Chapter 3(Ehhh this chapter is Ehhh)

Sara smiled uncomfortably. She pushed her dark curls behind her and out of her face. She was wearing a coral shirt with blue stripes across the front.

“Hey guys.” Her voice was high-pitched and clear. “I guess if you’re watching this then something must have happened to me. I assume you’re all pretty scared, and you deserve an explanation. Chances are that however I died looked like an accident. It wasn’t. Somebody killed me. You see, my father is the head of a secret society. Not a hate group, like the kkk or nazis or something, though. No, we’re assassins. Hit-men as some people would call us. We don’t generally take a job if it goes against our morals, and I have yet to actually be old enough to kill anybody. We work for the government, wiping out people who they don’t want, but it’s a dangerous thing to be involved with. I wanted to make this video just in case something happened. Which I guess it did, seeing that you’re watching this. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but we’re forbidden to talk about it. When people find out is when we start getting murdered. But, now you all know, and you have to promise not to tell anybody. You should go speak to my parents. They won’t be happy I recorded this, but chances are they’ll make you take an oath of silence. The same one that I took a long time ago. Also, keep moving. I don’t want you all sitting around moping about my death. Death happens to us all, don’t treat mine any differently.” The screen went black. And it was quiet for just a few moments.

And then “Why didn’t she-”

“This is insane I can’t-”

“No this isn’t real this is a dream, wake-”

“QUIET!” I screamed, wanting everybody to just shut up. And they did. “Look, I know this comes as a shock to us all, but we have to do what she told us to. We have to go talk to her father. Like she told us to. I’m just as freaked out as you guys are, but we have to do this.”

“Yeah.” Natalie nodded. “Let’s go. I’ll drive.” We all stood up and walked out to her car. I looked down at the sidewalk beneath my feet, and I felt tears pricking the corners of my eyes, threatening to start spilling out. I sucked them in, telling myself for the umpteenth time that I had to be strong. Stronger than ever before. If not for myself, then for her. So that wherever she was watching from, she wouldn't see me the way I had learned to see myself.

I didn’t get it. Why would she do this to us? If she had told us we wouldn’t have said a word to anybody. I trusted her, and I wish that she had trusted me too. We all had trusted her.

We got into the car. I shifted around, trying to get comfortable. Nobody spoke, but Natalie turned on the radio. I listened to the quiet hum of the music, trying to forget everything. There had been so much to take in during the last 24 hours alone, and I wasn’t sure what to do with it all. My mind was filled to the brim, and it was going to overflow at any given moment.

We starting driving downtown, where Sara’s parents lived. The area was a little more run down looking than other sections, but her parents lived in a nicer section of Wenjie. It was just South of Main Street, and the change from downtown to the nicer homes was sudden. There were more trees in their neighborhood, and the houses were lined with shrubs, and all had rather pretty gardens.

We pulled in, and looked around. Their house was nicer than the one I lived in, but I figured killing people professionally paid pretty well. It had to, I don’t see why somebody would do it if it didn’t.

It was white, and the door was made of black wood.

We got out, and the sounds of door slamming echoed around.

I followed Natalie up to the door, watching her ring the doorbell. A man came to the door, and I recognized him as Henry Brooks, Sara’s father.

When he saw it was us, he opened the door.

“Well, hello.” He smiled. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at school right now?”

“We would, Mr. Brooks, only there’s something we need to speak to you about.” Natalie smiled sweetly.

“Well, of course. Come on in. Also, it’s Henry, not Mr. Brooks.” He smiled, and opened the door, letting us in. He brought us to a living room, and let us sit down. “Can I get you all anything to drink?”

“No, I think we’re okay.”

“So,” He took a sip out of his coffee mug. “What can I help you with?”

“Well, as you may know Violet let me come over and look through Sara’s things yesterday. And I found something.”

“It was a DVD.” I felt myself start talking. “It was addressed to us, and told us only to watch it if she died. And so we did, and we found out some rather shocking things.”

“You did?” He raised one eyebrow. “What would those be?”

I heard Jenna inhaled. “The secret society.” Henry frowned.

“What society? I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I think she might have been playing a prank on you, she did that a lot.”

“Don’t play dumb with us.” Hayden. “We know. She told us everything. About how you kill people for money, and how that’s your job. It makes sense when you think about, you never were around.”

“Why would she tell you that?” He looked at his feet. “She promised not to say anything, she swore. She shouldn’t have told you. Any of you.”

“We deserved to know, Henry.” Jenna looked at him. “I’ve spent the last two years regretting not spending more time with her, and even knowing this makes me feel a little better. There is so much that I never got to tell her. Knowing that there was a reason she wasn’t always around explains everything. Well, almost everything.”

“You deserved nothing.”He snarled, looking at her. “I’m the one who’s hurting because of this. I have to wake up every morning and remember that she’s not here. It’s like finding out that she died over and over again only it never stops. I loved her, not-”

“Not us?” I gathered my courage and spoke up. “We loved her. When she was hurting, and in pain, we were there for her. You were probably out of the country murdering somebody, and not stopping to think that maybe they had a family. Only now are you sympathetic, because you know what it feels like to hurt. But, Sara was back here, thinking that you didn’t care because you would be gone for months and not do so much as pick up the phone and call her. You cared more about this- thing- than you cared about her. You hardly even spoke to her.”

“You don’t know.” He lowered his voice. “I tried to stop her from doing it, but she wouldn’t listen. I regret not forcing her to. They came and were looking for a teenage girl to do a job, and she volunteered. I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen. She kept saying that if something happened to somebody else because they took the job and not her, that she would never forgive herself. And I couldn’t stand letting the same thing happen to you. But now that you know, my choices are limited.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I can’t just sit and let this slide. If anybody else from the society, Occidendum, is what it’s called, were to find out? They’re vicious people, they’d probably come after you. The rule is generally anybody who finds out must be killed, but I suppose I could make an exception. There really only is one other option, though.”

“What would that be?” Hayden said.

“Inducting you in.”

“What?” Jenna’s voice was loud. “I’m not going to go around and murder people! You might be heartless and okay with murdering, but I'm not. There has to be another option.”

“There isn’t. I won’t make you do anything, I won’t even tell anybody what happened. This is just a precautionary measure, in case any of the members find out. They won’t be able to hurt you, because you’re in the society. If they were there would be consequences for them. Grave ones.”

I sighed, looking at my hands. What had I gotten into? It almost felt as if I was being forced to join a cult, but the other option was enjoyable either. It was either agree to kill other people, or willingly die. He said that we wouldn't have to do anything, but I didn't believe him. How could I? He didn't see what was morally wrong with murder, he did it all the time. He had grown up around it, that was his normal. It wasn't mine. And I'm glad that it wasn't.

Everything really did add up when I thought about it. Sara always told us her parents were on “business trips”, but they were gone for a long time. She sometimes didn’t give straight answers to my questions, like where she was or why she wasn’t texting me back. she talked a lot about death and moral ambiguity, but I never knew where all of that was coming from. It made sense knowing that she grew up encouraged to kill.

“Fine.” I looked at him, and then turned to my friends. “It’s not like we really have much else to choose from. It’s this or what, die? Seeing what this “society” is, I wouldn’t put it past him. We’ll just pretend that this never happened.” Slowly, Natalie nodded.

“Yeah, I guess. Let’s just do this.”

“Alright then.” Mr. Brooks smiled. “I won’t make you go through any of the paperwork or the hazing, or the training, I’ll just have you repeat after me. Is that okay?”

“Yeah.”

“I, [state your name]”

“I, Alton Clemens”

“I, Natalie Irvin”

“I, Jenna Sullivan”

“I, Hayden Ness”

“Do solemnly swear”

“Do solemnly swear,”

“To dedicate myself to Occidendum. I promise to follow my orders without question, and to never speak of the clan. I take this vow of silence, and hereby swear myself into Occidendum for the whole of my life and whatever may come next.”

I swallowed. “To dedicate myself to Occidendum. I promise to follow my orders without question, and to never speak of the clan. I take this vow of silence, and hereby swear myself into Occidendum for the whole of my life and whatever may come next.”

“That’s all. Now leave, and don’t speak of what has happened here.”

We got up and left. The world seemed different than it had the day before. Everything seemed a little less important, and life seemed a little shorter.

We got into the car, and started driving towards the parking lot so that we could go home, it was about time.

I stared out the window. The trees passed behind me, and I watched us trace back the path that we had driven that morning. We drove North up Main street, and I sighed.

Regret didn't begin to explain it. I had just given away my life, sworn away my moral values because of a DVD that my friend accidentally found in an attic.

What had I done?