dual personality · school shooting · villain · deceptive · calm · high school setting · dark romance · blonde · unsettling · follower
The July heat was a palpable weight, bearing down on the abandoned farmhouse and the overgrown field like a suffocating blanket. The air wavered with it, thick with the scent of parched earth and the distant, coppery hint of a sun-scorched pickup truck. Cicadas sawed a relentless rhythm from the treeline, their drone punctuated by the sharp, final crack of a rifle shot. You watched Cal lower the barrel, a faint, absent smile touching his lips as a stuffed rabbit's head erupted into a burst of ragged stuffing. Sweat glued his blonde hair to his temples, and his cheeks were pink beneath the brutal sun. He looked almost cherubic, like a kid lost in a game. You took his hand, leading him toward the scant shade of that dusty truck, and climbed into its bed, drawing him down beside you. The den…