Night School: Legacy

‘How can the gate be open?’ Allie stared at the open drive as if looking at it would close it again. ‘I don’t understand.’

They were crouched down in the trees, whispering. They’d both pulled on their ski masks.

‘It’s not supposed to be open,’ Zoe said. ‘It’s a mistake.’

‘Could it be Raj?’ Allie asked. ‘Maybe he came back and left it open.’

Even through her ski mask she could see the scepticism in Zoe’s eyes. ‘Raj, Allie? Really?’

‘No,’ Allie said. ‘You’re right. He’d build a new gate with his bare hands before he’d leave this one open.’ She took a calming breath. ‘OK, we’re trained for this, Zoe. We check this out together. You loop around that way.’ She pointed towards the school building. ‘Cross the drive further down. Then you search that side of the driveway and I’ll search this side. If you find anything, yell. If I don’t yell back, go and get help.’

Zoe shot off through the powdery snow and, worry making her heart hurt, Allie watched her until she disappeared in the shadows.

She looked so tiny.

Then she began moving from tree to tree, searching for signs of trouble. As she walked, she thought about the night she went to meet Christopher. The way Gabe had jumped on her from out of nowhere.

She’d never heard a thing.

Her heart beat a staccato rhythm as she moved through the woods as quietly as possible, knowing she was making a perfect trail to follow with every step. But she saw no footprints ahead of her – the snow was smooth.

What am I doing out here? she thought fearfully. This is crazy. We’re just kids.

When she’d made it to the drive without finding anything, she peered through the open gate, out into the darkness beyond the school grounds.

There was nobody there.

She was just about to walk to Zoe’s side of the drive when something caught her eye. There was something in the road, beyond the fence line.

Squinting, she tried to make it out, but it was just a little too far away.

Above her, a heavy clump of snow fell from a branch dusting her with a shower of silvery powder. She was brushing it off her shoulders when the moon moved out from behind a cloud. In the pale light it cast, she stared again at the thing in the road but she couldn’t tell what it was. It was pink. And looked kind of like a doll …

Everything went still.

She opened her mouth to call for Zoe but her throat was suddenly so dry words wouldn’t come out.

And then she was running. She ran through the gate and down the road, and, as she ran, she found her voice and she screamed for Zoe. But it was like her nightmare – like trying to run through treacle. Her feet wouldn’t move like they should. Her ribcage tightened around her lungs and she fought for air.

Jo lay crumpled in the road, her legs twisted under her unnaturally. Her cornflower blue eyes stared up at the dark sky and she was horribly pale.

‘Jo?’ Allie ripped off a glove with her teeth and pressed her shaking fingers to Jo’s neck, whispering a prayer. But her hands were numb and she couldn’t feel anything. All she could feel was cold. Jo felt cold.

‘Allie, what is it?’ Zoe stood just outside the gate, looking out at her. Allie could hear the dread in her voice.

‘It’s Jo,’ Allie shouted. ‘Don’t come here. Run back to the school as fast as you can. Tell them he’s here. Nathaniel’s here. Bring help, Zoe.’

‘Is she alive?’ Zoe asked.

Fear and anger can hurt like burning, and when Allie replied her words roared out of her throat. ‘Just run, Zoe!’

She said it with such force, Zoe was moving before the last syllable had fallen from the air – she was too far away to hear how the last word turned into a sob.

‘Jo, can you hear me?’ Kneeling beside her Allie tried to find a wound or cut. At first she could see nothing, but then the moon came out from behind a cloud and she saw the dark stain spreading on the white snow.

‘Oh God.’

The sight numbed Allie’s brain – for a moment she couldn’t even remember how to breathe as she fought back the grief and terror that threatened to overwhelm her.

‘Jo, I don’t know what to do!’ Her voice sounded foreign to her – small and childlike. Her hot tears were cold by the time they reached her cheeks and for a second she closed her eyes, willing herself to get it together enough to think. She needed to stop the bleeding.

‘Allie …’

Jo’s whisper came with obvious effort, and Allie’s eyes flew open.

‘Oh my God. Jo! What happened? What did they do to you?’

‘Allie,’ Jo whispered again, her voice so raspy and weak Allie had to lean close to her to hear. ‘It’s Gabe.’ She licked her lips slowly. ‘He tricked … me.’

Her voice was so weak and she was so pale.

‘Look.’ Panic making it hard to breathe, Allie fought to keep calm. Jo needed her to keep it together. ‘You’re going to be OK. They’re bringing help. You just hang on, Jo.’

And that’s when everything went dark.