A sink sits halfway into the gloom, gleaming metal handles catching the light from the hallway. A mops leans against rough white plaster, its head buried deep into an empty grey bucket. Plenty of cleaner bottles line the shelves along the walls, yet the closet lacks the one thing that it's supposed to have.
"Where the hell did he go?!" Rachel snarls as Tobias leans down, grasping his trembling knees for support. The closet before them gapes emptily in response, the suspicious boy that they had been chasing seemingly vanished into thin air.
Jonathon went into that closet. Even if Tobias' vision was a bit hazy from the lack of air, he still was able to see that kid slam the door shut right in all their faces. There's no way he could have gotten past them, and it's a closet. It's not like there's another door…
"Door." Tobias wheezes out. "Secret door." It's the only thing that makes sense. Why else would that boy not have tried to escape out of the outside doors further down the hall.
Neither Rachel or Jake turn away from the empty closet, they probably didn't even hear Tobias's pathetic wheeze of realization. But, the kid who skidded to a stop besides Tobias jerks as if those words were an electric shock.
"What did you say?" Marco manages to bite out a bit stronger than Tobias's wheezes. Somehow, the shorter boy's recovering better than Tobias at running down long school corridors.
"There's got to be a secret door, or something." Tobias manages to get out between gasps.
"A secret door. In the janitor's closet. Of our school." Marco's sharp tone cuts through each statement as he narrows his eyes at Tobias. The shorter boy doesn't seem like he believes Tobias. Yet, when Marco looks back at the open door, he eyes it cautiously as if it is a spider dangling in the air before them.
The heavy clunk of shoes against the linoleum of the hallway behind him draws Tobias's attention back.
The teacher who took Cassie and the two girls who were with Jonathon. He's not alone, so whoever is coming up behind us…
"Hey guys," Tobias starts.
"Hey! What are you kids doing down there?!" Two men rush towards them. Mr. Tidwell and Mr. Pardue. Their faces both set into similar expressions of sternness.
Both Rachel and Jake jolt and whirl around while Tobias hears Marco's breath hitch right beside him. Tobias's own heart pulses in his throat as the men head closer. Of course there would have been teachers who saw them sprinting from the cafeteria. They must have seen their group blow right past their classrooms.
The thought of yet more sinister people at this school curls heavily in Tobias's stomach.
"I told you guys that he went right. Now how are we going to get him?!" Marco's voice cracks high. When Tobias looks to him, the side of the other boy's darker face pales with fear.
"Excuse me?! What exactly is going on?" And the men are there, looming over them as they come to a stop close enough to grab Tobias if they wanted to.
"Well, since we're in trouble anyway," Marco says brightly, his voice just low enough not to crack this time. "We were chasing Jonathon Jerkwad, but now we're not because he ran that-a-way outside." He gestures to the heavy double doors not too far to his left. "But these two hot-heads insisted he'd be hiding in there. Which, would be really, really dumb. Does that door look like it would hold—"
"Why were you chasing Jonathon?" Mr Pardue's voice comes out calmer, cooler than before. Mr. Tidwell's expression smooths out into its own calm blankness.
Nothing. Absolutely no excuse comes to Tobias's mind except maybe if they all scatter they could get away. Some of them could, at least, there's only two teachers and five of them.
"You see, it's sort of a really long story. He's been asking, absolutely pestering Rachel here all week to 'hang out' this weekend. Which I totally get why a guy would totally pretend not to hear the 'no' of polite girl talk. I mean, come on, it's Rachel." Marco gestures to her, a sweeping motion widely indicates Rachel in her entirety.
Tobias doesn't look to see her reaction. It's bad enough that the sight of the teachers keeps moving to his periphery every time he glances back and forth between them and Marco. He's not taking his eyes off them completely.
"So, anyway, he tried again at lunch and—"
"I told him no. A bit more bluntly this time, so he called me a name." Rachel's voice bulldozers right over Marco's ramble.
The silence from the two men echoes with the pulse beating in Tobias's ears.
"He what?" One of them finally states. "What did he call you?"
"Sir, umm, no disrespect, but you really don't want to hear it." Jake says calmly. "And, we'd be in even more trouble for saying it than we are now."
"Wait. Was he asking you to the Sharing beach event?" Mr. Pardue asks sharply.
"Uh huh, I think so." Rachel responds.
Both men glance at each other before the sternness melts off of Mr. Pardue's face and concern settles in its place.
"That's…Look, I'm sorry that he did that. Of all the irresponsible… Listen, we don't condone that type of behavior at the Sharing, and I can't believe that he said that to you." Concern laces through those words. Sighing, Mr. Pardue continues. "I hope that didn't scare you off from going tomorrow night. I assure you that the rest of our members do not behave like that."
The man smiles at them. His expression open and warm as the hairs on the back of Tobias's neck rise. "Listen, Johnathon is not going to be showing up at anymore beach events until he's properly disciplined. So, why don't you kids consider coming down to join us this Saturday. We'll be having free hot dogs and burgers. And some of the girls from the volleyball team are playing some informal matches with anyone who shows. It'll be fun."
"Yes, it'll be fun." Mr. Tidwell repeats with a closed-lip smile as Tobias tries to keep his face completely blank.
"Oh wow," Marco says, his voice just edging on too high-pitched and shoving Tobias's heartrate right through the roof, "the girls from volleyball team. That sounds just perfect. You can totally count me there. You know, if my dad doesn't ground me this weekend."
"Hmm? Why would he do that?" Mr. Pardue takes on a look of confusion.
"You know for general misconduct, like running through the school halls."
Tobias tenses.
Why? Why did you just remind them why they were checking us out in the first place?
"Oh," Mr. Pardue smiles. "Don't worry about that. That was Jonathon's fault. You guys aren't in trouble." He steps aside, clearing the way down the long corridor behind him. "Why don't you all get to class, and we'll see you this weekend."
"Yeah, sure thing, Mr. Pardue." Melissa's voice is honey-sweet as goosebumps crawl up Tobias's arms.
Somehow, he walks between and past the two teachers. Their group moves closely to one another. Marco brushing past Tobias as he moves a little bit ahead, and a hand, Rachel's, lightly grasping Tobias's wrist as she lingers right behind him.
Even though their strides are the longest in their group, Rachel and Jake stick to the back. A tall barrier between the teachers who Tobias refuses to look back to see if they're still watching them the further they get.
Looking back would be stupid. Foolish. Tobias would hear the teacher's shoes on the linoleum if they were coming after them. But, keeping his back to those two people, even with Rachel and Jake between them. Tobias's skin crawls with what must be those two guy's eyes on them.
"I don't know about you guys," Jake murmurs low enough that Tobias manages not to jump a foot in the air in response. "but, I'm thinking that taking a half day might be a good idea."
"Oh yeah." Rachel whispers back in response.
Both of Marco's ears twitch as he keeps to the front.
They turn down the hallway as a group. The lines of lockers in this hall stretching out before them as they walk past each classroom and straight through the glass-paned double doors at the end.
"That was insane!"
Marco's crouching with his back up against the brick wall of the back of the school. His wide eyes stare right at Jake as he whisper-yells again "Insane!"
"Yeah, Marco, we got that the first dozen times." Rachel snaps back in her own half-whisper. She's also crouching so that the top of her head isn't visible through any of the windows.
"Guys." Jake tries to cut in. "We need to focus."
"Focus?! Focus?! On what!? The secret door in the janitor's closet! The creepy teachers! The freaky students!"
"On the fact that Cassie's missing." Rachel growls. "That those people took Cassie."
Marco's mouth snaps shut. Rachel stares him down as he stares right back.
Before Marco can start freaking out again, Tobias quickly blurts out. "We need to get out of here."
Everyone turns to stare right at him. The weight of their stares almost glue the words to the back of his throat, but he forces them through anyway. "The hawk in the dream I had said we had to go through the construction site. Maybe that's where they took Cassie."
A maniac gleam lights up in Marco's eyes. "Oh, I almost forgot that part. The spooky dreams. Where everyone dies. No. No, we are not going to the construction site, Tobias. No matter what your little birdy friend says."
"Guys—" Jake tries again.
"Or, better yet, we're going to the police. You know, the people you normally go to when people are being kidnapped."
"And how are we even going to get out of here to do that?" Melissa says steadily from her spot crouching in the dirt next to Rachel. Her granite hard eyes glare right at Marco. "Somebody'll see us out the windows if we try to get to the woods or if we go through the parking lot."
Marco glares back at her. "Yeah, I kind of figured that since we're hiding behind the school right now!"
"Guys!" Jake whisper-shouts. "We don't need to get out of here. We just need to get to one of the school phones." Even when everyone turns to look at him, Jake continues on as if the weight of everyone's attention is nothing at all. "We can just call the police here and hunker down somewhere until they come."
"What about Cassie?" Rachel leans forward, her blue eyes burning and bright. "They have Cassie in that closet. We can't just—"
"And they'll have us in the closet if we rush in there," Jake interrupts. "Rachel, I want to get her too. But if we go in there without backup, those people will grab us, and we won't be able to save Cassie." Jake's frown deepens.
"No, we won't be saving Cassie either if we call the police here." Tobias blurts out, rushing out each word before they tumble back down. "They're never going to believe us."
It's easier to speak after Marco turns his glare towards him. Marco wouldn't be looking at him that hatefully if he didn't believe Tobias was right.
"Spooky dreams with dead kids and talking hawks? Teachers kidnapping students in the middle of class? They'll laugh us off and then they'll tell the principal on us. We'll be lucky to get detention assuming he isn't one of those people, and Cassie…" Tobias clutches the tops of his knees. "And even if they did believe us, what if she isn't in that secret door anymore. It's been hours. She might not even be at the school."
"Oh, but she's probably at the construction site, right?" Marco cuts in nastily. "Where your birdy friend told you she'd be."
Tobias's fingers ache from when he raked his nails across Andy's face. Maybe Marco's got a point. Maybe this does sound stupid and ridiculous. No, Tobias knows he's right; just like he knows that Marco is being a complete prick.
Jake's hand hovers a few inches from Tobias's chest, and the larger boy's body blocks Marco from view. Tobias instinctively leans back on feet he didn't even realize he sprung to at Marco's last derisive comment.
"Stop it." Jake says. "Both of you calm down." Even with the calmness of tone, Jake's hand trembles with tension.
"Marco, you're not wrong. This is insane." Jake's voice wavers before snapping back into that forced calm. "But Tobias isn't wrong either. The chances of Cassie still being here at school are pretty low."
"How about his talking bird?" Marco bites, his eyes wide and his voice high. "Is he right about that?"
"He is." Even as a half-whisper, Rachel's voice smolders with anger. "Just like Cassie was right enough for those people to make her disappear." She glares out at all of them as she continues. "We're going to the construction site. We didn't listen enough to Cassie's nightmare and now they have her. I'm not going to make the same dumb mistake and ignore Tobias's dream."
Her burning blue eyes focus right on Tobias, the absolute certainty within them scorching through him, leaving a radiating warmth in the place of the anger he felt at Marco.
"Okay, construction site it is." Melissa meets Tobias's glance before she looks to the side at Rachel. "But that doesn't answer how we're even going to get off the school property, much less make it there."
Silence rolls over Tobias as he looks to the trees far across the empty field. That edge of the woods leads straight towards the site, but they'd never make it to the trees without being spotted.
"Maybe…" Jake murmurs to himself, the word barely catching unto Tobias's hearing. "Okay, there's no way we're getting out of here without somebody spotting us. But that only matters if they can catch us before we get away." The tension still winds tight through Jake's shoulders, but a brief smile appears on his face anyway. "Tom," Jake glances at Melissa. "My brother Tom and his friend Will drove to school. The high schoolers' turn in the cafeteria starts in a few minutes. All we have to do is make it to the cafeteria, and I can get Tom to drive us out of here."