The Children of Hypnos

Chapter 28: Fenhalloween

                   

I'd be able to sense a doppelgänger, Emery told herself. I would sense a doppelgänger.

She motioned to Wes to go around the left side of the staircases while she crept around the right. The dark figure straightened up and lashed out at something on the ground—the lamp that had fallen from the entryway table, now in pieces on the floor.

"Damn...lamp...boobytrap..."

Emery lowered her guns, though her heart still beat a million miles a minute. "Hypnos's eyeballs, Marcia, how many times are you going to show up somewhere unannounced?"

Marcia froze with one leg in the air; Emery could just see the cord of the lamp wrapped around her foot. Her head turned to both of them, her expression hidden in shadow. "When have I shown up somewhere else unannounced? Ugh—nevermind. I didn't think you'd actually be up here!"

"Why are you here? And why'd you set off the Fox?" Wes said. As he did, the Fox screamed again outside.

"I didn't," she sniped, tearing the cord off her foot. "My dad did. We were coming back from midnight dinner; he heard from some of the students in the Crossing that they saw you come up this way, so he followed. The Fox took him by surprise, so I came up here without him. The Fox won't keep him busy for long. You need to leave. Now."

"What's going on?" Joel's flashlight beam illuminated them through the twisting staircases.

"Your idea didn't work, Jojo," Emery said. "Coming up here was more suspicious. We have to go. Get all your stuff. Jackie! Kris, Lewis, Ridley! Let's go!"

Sounds echoed out of the ballroom. The light inside the door went out. Kris, Lewis, Jacqueline, and Ridley hustled into the foyer.

"Go east," Marcia said. "Don't take the path back down. He might see you. Go east and come out near the dorms, then split up, go to your rooms for the night, and act like you've done nothing strange. I'll stay here and keep him occupied."

Marcia kicked the broken lamp off to the side and pushed them all out of the manor. Instead of going straight back down the path to the sports fields, Emery led the way east, into the thick crush of the Fenhallow Woods. The Fox's screams still pierced the night, but they cut off every few seconds, like a strange stuttering siren. Faint shafts of moonlight crept through the canopy above to light their path. They prowled as quietly and quickly as they could through the underbrush, though Kris and Lewis weren't known for their stealth, and the heels on Jacqueline's boots had her stumbling every fifth step.

Emery allowed herself a breath when they emerged from the woods on the far east side of the administration building, closer to the upper-classmen dorms and the sleep research center. They sprinted the distance between the trees and the research center, hiding themselves in the long shadows it cast on the ground.

As soon as they were close enough to the roads between the dorms, Lewis didn't need more prompting. He tugged on Kris's sleeve and pulled her toward the sidewalk. Emery gave Joel a quick kiss and said to him and Jacqueline, "I'll text you later. We can't go back up there now, he'll be suspicious. Keep your phones on and I'll let you know."

Then she grabbed Wes and started toward Kirkland. Ridley followed tight on Wes's heels until she'd stepped on them enough time that Wes glared at her. She said a quick goodbye and skittered off.

"I didn't think he'd find us so quickly," Wes said, fists clenched and jaw tight. "If we'd had more time, we could have practiced more. Could have tried something else—maybe even gone inside, after a few nights of work."