Still, she was a trooper. Either that or terribly stubborn. Probably both. She smiled tightly. “I’m game if you are.”
Davenport made an unimpressed noise. “Suit yourself.” She walked over to the counter where we had made a mess and put down her flashlight. “You might need this to find your pants, Mr. Foray.” She pivoted on her heel and left the room.
“I’ll give you a moment,” Rebecca said as she followed Davenport out into the hall. I shut the door then propped the flashlight up so it lit the room, putting my jeans and my Master of Puppets sweatshirt back on while Dex quickly slipped on his clothes.
“So how are you feeling about this?” he asked as he slipped into his jacket.
“About the hot sex?” I asked as I gathered my hair back into a ponytail.
He smiled. “About staying the night. You sure that’s what you want?”
I nodded and rubbed my lips together. “Yeah. But I mean, if one thing goes wrong, I’m leaving and I’m not coming back. We’re done here. Once I set foot outside, I never want to return to this place ever again.”
“Right with ya, baby. And you won’t ever have to do this show again.”
My face fell slightly. I couldn’t help it. “You know, I will miss it.”
“So will I,” he said, coming over to me and wrapping me into his arms. “But you’re the best part of it. As long as I have you, I don’t care what I’m doing.”
“Same.” I pulled away and looked at him carefully. “Except amateur porn.”
“Aww,” he said. “You’re killing all my dreams here.”
I punched him in the chest then quickly kissed him. “We should go see the ruckus.”
We gathered up the flashlight and went out into the hall. There were only a handful of teachers loitering in the marble-tiled foyer and a few kids holding hands and being led by a teacher out onto the front lawn. Brenna was there on the front steps, typing something into her phone, Jody hanging by her side, while the wind blew violently, shaking the pine trees. Once Jody spotted us, her eyes lit up and she ran back inside.
“The power went out!” Jody exclaimed.
“We know,” I said. “Were you scared?”
She shook her head. “Nah. It’s just nature.”
“Hey,” Brenna said as she came over. “I just talked to Rebecca,” she said, motioning that Rebecca was somewhere out in the parking lot. “She said you guys are actually staying the night.”
“Squatting in the cafeteria,” Dex told her. “At least we will have an endless supply of those really tiny ice cream cups. The ones with the tiny wooden spoon.” He made the spoon motion with his hand.
“Nice try,” Brenna said gleefully. “Our school has a gluten-free, non-dairy menu. Hope you like frozen soy milk.”
He made a face. “Soy milk. Ugh. Tastes like jizz.”
I gave him a curious look. “And how do you know that?”
“I have bad aim sometimes,” he said. He looked back to Brenna and smiled lightly. “We might be gone by morning so we just wanted to say good luck and thank you for showing us around.”
Brenna was still blushing red at Dex’s bad aim comment but she smiled. “Thank you. And good luck to both of you. I’m sorry I couldn’t be as much help as I wanted. When Rebecca and I figured you weren’t coming back, the only thing we captured was the rubber ball moving slightly, but I think it was the wind. That’s what she thinks anyway. Sorry the tour was a dud.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, and thanked her. She gave us a wave and headed out the door, holding out her hand for Jody. “Come on, Jody.”
Jody looked back at Dex and I. “Bye.” Then she looked at Dex and raised her little arms for a hug. Dex crouched down, smiling broad enough that his dimples stuck out, and let Jody put her arms around him.
God damn it if my uterus didn’t swoon. I’m sorry, but I needed to have that man’s babies.
Then as Jody pulled away, I could have sworn she whispered something in Dex’s ear, enough to make him frown momentarily. Then she grinned up at me and waved. “Bye, Perry. Bye, Elliot!” I followed her gaze which shifted to a spot behind me. Elliot was standing at the foot of the stairs, hat in hand, staring at us meekly. “Take care of them,” Jody added before she turned and skipped away, joining Brenna.
Brenna gave us a wary look to say that she had seen Elliot too, then she turned and they both disappeared out into the storm.
I looked back behind me at Elliot, but he was gone.
“Did you see him?” I asked Dex.
He nodded. “Yep.”
“What did Jody say to you?”
“Just now?”
“Yeah.”
His expression became darker. “She said watch out for the ones that look like you.”
“What?”
A teacher walked past us and both Dex and I smiled politely and moved ourselves away from the front door. He leaned into me, lowering his voice. “I think she might mean doppelg?ngers, even though she doesn’t really know what they are.”
“Doppelg?ngers?” I whispered back. “Why would there be doppelg?ngers here?”
He shrugged, eyes still dark. “Why not? This is a genuine house of horror, Perry. There are ghost kids and demons and who knows what else. Doppelg?ngers make sense. This amount of sadness and death and pain is going to bring in a lot of very bad things.”
“I think I saw one last night,” I admitted.
He shot me a sharp look. “When? Who?”
“When I left the break room and came back to you guys. I saw Rebecca in the hallway, heading to the bathroom. She even turned and looked at me. But when I got in the room, I saw Rebecca in bed.”
“Are you sure it was the real Rebecca in bed?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t think you could interact with doppelg?ngers. You just see them.”
“Did she talk to you? The one in bed?”
“Yes. She said she was sorry. You were awake. Didn’t you hear her?”
“Yeah.” He scratched his head. “She was probably legit.”
I almost laughed at how blasé he sounded. “How else can you tell though?”
“I have no idea,” he said. “I suppose the doppelg?nger wouldn’t know the real you, wouldn’t know your thoughts. They’re an imposter as much as they’re a double. Funny that it took us this long to encounter one, don’t you think?”
“Better never than late,” I said just as Rebecca came back in the building, her normally coiffed hair in a mess around her face, the camera light in her hand.
“Stormy,” Dex commented, pointing out the obvious.
Woo boy. The awkward evening had already begun.
Rebecca pushed her hair away from her eyes. “It’s a real ripper. Maybe we should start moving everything into the cafeteria now. In fact, perhaps we should start filming as soon as possible. It’s still light outside, which means there’s at least some light coming in through all the windows. It’ll be easier to see that way.”
And less scary, I added to myself. With the last of the staff heading out of the building and into the storm, we headed down the hall to move our belongings and prepare for one last night.