AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I was the last girl in the showers, hurriedly rinsing the conditioner from my hair as I heard the heavy metal door to the locker room slam shut. I turned off the water, the ancient knobs squealing. There was total silence. I was the last one. I scampered to my locker, careful not to slip. I’d dallied too long.
“Dammit. ” I struggled to get my clothes on—I hated putting clothes on damp skin—but I needed to hustle. My hair was soaking—the ends of it would surely freeze on my race back to the dorm. “Damndamndammit. ”
I hobbled out of the dressing room, forcing my heels into my boots. I’d just reached the pool deck when I heard a noise—a loud electronic sound reverberating through the pool area. Whoomp.
The lights cut out. I was in pitch-darkness.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I froze. I mean, how much would it suck to accidentally fall in the pool fully clothed? “Hello?” I called out. It was probably just some nighttime janitor out there, doing his job. “Is anybody there?”
There was another click, quieter this time, the sound like a flicking switch. The overhead lights were still off, but the pool lights switched on, looking like white orbs glowing underwater. The pale water shimmered eerily, making the black stripes along the bottom waver. I strained my ears for some movement, but there was just a distant drip-drip. The natatorium at night—creepiest thing ever.
“Hello?” I called again, but there was still no answer.
A door slammed, and I panicked. I’d seen the chain they used to lock up with—I was not about to spend the night at the natatorium, thankyouverymuch.
“Hey!” I called again, louder this time. “I’m still here!”
“That’s the problem. ” There was another click, and light flickered behind me. Not the overhead light, but a small bare bulb in the custodial closet.
“What?” I spun, looking for who’d spoken.
He was illuminated from above. In the darkness, the effect was freaky, like holding a flashlight under your chin only flipped the other way. “You’re still here, and that’s a problem. ”
“What?” I squinted to see better. “Is that you, Yasuo? What are you talking about?”
“You’re here. She’s not. And now it’s time to eradicate the problem. ” He flew at me, grabbing my neck before I had a chance to act. His fingers curled and tightened until I felt the delicate bones of my throat begin to give. He was going to kill me.
I grabbed his wrists and struggled backward. He squeezed tighter, and my body spasmed, fighting for air. I opened my mouth to shout, but couldn’t get a breath in or out.
The rubber soles of my boots skittered on the wet tile of the pool deck and my feet slid from under me. I had to hold on to his arms to avoid breaking my own neck. Finally, my boots got purchase. I got my feet back under me and tried to speak. Stop, I tried to say, but nothing came out. My mouth just opened and closed like a gasping fish.
I stared into his eyes, trying to communicate that way. His were bloodshot, giving him an insane, unhinged look. I wanted to connect. Tried to telegraph something with my pleading expression. Maybe he’d remember how I wasn’t so bad. How we used to be. But he wasn’t there. I stared into those eyes, and he wasn’t home. His gaze was flat and dead. Cold. He’d become something different. Whoever this creature was, it wasn’t my friend Yasuo anymore.
His fingers curled tighter, and I felt my eyes bug. Black spots popped into my vision. I was dead if I didn’t act.
Alarm, terror, grief…My emotions were so haywire, I expected Carden to appear any minute. But he didn’t.
Had Yas chained the door? Either way, it looked like I was on my own. Which meant I needed to stop the magical thinking. Strength, I told myself. I’d be strong, not terrified. I was strong.
I uncurled the fingers of my right hand and forced myself to release his arm. Hitching up my leg, I reached down. My fingers splayed, flapped, grasped toward the stars in my boot. But the farther I stretched, the deeper his fingers dug into me.
The black spots in my vision melded together. Became a black veil. My chest was spasming now, my throat making disturbing little croaking noises. But I sensed it as though from the end of a tunnel. I was passing out.
This was it.
I sensed movement. Carden. He’d come at last.
There was a slamming door, a rush of fresh air and light. But Yasuo didn’t take his eyes from me, so surely it was only my fantasy. This was my brain shutting down, me going into the light.
But suddenly Yasuo’s fingers were gone. His spine shot straight and his arms sprang from his sides like he might flap away. His back arched, and he bucked, then bucked again, eyes shut like he was having a seizure.
It was the last thing I saw before my own body took over, and I doubled over, dropping to my knees, coughs racking me. My chest shuddered to pull in oxygen, the moist air burning as it passed my throat.
Finally, my vision cleared and I looked up, expecting to find Carden. But my savior hadn’t been a vampire. It took me a moment to make sense of what I was seeing.
Yasuo was on his belly, and Kenzie sat straddled over him. She’d plunged her sai knives hilt-deep in his back.
