Mute Murder

Most students go through school thinking that every day is going to be the same. When something does change, it tends to be insignificant. For example, the unusually clear sunshine was taken for granted by many kids at Dekker High School after the long weeks of dreary rainfall.

Dekker High School is the biggest school in the city. It also holds the highest grades and the most successful students. The only negative thing that one can notice is that absences are very high in the school. Approximately 4,500 students attend Dekker High, but less than half show up for school daily. Today is different, though, with at least half a thousand more people roaming the schoolyard. This also goes unnoticed by almost every student except one unique boy, Leon.

Leon, a senior, is one of the best students in school. He attends school every day that he is not sick. He focuses most of his time on studying. Making friends and socializing aren’t really his strong suit. He is actually mute, meaning that he can hear, but he cannot speak. Most people like Leon, but they don’t take the extra time to get to know him. He has some friends that he spends some time with, but the only person he really confides in is Evangeline Day.

Evangeline Day is a girl in the same class as Leon. She is his best friend, and he is hers. She doesn’t care that he can’t talk. She looked past the obstacles of communicating and took the initiative. They first met freshman year. She grabbed a journal one day and wrote a note to Leon, handed it to him, and smiled. He looked at her for a moment, and then opened the book. Inside he read, Hi Leon! I’m Evangeline. How are you? That was the start of their friendship.

They have filled tons of notebooks over the years, writing in secrets and jokes and stories and anything else they can think of. They don’t write all the time, but most of the time they do. Sometimes Evangeline just talks to Leon and he doesn’t even need to respond. Sometimes they are both silent, and just know what the other is thinking.

As Leon walks into school, he spots Evangeline at her locker. He starts making his way over to her, but is cut off by a rude shove. He is knocked off balance, but remains standing. Turning around, Leon catches a dark glare facing him. A boy that looks like a senior, but Leon has never seen him before. Surely he would recognize most of his classmates. He definitely doesn't remember anyone possessing a camouflage army jacket.

The boy turned around, and Leon could have sworn he heard a snicker as he walked away. Leon just couldn’t shake that chilly feeling from his mind. It wasn’t like a normal “Oh sorry, man” bump, but instead a full on shove. Leon doesn’t even know him, so why would that boy be out to get him? He felt paranoid. He shrugged it away to the back of his mind so that he could go see Evangeline.

Evangeline’s locker was on the row of lockers outside of the main building. They are under an awning, of course, in case it rains. At big schools, separate buildings hold separate subjects, requiring most students to walk across the campus almost every period.

“Hey you!” greeted Evangeline, not even needing to glance up at Leon. She closed her locker, and they walked to class. Most of their classes were together, which could be the result of his muteness and sympathy from the administration.

Once they got to class, Leon took their journal and wrote down the anonymous shove story.

E: What did he look like?

L: Well he was tall, looked about 18 years old. Wore a camo jacket. He had dark brown hair, and evil-looking eyes.

Evangeline half-heartedly laughed at his description. She looked at him and shook her head. “Oh, Leon, I’m sure it is just any other teenage boy who doesn’t like the inferior ones to bump into him. He probably thinks he’s better than you, which of course isn’t true. Don’t worry about him.”

But Leon continued to worry about him, because most teenage boys like that don’t snicker after that kind of event, and they especially don’t walk away without accusation.



When Leon walked to his locker after class, which was when he and Evangeline had to separate, he found a note sticking out of the vents at the top. Nobody ever left him notes, which made him kind of nervous. He opened his locker, reached up, and grabbed the note. He unfolded it, which in turn caused him to nervously glance around him.

Watch where you’re going, Hushy.

The boy that shoved him! Leon knew there was something up when he didn’t argue with him. Maybe the boy wasn’t as bad as he thought and was a good sport about it, but the name Hushy made him think otherwise. That didn’t sound like a friendly nickname.

Leon took the note and put it in the journal. He wanted to show Evangeline later. A thought lingered into Leon’s head. How does he know me when I don’t know him? I mean, I may be mute, but it isn’t like you can tell by just looking at me. Once again, he walked to his next class, shrugging it to the back of his mind.

Evangeline agrees with Leon when he shows her the note at the end of the day. “Yeah, he probably just didn’t want to confront you. Maybe he thought you’d fight back. And a lot of people know you are the mute one, so maybe his friends told him about you.”

Leon definitely thought that could be true, but it wasn’t enough time for that boy to find out for certain it was him, was it? He figured that it was one little incident, so he blocked it out of his thoughts and headed back home.



The next few days at school were normal. The amount of kids that showed up at school decreased back to about half over those days. But today when Leon walks into school, there are a lot less students in the hallways.

The sky is very dark. It is definitely going to be raining soon. Leon hurries to get to his locker. He hasn't seen Evangeline yet. Maybe she is just running late, or possibly sick. She would call him if she is sick though, so he decides on her being late.

When Leon gets to his hallway, he notices the overbearing emptiness of it. It makes him a little nervous. With the dark sky, it makes the atmosphere a little creepy. BOOM! Leon jumps and turns his head towards the windows. The lightning bolt strikes a branch and sends it tumbling into the ground. He catches a glimpse of a message written in what looks like red paint that reads, The angel is dead. Just a split second later, rain comes pouring down, washing away all traces of the message.

Leon's heart is pounding like crazy. He is terrified. The thunder got his heart rate going, but that message; it had to mean something. Did nobody else see that? The rain started so suddenly that he only had a chance to look briefly at it. How long had it been there before the rain? He thinks that more people would be standing around if it had been there long, but nobody was around to paint it on the wall in such a short time. He knows something is wrong here. He walks to first period to see if he can find Evangeline.

Evangeline isn't in her seat. She isn't in the classroom. Leon is starting to worry about her. He checks his phone and has no messages. He looks back over to the empty seat, and then pauses. He sees something clashing with the light color of the chair. He scoots the chair out from under the table and glimpses a red liquid. Blood?! Was that message he saw on the window written in blood? The little drop of red on the seat is definitely blood. Leon feels like he is panicking, so he quickly writes a note to the teacher explaining how he feels ill. He goes to the nurse, who gives him a pass to go home.

Leon runs out to his car. He speeds all the way to Evangeline's house. Her parents are usually at work at this time, so he grabs the spare key from behind the porch lantern and lets himself inside. He tries to make his entrance loud so that he doesn't scare Evangeline. He can't hear any movement in the house. It is very quiet.

He walks into the kitchen and sets his eyes upon a half drunken glass of tea, but the color was darker than normal, as if something was added to it. He rushes upstairs to her bedroom and pushes open the door. He sees a cloth with red stains, instantly assuming that it is blood. He walks up to the bathroom door, which is connected to her bedroom, and sees a foot in the doorway. He pushes open the door and finds Evangeline lying on the floor, blood trickling down her mouth.



Leon runs to the communication room that holds the TTY(teletypewriter) Evangeline uses to communicate with him while they aren't together, since he can't use a telephone. He calls the police with it and waits for them to arrive. It takes only 3 minutes for an ambulance to show up, in which he used that time to write a note explaining the situation. While the EMTs start examining her, a police officer pulls him aside to question him.

Leon types his responses on a computer, while the policeman speaks out loud. The policeman asks how he knew to check her house and he tells them about the drop of blood on her chair. He also tells them about the mysterious message he briefly saw on the window at school. He tells them the connection of how the name Evangeline comes from the Greek word angel. He also explains that the boy who shoved him might have something to do with the murder; that he just had a feeling.

Leon tells the policeman that the boy had a sinister look when he ran into him. The police don't have a lot to go on, so he agrees to check out this boy. Leon gives the policeman a description of the boy, but then remembers the image of the boy during their first encounter. He remembers that the boy was wearing an army jacket, with the name Carter on the front. Leon is known for his photographic memory, and this was a detail that he just found to be important.

The police run a background check on the name Carter out in their car and a couple hits pop up on the screen. The closest one that fits the description lives one street over. The others are of older ages and don't seem to be the right matches. The police rush over to the next street and locate the house.

It's not a very big house. It is two stories, but not too wide. The police run up to the front door and knock. They couldn't just go barging in without any evidence. All the lights were out on the inside of the house. After two minutes of knocking and waiting, the police decide to try the knob, and to their advantage it is unlocked. The living room is the first room in the house. There is a lit candle sitting on the floor, next to some bottles of liquids. The police split up to search the house, but Carter is nowhere to be found. One of the policemen examined the liquids on the floor next to the candle. It took him little effort to determine the liquid was a very lethal poison. The EMTs also called at about the same time to report the Evangeline's cause of death was poison in her system. They call the other departments over the state and warn them to look out for Carter, now missing in action.

Leon stares into a room on his right and catches a flutter from above. He sees something attached to the ceiling fan. Taped onto it is a note written with what appears to be more blood. Leon can't help but think that it belonged to Evangeline.

Yours won't be so silent.

He just stares with unblinking eyes and his heart almost stops. What could possibly make Carter so insane, enough to provoke him to threaten and kill Evangeline and, now, himself? He just doesn't understand it. He tries remembering anything that could connect himself with Carter, but can think of nothing.

All of the sudden, everything goes black. The police hear a thump and rush back into the main room, only to discover Leon passed out on the floor.



Leon hears voices calling out to him, but he can't seem to find the source. He is suddenly filled with memories of a particular morning from freshman year.



Leon was leaning against the locker next to Evangeline’s, waiting for her to gather her books. She was talking away about one of her most frustrating classes, which only required occasional nods and shakes of the head. Just as she shut her locker, another freshman boy walked up to her.

“Why didn’t you call me last night? You said you could come!” The boy was speaking slightly louder than he should be to go unnoticed.

“Oh, Carter, I’m sorry. I forgot I made plans to work on my project with Leon. It’s due tomorrow, so it was urgent. I’ll go next time. I promise.”

“It’s always him. Leon this, Leon that. We used to be like this!” The boy crossed his index and middle finger, indicating closeness. “You know what? I’m sick of you always blowing me off for him, just because he can’t speak.”

The boy punched the locker right in front of Leon’s face, which startled Leon enough to jump back. The boy stormed away down the hallway, and Evangeline started crying. Leon was so confused and worried about the situation. He tried to talk to Evangeline, but she kept pushing him away. He never asked about it again.



“Car . . . ter. . .” The police hear the name come out from behind them. They look down at Leon. His mouth was ajar, but he was still in an unconscious state.

“I think you were hearing things,” says the officer to another of the squad. “The boy can’t talk.”

“Maybe there is more to him than we know. Look.” He points to Leon’s cheek, with a lone tear running down his face.