Four of Clubs

9

"What do we do?" I whispered, surprised I could even get the words out. My heart had dropped to my stomach, and my stomach had dropped to the floor as my body shook with adrenaline. 

There was the sound of a key being stuck into the lock, making it obvious that whatever the answer to my question was, we'd better figure it out quickly.

"Let's go," Maddie said, taking the lead and sprinting over to the other set of doors, her sneakers squeaking against the shiny floor. It was our only option other than taking the third set of doors into the school building, which wouldn't have been smart-- as soon as whoever was on the other side of that door saw what we did, they were going to start looking for the culprit, and probably call the cops while they were searching.

We followed Madeline, making sure to bring all the cans with us and not leave any evidence behind. I was silently praying that no one left any sort of DNA, even though I knew it wouldn't be conclusive anyway-- staff and students were in and out of the gym every day. Every student in school had been in it just last week for an assembly.

Maddie opened the door as silently as possible, peeking her masked head out into the cool night. Apparently the coast was clear enough, because she slipped outside, all of us following suit as quietly as we could manage. I flinched at every noise, hating the way the grass and leaves crunched under my shoes, or how my clothes rustled when I moved.

After a second of hesitation, Maddie crouched down and started sprinting away from the school, back into the woods we came from. Ian and Roy quickly mimicked her actions, and I knew I need to follow.

I could barely feel my legs as I watched the other three race away-- Madeline was already enveloped in the trees, out of my sight. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion, my head filling with a thousand thoughts, mostly about how stupid I was for getting into this. 

In the split second before the door behind me fell shut, the other one opened. There was a tall silhouette standing against the moonlight, and just as my door closed loudly, I heard him shout. "Hey!"

I was frozen in place, my fight or flight response malfunctioning and resulting in me doing nothing instead. My breath caught in my throat as I heard the other door slam again: he was coming around the building now.

I was pinched for sure.

Great, I could remember how to quote Ferris Bueller, but I couldn't remember how to run.

The seconds passing felt like hours as I yelled at my limbs to start moving. There were fast footsteps, but it wasn't coming from the man-- someone had come back through the forest. The next thing I knew they were grabbing my hand, tugging at my arm.