Like a Train Wreck - 8. Chapter 8: Into The Darkness

Miracle walked down that crowded hallway the first day the school opened after the tragic murder of Bradley Kershaw.
Even his full name made him sound like such an ass. It wasn't surprising that no one had a nice thing to say at his funeral other than how good he was at football.

A sigh escaped his lips, not even knowing what to expect. What did Jaemin want? It was difficult for him to understand.
He was being black mailed, yet he hadn't been given any specific orders. So what was he to do to keep one of his darkest secrets under wraps?

Speaking of the darkness, he couldn't help but notice Jaemin heading down the hall way just as he reached his locker.
The two made eye contact and the viciousness in Jaemin's eyes was enough to scare the bravest of people. Jaemin looked as if he could eat Miracle alive at any minute.

"Creepy guy, huh?"

Sterlings voice rang in and caught Miracle's attention. He leaned back against the lockers and turned his head to the side.

"Is it possible to love someone yet hate them so much? Even if you love someone else? Even if it's just for their looks? Does that sound shallow?"

"Woah...slow down. This isn't twenty questions." Sterling chuckled. "Why all the questions? Are you saying you love that guy just because of the way he looks?"

"I don't know. It's just ... there is something about darkness that's such a turn on."

"That guy looking at you like you were tonights dinner is a turn on?" Sterling lifted a single brow in confusion.

"I probably sound like a girl right now, you don't seem to be understanding me."

"Not really but if you want I can come to school dressed like that and replay his performance of the scary walk down the hall for you."

Miracle couldn't help but to grin despite the circumstances. Sterling always knew how to cheer him up, even when he wasn't trying to. "That's sweet but uh...I'll have to say no. It wouldn't suit you."

Miracle touched up Sterling's collar. "This suits you." He said, leaning up to place a kiss on Sterlings lips. He stepped back and disappeared into the crowd.

"You did it!" Kevin's voice could be heard through out the entire hallway.

A look of concern took over Sterlings face as he made his way through the crowd to see that Kevin had grabbed Miracle and threw him against the wall.

"You'll fucking pay you fucking slut!" Kevin watched Miracle fall to the floor before lifting a foot, getting ready to kick him while he was down.

"Hey!" Another loud scream was heard and that voice came from Jaemin.

Kevin turned around, a finger pointed at Jaemin. "Stay out of this. It isn't your day you freak."

"Every day is my day." Jaemin approached Kevin and got right in his face. That sharkish grin showing his lack of fear. "Maybe I should call animal control. I don't think they allow dogs inside a school."

Jaemin paused as that facial expression became devilishly wicked. "Or maybe I could take you home, cut you apart piece by piece and cook you."

Kevin stared down at Jaemin. "You have lost your fucking mind." His hands moved out to shove Jaemin.

Being shoved back, Jaemin delivered his own shove, causing Kevin to stumble back.

"Lost my fucking mind? You think I've lost my mind?!" He started screaming just as two teachers came onto the scene to hold them apart.
Jaemin struggled against the man that held him. "You're the crazy one, you raping son of a bitch! Karma will come...that's what happened to your friend. It'll come for you too." A laugh escaped.

Jaemin's eyes then shifted towards Sterling as he was being forcefully taken down the hall. "You enjoy your time..you just remember in the end he is my boy. Our energies connect. You aren't a match!"

Sterling stared at Jaemin, listening to his words, none of which even made sense. He moved forward, gathering Miracle in his arms, helping him up.

"Go to class! There is nothing to see here!" The other teacher directed before looking over at Kevin and grasping him by the arm to take both boys to the principal's office.

"Are you okay?" Sterling asked.

"Yeah." Miracle cringed in slight pain. "I'll be fine." A sigh escaped.

"You've talked to that guy, how else did he know about the rape?" Sterling paused momentarily. "You slept with him, didn't you?"

"God, no." He shook his head. "He lives in the warehouse where it happened. He scared them off when he showed up. I just ran, went straight to your place."

"Sorry." Sterling said.

"Just leave me alone. You don't trust me. You just think I'm a whore ... like all the rest." Miracle pushed Sterling away and took off down the hall.

"Miracle, wait! I don't think that!" Sterling called out after him but that didn't stop Miracle.


Miracle couldn't stop, everything was getting worse. The rape, Brad getting killed, Jaemin, everything. There was all this stuff piled on top of him and he didn't know who he could turn to except for one person.

A person he initially hated. Someone that he at first wanted to avoid and yet now here he was, knocking on the door to Miss Carter's office.

"Come in." Miss Carter called out, her eyes lifting from her paper work.

The door was pushed open and almost as if he were afraid, Miracle peeked his head inside. He looked at her and then down at the floor. "I need someone."

Miss Carter removed her reading glasses and stood up. "Miracle, come in." She approached the door, closing it after Miracle hesitantly walked inside.

"I heard about the incident with the janitor's closet. More importantly about the bruises that were seen on your face."

With his back turned to Miss Carter, he looked around the office, trying to figure out where to even begin.
"It's more than that, a lot of really bad things have happened." He finally brought himself to look at her.

"What kinds of things?" Miss Carter approached him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I can't tell you. That's the worst part of it all. I can't tell or I'll be in a lot of trouble. Really serious trouble." He said with a shaky voice.

"Anything you say is strictly between you and me. I won't tell anyone anything." She said, trying to encourage him to express what was wrong.

"You won't have a choice. I've seen cop shows. They can make people talk, all they need is a piece of paper saying they have no choice."

"Cop shows? Wait, what? Have you done something bad?" She looked at him thoughtfully. "Is this about Brad?"

"God...I shouldn't of come here. I didn't mean for anything bad to happen. It wasn't really suppose to happen."

He looked at Miss Carter with such a frightened expression.

"You can't tell because...if you tell I might end up just like Brad. Please...don't tell them you ever saw me here." Miracle begged and then rushed out of her office as quickly as he had come, leaving her lost and bewildered.


"Oh hey, boy come here." The receptionist waved at Miracle.

"What?" He quickly spun around to look at her, worried that Miss Carter would pursue him if he didn't escape quick enough.

"Principal Johnson wants to see you in his office, now."

Great. Now what? Miracle's shoulders slumped and he sighed as he moved over to that dreaded door and pushed it open to find not only the Principal but Kevin and Jaemin sitting in the two chairs across from the old man.

"He shouldn't be sad or angry with anyone for no one has died. Death does not exist because no one ever ceases to exist. We are just waves of energy that are born again and again into different beings and in different planes of existence. We are as endless as time and space." Jaemin said.

"Do we seriously have to keep listening to his psycho babble? Brad is dead." Kevin said, looking at the Principal.

"Miracle, there you are." Principal Johnson looked at him, as did the two other boys in the room.

"I don't quite understand why you wanted to see me? I mean...I'm the victim of Kevin's outrageous accusation." Miracle looked at the Principal with a questioning gaze.

"I understand you feel victimized and attacked and I don't mean to make you feel like that now but the reason I wanted to see you is because Kevin accuses you of murder and attacks you just before Jaemin accuses him of being a rapist and attacks him."

"I still don't understand, Principal Johnson." Miracle lifted his shoulders in a shrug.

"My point is that these two had a confrontation over two different events and you seem to be in the middle of the entire thing. The missing link, so to speak."

"Look I didn't kill anyone. I was in English class just before the announcement to evacuate came on. Check with the teacher, he'll verify it. And I don't know anything about any kind of rape." Miracle denied the Principal's suspicions.

"Are you sure about that?" Principal Johnson didn't believe that Miracle had murdered Brad but his suspicions about rape were stronger.

"Remember when I asked what happened to your face?"

Kevin looked over at Miracle with a deadly gaze, almost silently daring him to tell.

"I told you, I fell down the stairs." Miracle claimed, rather defensively at that.

"I called your Mother. She said she didn't know of such an event happening and said around that time you'd spent days at Sterling Parker's house and this was just after sneaking out of the house." Principal Johnson was not backing down on the matter.

Miracle had been put on the spot and backed right into a corner he didn't know how to escape from. He just stared at the old man behind that desk, unknowing of what to even say to him at this point.

"If it will be easier, I can make them leave." The Principal said before deciding on his own that they should leave. "You two go wait outside. We aren't finished yet."

Jaemin looked at Kevin and rolled his eyes before standing up, letting Kevin head out first before those hypnotic eyes made contact with Miracle's as if silently trying to comfort him. The door to the Principal's office was closed once the two boys were gone.

"I told you, nothing happened. It's all just one huge coincidence." Miracle said, those eyes turning downward.

"Maybe, but you see, I am having a hard time believing that." The old man grew silent, trying to figure out how to break Miracle into telling the truth.

"You know, it's not fair for a person to be harmed by people who get away with it. It's even worse when the victim makes it easy to get away with."

Miracle slowly looked up at him, seeing that the man wasn't going to let up. A sigh escaped as his head rolled backwards, against the wall.

"Okay...I'll tell you what happened." Those eyes closed in defeat.

"I had decided to take Sterling out to a club that night. I wanted to show him a different side of life. So after we got in, I knew we needed someone to buy drinks for us and that's when I met Brian who turned out to be Brad's cousin."


December 2007

"It's okay if you want to go home Sterry! Brian will keep me safe." Miracle laughed, being held in Brian's arms. "He'll show me a good time, won't you baby?"

"Oh there's no doubt about it. Tonight is going turn out to be interesting." Brian chuckled.

"I don't think that's such a good idea, Miracle. You're completely trashed, you have no idea what you are even saying." Sterling reached out a hand, trying to change Miracle's mind.

"Sterry I know what I am saying. I'm aware of everything around me." Miracle's head tilted to the side as Brian placed a trail of kisses along his flesh.

"I feel so alive." He gave a shake of his head. "Go home, go study or watch your fish or do whatever it is you do alone." Miracle said.

"You know what? Whatever." Sterling's eyes narrowed and he walked off towards the alley where he parked.


January 2008

Miracle took a deep breath as he spoke of that night.

"Parts of it are real hazy but I know I was scared. Brian took me to this warehouse. I asked him why we didn't go to his place. He said he had a roommate but that we'd have more privacy where we were." His face tensed, those eyes began to water up.

Principal Johnson watched Miracle, taking in his body language, the way he sounded and even the story it's self. There was no doubt in his mind now as to what had happened but he didn't have any idea as to how horrific it turned out to be.


December 2007

Miracle walked into the warehouse, turning his head to make sure Brian was following him. By the time he looked around he noticed they weren't alone. He noticed Brad and Kevin were there, along with their buddies.

"Brad? Kevin? What are you guys doing here?" Miracle stumbled towards them.

Brad grinned at Brian, clearly amused. "Oh you know, just hanging out, talking about things that we found, the usual stuff."

"Really?" Miracle laughed, stumbling closer to Brad before his hands gripped Brad's shirt. "I didn't know we were on a treasure hunt."

"You aren't, but I am." Brad reached into his pocket and retrieved the disk.

Kevin and Danny moved forward and grasped Miracle's arms from behind, yanking him away from Brad.

"Hey! Stop! Let me go! Come on..." Miracle struggled against them, still partially thinking this was a game. "Brad do something."

"Lookie here, I found it." Brad waved the disk in Miracle's face before tossing it to Brian.

"God I thought you'd be smarter than that. You left it on your desk in plain sight"

Miracle struggled against the two other males as he stared at Brad, unsure of what to do, he was in an old warehouse on the wrong side of town. Who would hear him? Who would even care to help?

"Here, throw him on the table." Brad laughed as three out of the five guys picked the struggling boy up and quite literally tossed him on the table.

A cry of pain escaped Miracle before yet another scream would take place when Brad moved over towards him and smacked him across the face.

"Stop it!" Miracle screamed, blood already tainting that beautiful yet delicate face.

"Alright guys, it's time to have fun." Brad grinned and lifted the bottle of beer to his lips for several large gulps.

"What are you doing? Please don't! Stop it!" He cried out when he felt his pants being torn away.

January 2008

"I remember closing my eyes, trying to tune it all out. I guess it could of been worse. I could of been sober when it happened. I remember Brian, I remember his face. He looked like he regretted the whole thing but he did nothing to help because he was Brad's cousin. Brad didn't rape me though, he just beat me afterwards. I guess it was pay back for the black mail."

Miracle slid down the wall to sit on the floor and he covered his now tear soaked face, his entire body trembling.

Principal Johnson looked horrified. He didn't know how to handle it. What he did know is that he would definitely be speaking to Miss Carter about it as well as Miracle's parents.

Whether Miracle liked it or not, he needed the support, especially now as he would have no choice but to tell the police if he were questioned and even with an alibi that still gave Miracle or anyone of his friends a motive to kill Brad.

Principal Johnson was afraid that none of this was going to go down quietly.