Leo ran and ran until his lungs screamed. He was adrenaline. It was the only thing keeping him upright. The world was a blur of noise and shapes he didn't care to understand; all he wanted was air. All he wanted was out.
He caught a glimpse of Jay running beside him, his hand tightly clasped about Leo's arm pulling him along. He couldn't see Krystian anywhere. But he couldn't focus on that now. He needed to escape from whatever was happening.
A sharp yank on his shoulder brought him back to reality. Jay was dragging him into the gym. He knew the gym was a deathtrap but the words died in his throat; he simply didn't have the breath to speak. Besides, they didn't even know what they were running from. The adrenaline was tiring him out. They scrambled into the equipment closet, the heavy metal doors clicked shut, locking out the world. Leo immediately collapsed to the ground, panting for air.
"What the hell just happened?" Jay whispered, his voice cracking. His hands were shaking so bad that he had to shove them in his pocket. Leo didn't respond immediately. His lungs felt like they were filled with glass. "That girl," he finally wheezed, looking at the scuffed floorboards. "From pre-calc, she wasn't herself Jay."
Jay slid down the heavy metal doors until he was sitting opposite Leo, surrounded by the smell of rubber and floor wax. He wheezed and wiped the sweat off his face. "Mrs Angelo, she's dead. She's dead…Oh my god i can't- no it can't be, There was so much blood." Jay buried his face into his hands, shaking uncontrollably. Leo knew Jay was sensitive about these things. He had seen some pretty gruesome things in the past which seriously traumatised him. He felt a pang of concern and sympathy towards Jay.
Leo looked up, his eyes darting around the dark room. It was cramped and suffocating. To his left, there was a mesh bag filled with basketballs that looked like bulging shadows. To his right, a rack of aluminum baseball bats leaned against the wall, gleaming slightly in the light coming from the door's vent.
A sudden realisation hit Leo like a physical blow. "Jay, Where's Krystian?" he scrambled to his feet, ignoring his legs shaking in protest, "Where is he?"
Jay turned to the floor, his face pale " I- I don't know. The crowd just pushed us. I grabbed you because you were standing there like a statue. I thought he was right behind us.."
Jay slammed his fist onto the ground in a fit of silent rage, "How could I be so stupid? I thought he was with us."
Leo ran his hand over his hair, trying to force his brain to function. "Don't blame yourself.. We need to get out and find Krystian. ASAP." Leo leaned against the wall, his mind racing at the speed of light, a million different thoughts going through his head at once.
"But first, we need to know what the hell is going on out there." Jay hesitated for a second before whispering, "It can't be a shooting right?" Leo stopped in his tracks to think. "No it can't be. She didn't use a gun or a knife or.. anything"
Jay shifted in his spot. He had stopped shaking. But the light from the small opening under the door caught his eyes, making him look like the ghost of the boy who was joking about biscuits ten minutes ago. He looked older, hollowed out by the last five minutes.
"Then what is it? She looked possessed. I've never seen someone this angry." Jay shivered at the thought.
He reached out and took a basketball from the rack. He twirled the ball on the tip of his finger and held it close to him like a life-line.
"Did you see her eyes, Leo?" Jay's voice was hollow. "They weren't just red. They were… blown out. Like she was looking through us. I've seen people get in fights before. I've seen my dad bring guys in handcuffs who were high on something. This was different."
Leo didn't answer. He was staring at the rack of aluminum baseball bats. In the dim light, they looked like silver bones. He reached out, his fingers brushing the cold, smooth metal. It felt strangely heavy, vibrating slightly as his hand shook.
"Maybe it's the flu thing," Leo whispered, finally finding his voice. "The one on the news. They said it affects coordination. Confusion. Agitation."
"Agitation doesn't make you cave someone's skull in with a trophy, Leo," Jay snapped, though his voice lacked any real bite. He was just scared. He let go of the basketball and crawled toward the back of the closet, his hand hitting a plastic bin. He pulled out a heavy, padded chest protector; the kind the catchers wore for the varsity baseball team.
He stared at it for a long second. It was just foam and nylon, meant to stop a 90-mph fastball. Now, it looked like a piece of ancient armor.
"I heard a sound," Jay whispered, freezing in place.
Leo held his breath. His heart was hammering against his ribs so hard it was hard to hear anything else. But then, he heard it too.
Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.
It wasn't a bang. It wasn't a roar. It was the sound of something dragging against the lockers outside in the gym. It was slow. Then came a wet, heavy thud, followed by the sound of a locker door being slowly creaked open, then slammed shut.
"Is that... a janitor?" Jay mouthed the words more than spoke them.
Leo crept toward the door, his knees popping in the silence. He laid flat on his stomach and tried to see through the vent at the bottom of the door. At first, he saw nothing but the vast, polished floor of the gym, shimmering under the overhead lights.
Then, he saw a shadow.