How to Save Your School From Soul Stealing Demons

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

She's staring right at us with a smile that replaces every trace of my optimism with dread. And she's charging at us before I can even let out a scream. 

Watts flips pages frantically while the rest of us crouch down to get our weapons, but my hands are shaking so badly I can barely roll up my pant leg—Joan gets to us before I undo any of the velcro straps.

Thankfully (and unsurprisingly), Renny works faster than I do. She swings her ax and sends Joan jumping backward with an animalistic growl. Drool leaks from her unhinged mouth, as if we're a meal she's been craving for weeks. Ambrose frees his sledgehammer and joins Renny's side, raising it onto his shoulder in a silent threat, staring Joan down with a look that would send most people running. 

I finally get the baseball bat off of my leg just as Renny lunges forward and swings again. But this time, Joan doesn't back up—she uses both hands to grab the ax right by the blade before it can get anywhere near her body. If the gushing wounds on her hands hurt, she's doing a hell of a good job at hiding it. 

With a snarl, she swipes her arms and sends Renny sideways onto the floor, her body rolling helplessly. She lets out a cry of pure pain and I realize with the first sick feeling I've had in a long time that the ax fell down with her.

"Ren!" Watts yells out, voice hoarse as he hurries to her side.

She sits up with a hissed inhale, and I'm so distracted by the blooming crimson on her shirt that I don't realize Joan has honed in on me until she's tackling me to the floor.

I grunt as my shoulder blades hit the tile, and grit my teeth in pain as the back of my head follows, bouncing off the floor. She's got her bloody hands around my neck like a vice, but I manage to think fast enough to grab her shoulders, using all my strength to keep her pointed teeth away from me. 

If I could just move one of my hands for a second, I could grab the necklace and rip it off of her. But if I try, I'm risking losing this battle of strength and getting my throat torn out like Darren's. The memory of that is enough to keep me from trying, even as the glimmering stone dangles above me, taunting me with every jerk of Kayla's body.

I don't have to fight for long, since Ambrose rushes over and sends his sledgehammer down at her head, full force. It connects with her skull with a grotesque crack and snaps her head sideways, but it only stuns her for half a second.

But half a second is long enough. Her momentary daze gives me just enough time and slack to reach up and grasp the necklace. I tear it from her neck and toss it to the floor, shouting for Ambrose.

He's on it in a second, his sledgehammer landing on the pendant and sending red fragments scattering.

When he lifts the weapon, there's nothing left but red dust. 

Relief soars through my body. We did it. 

It's over.

So then why is Joan still clawing at my shoulders, snapping at my throat like an awol police dog?

"Watts!" I manage to shout as Ambrose realizes my predicament and gives her another blow with the sledgehammer, this time to her side. She's thrown off of me by the force, and I scramble backward. "I think we need the passage!"

He shakes his head as his eyes scan page after page. "I'm trying, but—I can't—I found how to summon her, but nothing on getting rid of her!"

Ambrose moves like a tank, steady and strong as he raises his weapon over his head and hurries towards Kayla's body, ready to serve what will undoubtedly be a finishing blow. But she manages the impossible move again, using what's left of her strength to grab the head of the sledgehammer just before it connects with her forehead. 

She lifts her arms and sends Ambrose flying over her, crashing onto the floor with the rest of us. I struggle to sit up—my throat burns from both the smoke and the way Kayla's hands were crushing it.

Renny coughs, face pale as she reaches for the ax that's covered in her own blood. She pushes herself to her feet, smearing blood across her face as she pushes her hair back. "Fuck the passage," she says, voice like gravel.

She's regained her strength, or is having a rush of adrenaline, or just is pushing through the pain, because she gets to Joan and takes full advantage of her weakened state. Unlike with Bernadette, there's no hesitation this time—her ax is in Kayla's neck in the blink of an eye.

Joan screeches, clawing at the handle so violently that the wood begins to peel under her nails. But Renny raises one foot and sends it down onto the edge of the blade with all her weight. 

With a crunch, the ax cuts clean through Kayla's neck. The screaming stops.

I can't tear my eyes away from the beheaded body. But instead of the nausea I expect, all I feel is that flood of relief again. I manage to take in a deep breath, filling my lungs with the air of freedom.

It's over. It's really over.

The weeks of death have finally come to an end.

I stand, but I can't even breathe a sigh of relief before one of the doors is opening, drawing all of our wide-eyed attention. Shit.

I mean, shit. How the hell are we supposed to explain this? We're covered in blood in the middle of a murder scene.

But my terror turns to mush when I see who it is: Hemani. Her eyes find mine, and she's hurrying over in an instant, heels clicking against the linoleum.

"Diego! You're okay!"

"Hemani!" I try to move in front of the corpse, but it's useless. There's no hiding the blood-drenched scene behind me.

She cups my face, expression painted with concern. "When you didn't meet me outside, I got worried."

I want nothing more than to collapse against her, to find comfort in her open arms. But... I glance back at Kayla's decapitated, lifeless body, and back to Hemani, who stares at me and my bleeding injuries blankly.

She isn't scared, she isn't crying out in horror.

Instead, a slow smile is creeping across her face.

And then, she laughs, a sound so bitter and cold that I know instantly: this isn't over.

LOL BUT YOU ALL ALREADY KNEW THAT 🤭