A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death
Chapter 6: Little Girl Lost
The sun was just dipping below the horizon as Kelly and her friends approached the school. The concrete steps that led to the front doors were bathed in a red-gold light that made the school look foreign and strange, even though they had only been away from it for a few hours. Pint-sized trick-or-treaters ran through the streets behind them as the five stepped through the double set of glass doors.
Principal Adwell was waiting inside, wearing his normal gray suit and a cheery smile. "Greetings, Miss Anderson," he said when he saw Kelly. "Or should I say 'groovy'?"
Kelly giggled and smoothed the front of her go-go costume. Principal Adwell was smoothing his receding hairline with an almost wistful look on his face. He wasn't worrying about meetings or students bound for detention for once, and he looked at the group of teens in an almost envious way. Kelly expected him to gaze off into the distance any second and forget about them as he lost himself in memories of his own youth.
Instead, he gazed at the person standing next to her, eyebrows raised almost to his scalp. "Miss Madison? Is that you?"
Rowena let out a chuckle and executed a model-worthy turn, displaying the authentic flapper dress she had borrowed from her great-grandmother.
Besides the dress, shoes, beads, and cloche hat, her black hair was hidden beneath a short blond wig. Kelly herself had done a triple-take when she first saw her. "I thought I'd bring a touch of class to the evening," said Rowena, pursing her cupid-bow lips.
Most other girls in their age group would be dressed in as little as possible that night, using various characters as an excuse to show as much skin as their parents would allow. Except for girls like Tanya, who looked every bit an angel in her modest white robe.
Principal Adwell looked at Aaron and laughed, and the girls joined him. "I guess we called you the class-clown once too often, huh?"
Aaron laughed in return and hiked up his baggy, spotted pants. "Nah, I'm just poking fun at all the people who wish I would run away with the circus."
He honked his bulbous nose, making the girls giggle again. Craig didn't crack a smile, which made Kelly frown.
"Is something on your mind?" she asked softly.
He shook his head. "Not really."
"Oh," said Principal Adwell, as if he'd just thought of something. "The remodeling is almost finished. It should be over with later next week. About time, huh?"
Kelly glanced at Tanya and Rowena, who stopped smiling at Aaron and looked at her. They quickly looked away again. Craig fiddled with a string that had pulled loose from his jeans like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.
"You mean the remodeling they've been doing in the pool room all year, right?" asked Aaron, his voice unnaturally serious.
Principal Adwell nodded and patted his middle with both hands. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to go and grab a candied apple. Have fun tonight, kids."
The stout man strolled down the hall and disappeared into the cafeteria. Tanya and Aaron started after him, and Kelly tugged Craig into motion.
When Rowena didn't follow, they looked back and saw that she was staring back at the glass doors they had just come through. The light of the setting sun was filling the hallway with the same red-gold light that was bathing the front steps, only the affect was even eerier. "Tonight is always special," Rowena murmured.
"Uh oh," sighed Aaron. "She's at it again."
Tanya shot him a warning look, but Rowena just smiled coolly. "Sometimes I wonder," she said in a low, even voice, "what gives this night more power; true supernatural influence, or the combined belief held in so many human minds?"
Kelly shrugged slightly, not sure what she meant. Believing in something didn't give it any more power than something that no one believed in. Things didn't have powers--they just existed.
Rowena looked at Kelly's expression and smiled thinly, almost as if she knew what she was thinking. "Either way," Rowena added, "the spirits of the dead are always close this night."
Rowena walked briskly ahead and entered the cafeteria. For a moment the hall was filled with the loud voices of partying students, until the doors swung shut again, cutting the sounds off. Kelly reached up and absently rubbed the pendant hanging from her neck with her thumb; Rowena's speech about spirits had given her the chills. She tried not to, but she started to picture the face of a sixteen-year-old dancer.
Kelly glanced at Tanya and could tell by the nervous look on her face that she was thinking the same thing. Behind her, she heard Aaron snickering. Strangely, Craig started to laugh, too.
"What's so funny?" she asked, turning around.
"Oh, nothing," said Aaron, still snickering.
He nudged Craig with his elbow. Craig nudged him back. Sighing, Kelly grabbed Craig's arm and started pulling him away.
"The party is this way, babe," Aaron called as Kelly lead Craig past the cafeteria doors.
"We'll be right there," she called over her shoulder.
To her relief, she heard Tanya whisper something. Telling Aaron to let them be, no doubt. She glanced over her shoulder; Tanya was leading him through the doors.
"Don't take too long, dude," Aaron yelled over the noise. "And don't fall asleep!"
The order made Craig laugh, but Kelly decided not to ask why; she never understood his and Aaron's jokes. Instead, she rested her head on his shoulder and continued to walk further away from the noisy party. She knew Craig wasn't eager to join the throng of hyper students, and he let her lead him wherever she wanted.
Kelly had never been so deep inside the school after hours before. The classrooms were dark, empty and silent, and their footsteps sounded strange as they echoed through the empty halls. They reached the stairway that led to the second floor; Kelly paused and leaned against the railing. Craig sat on the lowest step.
"What are you going to do after we graduate?" Craig suddenly asked, breaking the silence.
Kelly was startled, and not just because she wasn't expecting him to speak. Craig knew what she wanted to do; she wanted to go to college and get her psychology degree. Of course, Craig also knew that what she wanted was a lot different from what her mother wanted.
"I'm not sure," she murmured. "I'm really not sure what will happen."
Craig nodded, looking as though he had expected that kind of answer. Kelly chewed her lip for a moment. "I've an idea," she said, trying to cheer them both up. "How about we make a deal? After we graduate, we tell our parents what is it we want, no matter what. I'll stand by you when you talk to your father, and you'll stand by me when I talk to my mother."
Instead of brightening at the idea, Craig snorted. "Like it would be that easy..."
"Well, don't just give in to him," Kelly told him with a frown.
Craig shook his head and got to his feet. "Were are you going?" Kelly demanded as he started mounting the stairs.
"Up to where all my troubles lie," Craig grumbled in reply.
Kelly fiddled with her pendant nervously. She didn't want to go up there. Not tonight. Craig glanced at her worried expression. "What's wrong?"
"I don't want to walk pass the pool room right now," she murmured.
"So don't," said Craig, and continued to climb the stairs.
Kelly watched him until he was out of sight, then turned back towards the cafeteria with a sigh. Leaving Craig alone when he was in a bad frame of mind wasn't a good idea, but she couldn't bring herself to go upstairs. Thanks to Rowena she still felt spooked, like there was a ghost lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce.
She almost laughed out loud at herself; that was childish and silly. Still, she knew she would feel better once she was surrounded by her fellow students, and she walked quickly back towards the cafeteria, still clutching the pendant hanging from her neck. As she reached for the cafeteria door, she happened to look down and remember that it wasn't just any pendant she had been rubbing; it was Rowena's amulet.
Felicity Masters opened her eyes with a groan. Her entire body felt like her foot after holding it still for too long. The tingling sensation passed quickly, almost like someone decided to come and vacuum it right out of her.
She sat up and saw that she was in the middle of her school hallway. It was empty and dim, and she could just make out the clock that was hanging on the nearby wall. She squinted in the waning light, but the fat black hands were clear; it was almost 7:00 PM. What the heck was she doing in school at this hour?
Felicity gave her head a shake, but it didn't help. Her mind was as clear as it ever was, she simply had no memory of how she had gotten there, or what she had been doing. She rubbed her temples and thought hard; what was the last thing she could remember?
She spent the next few minutes trying to piece her life back together, and it wasn't very hard. Her life was as short as it was simple; her dad ran off with another woman when she was five, her mother worked multiple jobs so she and her only daughter could live comfortably. Their house was small and considered a waste of space by the richer part of town, but Felicity loved it. Her mother worked hard day in and day out, so she worked hard, too, and got into high school on a scholarship.
So here she was, but why? She hadn't known school was even open at this hour.
Confused but knowing she wouldn't get any answers sitting on her butt, Felicity got to her feet and started walking down the empty hall. As she did, her eyes drifted upwards to the objects dangling from the ceiling by black string.
She stopped and stared, mouth agape. "You've got to be kidding me."
The very idea seemed insane, but there was no mistaking it; the school was decorated for Halloween. She couldn't remember how she wound up in school after dark, but she clearly remembered how the halls had been decorated earlier that day.
Tri-colored streamers, sparkling stars and other patriotic symbols, all announcing that it was again time to celebrate the birth of their country. Not that there were many school districts still open that time of year. There were plenty of summer classes running, though, offering extra credit programs for underachievers--or overachievers, like herself.
There weren't any classes on the 4th, but they were throwing a special summer party that day. School parties were usually boring, but she had gone anyway, just to annoy some people. There were a lot of students who didn't like her simply because she had gotten there by brains alone, not money. She remembered that part of her life quite clearly.
She remembered all of it clearly—except why she just woke up in the middle of the school's hallway.
"It's a joke," she muttered as she began poking her head in different classrooms. "It's got to be a joke."
It had to be. She had fallen asleep during the party and someone had dragged her out here. And then, because they were childish and had too much time on their hands, had decorated the school to make her think it was Halloween, just to mess with her head. She was probably locked in, too. Oh well...she could always call someone for help. She was just glad they hadn't had the mind to do something worse.
Felicity stopped walked and peered into a darkened classroom. Even in the dark, she knew the impossibly neat space anywhere; it was Ms. Watson's class.
Ms. Watson was a super teacher; the kind of person who never forgot a single detail, was always on time for everything, and could tell you the weather better than the reporters on TV. She was also quite brutal when it came to dealing out punishment, so there were few students who would mess with her or her personal space.
With that in mind, Felicity hurried to her desk and grabbed the calendar sitting next to Ms. Watson's pencil sharpener. It was too dark to read it, so Felicity switched on the lights. She squinted automatically as the room flooded with unnatural light, but her eyes didn't sting as she looked down and read the date.
October 31st.
Felicity stared in disbelief, but there was no mistaking the big, bulky lettering. Ms. Watson tore off the old date every morning as she sat down to start class for the day. She never tore a sheet off in advance, and there was no sane reason for someone to rip off four whole months.
There was only one other explanation. It was really Halloween, four months after her last clear memory.
Felicity dropped the calendar and stumbled back out into the hall, not bothering to turn the lights back off first. "What is going on," she mumbled.
She stopped walking and scanned the empty hall with near-panicked eyes. "What the hell is going on?!" she hollered at the top of her lungs.
No one answered. Though as she started walking again, the sound of voices touched the outer reaches of her hearing. She paused again and strained to listen.
Young voices chattering. Loud laughter and music. A squeal from a teen girl. The unmistakable sounds of a party.
Felicity started to take a step toward the sounds, knowing that her best chance of figuring out what was happening was to find someone to ask, but an icy spike of fear in her gut stopped her in her tracks. She clamped her hands over her middle and stopped moving; the feeling subsided.
Felicity frowned to herself and tried taking another step. An extra loud burst of laughter started up, and the fear started shooting through her core again.
Changing her mind, Felicity turned and hurried in the opposite direction. She didn't understand what that was about, but she decided to worry about it later. Right now, she figured the best thing to do was leave the school and get home. Her mother was probably worried sick by now.
Mom, she thought.
Mom would know what was going on. Mom would know how to--
Felicity's thoughts came to a screeching halt as she suddenly collided with something. She stumbled backwards and fell to the linoleum floor as a fiery pain shot across her face and chest. As she lie flat on the ground, a memory of grabbing the wire of an electrified fence on her uncle's farm when she was six flashed through her mind. She remembered that pain vividly, and wondered what kind of maniac would string electrified wire across a school hallway.
But as she sat up and looked around, there was nothing visible in the moonlight that was starting to shine through the windows that ran the length of the hall. More confused than ever, Felicity got slowly to her feet. She checked from floor to ceiling, but there was nothing blocking her way.
Knowing that she had to have run into something, she reached out and waved her hand in the air. Though there was nothing there that her eyes could see, she keenly felt her fingers strike something, and it snapped her hand back like she had been slapped with a baseball bat.
Felicity staggered back and clutched her hand to her chest as she stared dumbly at the open space in front of her. It was as crazy as it was impossible, but there was no other way to explain it; there was some kind of barrier in front of her, and it was invisible.
It also hurt like hell to touch, but fortunately the pain didn't last long. Felicity flexed her fingers a moment before placing her hands on her hips with a look of determination.
"Things like this just don't happen," she muttered to herself.
It had to be a prank, or some kind of nightmare, or something. Yes, that was it...she was dreaming. Lying safely at home in her cozy little bed, and in the morning her sweet mom would wake her up with a cup of hot chocolate.
Felicity let this image fade as she heard someone creep up behind her. Though she didn't hear him so much as feel him; there were no footsteps as he approached, but the distinct naughty energy that surrounded someone looking for trouble loomed behind her as tangible as a cloud. She could easily picture some silly teen sneaking up on her, suppressing his giggles as he prepared to yell 'boo!' and then laugh himself sick as she shrieked.
Well, was he in for a surprise. Felicity Masters didn't jump for anything, but she did plant her knee in the groins of annoying boys.
She spun around to do exactly this, but she didn't see any annoying teen boys. All she saw were four blades glinting in the moonlight, right before they plunged into the soft flesh of her middle.