Chapter 10 - Walking Out into the Sun
Two weeks after the arrests, the autumn leaves turned from brilliant gold to deep, bruised crimson, blanketing the campus lawns in a rustling carpet of red and brown.
The investigation had concluded. The national news outlets had moved on to the next corporate scandal, leaving St. Jude’s Academy to quietly pick up the shattered fragments of its reputation under a new, interim administration appointed by the state educational board.
On a bright, crisp Friday afternoon, the final bell rang, signaling the end of the school week.
Students filed out of the building in quiet, orderly streams. No laughter echoed through the courtyards; the vibrant, cruel arrogance that had once defined the student body had been replaced by a sober, cautious humility.
I packed my notebooks into my leather satchel, stood up from the back-row desk, and walked toward the heavy oak doors of the classroom for the very last time.
As I stepped out into the main corridor, Uncle Marcus was waiting for me by the front entrance, leaning against his dark sedan with the passenger door open.
He didn't say anything as I walked down the stone steps. He simply reached out, took my satchel from my hand, and tossed it into the back seat.
"Is it done?" he asked quietly as I slid into the front passenger seat.
"It's done," I replied, pulling off the royal blue St. Jude’s blazer and tossing it onto the floorboards.
I reached up, unclipped the cracked silver locket from my neck, and held it in my palm for a long moment, feeling its cool metal surface. Then I placed it carefully into the glove compartment beside Emma’s blue diary.
Uncle Marcus shifted the car into gear, and we rolled slowly past the wrought-iron gates of the academy for the final time.
I looked back through the rear window as the gothic spires of St. Jude’s grew smaller in the distance. The ghost was gone. The uniform was off.
May you like
My sister could finally rest in peace.
And as we merged onto the open highway under the brilliant, unyielding glare of the afternoon sun, I knew that whatever came next, nobody would ever walk over a Yates again.
