Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (129 page)

I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he
lumbered after Ms. Peters; I thought he looked hungry. The next few
seconds were kind of a blur. Ms. Peters ran up to the man who had
been talking to our class, and he shoved her behind him quickly. He
raised his gun at the principal and told him to stop. Mr. Chandler
ignored him and kept coming toward the gun with his eyes on Ms.
Peters. The man with the gun fired, into our principal, three
times. Each shot sent his body jerking back, but he kept
coming.

I felt like I was
watching some kind of horror movie, and everything seemed to be
moving in slow motion. Pieces of flesh were flying off of him, and
I felt the remnants of my meal rising in my throat. The blood
splattering on the floor was enough to make me faint. I couldn’t
look anymore and moved back into the classroom trying to keep my
lunch down.

Chapter 3

What Happens Now?

A lot of us were wondering where our
parents were, and no one was giving us any answers.

The men who had come to our rescue
were now patrolling outside the school. I thought about my mother;
if only they would have allowed us to have cell phones in school. I
could check to see if she was all right.

One of the men outside yelled
something I couldn't hear, and I noticed that Ms. Hamrick was gone.
We moved over to the window as Ellen spoke softly, "Now
what?"

The answer was a hoard of people
advancing on the school. At first glance, you wouldn't notice
anything wrong with them. You really had to look at how they were
moving. They were slowly lumbering towards the men outside the
school. It didn't seem like they were in any big hurry. I felt a
sense of dread and backed away from the window and right into Brett
Nathan.

"So...so...sorry about that, Brett."
I stuttered like a fool and almost tripped over my feet as I
recoiled from him.

"No worries." He was so cool, I
almost forgot about the crazy people coming to get us. Then a
gunshot brought me back to reality. Panic went through the
classroom and students started running everywhere.

The teacher had long left the room,
and she would have been the only one to gain any order in the
classroom. I really didn't have time to wonder where she had gone,
even though I found it strange for her to be missing.

A quick look out the window told me
that the men were being outnumbered. I stared in horror as a lady
in a housecoat bit savagely into one of the men’s faces and ripped
the skin away. I could see the muscle across his cheek through the
blood, and once again felt ill.

It was time to hide. I grabbed
Ellen's hand and we took off running with the crowd. I lost her
somewhere around the gym as the students running in every direction
pulled her from me.

"Ellen!" I screamed, but I had to
keep moving to avoid getting trampled.

I looked down the hall and saw the
first of the gray-skinned people walking toward me. I assumed they
had broken through the men outside and it was now everyone for them
self. I tried to figure out where I should hide to make sure that I
wouldn't be seen.

I stood frozen for a minute as I
watched the man walk down the hall. People were running, in his
path, from both directions. He stayed at the same pace and when a
girl tripped and fell in front of him, he launched for
her.

Before she could move away from him,
he had bitten into her leg. No amount of kicking and screaming
would make him let go.

"Get off me, you freak!"

I thought about going to help her,
but I heard something groaning a little ways behind me. I peeked
around the corner and saw the same lady in the housecoat from
earlier. I didn't want my face to end up her meal like that poor
officer.

She was on the other side of the
lockers from where I was and she couldn't see me. I ducked into the
classroom to my left and eased the door shut. She walked right up
to the door and stopped to take a look around the hall.

Her skin was grayer than I
remembered, and her pink polka dot housecoat was covered in blood.
I shuddered and pressed myself as close to the wall as I could.
After what felt like an eternity, she finally moved on. I let out a
breath I didn't know I had been holding. Out the window, I could
see more of them coming towards the school.

There was no way I would be safe in
the classroom. I had to find somewhere else to hide. I peeked out
the door, as I cracked it a little to see if the coast was clear. I
didn't see anyone so I bolted out the door and ran quickly around
the corner. As soon as I rounded the bend, I knew I had made a
horrible mistake.

There were five of the gray people
standing right in my way. Two of them were making a meal out of the
P.E. teacher, Mr. Burns. They all looked up at the same time, and I
froze as they began to move towards me, not knowing where to
go.

I heard someone whistle at me and
turned around to see Brett sticking his head out of the janitor
closet. "Come here, Cassie, hurry." He didn't have to tell me
twice. I rapidly closed the distance between us and followed him
inside. The gray people had turned back to Mr. Burns so they didn't
pay attention to me anymore. Somehow, I lucked out
there.

"I know where we will be safe, come
on."

He grabbed my hand and pulled me to
the back of the closet. This was something I would normally enjoy,
but the terror of getting bitten by a crazy person overrode
that.

I followed him to the back of the
closet, where he pulled a board away from the wall, revealing a
small room behind it. He jumped down inside and pulled me through.
I looked around as he put the board back in place, hiding the
closet from our view.

The room was far from clean; the
cement floor had about an inch of dirt on it. There were noticeable
spider webs covering every corner, and there were random tools
lying about. There weren't any doors that I could see so I thought
we would be safe for a little while.

"What is this?" I was really curious
how he knew about a random room in the back of the janitor's
closet.

"I come in here to get high
sometimes. A janitor showed me where it was when I was a freshman.
He was a weird old dude, but he caught me smoking a joint in the
parking lot, and told me where I could hide it."

I smiled, hoping he wouldn't ask if I
would like to smoke a joint. I didn't think that I would enjoy that
very much.

Ellen had dared me to smoke a
cigarette one time and I had caved to the pressure. We were at a
sleepover our sophomore year. I spent half the night hacking up my
lungs and the other half scraping my tongue with my fingernails,
trying to get the taste out of my mouth.

"No one else knows about this
place?"

I kicked a can that was lying on its
side. I was trying to appear casual despite our strange
circumstances. A huge spider crawled out of the can and quickly
came towards me. I am not proud of the noise I made as I backed
away from it.

Brett stepped on it and turned
towards me, trying to hide a smile. "Better?"

"Yeah, thanks.” I felt my cheeks get
hot as I blushed furiously.

"As for your question, a couple guys
know about it, but who knows where they are now?"

He looked sad as he stared at the
boarded- up entrance. It was almost as if he was waiting for them.
"I don't know what's happening, it's like people have gone
crazy."

He didn't say anything and I noticed
he was holding his cell phone up in the air. Of course, he brought
a cell phone in; cool kids don't follow rules.

"No service," he shook his head,
defeated, and put the phone back in his pocket.

I walked over to a bucket that was
turned over and sat down. How the hell did I get into this
situation? The hottest guy in the world and I were trapped in a
room together and the world was coming to an end
outside.

Why couldn't he have taken me to his
hidey-hole before now? That would have been so much more romantic.
A goofy grin spread across my face and I sighed at the happy
thought.

I must have zoned out because he was
standing right in front of me, with a confused look on his face, as
if trying to figure out what was wrong with me.

"Cassie?"

I jumped up, startled, and knocked
the bucket over. I tripped over it as it rolled around and ended up
falling into his arms.

"Sorry." I was very aware of his
hands around my waist and my hands on his shoulders as I steadied
myself.

"Easy, girl,” His voice was lower and
he was looking directly into my eyes. I began to feel warm all over
and he tightened his arms around me. I nervously adjusted my hands
on his shoulders and found myself looking at his mouth. He licked
his lips and when I looked back into his eyes, they were staring
directly into mine.

He was going to kiss me. This was
really happening. I closed my eyes and leaned forward.

The board covering up the door
started to rattle violently and he protectively pushed me behind
him, as whomever it was fought to get in.

Chapter 4

Three’s a Crowd

The board finally moved away,
revealing who was coming to join us in our love nest. A red head
popped in and grinned at Brett.

“
Ted, get in here, quick,
before they see you.” Brett was smiling back so I assumed that he
knew this invader of my hopes and dreams. Any vision I had of him
kissing me and of us spending time together, alone in this room,
disappeared with the arrival of Ted.

“
Brett.” He slapped hands
with his buddy and turned his crooked smile my way. I immediately
felt embarrassed that I had been in a locked away closet by myself
with a boy. Then I thought about how silly that sounded, and Brett,
introducing me, pulled me out of my head.

“
Earth to Cassie,” Brett
was waving his hand in my face, “I said, this is Ted.”

“
Hi, Ted.” I felt like my
face would probably be permanently red with the amount I was
blushing.

“
How did you get through
all the crazy people out there?”

Brett raised an eyebrow at Ted, and I
could tell he was worried about the intentions of his
buddy.

“
I wasn’t bitten or
anything, if that is what you are thinking, Brett.” He raised his
arms defensively. “I’ll strip down naked right here and let you
check.”

He winked at me and I felt very
uncomfortable. I hoped that he was not going to actually strip down
right there. That was not something that I wanted to see, and I
looked to Brett, trying to send this message to him with my
eyes.

“
Man, I believe you, but
tell me how you got through all that.”

He walked over to the entrance and
put his ear to the board. I guess he was trying to see if he could
hear screaming or whatever was going on outside the
walls.

“
I was in the gym for P.E.
when they busted in. I managed to get up to the rafters while they
were attacking Mr. Burns. I stayed up there while they went through
the weaker kids. The ones with a note from Mommy were the first
ones to die.”

He said the last sentence in a
mocking tone, and I decided he must be one of those kids who
bullied the nerds and stuffed them in lockers. This was not a
pleasing thought, but I waited for him to finish his
story.

“
I came in here to see if
there was a joint tucked away. My nerves are shot to hell, but I
waited until I knew for sure they were gone to come in here. Is
there a joint in here, man?”

“
Sorry, Reddy Teddy, you
won’t be able to get stoned today.”

Brett ran his hand through that
perfect hair of his and smiled at me.

“
We have to come up with a
game plan. Staying here would be dumb, because we will eventually
need food and water.” I was the rational one here, and this was a
fact that scared me. Another thing that scared me was that I really
had to pee. I regretted drinking the extra large coffee from the
gas station that morning.

I voiced my concern to Brett, who
smiled at me mischievously. “You can use the bucket over there,
Cassie.”

The thought of peeing in the room
with two guys mortified me enough, but the thought of peeing in the
same room as Brett Nathan was something I would rather die than
do.

“
Not happening.” I stood
up, making the urge to go that much stronger. “I am going to the
bathroom. One of you will have to stand guard outside the bathroom
and make sure that no crazy gray people come in and get
me.”

Brett rolled his eyes but turned to
Ted and held up his hands, defeated, “You say they are all
gone?”

“
As far as I can tell,
they are all gone. I will go with you and watch the front of the
school just to make sure we are still safe while the little lady
pees.” He winked at me again, but I had begun to bounce with the
need to go so I ignored it.

“
Let’s go.”

Brett picked up a two-by- four and
Ted picked up the bucket.