You'll always be a dumb blonde (wenclair)

Chapter 26: nothing i do is ever good

Someone found the cave.

Enid stared at the messages on her phone. Eight missed texts and two missed calls from Marilyn. Pure panic flooded her veins.

She had been wondering where Marilyn had gone, had been looking for the woman frantically after Wednesday ran off, worried that she had been watching their dance.

Lucas had been holding her phone for her. He'd walked up to her after her short argument with Tyler, letting her know that she had gotten a lot of notifications.

Good thing Enid had set a security feature on her texts so it didn't display the message on the notification, just the number.

And Marilyn had ensured Enid didn't save her number as a contact, in case something like this happened, where someone else had Enid's phone.

You need to take care of him. The latest message. Enid bit her lip. She hadn't prepared herself to transform tonight.

What if whoever it was was already gone by the time she got there? What if it was another student, or someone she knew?

She turned back to Lucas, who had been acting jittery since the end of the waltz between Wednesday and her.

"What's wrong?" Enid asked him hesitantly.

He shook his head. "Nothing, nothing. I'm fine."

Enid didn't believe it, but she wasn't going to push him to share something he didn't want to share.

She glanced at her phone one more time, before realizing that she didn't have any of the substance she used to transform with her.

She cursed quietly. She'd have to run back to her dorm and grab some. Good thing the dorms were only a few minutes away from the building the dance was in.

"I gotta run and grab something from my dorm. I'll be back in a few minutes." Enid forced a smile at him, before speed walking to the entrance of the venue.

She left the building, rushing back to her dorm. She opened the door, glancing around, then rushed over to her backpack. She opened it up, rooting through her bag until she found the vials at the bottom hidden under school books and extra changes of clothes.

Enid picked up her backpack, hefting it over her shoulder. She wasn't sure where she was going to leave her stuff. The cave was compromised.

She walked over to her closet and grabbed the biggest jacket she had, a heavy pink coat. This would have to do. She'd leave her stuff in a bathroom and lock the stall, then throw the jacket on while she walked back to Nevermore.

But the blood. How would she cover up the blood? She didn't know. She'd have to come up with something afterwards. She didn't have time to form an actual plan right now.

Enid checked the time. She had about fifteen minutes until the dance ended. If she went now, she might be able to get back to the dorm before Wednesday.

This was a horrible idea. But it's not like she could disobey Marilyn.

She jogged back to the dance, entering the building just in time for the last song to start. She just needed someone to see her there so she had a solid alibi.

Lucas. Where was he? She looked around, confusion filling her expression, when she saw Yoko waving at her.

Good enough. She'd say hi, say she was going to the bathroom, and call it good.

Enid didn't make it to Yoko before red started leaking from the ceiling, the sprinkler systems spraying the color all over everyone. Enid glanced around as chaos ensued.