Yeahhh! It’s my birthday, and I ain’t gotta pick up the phone!
For the first time ever, she was happy to hear that sound. Saved by the ringtone.
“Hey, Dad,” she said. “Sorry. I’m on my way. I’ll be there in ten.” Tree stood up and grabbed her bag.
“Wait,” Carter said. “You’re leaving?”
She stopped and stared at Carter. Something about his question split her heart right down the middle. She had to get out of there before she started crying.
“I’m supposed to meet my dad for a birthday lunch,” she explained, then turned to Ryan. “I’ll meet you in the lab at three. We’re figuring this out before it gets any worse.”
Tree glanced back at Carter before she turned to go, and it was a mistake. He was looking right at her over Danielle’s head. Maybe it was her imagination, or maybe it was this whole screwed-up universe, but there was something in his eyes that looked to her like longing, and now as she tried to keep herself from running as she left the cafeteria, there was something in her eyes, too. By the time she pushed through the doors onto the quad, the tears were spilling down her cheeks.
There was nothing to figure out in the lab at 3:00 p.m. There was no way to keep this from getting any worse. Teresa Gelbman finally understood that there was only one thing worse than dying over and over again.
Living with a broken heart.
10
Tree knew the exact table where her father would be, and she hurried past the hostess stand to the outdoor seating on the spacious deck that ringed the building. She’d fixed her makeup in the bathroom, but her eyes were still red from crying and she felt the need to apologize—to everyone, it seemed, even her father.
“Sorry I’m late. I’ve just had a crazy day.”
Her dad smiled. “It’s okay, sweetie. Everything okay?”
“It’s fine.”
Tree looked down at the menu and braced herself for the small talk she was certain would come.
Right on time, her dad started in. “How’s school?”
Tree didn’t know if she had it in her to broach the conversation about her mom again. She’d been so pleased with the place they’d gotten on that yesterday so many days ago, but somehow the fresh pain of seeing Carter and Danielle together had dulled her pain over anything else. She’d never understood before that fresh heartbreak hurt worse than old scars.
If she wanted to get through lunch with her composure intact, she’d have to put off the talk with her father for another day. It was days like these when Tree missed her mom the most. She’d had a way of sensing exactly what Tree needed—to talk, to go to the movies, a good cry and a hug, a bag of Sour Patch Watermelons. The sadness of not having her mom to talk to made the pain of what she needed to talk about that much heavier.
Her father sat watching her, waiting for an answer about school. He was clearly worried. Tree took a deep breath.
“Are you ready to order?” A waitress had appeared out of nowhere, and her dad held up a hand.
“We’re waiting on one more.”
“Okay. I’ll be right back.”
Tree idly watched the waitress head back inside the restaurant. “One more?” she asked. “Who else—”
Tree couldn’t speak anymore. Or even remember what she’d been saying. The waitress had stopped in the doorway to let a customer through.
Tree’s mother stepped outside.
Time stood still.
The outdoor seating at the restaurant was crowded, but Tree no longer heard the voices or the clank of silverware. All she could hear was her own breathing. She watched as her mother scanned the length of the deck filled with diners. Then their eyes met, and she smiled.
Tree was running toward her now, intercepting her mom before she got even halfway to the table. She was almost sobbing as she threw both arms around her in the middle of the weekday lunch rush.
Her mom laughed, that perfect, crazy horselaugh that Tree knew she’d never hear again.
“Whoa. Hi.”
Tree gasped for breath. “You’re here!”
“Of course I’m here. It’s our day.”
Tree saw her mom look at her father with that What’s wrong? look she used to give him when Tree had been in high school and upset about something when her mom got home from work.
“Are you okay?”
It had been years since she’d heard those words, and the joy that rushed through Tree was like a white, healing light, sewing up wounds, erasing scars, soothing fears.
Tree wiped away her tears. “Yeah. I’m just…I’m just really happy to see you.”
Tree hugged her mom again—more tightly than ever before. A burst of laughter flooded from both of them now, and Tree felt every part of her coming back to life. She drank in that special comfort that can only be found in the arms of a mother who loves you no matter what, and she decided she would never let go again.
* * *
—
“Five…four…three…two…”
Tree could hear Ryan’s voice counting down in the lab as she reached the lower level of the science building. Sissy was humming, and the whole building seemed to shake and rattle as she raced to the door and yelled, “Stop!” at the top of her lungs.
Ryan punched a key, and the lasers powered down as Tree bent over, her hands on her knees, gasping for breath.
“Leave it,” she choked out.
“You told me to—” Ryan began, but Tree held up a hand and cut him off.
“I changed my mind.”
She looked around the room: Dre, Samar, Ryan, and Carter. All of them stared back like she had gone insane. Maybe she had, but her mom was alive. Somehow, someway, in this dimension, she had her mom back. If dying all those times was what it had taken, it was a small price to pay. She smiled at all of them, nodded her thanks, and walked back out the door.
She was halfway to her car when she heard Carter’s voice calling out behind her to wait. He fell into step beside her.
“Why the change of heart?” he asked.
“Everything’s different now.”
“Different how?”
She stopped and turned to face him. “When were you going to tell me?”
“Tell you what?” he asked.
“About Danielle.”
Carter frowned. “You guys live in the same house. I thought you knew.”
“Uh. No,” Tree said. “I definitely didn’t know. The bigger question is, does she know?”
“About what?”
Tree rolled her eyes. “One of her closest friends woke up in your bed this morning. You don’t think that’s newsworthy?”
“Nothing happened,” he said. “I slept in Ryan’s bed.”
“So why take me home?”
“I was afraid you would choke on your own vomit like Janis Joplin.”
Tree groaned. “Look, it’s fine. This is the way it’s supposed to be. My mom’s okay. Lori isn’t trying to kill me—”
Carter held up a hand. “Wait. In this other dimension. We weren’t…?”
Behind Carter, Tree noticed Professor Gregory Butler leaving one of the buildings with his wife, Stephanie. It looked like they were having a heated conversation. Then, right in the middle of it, Gregory looked up and noticed Tree staring at them.
“I have to go,” she said.
Before Carter could protest, Tree headed off in the opposite direction from Gregory and Stephanie.
At least in this dimension, that was one mess she could avoid.
11
The video felt familiar, but as Tree sat on her bed, watching on her phone, she couldn’t help but notice weird differences. She was there with her mom singing, “Happy Birthday to Us,” but the cake she expected to see on the counter was replaced with a huge cinnamon roll with a single candle
in it. There were now a whole trove of memories of which she, herself, had no memory.
She was about to tap the screen to watch it again just as the expected knock came at the door, and Danielle breezed in with her hair up in fat curlers, wearing Tree’s top.
Some things never change.
“I know.” Danielle rolled her eyes. “I’m just borrowing it for tonight. What time are you going to the party?”
“Sorry,” Tree said. “I can’t make it. Something came up.”
“What?”
In the sudden anger that passed over Danielle’s face, Tree saw a flash of the person she knew so well. Then, all at once, the new Danielle was back, all smiles.
“I mean, we’ve been planning this for weeks, Tree.”
Tree sighed. “I know it’s a surprise birthday party, and I’m sorry. It’s just…my parents are in town. I have to see them.”
The lights surged, and the room plunged into total darkness. The blackout was right on schedule.
“Ugh,” she heard Danielle say for what felt like the thousandth time. “Our tuition dollars at work!”
Tree blinked as the lights flickered on. It all felt so familiar again.
“So who told you about the surprise party?” Danielle asked. “Was it Lori? I swear, that girl really needs to learn how to keep a secret.”
Danielle was still talking, but Tree bolted over to the TV and grabbed the remote. When she pressed the button, Teen Mom filled the screen, and Tree changed the channel until she saw the thing she’d been so afraid to see. There was the local news report. Serial killer Joseph Tombs’s mug shot filled the screen, followed by the reporter standing outside Bayfield University Hospital.
“Oh my god,” Tree whispered. “He’s still here.”
* * *
—
One more time, Tree raced down the fourth-floor hallway to the nurses’ station, shouting at a startled Deena.
“He’s going to escape!”
“Who?”
“Joseph Tombs! Call the police!”
Tree turned to see the police officer stationed outside Tombs’s room already up and on his way into the room.
“Wait!” she yelled. “Don’t go in there!”
But it was too late.
She ran down the hall and stopped to shatter the glass case that held the fire ax with her elbow. One careful step at a time, she approached the door of Tombs’s room and swung it open. This time, the bed was empty.
There was no sign of Tombs or the cop, and she felt the familiar rush of her own blood in her ears as she crossed the space with cautious steps, the ax gripped in her trembling hands. As she stopped to peer behind the bed, she heard the…
Flush.
The bathroom door swung open, and Tree spun around, the ax raised to strike.
“Whoa!”
Tree froze as the police officer grabbed his gun from the holster and trained it at her chest.
“Drop the ax!” he yelled.
“Wait!” she cried. “I can explain!”
“Drop it! Now!”
Tree obeyed and put her hands in the air. “He’s escaped! He’s going to kill someone!”
“Face the wall!” he commanded. “Hands behind your back!”
“You don’t understand! Lori let him go!”
He jabbed the gun toward her for emphasis. “I’m not asking again!”
Tree turned around and put her hands behind her back. The officer stepped in and cuffed her as she begged him to pay attention.
“Please. Listen to me. My roommate works here. She let Tombs go so she can blame him, but she’s going to kill me.”
“Lady, I don’t know what kind of bad shit you’re on, but Tombs is down in the OR right now. They just took him.”
“Who took him? Was there a tall girl?” Tree asked. “Dark hair in a ponytail?”
The cop grabbed her by the arm. “Let’s go.”
As he pushed her out the door and into the hallway, the police officer spoke into the walkie-talkie mounted on his shoulder.
“Dispatch, this is Officer Ramirez. I’ve got an 11550 over at the hospital. Need immediate assistance.”
Through a crackle of static, Tree heard the dispatcher say, “Copy that. Available units, please—”
Bam!
The killer in the Bayfield Baby mask burst through an open doorway and slammed into the cop. Tree screamed as the killer pinned Ramirez to the wall. The glint of the blade flashed once before finding its mark over and over. As the cop slid to the floor in a pool of crimson, Tree made a run for it as best she could, the metal of the cuffs roughly pinning her wrists behind her back.
At the end of the hall, she rounded the corner to the elevator bank and backed up to the call button, frantically pressing it as the masked psychopath stepped around the corner and stopped.
“You can lose the mask!” she yelled. “I know it’s you, Lori!”
The only response was the killer raising the bloodied knife.
Ding!
The elevator doors opened right behind Tree. She whirled around and came face-to-face with Lori.
Tree froze for a split second as her brain tried to wrap itself around this new development, but Lori was already jabbing the button and pulling Tree into the elevator with her. The killer charged at them with the knife raised high, hitting the elevator with a thud as the doors closed in the nick of time.
She stared at Lori, stunned. “I thought you—”
“Are you okay? What the hell’s going on? Who was that?” The terror in her eyes was real.
“Tombs escaped!” Tree said, gasping for breath. “He’s trying to kill me.”
“Tree, that’s not possible. I just helped them take him down to the OR.”
The elevator suddenly jerked to a stop as the lights overhead flickered and died. It was almost pitch-dark now, and Tree felt the familiar terror of her own impending death return with a vengeance.
“What’s happening?”
Lori was stabbing at the lobby button, but nothing was happening. “It’s stuck.”
“He cut the power.”
“Just stay calm,” Lori said, but the panic in her voice belied her words. She grabbed the emergency phone and held it to her ear, jamming the receiver hook in search of a dial tone that didn’t exist. “Shit!”
Lori turned and started prying apart the doors, inch by inch, opening them up until they could see the darkened hallway.
She whispered, “C’mon!”
Tree had no choice but to follow.
12
Lori helped Tree jump down out of the elevator, which had stopped a couple of feet higher than the floor. The handcuffs were making her fingers prickle now, and Tree scanned the hall looking for an escape.
The entire floor was under construction and deserted this late at night, leaving only the dim glow from a few work lamps and exit signs to light their way.
They had to get out fast. Large plastic tarps were draped over every door and hung from the ceiling in other areas to minimize dust during the remodel. It was impossible for Tree to tell where they were or which way they should go.
Lori got her bearings quickly and pointed down the hall. “There’s an emergency exit at the other end. Come on.”
Tree had to trust her. The sheets of hanging plastic blocked her view of any exit, but she did see a sledgehammer leaning up against a wall.
Tree nodded to it. “Wait. Grab that.”
Lori picked it up and, shoulder-to-shoulder, they made their way down the long corridor. Every door they passed through was covered with plastic sheets, and Tree knew that each one could be hiding a killer. Above them, every few feet, a ceiling panel had been removed, and bundles of thick black cables hung down in their way. Lori swept them aside with the sledgehammer and
held them for Tree so she could get by without the use of her hands.
As they forged ahead, one of the plastic sheets covering a doorway in front of them billowed out toward Tree. She stared into the dark room, expecting to see the baby mask at any moment.
Ahead of her, Lori approached another thick bundle of cables and stopped suddenly as if she’d heard something. Tree stopped behind her and listened.
“What?” she whispered. “Did you hear something?”
Lori turned around slowly, her eyes wide with shock. Tree watched as her lips parted gently and a thick bead of blood rolled down the corner of her mouth.
Tree looked down in horror and saw the handle of a knife sticking out of Lori’s chest. Her roommate dropped the sledgehammer with a metallic thud, then collapsed beside it.
The bundle of power cables hanging in front of her began to move as a hand pulled them sideways, revealing a Bayfield Baby mask. The killer spotted the sledgehammer next to Lori’s body and picked it up. Playfully, he spun it around in his hands and said nothing.
“All right, asshole,” Tree challenged him. “Let’s see what you got.”
The sledgehammer flew toward her so fast that she was barely able to dodge the blow. It smashed deep into the drywall, buried with such force that it got stuck.
Tree seized the moment and ran.
With two tugs, the killer dislodged the sledgehammer and barreled after her.
Dodging plastic panels and power cords with her hands still cuffed, Tree found the emergency exit and slammed into the door, but it didn’t budge.
“Come on!” Tree yelled.
The killer was closing in on her. Tree took a step back and kicked the door open just as the killer swung again. As Tree jumped out of the way, the momentum of the sledgehammer pulled him past her and through the door, into the stairwell, sending him down a flight of stairs. He tumbled to a stop on the landing below.
“Ha!” Tree shouted, triumphant.
The killer popped back up to his feet.
“Shit.”
She turned around and ran up the stairwell. Up, up, up she went, losing track of how many flights or which floor, until finally she banged open a metal door marked ROOF ACCESS.
Happy Death Day & Happy Death Day 2U Page 17