The Key Chased the Blade

The doctors brought Simon back to life. It was the knife plunged into his heart that saved him.

The doctors told me all this complicated stuff, but basically it in a nutshell: because it pierced directly into his heart and instead of the major arteries around it, the muscle around it was able to close and buy him the time he needed. Simon's heart stopped only for a brief moment before they got it pumping again and fixed it. He'd died. But after that he came back.

Simon gave me his stupid dorky grin when I came into the hospital room. I threw down the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups I had in rage.

"Screw you," I spat. "I could've lost you and all you do is grin at me like that!?"

"Come here and hug me," he said.

"Screw you!" But I did anyway. I raced over to him, flung my arms around him, and he held me as if I was the one that died and not him. God, I would never admit to it, but he'd been in the hospital so long I missed his touch. He rubbed my back and I almost cried. Jesus, I was done crying.

"Never do that to me again," I murmured into his chest.

"I don't plan on it," he said.

We held each other for a long time.

I didn't know what happened to Rhode but what I heard in rumors and to what she said in her confession. She had killed Sadie, her mother, and John. And this was something I didn't know, but she had been sexually abused as a child, and when Bryce hurt her, she'd snapped. That was probably why John pulled that prank as well, because he knew how much it hurt her.

She knew at that time Sadie was going to tell Tyler about the prank, and in the spur of the moment, she followed Sadie home to threaten her. She felt the need to protect John's reputation. It ended up going too far and Rhode lost it. She beat Sadie to death and hid her under the bridge. In that time, she lost the spare key John had given her to our house. John had given it to her in case she needed to leave her abusive home and come to ours. She dropped the key in the rocks and a bird swallowed it up.

"School had been hell without you," I said. Simon laughed next to my ear. "Everyone's asking me what happened and I have stupid Alex being all macho man on me. It's ridiculous."

"Macho man? What does that mean?"

"That means he calls me all the time and gives me hugs. And then all his friends give me funny looks and he doesn't care."

Simon chuckled again. He squeezed me just a bit tighter. "But you don't call him too or hug him back either?"

"Of course not! Who do you think I am?"

Simon and I both knew I was lying.

The bird eating the key was a turning point for Rhode. That day onward she began to kill birds and cut them open to look for the key in them. Then it became just killing birds and hanging them across town. I didn't know why she chose to hang them. I had a really bad feeling it had to do with her abuse, though.

Sadie's mother was just unfortunate. Rhode started going after humans and twisted reality in her head so she thought Annie Amala should die for not taking care of her daughter when she needed it. Afterwards through her insanity, she targeted us after her run-in with Simon that one night. And she knew we were looking for her too.

Rhode killed John after he found out about the killings. This was when he ran to her house after being accused at ours. He called her insane. She threatened to kill him. And she did.

"You know, I'm just glad you're okay," I muttered into Simon's chest. "I've had nightmares the entire time you were gone."

"Oh Noah," Simon said softly. He reached up and touched the nape of my neck. "At least things will be better after this."

I didn't know what happened to her after that, but I didn't care. The only thing I could care about at all was if Simon was all right.

"Oof, you're squeezing me a bit on my stitches," he said. I didn't realize I'd tightened my grip and released him. He smiled at me. "I don't know why I put up with you."

"You can shut up," I said.

"I don't want them to tear!"

I punched him, gently though. "I love you, stupid."

He laughed. "I love you too."

"When you get out of here we're going to get candy, okay?" I asked him.

"Yeah." Simon gave me his stupid dorky grin. "Let's definitely go do that."