CONTROL ➳ D. HALE [2]

12 ; backstabbing bitchface

12 ➳ BACKSTABBING BITCHFACE

Elise rushed into the school, practically knocking over Scott and Lydia, who were standing nervously by the door. "Have you guys seen anything yet?" she asked, though her brows quirked upward when they landed on Lydia. "Didn't you go home?"

"Long story," she sighed, her eyes drifting back to the audience of teachers as the band filed onto the stage. "How is Cora?"

Elise shook her head slightly. "We don't know what's wrong. Something must've happened during her fight with Aiden," she said, her eyes scanning the crowd only to land on the Alpha as she spoke his name. His eyes twitched toward the group as if he'd heard her, but he didn't give any other signs of listening into their conversation. "Let's please just get this over with so I can get back to the hospital, alright?"

The two teens nodded. Suddenly, Lydia looked down at her phone, muttering something incomprehensible as she turned and wandered in another direction. Scott and Elise flashed each other doubtful looks before they, too, dispersed into the crowd.

"Help me."

Elise spun around, her eyes searching the crowd for the source of the cry. No one else seemed phased, though. She passed it off as her imagination playing tricks on her, but suddenly, it came again.

"Help me, please!"

Elise's eyes scanned the room, finally landing on a figure standing in an empty doorway. It was the woman that Elise had seen at the foot of Derek's bed a few nights prior. The woman's feet shuffled on the floor and her head lolled to one side, the way a hound moves it's head when surveying something curious. Elise set her jaw, debating whether or not she should ignore the woman. In horror movies, the person to follow the creepy lady is always the first to die.

"Help!"

The cry rang out in her ears as if the person shouting was right beside her. Suddenly, the brunette spun on her heels, briskly making her way across the auditorium to the empty doorway where the woman was standing. However, when Elise got there, the woman had already moved on, shuffling down the hall.

"Hey!" Elise hissed, picking up her pace as she followed after the woman, leaving the recital behind. "Who the hell are you?"

Suddenly, the woman stopped moving, her shuffling pace halting unexpectedly. Elise skidded to a stop behind the woman, her breath slightly hitched from needing to race down the hall. The woman whipped around, her blank canvas of a face merely inches away from Elise's hazel eyes. The world around the two of them spun and shifted as the world changed around Elise.

A woman dragged herself across the ground, blood soaking through her shirt and into the dirt beneath her. A faint, rhythmic chant seemed to sound from somewhere in the distance as the woman reached out, her hand latching onto the root of a tree.

Suddenly, Jennifer Blake was standing in the woods, her hands locked around a chord as it restricted the breathing of a young girl. Blood seeped from the teen girl's temple as Jennifer's face shifted into something monstrous.

When Elise snapped back into reality, the faceless woman was long gone, leaving only Elise in the hall. She spun on her heels, her eyes scanning the hallway as a chill raced down her spine. "That backstabbing bitchface," Elise hissed under her breath, picking up her feet and breaking into a sprint toward the exit. She needed to tell Scott that she'd discovered who the Darach was before someone else was sacrificed.

Suddenly, a bloodcurdling shriek radiated through the air, attacking Elise's ears. She stumbled, gasping in pain as she pressed her hands over her ears, trying fruitlessly to block out the noise. The brunette clamped her eyes shut and sunk to her knees as the piercing sound filled the halls.