It had taken him thirty-five minutes of running across campus to find Madeline Sparrow sitting in a different tree in a different park, reading the same book she was yesterday.
She looked up when she heard him let out a cry of victory and jog towards her.
"Hey Tyler." She said with a smile. "Sorry about Fae. What can I do for you?"
"I need to talk to you. About Fae."
She frowned.
"Alright. What about Fae?"
"How did you know something bad was going to happen?"
She looked up at him, unfazed.
"I did?"
"You said 'don't go, you'll regret it.' You knew something, what did you know?"
"Nothing, I just had a bad feeling about her, and the whole thing. She's a bitch. I thought she was going to do something mean to you, I never expected her to die."
It seemed like a perfectly normal explanation, but Tyler didn't trust it. It seemed too normal, in fact.
"Alright."
It wasn't in his nature to argue. Instead, he sat beside her at the base of the tree and read a part of her book over her shoulder. He barely read one sentence when she looked back at him, amused.
"Interested in Nietzsche now, are we?"
"Nie-what?" Tyler asked, confused.
Madeline laughed.
"Friedrich Nietzsche. He was a philosopher, a long time ago." She closed her book and showed him the front cover. "This is a collection of his essays."
"Cool, I think."
"You think?"
"Yeah. I don't know anything about philosophy, so I don't know if it's a good thing or not. As long as its an interesting thing to read, I guess its ok with me."
She smiled at him and he noticed the dimples in her cheeks.
She smiles pretty.
A sudden gust of wind blew strands of her blonde hair into her face. With a brush of his bare, cold hand Tyler brushed it away, his fingers lingering at her cheek for a single, awkward second.
"Um…" He tried to think of something clever to say but felt himself turn red.
"Tyler!"
He jumped at the sudden screech and his hand jumped with him scratching Maddie on the side of the cheek. Tyler spun around, furious, only to be lifted up a few feet in the air by his collar. He stared Reid Garwin in the face for a full ten seconds before a punch was shot at him. He barely managed to dodge the fist, his ear getting the full blow of Reid's rage.
He was then dropped to the ground, in front of a slightly shocked Maddie.
"Baby boy, I knew that one day someone was going to mess up, but I didn't think it would be you and that you would have done it so stupidly!"
He kicked Tyler in the stomach.
"What the fuck were you thinking? Using like that in front of people!"
"Well its not as if you don't!" Tyler said, scrambling to his feet, only to be knocked down with another punch that didn't miss this time.
"Well, don't mind me." Madeline said sarcastically, still sitting by her tree, quietly observing the brawl until now.
"Who the fuck are you?" Reid spat, his eyes pitch black. "You know what, it doesn't matter. Beat it."
"Oh, of course." She said sweetly. She packed up her things, stood, and faced Reid, whom she was several inches shorter than. "Can I just say one thing before I go?"
Reid grunted in reply.
"If you're planning on hurting Tyler anymore because he apparently divulged your little secrets, then I'll have you know that it's a waste of time, not only did he not but reducing him to a pulp will not help your current situation, just like the murder of Fae Renfield doesn't stop the video she made to be publicized and your little covenant of silence consequently exposed."
She turned her heels and began to walk away, leaving the two covenant boys in total shock, one lying on the ground holding his nose that was leaking with blood, the other standing his mouth wide open.
Tyler was the first to react, scrambling to his feet and messily wiping the blood from his hands onto his coat and running after Maddie.
"Hey, wait!"
She turned around when he said that, calmly waiting for him to get close enough for her to talk to him without having to scream across campus. By the time he had gotten there Reid had run up too, the same look of shock still plastered on his face.
"What did you say?" Reid asked slowly.
"You heard me." She responded coolly. "I know about you. Deal with it." And she walked off again, and this time the two boys didn't try to follow her.