Friday night

The short journey to the forest was mostly silent. Svea only intended to find Iv, but her plea left her mouth in the presence of the whole group. There was no undoing that, even as she feared for the consequences. That was what happened when you had no filter.

How she managed to do what she did was not entirely clear to her, and neither did she stop to look at the unconscious body of the boy once she noticed his state. But now, seeing what the others would also be seeing as the trees gave way to an area full of spindle trees, she was truly terrified. The night made his navy outfit darker, making his body a shadow in the night. His arms were caught in the lower branches of the tree, both extended and wide open, his head laid back so as to almost be invisible, with the red toxic fruits tangled in his curls, and his feet seemed rooted to the ground, as the tree was a youngling, not yet grown and matured, much like him. They became one and the same. Svea knew no greater honor than to be embraced by Mother Nature, but no one else would think the same.

“What…is…that?”

“Is he alive?”

“Wait, is that supposed to be Tyler? I can’t really see.”

“Oh gosh, Kyle’s baby brother is lying dead in a bush.”

“He’s not dead…Is he?”

“I think the actual question we should be asking is how did this happen.”

The six voices all blurred together in Svea’s mind and the only answer she could give was a sob that took her breath away and brought her to her knees.

“Oh, shhh, it’ll all be alright”, she heard the whisper in her ear as Iv kneeled on the ground behind her and gently lifted her up by the shoulders. “Someone go check on him.”

As she regained her breath she saw Nik approach the unconscious boy and check his pulse. He nodded to the rest, but made no move to pull Tyler out of his thorny constraints.

“Can you tell us what happened?” asked Hendrick hesitantly, as if he would scare her off. Ironic, considering they should have been scared off by her.

She tried to clear out the fog in her head. She and Tyler were at the ball during the speech, but left soon after. Crowds were not really her thing, she told him. She preferred the intimacy of nature. He agreed to walk outside with her. They were talking and laughing and she led him to this spot she liked. She saw a dandelion, and bent to look at it the way she did that day, telling him of her foolish attempt at being oblivious. But he wasn’t listening. Because he was too preoccupied carving in a rush the letters T and S on a small spindler tree. Their initials, a sweet promise for young lovers, but an open wound for a young tree. She touched the carved bark and felt the pain of the tree as if it was her own, knowing it was now in danger of becoming infected. Its skin felt like her own, and the wound was small, but not easy to ignore.

She didn’t think after that. She approached him. He lent in for a kiss, but she touched his neck and slowly lifted him up. She could feel his soul and wondered how he didn’t feel the tree’s own. She took his breath away and watched the memories go one by one, his eyelids flutter slow, slowly, slower still. She saw the dandelion again and Nik as the two were talking. Nik! What would people think of her if they knew what she was doing?

The image of him awoke her. She laid him on the bush, making sure the gentle branches would support his weak limbs, but she could bear to see no more of him. So she ran. Her nagging consciousness led her to seek help, already regretting letting her instincts get the best of her. Part of her, though, was pleased. A damaged soul for a scarred body. Oddly, she felt nothing, barely even rage. It was as if she was merely doing her duty. Of course, she only told them part of this.

Hendrick was now touching the carving. There was a gentleness in that touch that calmed her down. After a few minutes, he spoke:

“What do we do?”

“One of you can get him to the doctor and I’ll explain everything.”

“Explain what? How you basically took part of his soul? Who’s going to believe that?”

“I’ll make something up.” Jacy might have been right, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have to take responsibility.

“It would be too big of a risk being punished,” said Hendrick, “which you will be - and so will Nik probably since making sure nothing happens was his job. And if the punishment is normally as bad as they say, what do you think will happen if they found out you’re not entirely human?”

She didn’t understand what they meant by punishment and her confusion, along with Nik’s who was still near Tyler, must have been visible because Jacy reminded Hendrick that they are “fresh meat” and that “they don’t know the story”.

With a sigh, Hendrick started explaining. Around four years ago, there had been a guy who had been caught under possession of some illegal substances and he beat up the person who threatened to expose him. He was found out and everyone was told that he was to do some sort of community service for three days. No one heard anything from him until he returned, but he never showed up to class. He stayed for a month in the hospital wing, suffering from a lung disease, and he would wake up at night screaming. They brought in the school psychologist, but after the month passed the guy withdrew, never stepping foot in Elysium again.

“At least that’s how the story goes. No one really knows what exactly happened and those who do may never tell.”

The first to break the silence was Iv.

“You mentioned he was caught with a forbidden substance, right?” When Hendrick nodded, she pulled out a silver flask from the interior pocket of her blue jacket.

“You can’t do that,” panicked Hendrick.

Svea didn’t understand. It seemed as if most of them were having some sort of silent conversation, while her brain was just filled with static noise.

“It might work, though.” Everyone turned when Shiro spoke as he had been silent up until then.

“We say he got drunk, blacked out and we just happened to find him.”

“Kyle won’t believe it, though,” remarked Hendrick.

“Why can’t I just say it was my fault? I can say that I got him drunk or something, you don’t have to get involved in this.” Why were they, anyway? They should have run away in horror by now.

“We already told you. We don’t know what the punishment entails, so if there is anything that will give you away…” Hendrick must have saw by her panicked expression that there was. Something she could keep hidden, but if she ended up in that hospital wing…

“I’ll do it. That was my intention anyway. The flask is mine, too. Tyler doesn’t remember inviting you to the ball according to what you said, so we could pretend I went with him instead.”

“We have to make it more believable,” said Jacy. ”Yes, he would have followed a girl into the woods, we know that because he did, but would Kyle really believe his perfect baby brother, who he gushed about even before he enrolled, got black out drunk willingly? No, it would have to be forced. As in, I forced him to drink so he wouldn’t snitch on him and Iv drinking.”

“That sounds believable, but why should you be the one to take the blame? I can do it.” She couldn’t believe what Shiro was saying. Were they really fighting on who should cover up for her?

“Listen. As much as you pretend to be oblivious to it, you well know that Kyle hates you for becoming school captain over him, so if it’s you he’ll take it even more personally. But no one will think Iv was capable of being forceful. Hendrick is the school’s darling, no one will believe it either if he takes the blame. Nik has been seen getting along really well with Tyler and even with Kyle, so, again, not truly believable. And no way will we let him take the blame, either.”

By him Svea realized he meant Jabari, who has been silent all throughout. She could now see that he was leaning on a tree, eyes wide, clearly more shocked than the others, but trying to catch up to what was going on nonetheless.

“Besides,” went on Jacy, “I’m one of the few people Kyle can genuinely stand. If I tell him I was trying to help, but it ended up badly anyway, he’ll be less likely to carry out his murderous prophecy. He’ll understand, but only if it’s me.”

Everyone nodded as if it made sense. For Svea, though, what didn’t was why they would go to all this trouble in the first place.

“So what do we do now?” asked Jabari, finally awake from his stupor.

Shiro proposed that Nik stay there, send a message from Tyler’s phone to make it seem as if he was looking for him when he went outside and got a ‘drunken’ response that he was in the woods. He’d stay for a couple of minutes until the rest of them could go back and blend in, and only then come back and ask for help, saying he found Tyler. With the strategy agreed on, they started to make their way back. Except Svea couldn’t help but look back at the two boys, one unconscious and one about to bear the punishment for that. She had to ask.

“Why are you doing this?”

Nik considered for a moment.

“Because I know what it’s like to be blamed for something you have no control of.”