Gretchen heard her friend shouting after her, but she didn’t turn around. Her heart pounding, the cheesecake suddenly making her stomach feel heavy as lead, she stomped through the narrow aisle toward the table. Sid was just sitting down. The girl already had her menu raised in front of her.
Too much bad news, Gretchen found herself thinking. First I’m cheated out of my cheerleader spot. Then …
She took a deep breath. She wanted to act calm, nonchalant in front of Sid and this girl. She didn’t want to act like a crazy person. After all, she and Sid didn’t really have any kind of understanding.
He had indicated in every way that he was dumping Stacy for her. Gretchen hadn’t imagined that. She wasn’t jumping to conclusions. The way he kissed her that day …
She strode up to the table and gripped the back of the empty chair with both hands. “Hey, Sid—” She felt pleased that her voice didn’t tremble.
The girl had big, dark blue eyes. They grew wide as she returned Gretchen’s gaze. Her hair was beautiful, Gretchen thought. Long strands of of shiny black curls that caught the light from overhead and glistened like starlight.
Sid didn’t show any surprise. “Gretchen, hi. How’s it going? Are you feeling any better about the cheerleader thing?”
“Not really,” she replied. He didn’t seem eager to introduce her to this new girl. She motioned with her eyes, thinking maybe he’d take the hint.
“Oh, yeah,” he said, setting down the tall menu. “This is my cousin Maya.”
His cousin?
They did have the same dark hair. They were both tall and thin.
“Maya lives in Martinsville,” Sid explained. “We don’t get to hang out that often.”
His cousin.
Gretchen suddenly felt a lot lighter. “Nice to meet you,” she said, forcing a smile.
Sid motioned to the empty chair. “Want to join us?”
“Oh. No. I can’t,” Gretchen said. “I’m here with Madison.” She pointed.
“Well, okay. See you,” Sid said.
“Nice to meet you,” Gretchen said to Maya. Had she already said that? She turned and made her way back to Madison.
Behind her, she heard Maya ask Sid, “Who was that?”
A baby started crying at the table beside her and drowned out Sid’s reply.
“It’s his cousin,” she told Madison, sliding back into the booth.
“Really?”
“I think so,” Gretchen said. “I don’t think he’d lie to me.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself with Sid,” Madison said.
“Excuse me? What does that mean?”
“It means don’t get ahead of yourself with Sid.”
* * *
The text message came after school the next afternoon. Gretchen wondered why no one had mentioned a special meeting to her during the day.
She read the message twice to make sure she had it right:
Hey, it’s me Stacy
Important squad meeting.
Cheerleaders & alternate.
8 2night in the gym.
Don’t be late.
Go, Tigers
At dinner, her mother argued with her. “Do you really think you should give up your homework time for a meeting so late at night? Shouldn’t you be using your time better? You’re not even on the squad.”
Gretchen set down her fork. “How many times are you going to remind me, Mom?”
“I’m just saying…” Mrs. Page hesitated. “I’m just saying don’t let the cheerleading thing take over your life. They didn’t want you on the squad and—”
Gretchen raised her hand. “Stop. Just stop. You’re just going to start a screaming fight, Mom. Between the two of us. I showed you the message. Stacy said cheerleaders and alternate. That’s me. So I’m going tonight. That’s it.”
Her mother opened her mouth to reply, but thought better of it. “Whatever,” she muttered and returned to her tuna and macaroni casserole.
Gretchen pulled her mother’s car into the student parking lot a little before eight. Two other cars were parked near the teachers’ lot. Two spaces down, a squirrel sat straight up, rolling an acorn between its paws. It turned and scampered away as Gretchen opened her car door to climb out.
Her sneakers thudded loudly in the long, empty hall. Someone had left their locker door open, and papers and notebooks had spilled out onto the floor. Gretchen hummed to herself, and her voice rang hollow against the tile walls.
Stepping through the double doors, she blinked against the bright light of the gym. All of the lights had been turned on, and the gym floor glowed like a yellow sun, reflecting the lights.
“Anyone here?” Her eyes swept from the bleachers against the far wall, across the empty floor, to the glass-windowed offices at the side. “Hey? Anyone?” Her shout echoed all around her.
She pulled out her phone and glanced at the time. 8:05. She checked to see if she had received any other texts. No.
“Where is everybody?” she asked out loud.
Gretchen moved to Coach Walker’s office and leaned back against the closed door. She checked her Snapchat and her email, but kept raising her eyes to the gym entrance, expecting to see the others arrive.
At 8:15, she began to suspect that something was wrong. Pacing back and forth along the wall now, she retrieved Stacy’s text message. She read it again. Then she tried to reply:
I’m at the gym.
Where is everybody?
Did I get the night wrong?
She pushed send, but the message wouldn’t go. She pressed send again.
And gasped when all the lights went off.
“Hey—!” The deep darkness hit her like an ocean wave. She actually stumbled back against the wall. “Hey—!” She frantically tried to blink away her blindness. But it had been so bright, and now …
“Hey, somebody! Who turned off the lights?” Her voice revealed her surprise.
The narrow windows along the top of the walls were solid black. Gretchen turned toward the doors. The windows in the gym doors were black, too. Someone had turned off the hall lights.
Gretchen took a deep breath and fought back her fear. Are the school lights on a timer? Or did someone deliberately turn them off?
“Hey, anyone?” she shouted again. “I’m in here. Turn the lights back on.”
No reply.
Silence.
Then she heard a loud click. From the entrance doors?
“Hey—is someone there? Answer me!”
Silence.
And then a soft footstep. And a cough. And another soft scrape of a shoe against the floor.
“Who is it?” Her voice suddenly tiny, trembling. “Who’s there? I hear you.”
I’ve got to get out of here.
Her back against the wall, Gretchen began edging toward the doors. The blackness pulsed before her eyes. She couldn’t see anything.
But she knew she wasn’t alone.
More scraping footsteps. And then Gretchen heard the shallow breathing of someone close by.
She sucked in another breath. And the scent invaded her nose. A sweet citrus scent. It took a few seconds to recognize it. The citrus scent Devra used.
“Oh, wow,” she murmured. “Devra? Is that you?”
She didn’t wait for an answer. She grabbed the bar on the gym door and shoved it hard.
It didn’t budge.
She pushed the door. Leaned into the next door and pushed it.
No. Locked.
That was the clicking sound. Devra had locked it. Turned off the lights and locked the doors. Locked her in. And now was moving slowly toward her.
If only she could see in this thick blackness.…
“Devra, I know it’s you. Devra, you’re not scaring me. SAY something!”
Silence.
“Devra—you’ve already WON! Why are you doing this to me?”
Another muffled cough in reply. And then … running footsteps.
Gretchen squinted into the darkness. She froze. She didn’t know which way to run. Panic paralyzed her as her pursuer came at her hard, footsteps thudding loudly in the dark, empty gym.
And then Gretchen opened her mouth in a scream as a body crashed into her, bone-hard shoulder diving into her middle, taking her breath away, slamming her to the floor.