Fan Fiction ❯ Terror High ❯ Running out of time ( Chapter 8 )

**

 

Damian sighed a bit but still felt a little uneasy.

 

Chase relaxed but then sent Ella to collide with the floor. Aaron fell over as well, leaving them in an even more uncomfortable position.

 

“Shh…” Chloe whispered, her heart beating in her ears. “He might be listening at the door!”

 

Ella squirmed. This was way too close to Aaron for her liking. She would have moved but all she could do was wiggle a bit and that made it worse.

 

“Ella!” Aaron whispered in his I-am-so-liking-this tone

 

“Hey! It was Chase's fault!”

 

“Shut up you two!” Rory whispered, his temper rising. He was getting annoyed that Chloe still hadn't released him from her clutches.

 

Damian looked around and couldn't see the principal anywhere.

 

“It's okay, we're-“

 

The principal opened the storage room door again.

 

They didn't have enough time to close the closet door again.

 

Damian fell over, causing the remaining person who was standing, Rory, to fall over as well. Everyone was now really too close.

 

“Hello…”

 

The principal's welcome was followed by six different screams.

 

Ella whimpered and Aaron, (who was practically on top of her), put an arm on her shoulder. He was surprised by how warm she was.

 

The principal sneered and Damian shivered. His eyes were wide with fear and he couldn't move.

 

Chloe sighed deeply. If Damian wouldn't do anything then she would have to…

 

She stood up slowly, keeping herself hidden behind the door.

 

Chloe slammed the door in the principal's face.

 

Damian was splattered with blood.

 

“Run!” Chloe screamed, her voice hoarse from yelling so much. “Go!”

 

Everyone stood up and ran down in the other direction, jumping over the principal, who seemed to be knocked out.

 

Chase helped Aaron and Ella up and they ran out of the closet, surprised that they all had even fit in it in the first place.

 

The principal groaned. His face was splattered with blood.

 

The three of them ran faster, trying to catch up with the others. Aaron led them to a red door with charcoal marks on the edges of it. Chase and Ella ran in as he closed and locked the boiler room door.

 

The other three were already there.

 

Damian was huddled in a corner, still shivering. He had the book still held tightly in his shaking hands. Chloe was trying to comfort him, but he wouldn't have any of that. She sighed after a minute of trying and sat down wedged in between the boiler and a broom.

 

Rory was in the opposite corner of Damian. He had a thoughtful look on his face and looked a little scared as well. Why shouldn't he be? They had just barely escaped from the principal.

 

Chase walked over to Chloe and sat next to the broom, which fell over pathetically and she sighed.

 

Ella shivered and looked at the boiler.

 

“I'll get some heat going…” She said.

 

“Do you know how to start a boiler?” Chloe questioned.

 

“How hard can it be?”

 

Chloe sighed and shifted a bit farther away from the boiler. Just in case.

 

Ella walked over to the boiler and opened it up. She screamed immediately and fell over.

 

“What's wrong, Ella? A little dirty?” Aaron laughed, walking over to her.

 

“No…it's, it's…a-“

 

Aaron walked passed Ella and looked into the boiler. He screamed very un-boyishly and fell over, practically on top of Ella for the second time that afternoon.

 

“Aaron!” Ella yelled breathlessly, trying to hide her embarrassment.

 

Ella pushed Aaron off and looked back into the boiler, shivering.

 

Chase walked over to the boiler and screamed piercingly loud.

 

Everyone winced and the rest of the group stood up now. Chloe covered Chase's mouth and peered into the boiler.

 

There was a charcoal-black skeleton in the boiler.

 

And it smelled awful.

 

“Who is that?” Chloe said, her hand still on Chase's mouth.

 

The group went silent and looked at Damian.

 

“What?” Damian said slowly, looking at the others.

 

They gave him a hard look.

 

“Oh…” he said quietly, “it's the old school janitor…”

 

“Thank you,” Aaron said impatiently.

 

“But…how'd he get here in the first place?” Ella questioned.

 

Everyone looked back at Damian.

 

“I'm guessing that…” Damian gulped. “The - principal…killed him…”

 

Everyone went silent. If the principal caught them, then this would be their fate…

 

There were footsteps and a knock on the door. “Hello…you children in there?”

 

It was over. They were dead for sure.

 

**

 

Chloe scanned the room frantically, but unlike last time, there was nowhere to hide.

 

There was, however, another door. A place to run.

 

Where's a map of the school basement when you need it?

 

Chloe tried the door. They heard the principal jiggling the doorknob, obviously just realizing that it was locked. Rory shot Chloe a desperate look. They had only seconds left.

 

The door was unlocked.

 

Chloe didn't bother celebrating.

“Over here!” she hissed, putting a finger to her lips.

 

The others followed her through the door just as the principal was putting his key in the lock.

 

Chloe leaned against the door, almost crushing Aaron as she did. She needed to breathe right about now.

 

The room in front of them was a prison. Not literally…that would just be weird. But it was so suffocating…

 

There were people in the centre of the room. A boy and a girl, both older than Chloe from what she could tell. She didn't recognize either of them, although she couldn't see the girl's face from where she was.

 

But Damian knew those faces anywhere. He couldn't forget them.

 

“Sabrina? Aiden?”

 

They turned.

 

Damian was shocked. He couldn't believe it was them.

 

Both of them were gagged and bound. Sabrina had scratches on her cheek, nail marks from the look of it. Her long-sleeved shirt hid any bruises she might have had, but Damian suspected there were a few. She was still wearing her clothes from the concert, the night she'd gone missing. Her eyes, usually sparkling blue, were now dull and grey, as if they had seen too much, been through too much.

 

Aiden was in much worse shape. A bloody gash cut straight through the top of his hand, an angry red against his tanned skin. He looked like he had fought back, with a healing black eye and another gash below his eye. Damian wondered where he'd gotten it from, although he suspected it wasn't anything pleasant. The bitter, defeated expression on his face told him that much.

 

Damian ran over to them, tearing their gags off.

 

“Damian! You have no idea how happy I am to see you right now,” Sabrina said as he released them.

 

“Are you okay?” he asked.

 

“Yeah, I think so…” Sabrina rubbed her arms, which bore deep red marks where the rope had been. “That's gonna sting for a while though…”

 

Damian smiled. It was the best he could do right now.

 

Aiden said nothing as Damian released him, prompting a solemn silence to settle over the people in the room. There were so many things that needed to be said, and so little that they could find the words for…

 

“What happened to you guys?” Aaron asked.

 

“Same thing that happened to all the other people who disappeared,” Aiden said. “That ass of a principal told us so himself.”

 

“All the people affected by the incidents are against him in some way,” Sabrina said. “Or they've stumbled onto the real cause of the freshman curse. Whichever it is, some he kills. Some he can kill. But some people he chooses not to kill. He kidnaps them, like he did to us, and finds out where he slipped up so he can cover his tracks. After they talk, he kills them. The only reason we're still here is because we refused to talk.”

 

“He killed Melanie and Tyler trying to get me to talk,” Aiden said. “I don't know…I honestly don't know why he didn't kill you, Sabrina.”

 

“Sabrina's too important,” Damian said. “The band needs her around. Hepner told us the jazz band is falling apart without you.”

 

Sabrina grinned wryly. “I doubt that…”

 

“What is the freshman curse? Do you know?” Chase asked.

 

Aiden shook his head. “No more than you know, I'll bet.”

 

Sabrina was silent. All eyes were on her.

 

“You know,” Rory said, awed. “You figured it out.”

 

While she said nothing, they all knew it was true.

 

“Tell us,” Aiden said.

“You know…the first part,” she said. “About the last principal, and how he died.”

 

“Yeah…”

 

“He cursed the school, didn't he?” Chase asked.

 

“I guess…but whatever he did, it caused the principal to become…vengeful. Possessed. Whatever the old principal would have done, the new principal now had to carry it out.”

 

“So are you saying that Mr. Campbell's only like this because he's possessed?” Rory asked, skeptical.

Sabrina nodded. “He's causing the incidents, too. Ever heard of telekinesis?”

 

Chloe nodded. “As in…Stephen King, Carrie, terrorizing-the-town-on-your-prom-night sort of telekinesis?”

 

Sabrina smiled wryly. “Yeah, that.”

 

“That's what's causing the incidents?” Ella was awed.

 

“For the most part, yes,” Sabrina said. “Some of them, like where Melanie and Kevin and Jack all attempted suicide…that was different. I don't know what caused it exactly, but it's some sort of…mind control, I guess is the way to say it. It might also be that the past principal is controlling them instead of our principal at the time.”

 

“Okay…so this past principal is wreaking havoc on the school through the current principal…because he hated the students in his time…” Rory was trying to make sense of the facts. “There's gotta be something else here.”

 

Sabrina shrugged. “That's really all I know…”

 

A key turning in the lock prompted them to turn.

 

“Come on!” Aaron said.

 

Sabrina and Aiden glanced at each other, and they knew what they'd have to do.

 

Chloe followed him, the others trailing close behind…or so she thought.

 

Sabrina and Aiden sat in the middle of the room, pretending to still be tied up.

 

“Sabrina - “ Damian began.

 

“We can stall him if we're still here,” Sabrina said.

 

“But - “

 

“Go!” Aiden hissed.

 

Damian ran to catch up with Chloe and Aaron, who were already out the door. He just missed the principal.

 

The six of them emerged in the classroom off the library, and they cut through the study area to reach C wing and leave.

 

Next to Chloe, Damian was visibly shivering.

 

Chase rubbed her arms. “Does anyone else feel cold all of a sudden?”

 

Aaron nodded. Ella was shivering too.

 

They could feel a breeze. Something was very wrong. There shouldn't be a breeze inside the school.

 

“Run!” Rory cried.

 

But he was stopped by what happened next.