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Without waiting for them to agree, I started up the stairs with Annie, leaving them to debate amongst themselves.
At the first landing, a symbol was painted on the wall in blood. There were two straight lines in the center of a circle with an S overtop of them.
That was a tag, them claiming this school—probably this town—as their own. Couldn’t have been a coincidence they decided to do it only after we arrived.
“Hm,” I humphed, knowing Dad would take it if he wanted it regardless of their marker.
Moving quietly wasn’t much of an issue, however, when I reached the top level and saw the various overturned desks, fallen lockers, and overall debris I knew fast would be.
Stepping over a moldy, fallen floor tile, I cautiously moved past the first open classroom, and then the second. Another bang, this one with a resounding echo, came from somewhere further down the hall that I couldn’t see.
A child’s soft laugh followed it.
“Creepy bitch,” I muttered.
In the midst of approaching yet another door, a massive figure stepped out from inside one of the classrooms, a second following after him/her. Like my acolytes, it was hard to tell gender due to their clothing. They were wearing robes like Annie’s, but a dark maroon instead of black.
On their heads were skinned deer faces, equipped with much bigger antlers than the little girls.
Each held a melee weapon—one a meat cleaver—another what looked like a chain turned whip.
I stopped in my tracks, immediately going on defense as the one closest lifted something in his hands’.
He said something in a foreign tongue and then threw it.
The flashlight fell away as Annie grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me sharply to the left, both of us catching a glimpse of a severed head sailing past.
Not a second later the figures launched themselves in our direction. I lurched backward, narrowly avoiding being snatched up.
“Behind me,” Annie bit out, shoving me aside and damn near tackling the Stag right in front of us.
“What the hell, Annie?” I yelled at her, intercepting the Stag swinging the meat cleaver while she struggled with the other. It took strength I didn’t even know I had to stop the thing from lodging into her head.
The Stag laughed at me, a long and bitter sound, swinging around so that I had to let go of their arm.
Nearly falling over a desk, I righted myself, laughing when I jumped back again. “You gotta do better than that,” I taunted with a giggle, dodging another swing. A whoosh of air buzzed in my ears as the blade almost took the nose from my face.
The Stag advanced, forcing me further down the hall and away from Annie.
As I did my best not to lose a limb, all I could think was that this would have been a prime time to have my fucking gun.
I wasn’t a huge person so what I lacked in size and strength I had to make up for in other, usually non-logical ways. So I waited for the man to swing again, ducking when he did, and rushing forward.
I slammed into his middle, feeling something abnormally hard under the robe he was wearing. Not expecting me to go on offense, the man lost his footing and went down, taking me with him.
Straddling his torso, I slammed his wrist above his head holding him in place, trying to force him to let of the meat cleaver.
“Drop it!” I demanded.
The Stag hissed at me like a fucking cat and began to writhe. He bucked and twisted trying to dislodge me, his Bone-y mask clacking across the floor the entire time, forcing me to avoid being struck by an antler.
I ground my teeth and tightened my thighs around his hips. Adrenaline pumping through my veins gave me an added edge and numbed my previous ache.
Annie’s shotgun went off once, and then a second time, bringing with it the explosion of glass and an intense ringing in my ears. I flinched in response, and the man took immediate advantage.
He rose all the way up with me still very much clinging to him and slammed me into a locker.
Chapter Six
