Hamilton Academy: He's Always Watching

Part Three ~ Chapter Eight

"It's funny how life is sometimes."

-Ethan

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My first thought when I woke up the next morning was "I'm still alive." I'll admit, I had my many doubts about getting through the night alive. Or at least still clinging onto the bit of sane I had left in me.

But I guess the two cabins didn't have any connections at all. Huh. Who would have thought?

"We should get going." I rubbed my eyes to see Andrew and Matt already up and packing.

Memories of the late night conversation we all had came back to me in a flash. Deep inside, I sort of knew all along. Maybe not the exact details, but I had suspected that something was going on with Matt, his best friend, and girlfriend. And there was just this way that I knew mom and dad were keeping this exact information from me. Sometimes being the quiet one means being the more observant one. That makes it hard to hide things from the silent ones. Because that was me in a sense.

I wasn't hurt that my brother hadn't told me. He had his secrets, I had mine. Though now that I knew the real reason Matt wanted to come here, it's..... Weird.

He ran to get away from the memories, and we ended up crashing right into a bunch of bitter ones that were bottled up by Mr. Grey and were just waiting to get out.

It's funny how life is sometimes.

Somebody snapped their fingers in front of my face, dazing me out of it.

"Almost ready?" Johnny asked me, though I could tell by that he meant to ask if everything was alright.

I nodded, trying to look reassuring. "Yup."

I felt bad, it was like Johnny was constantly worried about me because of how much I zoned out. It was different from Matt... I don't know how, but it was. I made a vow to myself that I would try to stop acting so spacey and just keep my head together. For my friends.

As we were all standing outside the cabin, ready to leave as soon as Andrew locked the door, my brother shouted something.

"Wait!" He ran through the door and inside. We all traded wary looks. He came back out a second later with the gun in his hand. "Err... Almost forgot it. We should bring it, just in case ya know? Kathryn would have wanted us to."

None of us decided to comment back on that.

Most of the morning was uneventful. Our hike was mostly filled with chatter from Kyle about maps and compasses or Amy and Andrew arguing.

"It was too."

"Was not."

"Was too."

"Guys!" Matt interrupted them impatiently. "What on earth could you be disagreeing on now?"

"Nothing," the both replied quickly. Too quickly. Suspicious.

"It's just some silly thing."

Matt raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Then why won't you tell us."

"Well Amy here seems to think that the proper grammar is burned, b-u-r-n-e-d. I believe the proper grammar is burnt, b-u-r-n-t."

I slapped my hand on my face. "Really!? That's what you guys are arguing about?"

"Well Andrew better watch it or his bag will 'magically' be b-u-r-n-e-d to ash," Amy sent Andrew a glare.

Those two... Sometimes I really wonder about them and the stupidest things they fight over.

A little bit after our lunch consisting of granola bars, (we decided not to try our luck out on the foreign food packages), it started to lightly drizzle.

"Oh great, rain," Amy groaned.

"It's spitting," Kyle corrected her.

"My bad, oh great spitting!" she said in a mocking tone. We were all on edge, all the walking we were doing was exhausting. So what we saw next was no help to any of our moods.

"The heck is that?" Johnny asked.

"It's a rock wall," Kyle answered back in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Is it on the map?" Julia asked.

"Yeah," Kyle looked at the map again. "Looks like we've encountered our first obstacle of the day folks. We get over this rock wall."

"You sure we can't go around?" Julia asked with fear in her voice. I definitely sympathized with her on this, that rock wall was pretty high.

"Not unless you wanna walk the ten miles around the wall."

"We wouldn't make it to our next site before nightfall then," Andrew pointed out. "It would throw us back."

"So now what?" I asked, throwing my hands in the air. The rain was starting to come down harder now. Instead of spitting, it was coming down in a steady drizzle. A cold one at that.

"We go over. I think the lightest person should go over first. To test it."

"Because a heavy person...?"

"More of us would have a chance getting over." Kyle waved a hand, and we decided not to question any of his logic.

"I'll go," I volunteered.

"Ethan-"

"Matt, I'm doing this. It's just a rock wall, okay? You have to learn to let me go."

"Fly young bird, fly and be free."

I laughed at Johnny, knowing he was trying to lighten the mood and keep my mind of the impending danger.

I was doing this.

Before anybody had time to object or stop me, I grabbed a rock and hoisted myself up. Once I had secured my footing, I reached up for the next one. The rock wall was indeed very high, and the rain was making everything more slippery.

Suddenly, a downpour of rain came out of nowhere, soaking me in less than a second.

"Does anybody feel like this is a lot harder than it should be?" I called out while clutching another rock. "Maybe it was tampered with or something? Because our school wouldn't make things this difficult."

I wasn't sure if anybody could hear me or not, because I wasn't getting any answers.

My mind slipped away, even though I tried not to let myself. My thoughts wandered to the possibility of Mr. Grey tampering with this rock wall to make it more risky. If he could get rid of one of us this way... Then only six more to go.

My heart pounded louder and louder as I realized how true my thoughts just might be. But I realized too late.

"Matt-!" I called out as lightning lit up the sky.

I felt a rock give away from under my foot, and then I was falling. Down, down, down, as thunder shook through the ground.

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SOOOOO SORRRY THAT IT'S LATE AGAIN!!!!

In case you haven't read my message though, I have changed the uploading day to Wednesday Officially so that this DOESN'T happen again. Monday's are just always SO crazy for me!! Sorry guys!! (Plus, I've been working on my summer reading and POSSIBLY getting a job along with all the other hecticness)

Thoughts on this chapter?? Is he okayyyy??????????

Ten votes?? Can we do that??

Thanks for all of your support guys!!

xx

Ella