The Key Chased the Blade

Simon and I went through the school day and met up by the tree. It almost felt normal, going through the motions of school, stressing out about homework and the classes missed - well, Simon was worried about the classes he missed - until we looked at each other's faces underneath that tree and knew that things were really not normal and we were just fooling ourselves. This was bothering me a whole ton. I wanted to be normal, I really did. But when someone just died at school, I didn't think normal would happen until a long time afterward.

Simon and I texted our parents that we were hanging out and we took off to Simon's house. He had a plain grey Mitsubishi gathering dust in the garage which his parents gave him for his sixteenth birthday. He never drove it. It wasn't like he didn't have his license, he actually passed his permit and driving test with flying colors, he said he just didn't need it. Now we needed it.

We threw our backpacks in the trunk. "You still remember how to drive?" I asked.

He snorted. "Of course. Get in."

I got in the passengers seat, he got in the drivers seat and put the key in, and we went off.

Jefferson Bridge was across town. We could've taken the bus there, but I still didn't have any money and I wasn't about to ask Simon for some. It took us about ten minutes to get there. We parked on the side of a street and walked over to the old bridge. I was expecting the CSI guys to still be there and kick us out, but they weren't. No one was there.

Simon and I trekked down to the edge of the river. The bridge drew over the water, and and at one point in time there was a lot of talk about the bridge being rebuilt, but nothing ever happened. Cars sped over it above us and the air was chilly. Filthy water lapped up at the rocks. I shoved my hands in the pocket of my jacket and shivered. I felt perturbed. Simon blew out his breath and a cloud dissipated in front of his face.

"It doesn't really look like anybody died here," I said.

Simon didn't respond. He craned his neck up and stared at the gloomy sky. I stared at it with him, but there was nothing to look at, so I turned my head back to the rocks and started to look around.

"What are you doing?" Simon asked, looking back at me.

"Seeing if there's any evidence," I said. There was only trash here. The only evidence I'd find would be what some hobo had for lunch.

"They probably removed it," Simon said, and he followed me. I turned over a couple of rocks and examined the area. "I don't know if we'll find anything important."

I huffed, but admitted, "I think you're right, there really isn't anything here. Let's look for a bit more - AH!"

I shrieked and jumped back, but then I realized what it was. Black feathers strewn about, slight bloodstains under the mottled rock, it was a dead bird. I found that I'd gripped onto Simon's arm as hard as I could and released him. My face burned. "Jesus Christ," I swore. "There's a dead bird here."

Simon grimaced. I pushed the rock over that was halfway concealing it, and the maggot-infested mass was exposed. The stench was horrendous even if it was such a small thing. Simon reached over and held onto my wrist. I almost shook him off, but his face was pale and he looked like he needed to hold onto something.

"Wait, what's that in it?" Simon breathed.

I looked. It's breast was split open and the rotten flesh showing, but then I saw what Simon was looking at. It was a faint glimmer of metal from the puffy meat on the inside. Something was inside it.

"Maybe it's a bullet," I said, even though it didn't look like a bullet. Simon looked like he didn't believe me either, so I swallowed a few times and drew my hand forward to it. Simon let go of me as I peeled back the feathers.

"Noah, what-" Simon couldn't get the words out.

Bile came up my throat, but I pulled back the stinking skin and disclosed the metal object. It was a key. It looked like a house key, or a car key, something of that sort, and I slowly pulled the thing out of the bird, the metal peeling off the flesh.

"Noah - oh God," Simon gagged.

"C'mon, let's find a bag for this," I said, and I hurried back to the car to find a container for the key.