Page 118 of The Devils They Are

As much as it pains me to disturb Arch's cardio adventure, I also send him a text, alerting him of the situation. Hopefully, they can be our ears and eyes at Willowbrook while we are across town.

The ideal scenario would be that this is all for nothing. Perhaps Jenna heard wrong or misunderstood, but we can't leave anything to chance. If I have to spend any more time with Dean Satan and his son, I'll probably shrivel up.

There's not even any music as we sit in silence, my foot tapping impatiently as Hunter drives annoyingly slow. I mean, sure, he's going the speed limit. But fuck him anyway. Any excuse to be mad at him works for me.

Finally, I spot the familiar cream and brown building coming into view, shrouded in darkness except for the streetlights. Hunter scoffs under his breath as we pull into the Cedar Heights parking lot, but for me, it's like a breath of fresh air seeing home.

I jump out of the car before he's turned off the ignition, taking a few steps toward the main entrance. Pausing, I gaze over the building, inspecting the previous damage and searching for any signs of embers.

Hunter strolls up next to me, straightening up a jacket he's just shoved on, hands deep in his pockets as he scowls at the building like it's personally wronged him. I cock an eyebrow at the addition to his attire, baffled that even in the presence of a damaged building, he's still trying to make a statement with his ego.

"I don't want to hear one single comment from you," I mutter, eyes landing on some boarded-up windows outside the administration building.

Before he can reply, I take off, lifting the hem of my dress as I walk up the steps. I half expect him to turn and leave, but as I'm fidgeting with the giant padlock on the front door, he comes up beside me.

"Move," he grunts, thrusting a key forward.

I raise a brow, which only seems to go higher when the key turns effortlessly, and the padlock unlocks. I stare at him in question, receiving a bored look in return.

"Your principal gave us a spare key," he says simply, as if I'm stupid for being confused.

"You mean he gave your father a key."

"That's what I said."

Elbowing him out of the way, I remove the padlock and open the door. "I don't know if I should be impressed that you have our key or pissed that you stole it from the dean's office."

"You have a funny way of saying thank you," he shoots back. "What was your plan? Break a window and scale the building like fucking Spiderman?"

Ignoring him, I step into the darkness, immediately gagging at the strong stench of smoke and burned materials. Even two months later, it's still overwhelming, and part of me wonders if it will ever be truly gone.

I head down the corridor, using my cell torch as a light. I bypass the main admin office which has large sheets of plastic draped all over the walls and construction materials dumped on the floor. My eyes fall on the lockers as we pass, and my chest tightens as I see the damage for the first time.

They really did it. It's… destroyed. We were told that the lockers were largely intact—I guess not all of them. The ones near the admin office are all but gone.

Warped melted metal disguises the fact that these used to be lockers, charred books fallen on the floor, completely unrecognizable.

As we head further toward the classrooms, I stop suddenly, staring.

"What is it?" Hunter asks with a pressing tone, swinging his head around to figure out what's stolen my attention.

I reach out and touch the mangled mess, surprised when the locker door swings open with ease. The lock is broken, and everything inside has turned to ash. Lifting a blackened Polaroid, my shoulders droop. I can still see the picture in my mind, but in front of me, it's non-existent. The fragile film crumbles under my touch, a small gasp escaping my lips before I can stop it.

"Your locker," Hunter says knowingly.

I suppose that explains why they weren't able to recover more of my stuff. It dawns on me that the textbooks given to me to take to Willowbrook weren't mine to begin with. Someone provided me with copies so that I'd be able to start classes.

Nodding, I tip my hand, letting the ash fall to the floor. "That was a picture of my parents and I," I answer quietly, stepping backwards.

Without elaborating, I keep walking, blinking back the tears that have formed in my eyes. Whoever did this will pay.

I hope they are here—trying again. Because when I get my hands on them, they are going to wish they were swallowed and shit out.

Hunter follows silently and I can't help but notice, much to my annoyance, that he seems to know where we are going. I glare at him out of the corner of my eye, shooting daggers. He pretends not to see me, still wearing that bored expression that I long to wipe off.

As we enter the library, I stumble for a moment, really overpowered by the smoke smell. It's stronger in here than the admin office, to my surprise. The whole area is completely decimated, and it appears they haven't even started repairing this section.

There's a pile of supplies in the far corner, neatly packed together. My feet carry me over, curious as to why they are there when nothing has been secured and prepped in here. For a second, I suddenly wonder how structurally sound the building is and whether it's going to collapse on top of us.

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