by Kate Nova
But none of it compared to the huge statue which stood in the center of the room, around which all other festivities were conducted. It was what the students danced around, what they glanced up at through their sequined masks and it was what my eyes kept drifting to, even as I scanned the room for an exit.
A sculpture of a woman with her hands covering her open mouth and her body twisted in tension, even as she stood to her full height. A simple dress reached her feet. The whole piece was dark as coal, made from the blackest clay possible, but even without the contrast of different shades, I could see that her eyes were wide in terror, having seen something horrific coming upon her.
She was screaming.
It almost looked … familiar to me and for a dark moment, I realized it was because I’d seen so many people scream like that over the years. But it was obviously just a novelty of some sort, a Halloween statue purchased from a party supply store for a night just like this. It was even decorated with an orange and black garland made of pom-poms and bats. A witch’s hat sat playfully atop her head, partly obscuring her face.
For a college campus, it was perhaps a little out of place.
But for a Halloween party, it was perfect.
Just eerie enough to work.
I looked all around, circling the statue in the middle of the room, trying to figure out how we were going to make it out of here, but found nothing.
“That girl could be gone by now,” I practically growled as Liam danced me around the sculpture, both of our eyes peeled for any other way past the guards.
“We’re going to have to make a run for it, I think. All the doors are guarded. We need to just pick a set,” Liam replied. “There. The north doors. They lead out to the back of the auditorium.” He gestured to a pair of doors that were hidden behind a thick, black sheet made of some sort of netting, meant to look creepy and textured. “Let me see if I can get them to let us through.”
It was as good a plan as any. Together, we approached the doors. Both guards turned to face us, suspicion in their eyes behind their blank, white masks.
Liam stumbled as if he was intoxicated, laughing loudly, and he wrapped an arm around my waist, tugging me to his side. “Hey,” he slurred to the guards. “Do you think you could open the door for us? We’re trying to find somewhere a little more private, if you know what I mean.”
A shock went through me. My face burned red with embarrassment. Then I realized how genius Liam was—and my body tingled just imagining that it was true.
The guards were unsympathetic, even as Liam pawed at me, like he was trying to remove my clothing right there in front of everyone.
“Sorry,” one of them said, shaking his head. “No one’s allowed back here—”
“Hey. It’s all right.” The other guard twisted open the doorknob. “Headmaster gave them the all clear.”
Confusion pulsed in my chest. Had Orcus really told the guard to watch out for me and Liam? Had we really been given the clearance to walk out these doors—
Then I spotted it.
A slight twinkle in the guard’s eyes.
This wasn’t just any student. It was Griffin.
Liam gave no hint that he recognized him but stumbled out through the door, dragging me behind with a lusty, slobbery laugh. “Thanks, man.” He chuckled, holding out a fist.
Griffin returned the gesture and glanced at me once, his eyes frantic through his mask. Be careful, they said. You’re being watched. Move quickly.
I did my best to communicate that I understood, then the door closed behind us.
Liam and I were alone in the hallway.
The last thing I saw in the ballroom was a stray light, shining on that statue’s face, her scream almost audible—
And then I heard it.
A real scream.
It was coming from under the auditorium.
There were two doors behind the auditorium. One led to the backstage area and the other was a service door, probably only used by the janitors to access the boiler downstairs.
With a deep breath, I opened the door that led backstage. Liam, reaching for my hand, squeezed it in reassurance. “Let’s go,” he whispered. “I’m right here with you.”
We stepped inside, searching the stage. The work lights were on, casting the backstage area in a gloomy glow. We stepped around set pieces, downed curtains in need of repair, a bunch of cords and ropes folded up neatly in piles and other odds and ends that probably wouldn’t make sense to anyone but the theater crowd.
My heart pounded as we searched every fold in the curtain, every shadow behind the proscenium arch that stretched across the stage, every corner up in the catwalk where they strung up the stage lights. We even walked up and down the aisles of the empty auditorium, searching behind the seats.
But there was nothing in here.
It was just an empty, slightly spooky auditorium.
Another scream.
It sounded like it came from beneath my feet. Liam met my eyes and I knew he’d heard it too.
“The other door,” I said. “He’s got them downstairs.”
We raced up the aisle, back onto the stage and out in the hallway.
But the other door was locked.
Liam threw himself into it, but it wouldn’t budge.
Another cry rang out below us—someone was getting closer. One of the girls. I couldn’t tell which one.
“All right,” Liam said, holding both my hands. “I’m going to go around to the front of the auditorium. There’s another service door down the hallway and I’m pretty sure they’re all connected.”
The thought of Liam walking away from me, now that I’d had him in my arms once … It made my stomach twist. “But—” I started.
“Shhh.” Liam pulled me in close, kissing my forehead. “It’ll be fine. I’ll be back in a second to open the door from the inside.”
I nodded, knowing this was our best shot. “Be careful.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “I’ve already worked so hard to keep you alive. Do you think I’d let myself die now? Who would keep you safe?”
“Not funny.” The very thought of anything happening to him—or to Griffin or Callan—it made my insides coil.
He kissed my cheek, and without another word, dashed off down the hallway.
The party still raged behind the double doors to the ballroom. I wondered if Griffin was still standing guard, or if he was trying to get out of his post so he could come help us find the girls.
Sidling up to the door, I knocked gently. It was locked too. No students could get in or out of the party this way, but I was hoping Griffin would hear me and let me back in.
But the music was far too loud, thumping like a heartbeat. The squeals of everyone inside the masquerade made it clear there was something going on. Some kind of crowd participation dance. I heard shouts of laughter and lots of movement.
“He’ll find us,” my hair collectively assured me, so I walked back to the locked door.
Liam was working with Poseidon … and Griffin was working with Apollo. I hadn’t seen Callan all night, but part of me was curious—was he working with someone too? Another god? He seemed like such a loner. Someone who’d been on his own for a very long time and knew he could only rely on himself. He was quieter than the other guys and seemed much less worried about chasing rank or being popular.
I wished he was here with me now. I wished all three of them were here in this hallway, but they weren’t.
So, I’d have to be brave without them.
For some reason, maybe because I was feeling impatient and ready to do something, I walked back over to the locked door handle.
This time, to my absolute surprise, it opened.
A dark staircase led down to—well, I didn’t know. Some sort of inter-connecting hallway that the janitors used, if Liam was right. A putrid smell hit me right away—the stench of musty air, decay and something else. I heard a rattling, too, like a giant machine. A furnace.
&nb
sp; The doors to the party suddenly jiggled. Someone was leaving the masquerade and would fling the door open at any moment, exposing me.
I had a second to make a decision.
Down the stairs I went, pulling the door closed behind me. I checked the handle and it was once again locked. I couldn’t escape, even if I wanted to. This was it.
No turning back.
Chapter 30
Medusa
It was pitch black. I had to carefully feel for each step, but the farther down I descended, the more the air thinned. Up ahead there was light, amber brown and grimy, a flickering lightbulb without a sconce or a case of any kind, providing enough glow to cast the tunnel in a haze.
And it was a tunnel. Nothing more. I’d expected it to open up at the bottom of the staircase, but instead it just kept going—a concrete floor, a low ceiling and walls which seemed to taper in, making it feel terribly claustrophobic.
I took off my mask and let it hang by my side. No point in keeping up my disguise down here.
I was suddenly aware that there would be no sunlight down here, even in the middle of the day. Not a trace. Those stairs had led me deep, deep underground, beneath the auditorium, and so I was vulnerable.
Down here, I was not Medusa the Gorgon, capable of turning men into stone.
Down here, I was simply human. If I ran into trouble, there was nothing I could do.
But I had to push on.
There was a light switch embedded in the concrete wall, but I didn’t dare switch it on. It looked improperly rigged, like it might kill me with one touch. I also didn’t want to draw any attention to myself. I’d have to shuffle along, from creaky, amber light to creaky, amber light, hoping nothing jumped out of the shadows at me.
After a few paces, the tunnel split. Right and left. I paused, deliberating. One of them probably led back to the tunnel Liam was talking about. The other one probably led to another janitor’s access tunnel on different side of the school.
I listened closely but heard only the sound of dripping water somewhere and that eerie, heavy breathing I’d heard every time I’d walked past the auditorium before.
A decision had to be made.
Liam had gone right upstairs, so I went to the right.
Hopefully it was the correct choice.
And then it got dark.
There weren’t any more flickering lightbulbs. The glow from the last one I’d passed faded and I was walking in total darkness.
I bumped into the walls more than once. Finally, I held out my hand, dragging my fingertips and letting the cool concrete wall guide me along. Perhaps someone else might have flinched, expecting to touch the creepy crawly things which lived deep underground, but I’d spent thousands of years in a sea cave with all manner of critters like spiders and barnacles and worms. I could handle something small and creepy.
Something huge and creepy, however … Without sunlight, that might be a problem.
Through the tunnel I walked, and after a few minutes, I realized that this was not going to lead me to the door where Liam was waiting.
I’d been walking much farther than the length of the school and I’d taken far more turns than I was anticipating. This wasn’t just a long service tunnel.
This was a maze of some sort.
Then I took a few more steps and the smell hit me.
Rancid and hot, it clung to my nostrils like dust. I gagged, trying to get my system acclimated to it, but it was disgustingly fetid. I held my nose with one hand and breathed shallowly through my mouth, pressing forward, despite my body’s fight for clean air.
How much longer? I thought. I was practically clawing at my throat. Every step I took kicked up more dust and the stench grew stronger and stronger. I started to turn back and attempt to retrace my steps to the stairs, so I could try my luck with the locked door then hunt down Griffin, Liam and Callan and make them come with me through the depths of the school—
And then I heard it.
Another scream.
But instead of being muffled beneath the floor, this one was piercing. It went right through my ear and into my brain like an ice pick—and it sounded like it was nearby.
Katie. Or Laura. Or Natalie.
Or another girl who’d vanished under Orcus’s reign as headmaster and who no one had noticed was gone yet.
I swallowed hard, trying to keep myself calm and brave and called out, “Hello?”
No answer.
I shuffled along the tunnel, still completely in the dark, but my eyes had adjusted somewhat since the lights had vanished.
I could make out something ahead of me, a huge shape, a shadow.
Something alive.
“Hello?” I called again, though my heart was pounding.
The shadow moved.
It darted away around a corner and my blood turned to ice.
What the hell was that thing?
I didn’t have much time to worry because there was that shriek again and this time it was accompanied by heavy footsteps.
Someone was running along this same dusty, concrete floor.
Someone was getting closer.
Another scream and this time the thing that screamed was close enough I could see it. A person ran along the tunnel, mere steps from where I was. When I reached out, I found something.
I found someone.
A person, trembling, and in the dim light I made out her face.
“Katie?” I breathed.
“We can’t stay!” she screeched. Her hair was disheveled and knotted with leaves and other debris, like she hadn’t brushed it in weeks. Her eyes were wide in her gaunt face and she wore a simple white toga that was smeared with dirt.
“Katie, it’s me!” I seized both of her arms, but she wriggled free. “It’s me, Medusa! I’m here to help!”
“You have to get out of here!” she cried. Her breath was horrendous—not as bad as the disgustingly rancid air around us but still pretty terrible. She was nothing like the bubbly, happy student council secretary who I’d met when I first arrived at the academy.
She was a shell of herself. And she wouldn’t stop shaking.
“Katie, it’s all right. I’m here. We’re going to get you out of here—” I tried to sound as calming as I could, but she pulled away from me, panting and trembling.
“Run!” she called, her voice frail and raspy. “Run, or he’ll kill you!”
“Who will?” I yelled after her, but she was already gone. Another piercing scream came from the direction she’d fled, but I didn’t think there was actually someone chasing her. I figured she’d been screaming so hard and so long, she’d forgotten how to do anything else.
Run and scream.
But she was the reason I was down here in the first place. She, Laura and Natalie.
So I had to follow her.
I hobbled along in the darkness with one hand on the wall and the other holding my nose against the wretched smell. “Katie!” I choked out. “Come back!”
The smell somehow got worse.
The darkness lifted a little, so I could see the white of her toga not too far ahead. She was limping. And she also clung to the wall like I did, leaning on it for support, randomly letting out those screams like a boiling teakettle.
She turned a corner and I lost her. Panicking, I sped up, hustling through this fucked-up maze beneath the school. Then another sound had me reeling.
A scream.
Not a girl’s this time, but the bellow of a man in pain.
I turned the corner, but it wasn’t Katie. It was a man, crumpled on the floor, holding onto his stomach, which was streaming with blood.
He grimaced, pressing his hands into his abdomen and trying to pull himself up to standing. When he saw me approaching, his eyes grew wide and he started muttering, “No, no, stay back!”
Callan.
My stomach tied itself in knots. “Callan!” I cried out and started running.
“Medusa, stop!” Callan shouted. His voice was
so sharp and so full of power, despite his obvious injury, that it stopped me in my tracks.
“What happened to you?” I was desperate to reach his side, desperate to help him. I couldn’t bear standing here, frozen, ten feet away from him.
“You have to …” he gasped, swallowing hard, “be careful.” He nodded at something between us and as my eyes focused in the darkness, something came into view, something horrifying.
A pit.
A huge, deep, wide pit.
The floor just ended about two feet away from where I’d stopped and dipped down into this treacherous hole. Right away, I could tell it was the source of the stench. It wafted up from the crater in waves, almost, gagging me, making me long for the fragrant, fresh air of the college locker rooms. They were like lavender fields compared to this.
“Callan, what happened to you?” I repeated. I could see he was losing blood … and quickly. My heart broke at the thought of seeing him slip away before my very eyes. “Did someone stab you?”
“Gored,” Callan replied, his breathing labored. “I was gored.”
Gored.
What kind of beast was residing down in these tunnels beneath the school? I didn’t have time to reflect on the nightmare I was now living in; I had to help Callan and I had to do it fast.
The more I studied the pit, the more I realized there was only one way to get across it—a ledge, circling the outside, probably three inches across in width.
“I’m coming,” I assured Callan, immediately slipping off my sandals and carrying them in my hands so I could move on my tiptoes. “I’m coming to get you.”
“Medusa, no,” Callan groaned. “Get yourself out of here.”
“Not a chance. You guys have worked very hard to get me to leave this school, but not even this stunt will work on me.” A weak joke, but it made Callan smile.
I couldn’t see the bottom of the pit and I couldn’t decide if that was better or worse than if I’d been able to see what lay in its depths.