Penny ran down the hall at full sprint, clearing a small set of stairs in a single leap and only until she rounded a corner and hid behind a set of garbage cans did she finally stop. Her heart was pounding out of her chest and she thanked whomever out there that her legs were still able to hold her up. It was as if her legs were crafted out of marshmallow, they kept shaking, even though she couldn't see the figure that was chasing her earlier. She took a couple of deep breaths, but knew they wouldn't help calm her nerves, not after what she had just witnessed.
...
It was Halloween, children were out and about parading the town in hopes of getting the most candy they possibly could. Kids were dressed up as haunted ghouls, magical creatures, and the occasional bed sheet ghost. Children loved it for the candy, simple as that, but as they got older, some aspired for more thrills out of this certain day, looking for more of the "trick" instead of the "treat" aspect. However, there were some children that payed no heed to this day, looking past the thought of candy and only seeing a bunch of kids going to stranger after stranger's house, only for the promise of a single piece of candy; looking beyond the gain of sugary treats and instead using that time for something more productive.
"Thanks for staying after school for student government, guys." Penny said, looking around the classroom at the five other students in front of her. There was Teri, the hygienic paper bear; Leslie, the feminine male flower; Anton, the piece of toast; Alan, the balloon and school's heartthrob; and lastly there was Tobias, the rainbow colored jock. They stood in Miss Simian's classroom up on the third floor of the school, the afternoon sun casting a golden glow into the classroom. "You know, it being Halloween and all." She added in, laying down a stack of papers onto a desk.
"No problem, Penny! It feels good knowing we're going to help make a difference at this school." Teri chimed sweetly.
"Whatever, it's not like my mom let's me go out tonight anymore anyways." Tobias scoffed. Alan looked intrigued.
"Why? What'd you do?" The athlete grinned, hoping someone would ask.
"Well, it's a long story... but I'm more than happy to tell ya, Alan ol' boy." He said, poking Alan which caused him to bounce back a ways. "Take a seat everyone, and I'll tell ya a tale of when I was a young lad." He began, Penny rolled her eyes.
"Uh, guys? Student government?" Nobody seemed to notice her complaint, their attention shifting to Tobias and his wondrous tale. "Oh, for the love of-" The girl sighed to herself, face palming. She grabbed a chair and joined in with the others to hear the rest of the boy's story.
...
"And so, long story short, my mom grounded me from every Halloween from then on." Tobias finished, his whole story taking almost two hours to complete. Gasps of bewilderment came from the students as they took in the whole tale.
"Well Tobias, you've actually spent the entire time we were supposed to work on that story of yours. I've gotta say, I'm actually impressed." Penny yawned, stretching her back as she got up. Tobias smiled.
"What can I say? I got a knack for telling stories."
"Was all of that actually true?" Anton asked, the rainbow jock still retained his grin.
"All 100% of it, my friend." He said as he walked past the others. Anton folded his arms.
"Yeah right, like you'd ever be able to jump over a truck..." He said to himself. The cooked bread looked out the window and saw the sun was just about to set. "Oh man! My mom's gonna kill me if I come home late again! See you guys tomorrow!" He yelled, running out the door. Alan and Leslie looked out as the piece of toast ran down the hall and rounded the corner out of sight.
"Yeah, I might as well head on home too. Gotta greet the trick-or-treaters this year while my sister's out. I get the pleasure of wearing a bed sheet all night." Alan said sullenly. "Leslie, can you carry my stuff?"
"Sure thing, Alan! I'll walk with ya!" The flower nodded as the two departed. Tobias watched as the y left together.
"Eh, I'm gonna go head to the boy's room real quick. Gotta stretch my legs, don't want to get shin splints or anything like that." He jogged out of the room as Penny rolled her eyes.
"You can't get shin splints on the way to the bathroom, you dolt." Teri looked over at the peanut as she was putting away the papers she planned on using for their meeting earlier.
"I'm gonna run off to the restroom too, watch over my stuff!" The bear called as she walked out, leaving Penny alone and a little irate.
"Geez, everyone's in such a rush to leave. Not even bothering to pick up or anything..." The peanut thought to herself.
She packed the rest of the papers into her backpack and threw it on, looking out the window once more. "It's getting darker out now. The walk home's gonna suck." Her thoughts were broken as she heard footsteps approaching behind her. She turned around to see Anton, Alan, and Leslie all standing next to each other worryingly. "Guys, whats up? Forget something?" Leslie shook his head as the others looked even more nervous. "What happened?"
"The...the doors are locked. We can't leave!" The plant exclaimed. Penny raised an eyebrow.
"What? Why would they be locked?" The girl asked, the trio all shrugged their shoulders. "Did you try all the doors? Even the ones in the left wing?" They all nodded their heads once again.
"We tried them all! It's not like the janitors to forget there are children staying after school. I think theres somebody in here that's not supposed to be in here!" Alan said, now more frightened than before. Penny took a step back, obviously a little creeped out.
"Okay guys, let's go see what's going on here." She motioned for the boys to follow her as she walked towards the doorway, getting stopped halfway out by Tobias, visibly out of breath.
"Woo man! Those sprints sure take a lot out of ya!" He said, bent over and breathing heavily.
"You sprinted from here to the bathroom?" Penny asked. The boy slowed his breathing and nodded.
"Yeah! New personal record too!" He seemed more excited about this than a normal person would've been. Then again, Tobias wasn't exactly classified as "normal" in her book. Regardless, Penny continued out into the hall with the rest of the group following behind her.
"So you're SURE you checked all the doors? They were all locked for some reason?" She asked, walking ahead.
"Yes, we tried all of the doors! We even tried opening a few windows, but none of us would've been able to make the fall!" Alan replied from the far back. The doe had a nervous feeling in her stomach, something wasn't right.
"I'm gonna go check, just to make sure. You guys head back to the room and see if you can't call your parents." The three were hesitant but nonetheless started back towards the classroom. Once they turned the corner and were out of sight, Penny continued on.
"Why would the doors be locked? Don't they usually lock from the inside?" She said in her head, trying to make sense of the situation. "I mean, those guys aren't exactly the strongest in our class, they might have some difficulty just opening them normally." She walked towards one of the wooden doors found at the end of the hall blocking off a flight of stairs that lead to the lower floors. She pushed on the hatch and sure enough, the metal bar refused to move. "What the...?" She pushed it even harder, but to no avail. "You've gotta be kidding me."
Penny ran down to the opposite end of the hall to where another door was located, with the same results. She ran to the right wing, another locked door. Then she sprinted over to the left wing, all the doors were refusing to open. She was beginning to freak out as well.
"This isn't good, how are we supposed to leave? Did the janitors do this on accident? No, they wouldn't accidentally lock ALL of the doors. This was intentional, but that would mean...there IS somebody in the school?" She shook her head.
"No no no, that's ridiculous. You're just letting this get to you because it's Halloween. This must be a prank or something." She stopped walking for a second and thought it over for a second.
"Oh of COURSE it's a prank! Those three are just getting to ahead of themselves. Somebody probably knew we were here and decided to lock all the doors to have some fun...but now we can't leave." The peanut girl began walking, a bit agitated again, now convinced that someone has locked them in the school for a couple of laughs.
"I hope they get their fills of laughs, because if I-" A sudden shriek shook her thoughts astray as she was walking past the girl's bathroom. "Teri!" She called out. The girl ran inside to see the paper bear flattened up against the tiled wall, her eyes sunken and filled with utter dread. "Teri, what's wrong?" The paper bear held up a shaking arm and pointed towards one of the stalls.
"H-he's in there!" She whimpered, her voice rising in pitch at the end and her arm still shaking. Penny looked at the stall she was pointing at. Without even having to approach it, she could see someone was kneeling over the toilet, blood dotting the floor near the toilet.
"Teri? What happened?" The doe asked again, hoping to calm down her friend.
"H-he...he's...!" Penny knew what she was going to say. She went up and hugged her, pulling her out of the bathroom.
"It's going to be okay, Teri. I know you didn't do it on purpose-" The bear looked up at her shocked.
"What? No! It wasn't me! I didn't do it!" She cried, holding her hands up in front of her small frame. "I-I didn't even notice until I was leaving! I-I saw him bent over so I opened up the door a-and...Oh God Penny! He's dead! He's dead, and now we're going to be next!" She buried her head into the doe's shell, bawling hysterically. The other students came running towards them as her crying continued.
"Teri? We heard her screaming from the classroom! What happened?" Leslie said quickly, unable to hide his anxiousness. Penny stared at the group with a grave intensity as she wrapped a shoulder over the crying bear.
"Everybody, to the classroom. Now."
...
"So...d-do you really think someone is out there?" Alan quivered. "That th-there might be a killer on the loose?" His string was shaking more so than usual. He was just as afraid as the others of what might be out lurking in the halls. Circled around him were the other students, all scrunched up and hugging their knees to their chests.
"I don't want to think about it too much. As long as we're in here, we're safe." Leslie said, his stalk hunched over and his petals shaking from side to side. No one wanted to talk much, not wanting to make the situation potentially even more stressful.
"What if this IS just some kind of trick? You know, because it IS Halloween after all? Maybe one of the custodians put the body there just to...mess with...us...?" Anton said impishly. Everyone looked at him then mulled the thought over to themselves for a moment.
"You weren't there, Anton. You didn't see the blood! You didn't see those glazed over eyes; or his cut open throat! NO ONE can be that demented to want to do that as a trick!" Teri broke out, her usual calm nature now shattered. Leslie comforted her with a hug when another student spoke up.
"Hey Anton, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the kind of thing that someone usually says before they're the next victim?" It was Tobias, everyone glared at him aside from Teri, who hugged her knees even harder. "What? That's what happens in most horror flicks, the killer waits for one of us to think nothing is wrong, and then...BAM! Thats when he strikes! It's only when we let our guard down does he-"
"Tobias, that's enough!" The group looked over to see Penny standing up from where she sat, her hands clenched into fists. "For God's sake, you're scaring all of us! And lay off of Anton, he's just trying to help." The multi-colored form got up from his spot and stormed over to the peanut. The two glared at each other for a moment before Tobias back down.
"Fine, but you guys ain't getting anymore of my two cents from here on out." He called out, laying down onto a bed made out of paper and notebooks.
"We'll let you know once we acknowledge it." Penny called back, sitting back down. "You alright, Anton?" The piece of toast was still looking at his feet solemnly.
"I-I didn't mean to make it sound the way it did, honestly! But I am fine Penny, thank you. You better check on Teri though, I think she's more afraid than any of us right now." He replied. The two looked over at the paper bear, who was rocking back and forth with a stare that seemed to penetrate the walls of the classroom.
"It's going to be alright, Teri." Penny patted the back of her head gently, then stood up and faced the rest of the group. "It's ALL going to be alright. Even if there is someone out there, we're in here, and he's out there. Theres no way for him to get us."
"...but what if he's in here already?" Alan, the balloon pointed out. Penny threw him an incredulous look.
"What if 'he' is a 'she?'" Leslie shivered. The group started to nervously look at each other, wondering what the other person was thinking.
"No! Come on guys, focus! If we don't think rationally, we won't be able to make it through this in one piece. We need to stick together, that's the one rule we have to follow-"
"But we're just a bunch of kids! What are we compared to someone that could be the size of Hector?" Alan cried, panic beginning to set into his fragile frame. Murmurs of agreement and doubt scattered around the small room as Penny tried to retain order.
"Guys, come on now. You'd think we would see someone with Hector's size coming a mile away! No one in here is a murderer, we're just letting the situation get to our heads."
"But that's EXACTLY what one says right before they get killed!" Teri said, biting down on her knuckles. "It's exactly what Tobias said!" The air grew thick with tension, no one wanting to say anything else that might break the silence and freak them out even more. Penny sighed and looked at one of the school's blank computer monitors. They were always shut off during the evening to retain power.
"Check your phones again, see if any of you have any service." She asked, those with the cellular devices checked and shook their heads sadly.
"We haven't had service all night, I think the school blocks reception or something." Alan replied, leaving some to question where he hides anything on his person. The antlered girl rubbed her temples and sat down on a chair. Seeing as how she refrained from talking, the rest of the group huddled closer together.
"What's going to happen to us?" Teri cried. "I don't want to die here! I just want to go home..." She began to weep openly, the rest not wanting to say anything that might make her feel worse. Or better yet, make themselves feel worse. None of them really understood what was going on. They had no communication to the outside world, just stuck in a classroom with what might be a potential murderer running loose right outside. "I just want to go home..." Teri repeated. "I don't want to die..."
"Guys, NO ONE is going to die. At the risk of sounding cliché, we're actually safer as long as we stick togethe-" Penny's sentence was cut short by a horrid scream coming from the back of the room. The room's attention was drawn to Leslie who screamed and pointed at the body of Tobias, with a rather large knife protruding from his skull. His eyes seemed to focus on where the point the knife stabbed him clean through his forehead.
"Oh God! Oh my God! Tobias! Tobias is dead!" Leslie cried, Teri got up and ran to the opposite corner of the room, covering her eyes from the scene and screaming.
"He's in here! The murderer is in here! He's going to kill us! We're all going to die!" She screeched. Penny ran over to where Leslie was and crouched over Tobias, covering her mouth in horror.
"...What? How could this have happened...?" The peanut doe forced back the urge to vomit as she examined the body, seeing no other indications of what might have happened. She tried to remove the knife, but it seemed to be implanted too far into the boy to remove. "This...oh God..." She ran over to the window, opened it hastily and expelled the contents in her stomach. She wiped her mouth with her wrist and leaned out the window. "Theres...he's...!" She gasped before retching again. From behind her, Teri was hysteric. Pacing around in a corner, talking unusually loud to herself.
"It's all a dream! Some kind of horrendous nightmare! I'll wake up in my bed, it'll be tomorrow! I'll go downstairs, eat my breakfast, come to school, and everything will be alright! Everything as it should be!" She started to laugh, slowly at first and beginning to build the faster she walked.
"You said we were safe, Penny! You said we would be just fine!" Anton yelled to the girl, who was still wiping her mouth off. She looked back, fatigued from the sick and started to feel nauseous again as the room began to spin. "We're going to die!" Leslie was weeping loudly now, causing even more pandemonium in the small classroom.
"But...but I..." Penny couldn't focus, not with all of this noise. She shut her eyes for a second in attempt to clear out her head, it helped only a bit. She still felt dizzy and her stomach felt uneasy, but she was able to get back on her feet. "We...we need to...to get out of here..." The doe said, holding her head up to steady herself. "We have to get out of here...now!" She commanded, leaning onto a desk now, slowly making her way towards the door. She stopped short and grabbed Teri by the wrist. "We're all going...Anton, Leslie, Alan come on!" There was no response from the opposite end of the room, it was suddenly quiet. No Alan yelling, no Leslie crying, just an unnerving silence. She was only able to make out Leslie leaning over Tobias's corpse.
"Guys! Forget about Tobias, he's gone now. We have to save ourselves while we still can." Nothing. No response, no movement. The girl looked back over to the paper bear she was still holding onto who seemed to be lost in her own little world of dementia, traumatized by the situation. She ran towards the two in a hurry, not wanting to be in the room for very much longer.
"Guys, please. We have to keep movi-...Oh God no!" As she got a closer look, she saw a large bite mark in Anton, only half of his original self remained. Next to him, lay Leslie, his stem cut in half with one part laying face down on the floor and the other still jutting out of his pot. Alan was nowhere in sight, but she couldn't search for him now. The nausea returned as she knew she had to get out of there with what little remained of her group left. She turned and ran towards the front door to see Teri still there, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Teri, we're getting out of here. Run as fast as you can and come with me!" Penny ordered, fear now apparent in her voice. But Teri simply shook her head, she wasn't crying anymore. She wasn't frantic, she wasn't hysterically talking aloud. She seemed more like her usual self now, just slightly more quiet.
"Penny, you saw what happened to Tobias. And judging from your reaction earlier, the same fate met the other three boys, meaning we're the only two left in a school with a maniac. Don't you get it? Don't you understand? Whether we live or die isn't in our hands anymore! Its because of whomever is out there that we are going to die! But I figured out something! He can control when we die, but not HOW we die!" Penny's jaw dropped, and her stomach seemed to follow.
"Teri, I can't have you talking like that! You're getting too ahead of yourself! We can still get out of here, alive. I promise!" Teri gave her an empty stare as she looked out at the window towards the night sky.
"I'm sorry Penny, but I'm not having a blade slicing into my throat, or whatever else this mad-man might want to do to me. I suggest you do the same to avoid such a situation, for both of us." The bear's voice had no feeling, an emptiness behind, like she lost who she was as a person. A monotone pitch, with a soulless body, without the will to live anymore.
"I can't let you do that Teri! We're friends! I don't want your throwing away something as precious as your life!" Penny grabbed hold of the girl's wrist. The two locked eyes for a second before the paper girl looked back towards the window.
"I'm sorry, Penny. But my life was already gone as soon as we were locked in this room." For a piece of paper, Penny wasn't expecting a punch from her being able to knock the wind out of her. Penny reeled up into a ball to protect herself from another blow, but none came. The doe heard the window open as Teri leaned a shoulder outside, feeling the cold air against her.
"No...Teri please!" She called out, trying to suck air back into her lungs. "You're my friend! Think about what you're doing here!" She got on one knee as more air became available. "What about me? What about your family?" Her voice was course with emotion as she attempted to persuade her friend from doing the inevitable. She felt her words fall on deaf ears, unable to change what could not be, and that's what hurt her the most.
"I'm sorry, Penny. I'm really sorry." She didn't seem to sound as sad as she was projecting. "If there was another logical way out of this, I would take it, but I'd rather take my own life than for someone else to. Once again, I suggest you do the same." She stuck a foot out the window. "Let my family know I love them, and that I'm sorry it had to come to this!" She then followed with the other.
"No! Teri!" Penny cried out, reaching out as if to pull her friend back into the room. She got up and ran towards the window, hoping to grab a hold of her before she fell any further.
Now unfortunately for both parties, because Teri was made of paper, a very lightweight material; the act of jumping out a window is extended way longer than say, that of Penny, being more heavier. The peanut doe watched as Teri slowly swayed from side to side, unable to grab an article of clothing or, by the off chance, have her drift into a nearby tree. She floated for what seemed to Penny like hours. Finally, Teri settled into the dew moistened grass three stories below, never to breathe another breath.
Penny gave a sob as she shut the window, not wanting to see her friend flattened into an even flatter substance. Sitting down in a chair, she felt more bad than before, this was more than nausea, more than just depression. This was a crippling sadness, seeing her friends all die at once, it was too much for her. She thought back to what Teri said before she jumped, about taking her own life. She looked back over to where Tobias was, behind the pair of desks, recalling the knife that was implanted into his skull.
"How fast would it be...? Would it hurt that much?" She thought to herself, her emotions getting the best of her. She stepped forward only to feel another presence in the room. The girl glanced over her shoulder to find a figure standing at the doorway, leaning over with a menacing posture, and glaring right at her. She was frozen in her spot, resisting the urge to scream by the off chance he might not of seen her in the darkness of the room.
This wasn't the case. The man staggered clumsily over to the girl, looming over her, breathing hoarsely. He pulled out something from his sleeve, but Penny didn't want to know what, she threw a punch in what she was hoping was the figure's groin and ran out the room at full sprint, screaming the whole way, not stopping until she found some garbage cans to hide behind, hoping she wasn't still being followed.
"Oh God, oh God, oh God!" She thought to herself. Even her thoughts were having trouble being put together, the anxiety of her being the next target of a serial killer was hurting her in more ways than one. She couldn't stand up straight, her legs betraying her, not allowing her to run and get away. Her fear was beginning to cause her to second guess her decisions, why was she hiding now? Why wasn't she still running for help? She shouldn't even be here, but now she didn't have a choice.
The peanut girl's legs lost all sustainability and she fell over, crashing over the trash barrels, creating a symphony of metal on floor that reverberated throughout the entire school. Penny's heart skipped a beat as she held her breath and looked down the hall where she just came from. Sure enough, the shadow of the hooded figure slowly descended the flight of stairs she came down on and was now heading for her next.
Penny tried to move, she wanted to move, she HAD to move. But her body's fear was overtaking her mind's urgency of fleeing. She would've been better off having no legs at all at this point. She had to lay there, staring as the cloaked man stepped up to her, reaching into his pocket again and pulling out a gleaming knife. Her heart was racing, seeing the long edged dagger pointing directly at her, it felt like it was going to burst out of her chest. She stared wide eyed, afraid to move, nothing in reach that she was able to use as a last resort weapon. She said a quick prayer and hoped this would end painlessly.
Just then, she heard something, a voice. Coming from the man.
"Hahaha! Oh man, you should've seen the look on your face! Hahaha!" It was...not the kind of response she expected at this certain moment, or the kind of voice for that matter. It took her a moment to register it.
"W-wait, Tobias?" Sure enough the hooded figure seemed to fall over backwards, and emerging from the garment was the multi-colored child, standing on a pair of wooden stilts.
"Man, you guys fell for that! 'Oh help us, help us, we're all going to die!' Oh man, I never would've imagined that working out as well as it did!" Penny was flabbergasted, either this was some kind of horrific "life flashing before my eyes" thing, or she hit her head harder than she thought when she fell over the garbage bins. Nevertheless, there Tobias was, breathing, and laughing, and it all started to piece back together.
"Wait, you were killed! I saw the-"
"You say a plastic hilt glued to my forehead is what you saw!" He cut in, pulling the said object out from behind him, complete with fake blood where the dagger was supposed to be glued.
"Wha-? Then...then...wait...wait a second!" She figured it out. "YOU were the murderer? You killed Anton, Alan, and Leslie?" She pointed a finger accusingly at the boy, who didn't seemed threatened. He still held his chest from laughter.
"Me? No way, I wouldn't do that. Those guys did that to themselves. Guess I scared them harder than I thought with that little gag of mine. Same with that Teri girl too it seems. But what can I say? I am pretty good at these sorts of things." He talked of their deaths like it was just some sort of prank, like it was just some funny joke.
"Wha-what? You...you...! YOU did all of this! This was all your fault!" Penny was no longer scared, she got up, her teeth bared threateningly. "Why would you DO something like that! Those aren't some toys you can replace, those were real people! Those were our FRIENDS!"
"Maybe your friends, but not mine. Only reason I was stuck here was because Miss Simian made me or else I'd fail the course." His attention shifted to the next subject. "And what if I did? First time something interesting happened at this place anyway. It's not like those people mattered or anything." Penny was at a loss for words. Confusion, anguish, and a fuming rage all clouded her brain, they needed release.
"Do you have ANY idea what you're talking about! These are CHILDREN you helped die! The police are going to-"
"The police aren't going to do a dang thing to me!" He yelled, swinging the knife in front of the girl, pointing it at her throat. "The police can't touch me! You'd think someone like me wouldn't have a plan for this? So what, I made those guys kill themselves, doesn't make any difference to me! What matters is that I make sure you're ALL dead. No one can squeal if they've got their throat cut out now can they?" He gestured a slicing motion over his own neck, Penny got the idea quickly.
"S-so...you're just going to kill me? What for? What have I ever done to you?" She stood there, unsure of what the jock would do next, he only looked up from his blade for second.
"Honestly? You're really going to ask that? It's people like you that always rub me the wrong way, always answering all the teacher's question, always having to do the 'right thing', and you're ALWAYS hanging around with Gumball! He's my friend! He doesn't NEED you!" Penny was shocked at how quickly the boy became hostile. "And besides! It's not like anyone would suspect a 12 year old to have killed anyone. They'll probably just assume some serial killer did it...or maybe even...YOU did it!" He flashed his teeth, marveling over his new idea. "Yeah, yeah, that'll work even better! I get rid of you losers, and you get blamed for all of it! It's perfect!"
"You'll never get the chance, you freak! Like I'll ever just let you get away with all of this! Just because you've got the IQ of a bag of rocks doesn't give you the right to mess with peoples' lives!" She hit a sour note with what she just said.
"You know? It's gonna be REAL satisfying seeing all your friends and family cry their eyes out when you're buried in six feet of dirt." He spat bitterly, making a lunge for the girl. She dodged out of the way in time to avoid being stabbed in the neck, but got slashed in the arm as a result.
"You piece of-!" She got out of the way again as he made another swipe at her. She backed up and made sure to keep him in front of her.
"What? You're planning on running? You think you can run faster than me? Ha! You're gonna have a knife in your neck as soon as you turn around!" She wasn't going to say it out loud, be she had to agree with him. She wasn't much of a runner compared to Tobias, she wouldn't make it that far. She had to improvise. What she lacked in muscle, she made up for in smarts, more so than Tobias anyway. It was then she noticed a fire extinguisher a few feet away.
"That's not how it's gonna go down, Tobias. Don't expect to just walk away and act all innocent while four students are dead. That won't happen, they'll find out it was you." The two stood there ground for a second, measuring the other person up.
"That's where you're wrong, girly. There's gonna be FIVE of you dead." He ran at her full sprint, but didn't expect her to do the same. Close-lining him with her antlers, she made a dive for the fire extinguisher, grabbing it just in time for him to get back up,
"What was that! You think a little bit of foam is gonna save you? Oh man, you're gonna be joining your friends here pretty soon!"
As much as Penny would've love the feeling of bashing his skull in, she had no other weapon other than this bulky container, she needed a better weapon.
She needed that knife.
Jumping out of the way of another swipe, she used the metal cylinder as a makeshift club as she swung it around clumsily in hope of catching the boy off guard and disarming him. He simply ducked out of the way and kept swinging, getting her once in the leg and another grazing her cheek.
"I gotta say, it is rather nice having connections in this school!" He said mockingly, twirling the knife in his hand. "The janitors and me are pretty tight, what with me stuck in detention all the time. Some of them get bored cleaning up everything so we get to chat sometimes. Like that one fella who offed himself in the girl's bathroom earlier, we used to talk all the time." Penny stood up, confused.
"Wait, you KNEW that guy?"
"Oh yeah, funny guy too. Had a great sense of humor, but he also drank way to much. One of the reasons his wife divorced him. Guess your friends got the idea of doing themselves in from him, right?" Penny's jaw tightened as she resisted the urge to attack the boy out right. Tobias charged at her again, swinging the knife with constant control, she ducked underneath a swipe and swung up the metal extinguisher, which he was able to dodge easily.
"Oh my God, you're not even fighting! You're just jumping around and swinging, and you're not even doing that well enough!" She knew he was just trying to irritate her, and it was working. She needed a new plan, something he wouldn't expect; allowing her to get in one good hit, and she knew what it had to be. "Trust me, I've got the muscle, the charisma, and the money. The police won't even be able to touch me! You're going to die alone here right now!"
Tobias rushed forward, pointing the knife straight out at her heart. She took in a deep breath as she knocked the blade down and felt it penetrate her in the stomach. The girl let out a pained cry as she felt the steel cutting into her, blood trailing from the wound down her leg. The plan worked unfortunately perfectly, catching the boy off guard, not expecting her to take a blow like that.
"Now!"
She had him close enough to swing the extinguisher up at just the right angle to crack the boy in the side of the head, making a satisfying "clang" as it bounced off his head. He dropped to the floor like a ragdoll, letting go of the knife and leaving Penny the only one standing. Now here came the part the girl was dreading. Gripping the hilt of the blade, she painfully pulled the steel edge out of her, a shade of scarlet staining the steel, showing how far it pierced into her. She covered the wound with her hand and knelt down over the boy, not caring if how badly she might've injured him.
"You're,,,you're going to pay for those you killed, I hope you enjoyed it." She perched herself over him, making sure he was facing her as she gripped the blade in her hand. He looked up at her, blood started to leak out from his right eye.
"Eh...eheheh, you're friends didn't put up this much of a fight. No, they were a bunch of pansies, they were too stupid to notice a plastic knife from the real thing! And look where that got them: they're dead! And you let them all die! You couldn't save them! There was nothing you could do, you failed! All your friends are dead! Hahaha!" He murmered, Penny grimaced at him and punched the boy in the mouth, a muffled groan responded back. She spread a hand over his chest and pressed a knee against him to prevent any sudden resistance. Her vision narrowed as she stared at the multicolored boy coldly.
"Hope you like the feel of being on the receiving end, you murderer." She spat at him, not even caring he was half conscious and bleeding from one eye. She brought the blade down as hard as she could, stabbing through his skull. She brought the knife back up, seeing his eye twitch from the injury, and stabbed him again. She continued to cut and mutilate into him until he resembled that of an over-used pin cushion. The girl suddenly felt light-headed and fell over as she clutched her head and felt a shooting pain run up alongside her. Feeling up the side of her shell, she remembered the point where Tobias had stabbed her earlier, it was bleeding more heavily now.
"That's...that's a lot...of...of my blood, ugh." She kicked away from where the boy was and looked at the knife she held. "Will they actually think I did it?" The peanut thought to herself, throwing the knife back at Tobias, hitting him and falling to the floor with a clang. She looked at where she was wounded, it didn't seem to hurt as much, she was starting to become light-headed again from how much she was losing. "They...they have to know what happened..." She looked over to where the garbage can were spilled over, hoping to find a pen or pencil to write with. Unable to use her legs, she dragged herself over to the bins and searched, but no such materials were found.
"No...I can't die just yet! Not just yet!" She yelled aloud, slamming her fist into the ground. "I...I need something...a bandage. Or something at least...!" The doe rolled herself over onto her back, anger being replaced by a sudden urge to cry. Now that Tobias was dead, the realization of her dying was staggering. "My...what will my family do? What will they think if everyone says I was the murderer?" Hot tears fell down her cheeks and settled onto the floor. Her head started to pound, adding more stress to the doe. "I can't die! Not now! Somebody has to know!" She looked at Tobias, his lifeless eyes gazing up at the ceiling, a pool of blood began to form around him as fresh blood came out from his wounds.
Her attention was suddenly shifted as she saw something come down the flight of stairs leading towards them. She wasn't sure if her lack of blood was causing her eyes to play tricks on her, but she didn't care. "Help! Over here! Help me!" She called out, waving her arm wildy.
"P-Penny? You're...you're alive! Oh thank heaven!" Penny was bewildered as the person came forward and leaned over her beaten body.
"Alan? I...I can't believe it's you!" She hoped this wasn't some illusion. She reached up and grabbed at his string and pulled. Sure enough, he was real and alive. "I thought you were dead!" The balloon looked suddenly ashamed.
"No, once we found Tobias with that knife in his head and everybody started to freak out, I hid in one of the teacher's cabinets. I didn't leave until a little bit ago after I couldn't hear anything and...well...you know what went on." He responded depressingly. "I should've been there! I should've helped you guys! But I was too much of a coward to do anything! And now Anton, and Leslie, and Teri...and now you and Tobias! This was just as much my fault as anyone else's!" The boy cried, almost in tears. Penny pulled the balloon down to her level and patted him gently.
"It's not your fault Alan. No one could've predicted how this would've ended." She cringed as a bolt of pain made her head pulse. "Tobias...this was his fault. He did this, the doors, the others, this was all part of a sick prank he decided to pull. He..." She paused for air, her breathing becoming more shallower. "He got what he deserved. This was all some sort of sick, twisted prank he decided to pull. He was an idiot, he deserved to...to die." Another surge of pain forced her to stop.
Alan calmed down slightly, but looking at Penny like this troubled him greatly. His eyes darted from where she was stabbed back to where Tobias lied dead on the floor. "So...so he did this to you?" She nodded slowly. "Oh man...oh this isn't good! We have to get you out of here now! We gotta get you to the hospital now!" He looked around frantically, but Penny tugged on his string again, reverting his attention back to her.
"No Alan, that won't do anything. They can't do anything for me anymore." Alan looked devastated, seeing her like this, dying in front of him and not being able to stop it. "But...there is something you can do. One last favor for me?"
"Of course, Penny anything. What is it?" She kept a firm grip on his string, not wanting him to leave just yet.
"I need you...I need you to what happened here, do you understand? You're the only one who'll be able to. You need to tell them everything. You've gotta be strong, Alan. You've gotta do this for us all, for Anton...for Leslie...for Teri...and for me." Her air was beginning to run out. Her vision was growing hazy and blurred as her body fought to stay awake. The boy sniffed as he tried to listen keenly to his friend's dying words. "Let them know who was responsible for this, that Tobias deserved what he got. Let my family know I love them, and to the families of the other guys'...tell them I'm sorry. I'm really sorry." Another tear fell from her cheek as she was now choking out words. "And...tell Gumball...tell him I love him too. Go Alan. Go now." She let go of her grip on his string, letting him float back to his original height.
He floated along as he turned his back to the dying girl, not wanting her to die; not wanting to see her die, it was depressing for him. He looked back to where she leaned against the wall, her hand over her chest, waiting to pass on. "I'm not sure if this means anything now, Penny. But I'm real thankful to have known you. You died fighting for your friends, and I really appreciate that. For what it's worth...thank you..." He paused for a moment. "I just wanted you to know." He could see the faint traces of a smile crawl across her face. Her eyes were closed but he could still feel the girl looking at him.
"You're...welcome Alan...and thank you." She smiled meekly. Alan smiled back, silently crying to himself, wishing things hadn't turned out like this. Three of his friends dead, with the fourth one slowly dying in front of him. He turned back around and continued down the hall, looking back only once more before he rounded the corner out of sight.
Only then did she pass on.