WATTYS 2021 HORROR WINNER!
Diego's life has spiraled since the gruesome death of his brother Miguel, and moving to a new town right before his senior year definitely wasn't on his to-do list. Oh, yeah, and neither was saving the world from a centur...
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3RD 2:45 PM VANTERBEST HIGH ATHLETIC WING
The door to the girls' locker room opens and Renny comes halfway out, keeping it propped with her boot. "It's empty. Coast is clear."
The four of us met up here after seventh period just like planned, and waited outside in the hallway while the cheerleaders showed up, got changed inside, and then exited out the other door to head to the football field. Thankfully—and unsurprisingly, given how invisible I seem to them on a daily basis—none of the cheerleaders seemed to notice or care about us lurking around. After fifteen minutes or so, girls stopped showing up and Renny went in to make sure everyone was at practice.
"I don't know about this," I manage, not liking the way my heart is pounding and my gut is churning with uncertainty. What if something goes wrong? What if Hemani finds out I was in there? "Maybe I should stay on lookout duty with Ambrose."
Ambrose gives me a look that's almost enough to make me retract that statement.
Renny sighs, leaning against the doorframe. "Would the two of you hurry up and either get in here or pussy out?" She looks to Watts. "This was your idea."
"I didn't think you'd expect us to come in with you," he defends, but walks in past her anyways. She raises her eyebrows at me and I concede with a huff, forcing myself to follow Watts.
"And I didn't expect your only idea to sound like some sort of pervy fantasy, but here we both are."
"Let's just hide," I hiss, speed-walking to the bathrooms. It's not hard to know where they are, since the layout of the girls' locker room is just like the boys', but in reverse. That, and everything's painted in pink instead of blue.
Our footsteps echo against the tiled walls as we hurry past rows of lockers, taking a right into an area that has showers to the left and toilet stalls to the right. We move towards the stalls, and Renny opens the one closest to the entrance of the bathroom area.
She holds her arm out, gesturing for us to go inside. "This is the only stall we can see the locker area from."
"This is such a bad idea," I mumble as I step inside. "Someone's gonna see."
She shuts the door once we're all inside and leans against it. Watts takes the small area on one side of the toilet, and I take the other.
"You two can step up onto the toilet when everyone comes back. No one's gonna freak over one pair of shoes."
I glance at Renny's muddy, tattered tactical boots. Not exactly the typical footwear of Vanterbest's cheerleading population.
Her eyes follow mine and she clicks her teeth. "Point taken."
She reaches into one of the side pockets on her pants and pulls out a small notebook, then gets a pen from another pocket. She flips the book open to a blank page, scrawls Out of Order on it, rips it out, then looks up at Watts and holds out her hand. "Gum."
"I— What?"
"Your gum," she repeats. "Give it."
Watts glances at me and I just nod towards her hand, not wanting to get involved. He reaches up and takes the chewed-up blob from his mouth, hesitantly placing it in her hand.
She exits the stall, and I watch in a mirror through the crack in the door as she uses the gum to stick the page on the door. She's back in a second, setting the lock behind her. "There. Now the door has a reason to be locked."
"That's... good," Watts says, nodding and looking like he's trying (and failing) to hide how impressed he is.
Silence falls over the three of us, and I try not to think how absurd this all is. We're really hiding in here in the hopes that a bunch of cheerleaders are not only a part of a cult, but that they'll start blabbing about it after they get back from practice?
Watts breaks the silence just as I'm contemplating coming to my senses and getting the hell out of there while I still have the chance. "So, uh, you and Ambrose," he starts, and I suddenly find myself having to hide a smile—I think I know where this is going.
Renny just raises an eyebrow, urging him to finish his thought.
"You two are... I mean... Are you two, you know. A couple?"
"Jesus," Renny huffs and grimaces, crossing her arms. "You know, I wish people would stop asking that. We've been best friends since the third grade. He's practically my brother."
Renny opens her mouth to say more, but then there's the unmistakable squeak of a door opening, joined by hushed voices. Her eyes go wide and the three of us instantly scramble for the toilet seat, clumsily perching on top of it. I grab the wall for balance—Watts grabs Renny's shoulder, because for some reason he thought that was a good idea. She smacks his hand and glares at him with eyes that basically say, touch me again and I'll chew off your hand.
He holds his hands up in surrender and silent apology as the voices grow closer. We all lean forward and to the side, peering out of the thin crack of the stall door as the figures come into view.
Kayla. And Paul.
They're giggling, and Kayla's leading him by the hand. She backs him up against the rose-colored locker bank and runs a hand through his hair, caressing his jaw as they kiss. He's got one hand on her waist, and the other is playing with the small pendant on her necklace.
"Do you know what I want?" Kayla asks when she pulls away, voice sickly sweet.
Renny turns her head so we can see her fake a gag, but I feel too guilty to be disgusted or to laugh about such an invasion of privacy. We shouldn't be seeing this.
Paul nods confidently, grinning. "Yeah."
Kayla tilts her head, then shakes it. "I don't think you do."
The hand that's laced in his hair pulls forward, bringing his head with it, and then back in one swift motion, slamming his head into the metal so hard that it dents the locker they were standing against.
Renny stiffens as Paul falls to the ground with a thud. My eyes go wide and I clamp a hand over my mouth, barely managing to stifle a gasp. Watts flinches so hard that he nearly loses his balance, and his shoe squeaks against the porcelain as he catches himself.
The noise has us all freezing in place as it seems to echo around the room for hours. Kayla's back is to us, but her shoulders are taught.
My mind is reeling. Did she hear? Does she know? What the hell just happened?
My eyes are trained on the small line of what's behind the door as my chest heaves with terrified breaths.
There has to be some kind of explanation for what we just saw. Somehow a five-foot-five girl who looks like she could blow away in a strong breeze just took down a towering quarterback like it was nothing.
The seconds that pass feel like a lifetime. Then she turns toward us, so fast I would have missed it if I blinked.
Only, she doesn't really turn, does she?
Her head turns.
Her body doesn't.
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