The Grim Reaper's Daughter

Chapter Fourteen

"Students of Pleasant Oaks High School, our school as well as out city has been plagued with death, despair, and sorrow this past month. I know hearts are heavy, and it's perfectly normal for this to be the case, but we have to know that everything will be okay. Also, the City Council has asked that each of you be home and safe before dark until we can sort this entire thing out. That is all I have for you," one of the administrators spoke to the student body. After the little speech was over, each of the students began to file from the auditorium, the same auditorium where Bree had won Homecoming Queen less than 24 hours ago.

And today was Friday... Homecoming night, but no one had the spirits to celebrate. The students had been plagued with loss, and the mood of the school was just deadly.

"I just don't understand," Dallas spoke softly, staring at the ground as he and Bree leaned on the brickwall in the school's courtyard.

"It's not for us to understand, Dallas," she said to him, adjusting the position of the Homecoming Queen crown on her head before Amanda approached the two of them, glaring her usual spiteful glare.

"That crown makes your head look huge. Why are you wearing it?" she asked meanly.

"Well, I'm sure it'd look slightly proportionate on your head. A pity that you are not the Homecoming Queen," Bree said sarcastically with a smirk upon her face. It was the school's tradition that the Homecoming Queen wore the crown until her walk with the king on the football field the night of the game. Bree didn't know who she'd walk with since her king had committed suicide.

"The two of you stop it! Amanda, what do you want?" Dallas asked sadly.

"To speak with you,"

"Why now? I'm not in the mood, Amanda," Dallas said, shaking his head, not even looking her in the eye.

"Dallas, stop pretending that these aren't both of our friends!" Amanda said, and she was speaking the truth. Before, when Amanda and Dallas were a very unhappy couple, there was a sense of friendship between the six of them that seemed unbreakable. But now, death and other problems had become their means of separation.

"I'll step away," Bree said. When she was a reasonable distance away from the two of them, she heightened her hearing and listened to the words of her boyfriend and enemy.

"You still don't believe me?" Amanda asked quickly.

"Amanda, there is no way that Dree could have been the cause of Blake's suicide. That's absurd! It was a suicide," Dallas snapped, tired of the accusations.

"Well, explain Mrs. Ellis's death, Dallas. She was stabbed,"

"The only fingerprints found on the knife were those of Mrs. Ellis. That was a suicide as well, and it's not a very far-fetched one, considering she lost a 16 year old daughter a little over a year ago," Dallas explained, and his voice was no longer sharp as he spoke, "Listen, Amanda. Life would be easier if we found out that Dree was behind it all... because we'd have an answer. But the reality is that she isn't. And I love her Amanda."

Bree became instantly shocked at his words. Love? The four letter word that she had never known? Did she love him?

"You have only known her a month," Amanda pointed out, the use of the "L" word plaguing her mind. She'd lost him.

"But I feel like I have known her for ages. I'm sorry Amanda, but trying to blame anything on Dree isn't going to help your case." And with those words, Dallas walked away and approached a smiling Bree.

"Everything okay?"

"Everything is fine," Dallas replied as the two of them walked away from Amanda hand in hand.