Page 83 of Reckless At Raleigh High

For a second, I can’t make sense of what’s happening. The figure’s a blur, nothing more than a dark smudge against a sea of white. Then the edges of the newcomer begin to sharpen, coming into focus, and I see the weapon he’s holding in his hands. He raises the gun, aiming it directly at the side of Jacob’s head, and a bright flare of light erupts from the muzzle.

Jake’s head rocks violently to the side.

The sound comes after.

CRACK!

A fine red mist sprays into the air, debris shooting off in every direction.

Oh…my…god.

Whatjusthappenedwhatjusthappenedwhatjusthappened…

I screw my eyes shut, dizzy and nauseous.

Thum…

Thum…

Thum…

My pulse is so weak, like my heart is barely beating at all. When I open my eyes, Jacob’s on his knees, his eyes rolled back into his head…and then he topples over, limbs slack, falling sideways into the snow.

Half of his fucking head is missing.

It feels like it takes forever to happen, but in reality, Jacob drops to the ground like a stone. In the distance, a flock of birds explode from a dark stand of trees; they scatter in every direction, wheeling and zipping through the air, scared by the loud report of the gun as it echoes out over Raleigh.

Jacob’s utterly still. His body doesn’t twitch. No weird convulsing like in the movies.Because there’s nothing of his brain left,the logical part of me says. The shot took out the contents of his skull, spraying it onto the snow in front of me. There are no synapses left to fire. No nerve endings to shoot off random, confused messages as the life inside him sputters out and dies. Jacob was brain dead before he even hit the floor.

He's gone.

He’s fucking dead.

“Wha…?”

I can’t tell what’s real right now.

I’m too dazed. I look up, and it takes a long moment to understand that Detective James Lowell is moving toward me across the snow, stepping over Jacob’s mangled head, lowering a gleaming silver gun to his side.

“Silver? Ms. Parisi, are you okay?”

I blink at him.

“Silver? Look at me. Are you hurt?”

He has me by the shoulders. The gun’s still in his hand, and he presses it against my bare arm, the muzzle pointing up toward the sky as he ducks down, peering into my eyes, looking concerned. “You shouldn’t be out here, kid.”

“Hold on. Hold on!Wait!”

The sound of the panic in the cry behind me snaps me out of my shock. I’m falling. I come back into myself with a sharp, unpleasant jolt that feels like I just hit the sidewalk after slipping from the ledge of a ten-story building.

There are people everywhere.

Three of the Raleigh High football team are scrambling in the snow, whimpering, clinging to one another as they stare in horror at the pool of blood spreading in the snow around Jake’s ruined head.

Zander and Halliday are standing stock still, taking in the chaos to my right…

And, weirdly…