Restless

Chapter 8

"If anyone finds anything return here and wait for the others. Check in every half an hour." With my last wise words, we were all prepared to get the hell out of there. The doors had clicked, meaning the locks were lifted.

Out in the hallways, there were no other signs of life. No teachers, students, staff in general. It was empty. I heard someone ask where everyone was, but no one had a clue. The halls were a mess, it was as if we weren't even in our school anymore but we were sure we were. Pictures and posters on the walls were upside down if not on the floor.

The preps were still in sight, they clearly didn't know where to go or what to do with themselves. They requested I go with them instead of all the nerds going together.

I suppose I had no choice.

I wandered the dark passage between the two groups but paused halfway. There was someone watching me. Not the preps or the nerds but...someone else.
"Emily?" I whispered but it was loud enough for the class to hear. Their eyes darted around, the flashlights helping them see but the flashlights wouldn't let them see what I could.

She was there.

Standing and watching with a horrifying grin on her face. She was in uniform but it was all torn just like how she left it. Either side of me the groups were yelling at me not to leave but I couldn't help but stray a little to get a closer look. Emily was silent, which was unusual. Even worse, she was here.
"You should be...dead." I mumbled, her hand reached out to me. My hand went to reach hers but I stopped, remembering it wasn't really her. My arm drifted back to my side pathetically, my head bowed as tears began to stream down my face.
"I'm sorry... I am so, so sorry." I uttered before turning and running to the preps.

By the time I'd reached the group, I was showered with questions. Questions such as: is it really her, was she scary, did she say anything and other irrelevant questions. For every one, I shook my head and insisted we kept going. She wouldn't leave us alone forever. We only had a matter of time to find our way out of here. Before we parted with the other group, I turned and gave them a reassuring nod before descending into the darkness.

All sorts of sounds filled the emptiness. Droplets, lights flickering, papers drifting to the ground.
"What do we do? Hide?" Molly asked with a shaky breath. It might as well have been night. Some of the lights were swinging down when they shouldn't have been and there was rubble all over the floor, leaving us to wonder what could've possibly happened in the time it took the storm to come over, lights turn off and us leave.
"No, we need to find a way out of here." I concluded, putting on a confident face when really, even my nerves were shaken. My mind was being overrun with pessimistic thoughts about the worst case scenarios. By now we all understood and grasped the concept that Emily really was the one that stole the knife from Faye's house.
"We shouldn't go too far." I suggested but there were mumbles of disagreement. Emily was still out in the school somewhere but the question is where. Henry, a boy in the other group had the key to the security room where we could have access to the security cameras but of course, that was our only ticket in. It would have been too risky to move as a class.

The school was eerie. My watch beeped and once it did, everyone glared. It was six o'clock. We needed to get out of there and we needed to do it fast.
"Let's go back, the other group should be there by now." This time, everyone was all for it. Most probably because the feel of the hallways and the atmosphere and tension. Everyone was terrified; no one knew if something was going to happen to them.

All of us arrived safely but the same could not have been said about the other group. Only one of the nine people that went the other way had returned.
"Cassidy." The girl was Cassidy. She sat in front of me for most subjects but we didn't talk much. Upon first glance I could see she was bleeding out from multiple places. While I ran to her aid, the preps stood in disbelief, the girls had their mouths covered and had to look away. The boys did pretty much the same.
"I'm going to take you to the infirmary. You can tell us what happened in the way there." I had her arm hooked around my shoulder so I could lift her up off the floor. Her leg was twisted in the wrong way which made even me wince in disgust. At the sight of her, terror had a new name.
"Us? You think we're coming?" Molly intervened. My eyes flashed to her with annoyance and desperation. I needed everyone. I couldn't take her alone.
"You want to search for Faye, don't you?" At first, they're confused and looking around only to find I'm right. They're best friend and leader had gone missing, making everyone in an even worse state. Molly dropped to her knees, hands up to her face and she just wailed, exclaiming that Faye was dead.
"We don't know that. Just come along and try and find her." Having the weight of Cassidy on my shoulder made it utterly impossible to argue when they insisted that they'd go off by themselves to find Faye and meet back here once they'd done.

I had to let them go. Cassidy was in critical condition and needed an ambulance.
"Scratch that. You guys find a phone and call for an ambulance. Faye will be fine." It took a while but they agreed and finally we were good to go.

She winced and yelped with every step. I couldn't even begin to imagine the insufferable pain that she was in. She was bleeding, her bones were clearly broken and I couldn't help but wonder what had the force to cause all that. She wheezed and gasped, trying to get the words to tell me what had happened out but all I could make out was 'Emily......dead.....only......survivor'.