I knew how it happened. I knew where. Yet I couldn’t bring myself to say it.
The class was silent, but somebody shouted out that Damien was in Year ten.
“Does anyone have any idea where he was last?’
By then, my heart was beating so fast that if it were to run instead of beat, it could easily break a world record.
“If you do,” he said, in response to the silent class, “please visit my office as soon as possible. Thank you.”
The whole class began chattering again about Damien.
“What was that all about?” said James. “What do you think happened to him, Liam? ... Liam?” He sighed. “He’s gone again.”
x-x-x
After two hours of torture (whose idea was it for Maths and Science on the first day of the Egyptian week, on Sunday?), it was break. I met Lauren, my other best friend, at the front of the school like we always did at break times. There was a little garden-thing over there, with a few benches and flowers lining the edges, from red roses, to jasmines, to tulips and to a cherry tree which blossomed every spring. It was always quiet there because no one really came there, which was why me and Lauren loved it.
“Hey, Liam,” said Lauren, her light, chestnut brown hair floating in the wind.
“Hi Freckles,” I greeted, putting my hand on the back of the bench. We sat in silence for a few moments, enjoying each other’s company.
“Sir, we were all on the cliff and then...”
“My only son, how could you!” she replied, sobbing.
“I-I-I’m sorry, I–”
“This matter will have to be dealt with by the police. Our school does not deal with these things at the moment. My apologies, Mrs Thomas,” said the headteacher. “William, I–”
“Will... what is it like to have a step dad?” she said, quietly.
I frowned. “Huh? Oh... I–why? Did your mum want to get married to someone?”
“No... I was just wondering what it’d be like if... Mum did remarry.”
“Do you remember your dad?”
“Not much,” she said, shaking her head. “He ran off twelve years ago, when were still in Britain with... her.”
“Well.” I began, exhaling, “he’d be nice, and maybe buy you stuff, like when Andrew bought me a PlayStation but...” I paused. “It feels a little awkward sometimes ‘cause I remember my Dad and I still see him in the holidays. It’s kinda like... like you have two Dads in a way. I think it’d be OK with you though, if you had a stepdad ‘cause you don’t remember him.”
Just get out of my head! The thoughts gushed like a waterfall, each drop of water that hit the bottom caused my stomach to twist and turn, as if it was a punishment for what I did.
You didn’t do anything!
“Did you get through yesterday?” she said, a minute later.
“Yeah, I did,” I said, grinning. “Do I get a hug for it?” I put on a childish voice.
“Of course you do!” she replied in the same voice I used.
I hugged her, and said, “You’re now hugging a future Olympic gold medallist. Would you like my autograph?”
“Ooh, yes please!” She searched her bag, and retrieved a purple pen and a piece of paper.
I signed it, feeling a little bit proud of myself, even though it was a daydream. Time to practice signing autographs.
“Is your Volleyball practice tonight?”
“You know it’s on Sundays,” she replied, lightly punching me on the arm.
“Is anyone from school coming?”
“I think so.”
“Oh OK... I won’t come then.”
“Why not?”
“Well...” I was a little bit lost for words. “Well... I don’t really want to draw attention to myself–”
“You’re bound to get attention Liam, you’re good-looking enough.”
“What’s so good about me?’
“I could make a whole list–”
Still! All the guys always say ‘You’re lucky the girls think you’re good-looking, you can get them all’ and all the girls say ‘Oh my God, you’re really handsome’ and whatever else they’ll say. It’s like none of them really care about who I really am, it’s only about looks.” What was so handsome about me anyway? I was lean, on the taller side with hollow cheeks and blond hair. I just wanted to be left alone. Attention sucked.
“But that’s the beauty of it, isn’t it? Only the people who truly know you can see who you really are, such as James and I,’ she said, gazing into my dark green eyes with her electric blue ones before looking away.
The bell rang.
“Lauren... before we go, do you happen to know how to call the police?”
“I’d imagine it’s one-two-two, but I can’t be sure. Omar Kareem is sure to know though, why don’t you ask him?”
“Oh. OK. Thanks,” I said, beginning to walk to our next class.
“Why?”
“Er... well... It’s a long story Lauren. You wouldn’t want to know.”
“Tell me Liam. Did someone mug you?”
“No way! No one ever does that here.” I wish they’d mug me of the guilt... It hurt to know that it was all because of me.
“Then what happened?”
I sighed. “We were celebrating on the cliff yesterday, when some people were dared to jump off.”
Lauren gasped, her eyes widening with shock. “They drowned? You’ve got to be joking–”
“They didn’t drown; we heard them come back up. But then they disappeared, like they dropped off the face of the Earth.”
“That must’ve been some dare. Who was it?”
A lump rose to my throat. “M-me. All because of me.”
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