And like always, Clare's Prince Charming was there at her side.
Eli ran to Clare and held her in his arms, shielding her from the horrible sight. Slowly, Bianca inched forward. "What the hell happened to him?" she asked quietly.
Eli looked closer at Adam's body. Blue veins were strewn across his face, dark circles plaguing the bottoms of his eyes. Then, Eli realized what had happened.
He shot up from his place on the floor, leaving Clare behind, and ran to the cafeteria. He stopped in the doorway when he saw Adam's glass. All the water in it was gone.
"Holy crap," he muttered to himself. Everyone but Clare ran to see him and what he was thinking about. "It's just what I thought." He fast-walked to Adam's seat at the table and picked up his empty glass. He sniffed the rim then dropped the glass in shocked. It exploded into thousands of diamonds as it touched the floor, waiting for someone to either admire what it had become or step on it and cut themselves.
"Well what is it, Goldsworthy?" Drew demanded. Eli said nothing. Drew ran up to him, turned him around, and picked him up by his shirt. "I said 'what is it?'" Drew shouted. "Do you know what killed my brother or not?"
Eli slapped Drew's hands away and pushed him. Drew pushed Eli back and they boys started to fight. Fiona and Bianca ran to Drew to hold him back and calm him down. "Chill out!" Eli shouted. "Tell me what you know!" Drew shouted back as he struggled against Fiona and Bianca's grip.
Then his legs gave out and he fell to the his knees. The girls had enough sense to let go as he fell and they stood there as Drew sobbed loudly.
Sure he and Adam had their difference, especially when it came to Gracie, but he never wanted Adam dead. He never wanted to think of Adam dying ever. And now, the only true friend he would ever have was gone. Adam was more than just a brother to Drew. Adam was a helping hand, a conscience, a laugh when Drew needed it. Now Drew just felt cold.
The sound of Clare's heels clicking on the ground aided Drew's sobs. Everyone watched her as she walked over to Drew with a cold, blank face. "Get up," she ordered. Drew looked up at her with dried tears staining his face in stripes. "Are you deaf now?" she asked.
Drew stood up angrily. "What gives you the right to talk to me like that?" Drew questioned. Clare got in his face. "If I hadn't," she began with a cold tone, "You never would have moved and you would have been an easy target. If you want to live, stop fucking around so we can get out of here! If you want to stay here and die, then I'll gladly take my heel and ram it through your eye. You're not gonna keep us here with your bitching and moaning. Do I make myself clear?"
Everyone stared in awe, except for Eli, at how scary Clare had gotten. She went from a crying, scared baby to a forceful, scary…dominatrix. Eli felt new feelings for Clare right then. It was something new and something cool to him. Who knew she could be like that?
Clare turned to the five other survivors. "Here's what we're gonna do," she told them. "We're gonna split up into pairs and look for an exit. There's a chance that the back door is open and there are several other windows we can get out of. Eli and I will take the back doors. The rest of you can find other ways to get out of here. We'll meet back here in fifteen minutes. If anything happens, scream and everyone will come running to where you are. Do not leave your pair."
Clare took Eli's hand and left the cafeteria with him. Fiona looked among the remaining three people. Hm. She could go with Drew, but that would be a little painful; every time she looked at him she would see Adam and probably start freaking out. She could go with Alli, but the voice said Alli held grudges. Who knew what Alli could do? The only problem with Bianca is that she'd probably sell Fiona out.
Fiona didn't have a choice to decide. "Fiona and I will take the second level of the school," Bianca declared. She turned to Drew and smirked. "You can try to fix your relationship with Alli while you're at it." She turned to Fiona. "Let's get out of here."
She left the cafeteria and Fiona was soon behind her. Together they went up the stairs and left Alli and Drew to themselves.
Alli sighed and slowly walked out of the cafeteria with her arms crossed. "Let's go," she said all too unenthusiastically.
Fiona and Bianca were roaming around the upstairs of the school. Up here, there was three different Math rooms, two English rooms, rows and rows of lockers, four science rooms, and a broken water fountain that smelled like dog piss.
"So what's your story?" Bianca asked as they explored one of the Math classrooms. Fiona sighed. "I like to think there's nothing wrong with me," she stated. "But basically, everything that voice said was true. I've been getting therapy though, so I'm getting better. What about you?"
They checked the windows in this room and found they were closed. They moved to the next room. Bianca shrugged. "Not much to tell really," she said. "I'm just the school whore who everyone hates and hates everyone. Only reason I chose you to be in my pair is because I don't want to deal with Drew's bullshit at the moment and I'll kill that Alli bitch if she says something smart to me."
Fiona stopped checking windows and stared at Bianca in disgust. "How the hell can you say that?" she protested. "His brother just fucking died and you're stomping all over both of them as if nothing happened!"
Bianca scoffed. "Did you not…I don't know…hear anything that was said in the cafeteria?" she countered. "Adam's not a boy. He's a girl. He's a girl and he lied about that. Worst of all, he hit on me! Do you know how gross that is? Anyway, I don't care. They're both gonna die tonight anyway. Why should I give a damn about being nice to them?"
Fiona didn't respond. She honestly didn't know how to. She'd made two horrible discoveries tonight: Bianca had the strongest possibility to be the killer, and Adam was really a girl. Aside from the Bianca being the killer thing, Fiona was pretty shocked. Actually, scratch that. She was a little bit giddy about the thought of having feelings for a girl. It was…interesting. It was really too bad Adam, Gracie, or whoever had died.
Now back to Bianca. Because of that horrible statement, Fiona didn't really trust her anymore if she did at all. It was ridiculous if it was anything at all.
"So I take it you know what happened to Adam?" Clare asked as she walked hand-in-hand with Eli to the back of the school. Eli paused for a moment before he spoke. "He was poisoned with Paracetamol," he told her.
Clare stopped walking. "Para-what?" she repeated. "Paracetamol," he corrected for her. "It's a somewhat tasteless poison. The smell of it can give someone a vicious headache, but drinking it can get rid of the headache even if it wasn't the cause of a headache. The only downside is that you die after drinking it. By the looks of Adam, he had a very big dosage."
Clare stared at the floor. "Oh," was all she could think to say to that. "How do you know all that?" They reached the backdoor and tried to open it with no avail. "Julia and I…had interesting conversations," Eli told her.
Clare felt a shiver race down her spine at the mention of that name. Julia. She was the reason Eli didn't originally want to let Clare in. Julia was the reason Eli had turned into a hoarder. Clare was happy Eli had finally told her about Julia, but she secretly hated Julia. She hated how Julia had had an amazing impact on Eli-good or bad. Julia was someone Clare didn't want to talk about.
Eli put his back to the door. "Maybe we should talk, Clare," he said. She crossed her arms in response. Clare knew what was coming next. Eli was probably gonna talk about his problem with gambling and how he "gambled" with Julia. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
"Maybe we should keep looking for an exit," she said coldly. She turned around and began walking away. That was the end of that conversation.
Alli and Drew had wandered down to the basement with Alli leading the way. She didn't need Drew trying to tell her where she was gonna go. She didn't need him for anything anymore.
"A-Alli," Drew stammered. She turned around and glared at him. "What?" she spat. Drew sighed. There would be no getting through to her.
"Never mind," he said with sad, defeated eyes. Looks like he wasn't going to try to fix their relationship.
Alli turned back around and scanned the basement. It was dark and dank, but she could still see well enough to see there wasn't an exit here.
"Let's go back up stairs," she suggested. "There's no way out down here and this place is giving me the creeps." She quickly made her way up the stairs.
Drew grabbed her arm at the top of the stairs before she left the basement. She opened her mouth to protest. "What are you-"
Drew cut her off by kissing her passionately and deeply. At first, she started to like the kiss. Then she remembered who was on the other end of that kiss.
Alli pushed Drew away from her and threw herself backwards. Not a smart idea since it threw her into the weak side railing that collapsed against her body weight. She fell over and would have hit her head on the ground if her jeans hadn't got snagged on a loose floorboard.
She felt a hand on her ankle and realized it was Drew. She kicked him away with her free leg. "Get away from me!" she exclaimed. "I can get up myself." She tried to lift herself up but failed. "Please let me help you Alli," Drew insisted. "Just go away," Alli protested. "Wait in the hall for me to get there."
Drew sighed. There was no way he was gonna convince her to let him help. He walked away without another word and stood in the hallway waiting.
Alli tried to lift herself up again when someone grabbed her by her mouth and pulled her back down. Drew couldn't hear her muffled screams.
Someone banged her head against the wall under the stairs. They kicked her and beat her with great force. Then, Alli saw her reflection on a small piece of mirror. The next thing she knew, the mirror shard was rammed into her throat.
She could feel the blood screaming from her neck and she found it impossible to swallow. She tried calling out to Drew, but she couldn't make a loud enough noise.
As if to spite her, the killer let go of Alli's mouth and let her body drop to the floor. As she lay there dying, she found the energy to let out one giant scream.
Drew quickly ran down the stairs. "Alli what happened?" he exclaimed before he saw her. Drew didn't see her under the stairs. Nor did he see when the killer ripped the mirror shard from her throat and snapped her neck.
"Alli?" he called. But there was no one alive to answer him.
And like that, three out of eight party guests are dead. The bigger question is: Who's the killer in all this madness? Thanks for reading!
