Chapter 5: Old Habits Die Hard
Sam quietly gathered her things as soft rays of early sunlight were beginning to spill between the blinds. It was still dusky outside, but she figured she had very little time before Lancer and his wife were up and about. She hurriedly zipped her bag up and made the bed, tucking the corners in and fluffing the pillows. She felt awful sneaking off like this after all they had done for her last night, but she knew if she waited they would want her around for at least breakfast. They would chat and have lovely conversation and Lancer would totally suspect what Sam was up to…and worst of all she might even be persuaded to stay if he gave her that look of disappointment again. She couldn't put him through that. Better to just leave before they woke up.
She shimmied her bag strap over her shoulder and crept out of the room, tiptoeing down the hall. She scooped up her discarded boots and socks by the front door and gingerly grabbed the door knob. Sam turned it slowly and gently pulled the door open, cringing at the light creak it made. She exited the house and just as quietly shut the door behind her before jogging to her car. She threw her bags into the back and hastily shoved her boots back on, knocking some of the dried mud off in the process. After hopping behind the wheel, she did a quick scan before reversing and peeling out of Lancer's driveway and down the gravel road.
She checked the clock on her dash- 6:13 AM. She could expect to be back at the Amity Gates around 9AM. She would have a full day to look around. The previous day had passed so quickly…maybe it was the terror of being chased by ghosts, but the moment Beverly first appeared time began to fly by. Sam was lucky she had made it back to those gates in time, as those last couple hours slipped by without her even noticing. She hoped it was just the panic, but she thought back to her shitty phone signal and her photos being warped. She bit her lip and kept driving, trying to keep positive. 'There's no way an entire day will slip by like that' she thought.
Anyway, the real question she needed to ask herself was how willing was she to see the ghosts again? They had been frightening of course but she also got to see Tucker. He was not quite the Tucker she had remembered, but he had protected her hadn't he? And what was with the conspicuous lack of Fentons? The way Tucker had reacted to that name shocked her. Danny was his best friend, why on earth would he have recoiled like that? She scowled, thinking about what might have become of the Fenton family. Were they even ghosts? Sam had never really questioned the afterlife much, having a complicated enough relationship with Judaism. Maybe some of the people who died in Amity Park had simply…moved on to wherever it is that the dead go.
All of these questions threatened an incoming migraine that Sam didn't want. She was not a philosophical person. She believed in getting to the bottom of things and solving them. Even something as big and intangible as entire societies could be broken down into causes and effects, wrongs and rights, problems and solutions. Sam believed in truth above all things…and she was starting to realize that there were some glaring mysteries surrounding Amity Park and what happened eight years ago. All these horrible years she had assumed that her friends and neighbors were dead and gone. But her mind was now adjusting to the thought that they might be dead but not gone at all. The thought of it threw a wrench into every single thing she had ever learned in the grief counseling and therapy she had been forced to attend. She gripped the wheel harder, speeding up a little. They weren't gone.
Those giant gates loomed in front of her, infinitely more menacing than when she had been here less than twenty-four hours ago. The bored looking security guard sipped on a steaming cup of coffee, seemingly only vaguely annoyed that Sam had arrived so early. 'He doesn't even know'. She thought. A whole town of ghosts, evidently spiriting away those who dared to enter at night. How could no one know? It had only taken her less than a day inside to realize the horrible truth.
"Miss, are you ready or not?" The security guy drawled. "I gotta check in on another site nearby soon." He looked at her quizzically.
"Um, yeah." She swallowed. "Yeah, I'm good to go." He nodded, plucking a cigarette tucked behind his ear and lighting it. He gestured a vague goodbye with it, smoke trailing his hand in loose tendrils.
"Alright miss, you know the drill. Have a lovely day in there." He took a puff of smoke thoughtfully. "Place gives me the creeps, personally." He muttered. And with those comforting words, he was quickly gone. The smell of coffee and tobacco lingered behind him. Sam felt a quick pang of regret at the thought that she might never speak to him or anyone else for that matter. He may have been the last living person she ever spoke to and she hadn't even bothered to learn his name. She inhaled slowly and set her shoulders stubbornly. It was now or never.
The gates swung open and she entered, giving one small glance back. She adjusted the straps on her backpack and began walking. For today's journey she still had her phone and camera, though she didn't know how much good those would do her. She had a watch as well, hoping that the ghosts would not be able to manipulate the analog clock like they had her more modern technology. She had also packed a couple bottles of water as well as some snacks. Her knife remained in her boot and her flashlight hung from her belt.
Sam had given a lot of thought to where she wanted to go last night while she tossed and turned in bed. She had ultimately concluded that there was one place where she was guaranteed to find ghosts that she would recognize: Casper High. All of Lancer's talk about his students last night made her suspect that the place he had specifically returned to was the high school. He of course would have most wanted to visit where he had once taught. Sam didn't doubt for a second that he would have come across familiar faces while there.
The walk to the school was tense, Sam feeling jittery and on edge as she passed rows of dilapidated houses. Her hands kept clenching and unclenching, anticipating a ghost to appear and rip her to shreds. But as her hollow footsteps rang across the empty street, not even her mysterious attacker from yesterday appeared with another glass bottle. She sighed through her nose, forcing herself to relax. Panicking would do her no good here. She needed to be alert and stick to her plan. 'And what exactly is your plan?' her brain provided unhelpfully. The thought almost stopped her in her tracks. She really was walking headfirst into danger just for the slim hope of some kind of fucked up, misguided sense of closure. But it was all she had really. Part of her wished that walking into the decaying halls of Amity might allow her one last glimpse of Tucker or possibly even Danny. If she didn't try now she knew it would keep her up at night for the rest of her life.
Her racing thoughts halted abruptly as her feet hit the pavement of a familiar sidewalk. Looming over her was Casper High. She frowned, struggling to remember her walk. She shouldn't have gotten here so quickly... Dread crept into her chest as she thought about how quickly time has passed yesterday. But now there was a gap in her memory, only a foggy recollection of the last several blocks remained. Wasn't she just in the crumbling suburbs? This was very troubling, time hadn't been lost quite this much yesterday. Should she go back? Could she? A suspicion began to grow, festering in her subconscious.
"What if they want me to come here?" She whispered to herself. Sam tried to recall what Lancer had told her. Something about Amity not letting her leave again? She didn't like how that phrasing made it seem like the town itself was sentient. There was something incredibly ominous about an entire town plotting, full of its own thoughts and desires. She stared at the high school, imagining it suddenly coming to life and devouring her. She'd end up being a part of Casper High after all. The thought was as frightening as it was compelling. She was being called back here and reclaimed years after narrowly escaping death.
She glanced down at her watch. It was nearly noon already. Two hours had passed in a fog, slipping from her memory the more she tried to grasp it. She looked back up at Casper, the front courtyard wild and overgrown with weeds. The long grass must have suffocated the peonies that used to line the building long ago. She was here already, and she wanted to look inside so badly. The first step forward was worryingly easy, as if she was being coaxed. This is what she came for, right? It was still a while until sunset and she wasn't planning on going anywhere besides here. No turning back now.
Sam jogged up to the doors of the high school she never got to attend. The windows were shattered and the handles were rusty. She gave one a tug and the door opened easily. A gust of cold, stale air greeted her face. A couple moths flew out from the dark building, desperately following the sunlight. She ignored their escape and stepped inside, the door shutting behind her and enveloping her in the shadows. She turned her flashlight on and scanned the foyer. Nothing yet besides yellowing paper banners and dirty glass cases full of old trophies. This place didn't feel as scary anymore. It was just sad. She closed her eyes and imagined kids hurrying down the hall, books weighing them down as they tried to make it to class before the bell rang.
She opened her eyes and began trudging down the main corridor. The administration office was up ahead to her right. Some windows on the opposite wall were leaking patches of sunlight into the hall, but she'd likely need the flashlight for any of the rooms. She reached for the handle of the office and tugged, but it was locked. A sensor for a keycard was on the door. She grunted in frustration. This office would be where most of the files and information on students and faculty would be located, so of course it was locked. She gave up and decided to look for a classroom down the hall instead.
Sam passed rows of lockers and was pleased to see a few doors dangling open. She combed through them with her light, finding old papers and binders neatly tucked in the first. Bright pink and green floral stickers covered the inside, as well as a logo for some pop singer. A girl's locker then. She frowned at the juvenile and innocent glittery decorations. She felt old, remembering that despite whatever she had thought when she was that age...teens were still just children. She shut the locker, coughing when dust filled the air from the impact. She tried the second locker.
It had less decorations but was stuffed within an inch of its life with crumbled papers, candy wrappers, and a ratty set of sneakers. She wrinkled her nose and figured that this locker was open because it just couldn't be shut properly with all that junk in there. A glint caught her eye and she tossed some trash out to see a plastic bag with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She eyed the food and wondered how on earth it looked so pristine. There were a few small spots of mold, but otherwise it was still intact. Sam chalked it up to all the preservatives that get pumped into food these days, but she remained uneasy. She walked further to the third and last locker that had been ajar. This time she noticed the built-in lock was broken, chipped and... charred? She wondered what on earth this kid had managed to do to the poor locker. She opened the locker and her breath caught in her throat.
NASA stickers, glow-in-the-dark stars, and little sharpie doodles of rockets coated the inside. This could only be Danny's locker. She was fumbling for his notebooks before she could even think. She thumbed through a red spiral and felt weak at the sight of Danny's unmistakable scrawl. There were only a handful of full pages which Sam figured was because it had been so early in the school year when the Amity Park Disaster struck. But there! In the margins there were scribbled notes between him and what had to be Tucker. She let out a half laugh, half sob. Of course, those two idiots were passing notes all class. She read through them-
"Dude, I can't stop looking at Ms. Gardner's mole" in Tucker's blocky letters.
"Don't be mean, Tucker!" Was Danny's reply. Tucker's response back was only a winking smiley face.
"...Okay, maybe it's a bit distracting" Danny conceded.
Sam laughed softly and flipped to another page.
"I miss Sam" Danny wrote. "I wonder if she's having fun in Tahiti"
"Of course, she is! Can't believe she never told us she was loaded."
"I just wish she didn't have to go. New York seems so far."
"Yeah. I miss her too, dude." Tucker replied.
Sam hugged the notebook to her chest. Every fiber of her being wished to go back in time, to scream and yell at her parents for making her leave, to run away from them back to Amity so that she could warn them-
A loud crash suddenly echoed from around the corner. Sam quickly shoved Danny's notebook into her bag and took off to see what the noise was. She realized that the sound had come from the front of school where she had just been. She rounded the corner and sure enough, the administration office door was open. She pursed her lips as she noticed the door hadn't been forced...someone had opened it. The office was pitch black inside. 'Of course.' She thought bitterly.
She stepped inside and pointed her flashlight. A giant front desk wrapped around most of the first room, with computers and filing cabinets. A couple of plastic chairs were lined up against a wall as a waiting area. Sam quietly found her way around the desk and began thumbing through some of the files left on the counter-top. It was just boring everyday reports and detention slips. She set them back down and opened a drawer. There! A set of about ten keys on a key ring. She snatched it immediately and attached it to her belt. Now she could get into practically every room in the building. She turned to leave and winced at the jingling sound the keys made. Hopefully it wasn't so loud that she would attract unwanted attention. She scanned the room one last time and then left, softly shutting the door behind her. That office was giving her the heebie-jeebies and she had no desire to stick around and find out what had opened the door.
She crept quietly down the hall again until she found a classroom. Slipping the keys off her belt, she tried three before the lock clicked. She turned the knob and walked in. Laminated posters still covered the walls in relatively good condition, with the edges looking only a little yellow and cracked. She quickly looked around the room, half expecting to see a ghost kid sitting at their desk. The chairs were very empty. Sam walked over to the teacher's desk and spent a few minutes digging through the drawers, finding nothing of note other than a clipboard with an attendance sheet attached. She read through the names but didn't recognize anyone, so she figured this hadn't been freshman level class. She put the clipboard back in its place and decided to try the four other rooms in this hall. One after another, they too were absent of anything unusual.
She entered the fifth class in the hall, expecting further disappointment. It too was rather unremarkable, though there was an impressively-sized bookcase sitting empty. She frowned and examined it closer. The wood looked scratched and dinged up, so clearly not new. Where were all the books if the shelf was clearly in use for years? Even stranger, the coating of dust on the shelves looked less thick than the coating on the student's and teacher's desks. Someone must have removed the books. But who could have done that? Lancer had come back to the school when he returned to Amity, so she figured he might have taken them. 'He didn't mention taking anything with him' She thought. She glanced at the ceiling and saw foam planets with faded paint dangling sadly. A periodic table poster was pinned to the back wall. This was clearly a science classroom. She suddenly had a suspicion that Danny had been a student in this very classroom, but unfortunately she hadn't found an attendance sheet in this room. Nothing to prove that Danny or Tucker had ever been here at all.
She left the room in frustration and moved on to the next hall. Turning right, she began walking down the new corridor. A giant banner lay in tatters on the ground. She prodded it with the toe of her boot until it unfurled enough for her to read the blocky letters: GO CASPER HIGH RAVENS! Cartoon footballs covered the paper. To her left, she saw the giant metal doors that led to the gym. She pondered whether or not she wanted to go in for a moment, figuring that there wasn't much to find other than gym equipment. She pressed her face against the glass and tried to peer into the room, but it was way too dark to make anything out. She craned her head at an uncomfortable angle and stood on her toes. Was that...a light? She squinted, trying to make out the shape of the mysterious light when she heard a door opening just down the hall. Her breath caught in her throat and without thinking, she slipped inside the dark gym.
She immediately ducked into the nearest corner as her pulse began to spike. What time was it? Was it already dark?! Footsteps echoed right outside the gym, pacing up and down the hall. Whatever was out there was so close, she could tangibly feel its anger. It knew she was in the school somewhere. The footsteps drew closer to the door, right outside it and stopped. Sam held her breath and waited. One second of silence passed...two seconds...three...
A massive growl boomed just behind the door and she heard the metal creak as something slammed into it. Sam bit back a scream and scurried away from the door, desperately looking around for a hiding place. Darkness enveloped her senses completely and she couldn't tell where she could hide or if there were any possible exits. She stumbled and behind her the door squealed open. She dropped to the ground and frantically crawled. There! That faint light was visible again in the distance. She felt blindly around as she stumbled to her feet and ran. The light was thin and long...it was spilling through from a doorway! Her hands found a handle and she tugged, pulling herself in and shutting the door behind her just as she heard the footsteps enter the gym.
She panted, her eyes squeezed shut as she leaned against the door. Silence was all she could hear for what felt like an eternity. Finally, she heard the door open once again and the ghost leave, hissing in frustration. It must have not seen her run over here. She sighed in relief and slowly relaxed, opening her eyes to find herself in a locker room. It was dim, but an unmistakable source of light was softly glowing just around the corner. She hesitantly crept forward, eyeing the lockers and benches around her. What was that light? It seemed to pulse slightly, and she wondered if it were even possible that an LED light could still function after all these years. She drew closer to it and felt the air chill around her. A sudden feeling of dread crept into her chest. She saw a discarded baseball bat on the ground and grabbed it, gripping it tight enough for her knuckles to turn white. Raising the bat, she rounded the corner and came face to face with a ghostly Dash Baxter.
AN: Hello yes, it's been a while. School has been crazy! But here we are...the clues are slowly accumulating :)