Ariadne Rane - Task Three

User: infinitywordlover

We play into the night, but suddenly as Leo darts in front of me blocking me, he freezes his gaze colored with confusion. A sense of fear strikes through me.

The murderer. The murderer is here! The basketball rolls limp from my hands, thumping and bouncing off into the corner.

Following his stare across the gym, I see Ms. Blackwell talking anxiously with Mr. Bennett her face swirling with a thousand different emotions-fear, anxiety, and panic. The other three have sensed that something's wrong and I feel them approach behind us radiating bewilderment.

"What's going on?" Adam asks. We have no answer for him, only shrugs and anxious stares.

And then a high pitched shriek rises into the air shattering the air with a knife of fear and frustration. "But I'm not this time! I know it!" Ms. Blackwell screams.

We flinch, our confusion only rising even more. What isn't she this time? But there's no time to ponder the question when suddenly there's a loud blaring yelp, and then we're plunged into darkness for the second time in 72 hrs.

An eerie silence falls across the room, dark and heavy as even the lights don't dare to make a noise. But then it's gone.

There's a quiet click that echoes across the gym and then a single spotlight sweeps across the gym, an alien creature prowling silently for its prey- us.

Heaving breaths pant over the speaker deafeningly loud and maniacal. And finally, that is what pushes us over the edge.

Screams and shouts fill the air, and every crack and crevice, bouncing off the walls and into anothers' ears. Footsteps and thunderous crashes join the chaos as the flight or fight instinct kicks in. I'm drowning in the noise, in the uncertainty, and my heart pounds against my chest beating out the sprinting rhythm of panic.

Monstrous faces jump out at me from everything and a sudden scream is ripped from my throat as the horrible image of the murderer fills my sight. His face is cruel and mocking, sadistic and uncaring. Sharp glistening teeth glitter at me bared into a horrible smile, and his eyes are no more than pools of glittering black.

A shining silver blade flickers left and right, cutting down people wherever it goes, but those glittering pools stay fixed on mine drawing me in, pulling me out into their depths.

"Ari!" A voice screams next to me, and the figure fades back into the darkness of my imagination, drawing a deep rattling breath of relief from deep inside me. "Dani- Adam-Joan- Are you there?!"

I open my mouth to reply when suddenly the spotlight sweeps across us, and just behind it in the booth, I can see a dark figure, tall and proud, an island of stillness in a sea of chaos. A chill shivers down my back at the sight, and I turn to see three other faces staring back at mine pale and ashen terror glowing in the depths of their pupils.

"Where's Joan?!" Adam cries panic clouding his voice and I remember that she's his cousin. I jerk my head around peering into the sea of running children and adults, but it's useless.

"She was next to me a second ago!" Dani yells, her voice rising over the roar of the stampede. "I think she headed for the exits with everyone else. We've got to get out of here. I don't want to end up dead. Remember the auditorium when the lights also went out!" She shudders visibly at the memory. "I don't want to end up as freaky wall art!"

"Safety in numbers!" Adam says. "If we head to the main exits, we'll get separated by the crowd."

Thinking furiously, I come up with a solution. "I saw an emergency exit when I went to go get water! It's next to the lockers!" I say. They nod quickly, and after snatching our bags we sprint towards the door fighting against the crowd.

My view is filled with churning arms, and dark splotches of heads, terrified faces, and racing legs. The others quickly are lost within the chaos, and panic bubbles up inside me threatening to swallow me whole, but I force it down.

"They'll be there!" I mutter to myself.

As I approach the door, there's a shriek, and a deafening crash, and I increase my speed dashing forward to see what had happened. Leo and Adam have a boy pinned to the ground who writhes and struggles beneath them. Dani lies on the other side of the door groaning slightly, and I hurry forward to help her up.

"Guys stop, it's me!" The boy on the ground cries I peer forwards staring at him suspiciously.

I look into the face of Bryn Hafer, the boy who had discovered Hamilton as the murderer. The other boys stop holding him down, and he pants heavily scrambling to his feet. "Let's just get out of here. I'll answer your questions later. It's not safe here." The other three seem easily convinced by his innocent expression, but my gaze doesn't change. What if he was the last murderer? We'd be walking straight into a trap.

His gaze rakes over mine, and he quickly flicks his eyes away seeing the open hostility in my eyes.

We walk out onto the quad, the cool air assaulting our faces, and I sigh slightly relaxing in the tender embrace of the breeze.. The stars glitter above us twinkling and sparkling, unconcerned with the carnage that has taken place beneath them. The lights outside are still on, and as we leave the screams behind us I can almost convince myself that we're just having a nice autumn stroll, almost.

Bryn begins to explain as we reach the edge of the grass. "I found Edan Morez in the locker room, Leo. He's dead too!"

I take in a breath in horror. Another murder, but suddenly the suspicion is back. What are we to say that HE'S not the murderer. I open my mouth to voice my thoughts but he's already begun talking again. "I found him when I went to use the restroom. He-- his body was on the floor. His wrists were slit as if he killed himself," he says shakily.

Leo reaches out to pat Bryn on the back comfortingly in a familiar gesture, and suddenly I realize that he's Leo's cousin. I relax slightly at the revelation. He wouldn't hurt his cousin would he?! "I left as the lights went out. I didn't know if the killer was still around so I headed for the nearest exit," he finishes finally.

We fall silent for a moment as we absorb the horror that has taken place, struggling to process it all. This doesn't happen in real life I think. This only happens in books and in movies, but it has happened. And it's still happening.

"I'm pretty sure the school is going to close now, with so many murders, there's no way it can keep running," Dani says. I wince. Well there goes my dream of getting into Harvard.

"Well, what should we do next?" Adam asks. "I don't think the police can protect us anymore."

I nod. The police were always a step behind, a second too late. "We need to protect ourselves," I say slowly. The others nod.

Leo produces a pen and notebook from out of nowhere, to take notes and I can't help but smile at him. There's a snort behind me from Dani at his studiousness, but she disguises it unsuccessfully into a cough. Thankfully, Leo doesn't hear.

"We should get a fort!" Adam suggests. "Finding a place to use as home base will make it easier to survive until the killer's caught and we can go home." We nod. It makes sense. "Any suggestion for where?"

"The music hall?" I ask. The rooms are small enough to defend.

"No. There's no food."

"Cafeteria?" Dani suggests.

"Too big."

Finally, Adam says, "What about a dorm? It has windows. It's small enough to defend, and has space to fit comfortably."

We nod but now the question is who's dorm. "Great suggestion," Leo says. "But whose dorm? Remember food and weapons are our priority." We fall silent again, but he speaks up a second later. "How about my dorm?"

Bryn nods. "My sports equipment could be used as a weapons. As for food, well, Leo has a bag, box, and fridge full," he says.

I raise my eyebrows at Leo amused. "Looks like Leo is a glutton and a nerd," Dani jokes. I grin.

Leo glares at her, the only one unamused. "Sure, Dani, but I'm a glutton that'll save your bacon," he snaps, and then grins, miming the motions one might make on a drum set. "Ba dum tsss"

We burst into laughter at his terrible joke, and I roll my eyes punching him in the arm.

"If you have anything you want to bring over, we'll stop by your rooms on our way to Weathersby Hall. Stick together no matter what," he says.

We nod.

Awhile later, Dani and I stand in front of a polished oak door, marked with her name. She steps inside and a moment later, jerks my arm, pulling me inside.

The boys knock insistently on the door, and I roll my eyes. They have no patience at all.

"Open the door!" They yell.

"We'll only be a minute," Dani yells back and they stop, although I can hear a couple annoyed sighs. She scurries around the room digging through her closet, pulling bags off the floor, and snacks off the shelves.

I plop down onto the bed, staring out the window my mind swirling with doubt and fear. A moment later there's a slight creak of bedsprings and it bounces slightly underneath me as she settles herself next to me.

"Hey, you okay?" she asks.

I turn to her exhaling heavily filled with despair. "Dani, what happens if I lose one of you guys?"

She winces at the question, and as her eyes flick away to the window, I know she's been asking herself the same thing.

"You won't Ari, we're gonna protect each other. Understand? No one get left behind," she says wrapping her arms around me comfortingly. Nestling in her warmth, I nod.

She releases me, and points to her uniform. "Okay, I'm just changing out of this."

I nod understanding. It was pretty uncomfortable. She slips into a pair of light grey sweat pants, and a white t-shirt. I avert my eyes, but only out of habit. As cousins, we've seen each other unclothed plenty of times.

"Okay, I'm ready," she says finally and I lift my eyes smiling.

The boys are leaning against the wall trying to appear casual and failing. Their eyes are anxious, and fingers tap nervously against the wall. Seeing Dani and her change of outfit, they raise their eyebrows.

"What?" she says defensively. "I wasn't comfortable."

Bryn and Leo shake their heads slightly, and Adam chuckles quietly.

And then it's my room.

I dash around, pulling a couple books off my desk, and gathering half my closet into my bag. Taking a leaf from Dani's book, I too change into more comfortable clothes. Running into the bathroom, I snatch the toothbrush and toothpaste off the counter, and then on second thought, I grab the roll of toilet paper into my bag.

Walking out, she raises her eyebrows laughing. "Toilet paper?"

I shrug. "How long is one roll going to last for five people? We're going to need more."

She nods, "True."

I glance around the room, sweeping my eyes over everything checking and double checking that I had gotten everything. As my eyes land on my bed, I smile and crouch down onto my knees tugging out a box that has large curving letters across it- Monopoly.

I shove it towards Dani and she laughs again. " Monopoly?Are you trying to destroy friendships?"

I roll my eyes. "I think we can handle it."

I make to leave, but one final time, a corner of the room catches my eye. A long yellow tape stretches across the room, and I glance surreptitiously out the door biting my lip. I'm pretty sure it's against the law to take from the police, but we need protection and the police would only use it to protect us anyways. AND they're not even here right now, so these weapons would just be a waste lying here...right? Resigning myself to the fact that I was probably going to hell, I step across the line. Dani gasps.

"Ari..."

"I know, I know," I groan back at her forcing down a feeling of guilt, and snatch a couple tasers, a gun, a couple bulletproof vests and even some pepper spray.

"Okay, let's go!" I cry practically racing out the door dragging Dani with me, not wanting to be connected with the sight of the crime any longer.

The boys wear impatient expressions, and we make our way across to Weatherby Hall keeping a nervous eye out for the Painter and the Trace.

We enter Leo's room, and I raise my eyebrows in shock. It's actually pretty neat...well for a guy I think as I see a shirt poking out from under the bed.

Dropping our bags at the door and locking it, we proceed to heaving the couch against the door barricading it. While Adam adds a desk to the barricade, I walk into the space which must be Leo's room pulling Dani with me.

Together we empty the weapons onto the bed, and then all the boys into the room. "Come here, guys," I say.

They walk in, and their eyes widen in shock. Bryn even whistles impressed. A smug grin spreads across my face at their expressions and a little bit of the guilt goes away.

"Where'd you get that?!" Adam asks.

"Do you remember Beth Rose? The first girl killed? She was my roommate," I say and they lean a little bit backwards from me, as if murder was contagious and I feel a flicker of annoyance but continue. "When the police arrives, they took over her area of the room and used it as a place to store their weapons. They usually leave everything locked up tight, but we got lucky today," I grimace. "I mean it's for self defense...it's not technically stealing right? I'll give it back..." I say pleadingly for them to understand.

They grin. "Do you see us complaining?"

I smile uncertainly back at them, but still can't quite ignore the guilt.

"Food, water, weapon," Bryn counts off on his fingers. "Looks like we're getting out of the school after all."

"My feelings exactly." Leo adds in with a grin on his face.

We set up booby traps at all of the entrances to the floor using the best teacher in the world to help us- Google, and manage to work out a patrol schedule, two per hour.

A couple hours later, we're ready and I pull out the Monopoly game. They stare at me incredulously, and then shrug.

"Why not?"

"Just be quiet."

As the sky darkens, and the glowing disk of the moon rises higher into the sky, I can't quite keep down a spark of hope. We're prepared, and if luck is on our side, we'll survive.

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