Chapter 15

Nolan Pierce

I didn’t have anything to do after class on Wednesday, so I accompanied Owen to the tryouts for Cabaret to provide moral support. When he got up to deliver his monologue, an older student I didn’t recognize sat down next to me.

“Be in your room at 9:00 Friday evening. Don’t eat dinner beforehand and don’t tell anyone I told you about this.”

He got up as suddenly as he had left, and I knew that I’d better due what he told me.

After classes Friday, I told Owen that I couldn’t eat dinner with him because I had to write the essay on ancient China that was due in history class that Monday. I sat somewhat nervously at my desk as I typed up the essay, wearing shoes and jeans. I had gotten into the habit of taking my shoes and socks off after class because I thought it was sexy, but figured that I might need to do something that required shoes at short notice. I suspected that someone might have given Noah similar instructions, because he had also kept his shoes on and changed into his gym shorts.

I finished the essay at around five minutes to six, but didn’t want to leave and risk running into something that would make me late. To top it off, I was hungry but I didn’t dare eat anything. For lack of anything better to do with my time, I opened a short story that I’d been planning to submit to a literary magazine that Jamie recommended, but hadn’t gotten around to finishing because I had so much else going on. It was called South of Somewhere, and the premise was a boy from Connecticut who is forced to move to a lightly fictionalized version of Sissipahaw after his parents get divorced. I figured it would be a good way for me to poke fun at people from Sissipahaw in a publication they’d never read. Once I got into it, my nerves calmed down, and I practically forgot about my instructions, until I heard three shar raps at the door.

I actually startled, but recovered my composure enough to get up. Noah beat me to the door and opened it, to reveal Jamie, looking stern.

“Are you Noah Sinclair?” he asked. The question only made sense as part of some kind of ritual.

“Yes.” Noah answered.

“Crimson Circle, accept or reject?”

“Accept.”

I started to sit down, disappointed that the knock had been for Noah and not for me, but almost as soon as the door had closed, I heard the same pattern of knocks. I opened the door and realized that Finn, Dylan, Owen and Henry were all standing behind Jamie and Noah in the hallway. Finn was naked.

“Are you Nolan Pierce?”

“Yes.”

“Crimson Circle, accept or reject?”

“Accept.”

“Follow me.”

We followed Jamie down a path that led to the edge of campus. My nervousness had turned to giddy excitement, but I tried to play it as cool. I didn’t want to blow this at the last minute.

We got to the edge of campus and found a nondescript-looking shed. Jamie opened the door and walked down a set of stone stairs, naturally, we all followed him. He knocked on a door at the bottom of the steps. A girl’s voice asked him for a password, and he answered “Darkness to light.”