Chapter Text
"All drama must remain on stage!" I laughed, Ashley and Claire getting into their fifth argument of the week despite it only being Monday.
Regardless, the two continued to argue until at last, a teacher spoke up. "Listen to Bexley. Drama stays on stage!" Ashely rolled her eyes and Claire glared at her, the two quickly walking in opposite directions.
"Bexx," Luke said, hopping off the stage. "Yes?" I questioned, putting my phone in my back pocket. "You seen Kaley?" I just shrugged. "Bathroom last I checked." Lily said, walking past. "Thanks." Luke said, aiming the word at both Lily and I. "Bexley! They need you in the office!" Sabrina called out from across the room.
Suddenly the room was filled with 'ooo's and 'ahh's and the occasional "ooooo... someone's in trouble."
"K." Was all I said, heading out into the hall and making my way to the office.
"I can not believe you got me pulled out of rehearsal for that!" I said as my dad closed the front door behind me. "What? You'd rather be at school? Unnatural for anyone your age." He said and I just rolled my eyes, kicking off my shoes.
"We all know I hate school with a passion dad. The drama club is the only thing that gives me even the most remote sense of joy in that place." I said, tossing my school bag onto the chair next to me. "As long as you don't hate it too much. Don't need you being the next reason that school gets on the news." He said, jokingly.
"Tell me you didn't just-"
"Make a school shooting joke? Absolutely. How could I not?" He said, practically rolling over in laughter. "I make no promises." I said, jokingly. "That better- That better be a joke-" he said, trying to stop himself from laughing. "Yes dad. It was a joke. But calm down. I don't need you dying because you were laughing so hard that you couldn't breathe. That would be one hell of an awkward 911 call." I said and he took a deep breath, calming himself down.
Ever since me starting at Columbine my dad hadn't stopped making jokes about the fact that I had such a fascination with the shooting. Or just school shootings in general. But it had been a while since the last time he made a comment like that.
He's even gone as far as when he drops me off at school or calls me while I'm at school will say things like 'don't end up in a murder doc' or 'don't kill yourself'. If anyone's overheard any of those conversations they've probably been very confused and maybe a little concerned.
Not that I blame them. I'd be concerned if I heard some kids dad be like 'hey, don't end up in a murder doc' when they got dropped off at school too. I mean that's not exactly something you hear every day.
I laid awake, half asleep, but unable to fall asleep.
Something just wouldn't let me sleep for some reason. I groaned and rolled over, grabbing my phone from my nightstand and putting in my earbuds, opening YouTube. My first recommended video was about Columbine copycats. I laughed quietly, remembering my dads comment from earlier about how he didn't want me being the next reason that school wound up on the news.
That was when the thought occurred to me. Had anyone from CHS ever tried or wanted to copy the shooting?
That was when I took to google, opening Safari and googling it. The usual 'Columbine Effect' Wikipedia page being the first thing to come up. I tapped it, thinking I may have missed something somewhere along the line.
"A friend of Harris and Klebold, Eric Veik, was arrested after threatening to "finish the job" at CHS in October 1999."
That was when I googled Eric Veik, falling into a rabbit hole of research.
The extent of his plan seemed to have been a drawn out blueprint of the school, random writing and of course that one kid who had heard him threaten to 'finish the job'.
I began to wonder how I had never heard about all this until now. I knew who he was before now. I just didn't know he had been arrested after everything had gone down.
Evidently he wasn't the best at plotting things though. Any person with half a brain would have kept their mouth shut, never drawn blueprints of the damn place and kept any writing hidden and to a minimum.
I mean really dude. You went to the school. What's the use in diagraming the place? You go there every day Monday through Friday. It shouldn't take that much effort.
That was another one of those things I never realized I was doing until I already did it.
Judging criminals on how well or terribly they executed their plot. Evidently this was a case of someone failing miserably.
But to the extent of 'finish the job'. He did realize the entire point was to inspire future massacres right? There was no 'finishing the job'. It would never be finished until every last person on this planet was gone. That was the end goal. An almost impossible end goal. But the end goal none the less.
That was when I realized it was almost five AM and I was still laying, now wide awake and currently too many articles deep in research to give a fuck that I had to be up in an hour for school.
It's not like I valued my education very much. Being half asleep through it all wouldn't be so bad. It'd just mean I'd suffer a little less (hopefully) through the never ending lectures of class.
"Yo Bexx!" My best friend, and essentially only friend, Paris, said as she came up to me. "Yo Paris!" I said, smiling as she sat across from me.
I turned off my phone, putting it down on the table in front of me. "What's up?"
"I could ask you the same thing. You've been half asleep all day and Instagram said you had been active five minutes ago when I checked it at like 4am." She said and I just shrugged. "Homework."
"Also why were you up at 4am in order to know I was active at 4am?" I asked, turning the question on her.
"Woke up and went to check the time but realized I had a notification." She said and I just nodded.
"What homework did you have that it had you up until 4am though? That seems more like mental abuse than school." She said and I just laughed. "Psychological abuse, school, same-same." I said, semi-jokingly. "Fair enough. But seriously. That doesn't answer my question." She said I just shrugged. "It's a history class." I said and she nodded. "Wait you're taking history this semester?"
"Yeah.." I said, knowing damn well it was a lie but not caring. She wasn't either so she couldn't exactly call me out on my lie. I mean I wasn't technically lying. I was just more researching the history of our school than I was researching history for school.
After a while, the bell rang and Paris left, hurrying off to her next class. That was when I heard something hit the ground. I looked up, realizing it was a book. "Okay fuck this horror movie shit. I ain't doing this in a school infamous for a shooting.." I mumbled, realizing no one was anywhere near the book.
And yet something was internally screaming at me to at least put the book back before I left. I took a deep breath, pushing my thoughts aside.
"This is real life, Bexx. Not a horror movie.. someone probably pushed it off the shelf to prank you." I said to myself as I walked over to the book, bending down to pick it up.
The title sticking out to me. A book I didn't even think our school would have. Or any school for that matter.
People Like Us - Dana Mele.
I shook my head, getting a weird feeling but quickly putting it back on the shelf and grabbing my stuff before leaving.
"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" I called out, closing the door behind myself. No response. "Well that's odd.." I mumbled, realizing the lights were off as well. I flicked on the light switch next to me, kicking off my shoes and heading into the kitchen to get something to eat.
A note sat on the counter that read: "Hey sweetie, your dad and I are at the store. Text me if you need anything -mom" I left the small paper as I found it and opened the drawer next to the fridge, grabbing a juice box and granola bar before closing the drawer and heading back into the living room and upstairs.
I sat, scrolling Instagram aimlessly. The thought of the book from earlier creeping back into my mind. How the fuck did that book fall and why of all books was it one about murder in a high school? That's literally some horror movie shit. 'Teen girl attending infamous Columbine High School finds book about murder that mysteriously fell without trace of a culprit.' That's literally horror movie shit bro. I don't fuck with that. That's how you get murdered.
Wait murdered by who? A ghost? Can ghosts kill people? Are ghosts even real?
I hit myself, "of course ghosts aren't real you idiot." I mumbled. "Get out of your damn head and back into reality."
I had been at this school a year and a half now. And yet never once had anything weird happened to me. That's just proof it was coincidence. If the place was haunted, something would have happened in the past year. Right?
"Maybe I just need some sleep.." I mumbled, "I haven't slept since 2am yesterday...." rolling over and closing my eyes, soon drifting off into sleep, the silence that filled the house was deafening.