Chương 35: Caged in Murder victim

Later that same evening, with her heels clicking along the hallway, Willow glances into one classroom after another.

"Crimson?" Her voice carries down the corridor. Shadows leap across the walls as she makes her way toward a stairwell.

"Crimson?" Scara rushes after Larch down another corridor, muttering, "Hold on." She makes for the door of the girls' room, which frustrates Larch.

"Are you kidding? You have to use the bathroom? Right now?" Paying no attention to his remark, she pushes the door open. With his arms folded, Larch looks back at the empty corridor. But his arms drop to his sides when he spots something, a large silhouetted figure at the far end of the corridor. Standing there. Watching him.

"Croft?" Larch steps forward, straining to make out any detail of the figure at the end of the hall. But it is an almost flawless silhouette. And still oddly motionless.

"Crimson?" Then, in a voice barely louder than a whisper, he speaks another name...

"Autzee?" The silhouette shifts from standing upright to a position on all fours. Then, with hardly any urgency, it bounds into the following hallway and vanishes past the corner. Short, ragged gasps force their way out of Larch's mouth as he gazes down the long corridor, until the door to the girls' room bursts open, nearly knocking him off his feet.

"Did you find them?" she asked. However, while crossing the tiled floor between the school's two swimming pools, Willow stops when her phone begins to ring. She pulls it out to answer, since Crimson was still down in the basement, and turns toward Churro.

"Are you hearing that? A phone is ringing." He inquires Then it hits him.

"I recognize that ringtone. That's Willow's phone..."

Between the walkways of the high school's swimming pools, Willow holds her phone to her ear.

"Hey, I can't seem to find them. Alright, just give me a moment. I'll be there in a second." She hangs up and is just about to tuck her phone away when it rings once more, making her jump. She glances at the screen with curiosity, then picks up.

"Churro?" she asked.

"It's me, it's Crimson. Where are you?" At the school, looking for you. Why weren't you at my place?

"Where are you right now?" he demanded, frightened for her but forgetting to keep his tone calm. She winces at how harsh his voice sounds. She tries to speak, but the words stick in her throat. Crimson's voice is so biting, so filled with urgency, that it startles her into silence.

"The swimming, the swimming pools."

"Get to the cafeteria. Go now." Willow shoves open a door and steps into the first-floor lobby, where she finds him and Churro sprinting in her direction.

"What exactly are you doing? What made you come here?" She holds up her cell phone so he can see the message displayed on it: Meet me at the school.

"Why do I have the feeling that message wasn't from you?"

"That's because it wasn't." Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Willow's phone rings once more. She answers it.

"Where are you?" Larch and Scara come rushing around the corner.

"At last. Can we leave now?" Yet before anyone can get a word out, they hear a strange RUMBLING from above.

"Run." He whirls around, shoving them ahead as something tears out of the ceiling panels behind them. The cafeteria doors fly open, and five terrified teenagers come charging in.

"Crimson, wait--not here--not here." But he pays no attention. Pulling the doors shut, Crimson turns back to look for something to barricade them with.

"The vending machine. Help me shove it in front of the doors." He won't respond to any questions, focusing all his effort on pushing one of the vending machines forward.

"Just give me a hand!" Larch and Willow also move behind it, sliding it up against the doors. Crimson's panic appears to spread to the others, intensifying the fear within the group.

"Chairs. Stack up the chairs..." Even Scara, though frightened, pitches in, shoving chairs forward and moving as quickly as she can.

"Guys, hold on a moment. Hello." Churro called out. He and Willow seize chairs, piling them up, with everyone hurrying to barricade the doors. Everyone but him.

"Alright, good job. Great work, everyone. So what do you figure we should do about the twenty foot wall of windows!" Churro gestures with his hands toward the expanse of glass on his right. He and the rest glance upward. Fair point.

"Could somebody please tell me what's happening? I'm panicking right now, and I'd at least like to understand why." At last, Willow posed the big question that everyone else seems to keep overlooking. Crimson gives no answer. He won't even glance at her.

"Somebody murdered the janitor."

"What is he going on about? Is this some kind of joke?" She directed the question at Crimson, but he only shakes his head. He turns to him, hoping for help. Yet his friend appears to be almost shutting down. He just keeps shaking his head, unable to find words, while she and the rest grow increasingly panicked.

"What's going on? Crimson?"

"I don't know, it's just that if we head out there, he'll kill us. Willow turns toward Churro, urging him.

"Autzee. It's Autzee Tale." Crimson shouted. Every pair of eyes snaps back to him in shock. Him most of all. He seems nearly shocked to hear himself say it.

"I saw him."

"The mountain lion..." Scara attempted to speak, but she was interrupted.

"No. Autzee was the one who killed them, beginning with his own sister, then the bus driver, and then the man in the video store. It has been Autzee all along. He is in here with us. And if we don't get out... he will kill us as well." Larch turns around to face Churro.

"Call the police. Your Dad has the whole Sheriff's Department armed. Call him."

"I'm calling." Scara admitted it. She raises her phone to her ear.

"Wait, Scara, just hold on..." Churro said as he stepped forward, but Larch pushes him back.

"Yes, we're at Lantern City High School. We're stuck in here, and we need you to..." Scara stops for a moment. The rest of them observe as her face shifts into an expression of shock. Gradually, she moves the phone down from her ear.

"She ended the call on me. She told me they'd received a tip warning that there would be prank calls claiming a break-in at the high school. She said that if I phoned again, they'd trace the call and have me arrested." Everyone turns to Crimson, expecting him to have the answer.

"What are you all staring at me for?" He barks at her, and Willow visibly recoils. Standing behind her, Larch can't stop himself from smiling just a little. Churro steps between them and pulls him to one side.

"All right, everyone just take it down a notch, okay?" He guides Crimson over to the kitchen section of the cafeteria so they can talk in private.

"To start with. Selling out Autzee? Well played."

"I couldn't think of anything else to say. I had to come up with something. Besides, if he's dead, none of it matters. Unless he actually isn't. Oh God, I completely snapped at her." Crimson clarified"Alright, jerks. Here's the new plan. Churro phones his worthless father and instructs him to send someone armed with a gun and a steady aim. Are we all agreed on that?" Larch shot back at them. Nobody dares to object.

"He's got a point. Tell him what really happened if you must. Just give him a call."

"I refuse to stand by while my dad gets devoured." Larch moves past the others, rushing straight at Churro.

"Enough. Hand over your phone." He whirls Churro around, reaching for the phone in his pocket. Yet acting purely on instinct, he pulls back and punches him, knocking him flat onto the floor. Oddly enough, Scara isn't the one who rushes over to help him up. It's Willow.

"Are you alright? Larch?" Since he's facing away, she has no way of seeing his expression. And even though he's been hit, he's grinning, quietly happy about how things have turned out. He turns his gaze back slowly, pretending to be shocked and wounded. Noticing Willow defending her ground, Scara appears to come back to life and rushes over to assist. Holding his trembling hand, Churro glances at Crimson, who looks equally taken aback.

Then, using the hand that isn't shaking with pain, he digs into his pocket and pulls out his cell phone. While the others look on, he places the call.

"Dad? Hey, it's me... and you've reached your voicemail. Um... I need you to call me back. Like now. Like right this second..." Something crashes against the door as Scara shouts and Willow backs away to her side.

"We're at the school... Dad... we're at the school..." Churro hurriedly spoke to voicemail. WHAM! A pile of chairs collapses as the barricade blocking the doors starts to give way. he lowers the phone and steps back along with the others. Something is pounding against the doors. smashing into them, hammering, frantically attempting to break through. The vending machine slides forward and a chair flies past Willow as though it had been hurled like a projectile. She screams, her hands rising.

"Oh God, oh my God..." The hinges at the top of the doors start to pull out of the wall, the metal appearing to bend and give inward.

"The kitchen. The door leading out of the kitchen goes to the stairwell." Another boom, and the decision is made. They sprint for the kitchen.