Broken Silence

Confessions

"Cassie! Hey, wake up!" Someone says, but my mind is to groggy to decipher who it is.

Someone shakes my shoulders and calls my name again. But I don't have the strength to reply. I'm dead, aren't I? My father just killed me...my father...my dead father...who's gone...

I snap my eyes open and bolt upright, knocking Mitch backwards.

My father didn't kill me. It was only a dream.

"Cassie? Oh thank god your awake!" Mitch says.

We are in the school still, and based on my surroundings I presume we are inside a library. Books and shelves and dust decorate the room. Papers and pencils at shrew all around on the mahogany carpets, but somebody has laid out a blanket and jacket for me to sit on.

"Cassie?" Mitch says.

I look up and notice that we are the only ones in the room. He sits at a dented table about four feet away.

"Where are the others?" I ask.

He looks away, biting his lip nervously. His eyes flicker, showing a hint of worry.

Huh, that's something I'd never thought I'd see.

He clenches his hands into fists and I notice that my knife, the one I brought from home, sits in front of him on the table. He shifts his gaze to the door, but only for a moment. He doesn't speak.

"Mitch? Where is everyone? Leo, Kara, Shaun?" I try again.

He looks back at me, his eyes fierce and guarded. He grabs the knife off the table, still looking at me. He fumbles with the blade and accidentally slices his hand.

"Mitch? Are you-"

"They're out in the next room." He says, speaking over me.

"Why aren't they in here?"

He squints his eyes and I can see anger bubble up in them. "Kara and Leo are...containing Shaun." He spits.

I look at him confused. He can't be older then seventeen or maybe eighteen, but the anger that's displayed on his face makes him look years older.

"What do you mean....containing?" I ask.

He traces another cut into his skin and lets the blood splatter into he carpet. It blends in really well, actually. Crimson on mahogany. It's almost like us, blending into the apocalypse like we were meant to be here, even though we weren't.

"Do you remember what happened when you blacked out? Do you remember why you blacked out?" Mitch questions.

I furrow my brow and shake my head no.

"Shaun," Mitch says flatly.

"Shaun?" I mirror.

He nods, "He tried to kill you."

Then it all comes back. Shaun, beating me to a pulp wailing about Lynn. Lynn, poor Lynn. I guess I don't blame him for being angry, but I don't know why he was angry at me.

"Why did he try to kill me?" I ask.

Mitch slices his hand again and I watch, confused as his blood pools on the carpet.

"What are you-" I start.

"He tried to kill you because we believe that he's...infected." Mitch interrupts.

"Infected?"

Mitch nods, "When he was rampaging around the building when Lynn was missing, we think he stumbled upon a flesh eater. We found a bite mark on his stomach, by his rib cage. It wasn't deep, but there was blood all over it. And it wasn't his blood."