There Can Only Be Six

by Andrea Levesque

  A girl screamed, probably the one other girl I didn’t know that was still in the running (or had it been Nina?), and some laughter peeled from what I could only guess was Shane and his buddies.

  “The lights won’t turn on.” Someone yelled. The unmistakable sound of a light switch being flipped on and off in a nearby classroom sounded into the hallway.

  “And the front door is locked.” The girl’s voice said, filled with panic. I held up my hand as a light shined in my face.

  “Sorry,” Nina said, lowering her cell phone. A few others pulled out their phones and turned on their flashlights until finally the immediate area was lit fairly well. My hand went to my flannel, and I groaned as I realized my own cell phone was sitting in my coat pocket in the car.

  The hallway became eerily quiet with the darkness subsiding momentarily as everyone looked around, eyes darting at one other, unsettled. In the silence, I realized the sudden absence of one other very important sound - the vibration of the school’s heating system.

  “It’s a school Harper; there will be heat.” I mimicked Nina’s own words from earlier in her ear. “Nina, they shut the heat off!”

  “Shit.” She said, but I couldn’t fully see her expression.

  The sound of an intercom crackled loudly above us. Everyone froze.

  “At first, there were twelve.” Cunningham’s commanding voice filled the hallway. “Ten of you completed the first challenge. Tonight, only eight will succeed. You have one assignment. Escape. Do not break school property. Do not call for help. Scrolls will be waiting for those who prevail.” A chill ran up my spine. “And remember, there can only be six.”

  To my surprise, by the time Cunningham finished talking, almost everyone was standing in a circle around the school emblem on the floor. Jamie stood to my left, and I smiled at him. He smiled back until Shane elbowed him in the ribs. Valentina and Adan found their way across from Nina and me, and her eyes narrowed.

  “Can we climb out the windows?” I whispered to Nina, but someone else answered me.

  “The only windows that open are too small for a whole body to fit through. The rest are sealed shut.” The boy half of the couple said. His girlfriend was clinging to him, eyes filled with fear.

  “Sounds like a fire hazard,” I muttered but figured old schools probably broke all kinds of rules like that.

  “Let’s go,” Shane said to his friends. “If there are only eight scrolls, two people aren’t going to make it. We need to split off and fend for ourselves.” Jamie trailed behind Shane and his friends, looking back at us apologetically.

  The couple that had been panicking earlier exchanged a glance, and with that, headed down another hallway by themselves.

  “Do you want to tell me what they’re doing here?” Valentina said, looking at Adan. It was just the four of us now, so there was no escaping this supremely awkward conversation.

  “They figured it out themselves.” He shrugged.

  “Okay, no,” Nina said, stepping toward Valentina. “We are not going to do this little song and dance again.” Nina’s finger wagged in front of her face.

  Valentina laughed, her eyes closed and head thrown back. “Okay, someone’s grown a backbone since their new friend came to town. Damn, you haven’t spoken to me for years, Muller.”

  Nina fidgeted with her sweater. “I’m just saying. You may have had the advantage in the last challenge with all of your bravery and athleticism, but this challenge is all about intelligence and cunning. I have a 4.0 GPA. I’m the brains. And Harper,” Nina spun to look at me, then paused.

  “She’s ‘the cunning’?” Valentina finished skeptically. Both Valentina and Adan looked me up and down the same way Nina just had, and I crossed my arms over my chest defensively.

  “Harper has all the cool gadgets.” Adan winked at me.

  “Yes!” Nina bounced. “She does. Show them, Harper.” Nina squeezed my arm.

  “Nina!” I chided, pulling my arm from her grasp.

  She shot me a look. “Come on. You’ve got to have something; you always do.” Nina said through her teeth. “Isn’t that why you wear such loose pants? So you can fit all your crap?” She glanced over at Valentina and Adan, then slipped into a more casual tone. “Or is it the lesbian thing?” My cheeks flamed red, her sudden change of subject surprising me. I intentionally kept my eyes on Nina, not wanting to see either of the twins' reactions.

  But Nina did watch them both after dropping her bomb. She turned straight to Valentina, then flicked her gaze to Adan. I’m not sure what she saw, but I was eager to get the attention off me.

  “My pants aren’t loose. These are on-trend, Nina.”

  “Maybe in New York.” She said, smoothing down her ponytail, her signature curls straightened to perfection.

  I huffed. “New York is the fashion capital of the world. There’s a reason designers fly out from Europe. You don’t see them chartering a plane to arrive at Newport Fashion Week or Provincetown Fashion Week.” I reasoned.

  I patted my pockets for something impressive to show the group. I pulled out my grandfather’s lighter, which probably wouldn’t do us any good without lighter fluid. I gave it to Nina to hold, then managed to find the vintage swiss army knife I’d found at an antique store in New York. Despite being old enough to claim participation in World War II, the knife was in great shape.

  “You brought a knife?” Nina scoffed.

  “It’s a pocketknife, Nina. It’s a perfectly normal and safe thing to carry around.” I said, “Plus, I thought you wanted me to find something useful! What could be more useful than this?”

  She shoved my lighter in my face. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe a working lighter? You know, in case we freeze to death in here and need to make a fire, or use it for cooking, or… I don’t know, light the way after our phones die.”

  “You want to light a fire in a school that we’re locked into? Sounds like the beginning of an eighties horror movie.” I threw my hands in the air. “We’d be the kids haunting the school in that film. You know, the dead ones?”

  Nina sniffed. “Who carries a lighter that doesn’t even work anyway?”

  I snatched the lighter from her and shoved both items back in my jeans. “Beggars can’t be choosers,” I said and tucked my hair behind my ear.

  “Ugh, fine,” Valentina said, cutting in and rolling her eyes. “We’ll do this together. Just stop arguing for the love of God. I forgot how annoying you could get, Nina.” She turned and gave us one last look over her shoulder. Why was she so good at that? “Seems like you finally found someone who can keep up with you.”

  “Hey!” Nina and I said in unison, then laughed.

  Despite Nina’s little speech about her and me dominating this challenge, the two of us hung back and let Nina and Adan lead the way. Because Wellsley Prep was so vast, we agreed to wander around a bit and see if any brilliant ideas jumped out at us.

  Unfortunately, the only thing jumping was us. Every creek in the walls or voice echoing down an adjacent corridor had us on edge. Something about the cloak of darkness and dropping temperature gave us all the feeling we weren’t entirely safe.

  “Do you want to tell me why you dropped the L bomb in front of the twins just then? In all the years I’ve been out, you’ve never talked so much about my sexuality. What’s up?” I bumped her with my shoulder and kept my voice down so the twins wouldn’t hear me.

  Nina bumped me back. “That’s because in all the years you’ve been out, you’ve never had so many love interests.” She nodded in the direction of Adan and Valentina. “I was doing you a favor. I wanted to see how Valentina would react.”

  “And?”

  “And…” Nina bit her lip. “Hard to tell. Her eyes definitely widened, but I don’t know if it’s because she was surprised, excited, or pissed.” She sighed. “Adan didn’t look all that surprised though, I mean, maybe a little, but I don’t think his feelings for you are contingent on you bein
g straight, to be honest.”

  This time, I sighed. “Great.”

  “Yeah…” We turned down another hallway and kept pace behind the twins. “Still, now V knows. So, if she is into women and she is -”

  “Into me.” I finished.

  “Right, if she is into you, she can make a move.” Nina smiled. “You can thank me later.”

  “Will do. So, now that I’ve forgiven you, do you want to tell me what Valentina was going on about earlier?” I asked Nina. “She was acting like you guys used to be friends or something.”

  “We did.” She whispered back.

  “What? No way. How come I didn’t know about any of this?”

  Nina sighed. “I don’t know, maybe because I kind of feel bad about it? The thing is, V, Adan and I were all super close when we were little. Like, little little.”

  “But?” I urged her to continue.

  She blew out a breath. “But V and Adan’s dad died when they were like, thirteen? Before that, V was such a sweetie. Like, I know she was a kid and everything, but you wouldn’t even believe it, Harper. She was a total softie. And of course, Adan and V are mirror twins, so…”

  “Mirror twins?”

  “You know, when one is up, the other is down. Yin and Yang. Like, when V was calm and kind, Adan was temperamental.”

  “Hmm.” I thought about it. “I guess it makes sense, like they have to balance each other out,” I said.

  Nina nodded. “Right. But V was such a daddy’s girl. When he died, she became the temperamental one. She only got worse and worse too. Like, a flip switched, and she became this angry girl. Looking back on it, I can’t blame her. Adan was away at reform school and-”

  “Reform school?”

  “Yeah, or like, some version of a boys boarding school for ‘bad kids’.” I watched Nina make quotation marks with her fingers as she said, “bad kids”. “He just acted out a lot. He had some anger issues. His parents sent him away for a year, hoping he’d learn something and come back normal. Well, it kind of worked because the minute he found out about his dad, he was released and came back as this sweet, kind guy. Like maybe he took responsibility for leaving V to deal with the trauma alone.”

  Ahead of us, Adan laughed at something Valentina said. Watching the two of them together, I wondered what it would have been like had their attitudes been switched.

  “It’s just crazy how different they both are. You wouldn’t believe it, seeing them now.” She added.

  “And Macy?” I said, thinking of their mom. “She wasn't there to help Valentina?”

  Nina closed her fist and stuck only her pinky and thumb out, shaking her hand back and forth and holding the gesture to her lips.

  “Their mom’s an alcoholic?”

  “Total booze cruise. Even before she got into that stuff though, she wasn’t a very present mom.”

  “That’s weird. She doesn’t strike me as the type.” I ran my hands over my arms, trying to warm myself up.

  Nina made a “hmm” noise. “I think she sobered up when she met your dad. Which, my guess? Pisses V off even more. Like, what, she couldn’t sober up for her husband or kids, but when Mr. Hottie McHot Daddy -”

  I shot her a look.

  She cleared her throat. “When your dad came into the picture, it’s all Sober Sally. I’d be pissed, too, honestly.”

  I thought about Nina’s parents. They’re probably one of the few families around here who actually had dinner with their kids every night. I doubted any other families in this town could claim that, my own father included.

  “Anyway,” she continued. “My point is when V started getting all difficult when we were tweens, it was really hard to be her friend. I didn’t know what to do, you know? I was too young to forgive her or to help her. So, I guess I kind of ditched and left that friendship behind. Sometimes I even kind of feel guilty about it. It’s not completely her fault she’s like this.” Now that I thought about it, I did faintly remember Nina mentioning the twins back when we were younger. At that age, though, I never knew who she was talking about when she mentioned someone from the town, so I kind of brushed off any mention of our neighbors.

  My eyebrows skyrocketed to my hairline, and Nina immediately said, “If you ever tell her that, I’ll kill you!”

  I thought about what Nina said. I lived with my parents and my grandfather in Newport until my grandfather died suddenly when I was six, so I kind of understood what Valentina went through. With my dad away at work and my mother desperate to fit in with the other socialite moms, I was closest to my grandfather, just as Valentina was to her dad. Moving to New York the following year had been the fresh start I’d needed in the wake of both the biggest loss of my life and my parent's divorce, but I was still lucky enough to still have both parents despite the lingering trauma. V wasn't. From the sounds of things, she didn’t have any family to lean on besides Adan.

  The sudden sound of metal hitting metal boomed down the hallway, and we all screamed.

  “Okay, I think we can all chill out. It’s not like this actually is a horror movie, and someone’s going to jump out and kill us,” I said.

  “Or pick us off one by one,” Nina added.

  Valentina spun around suddenly, eyes following the trail her flashlight was making behind us.

  “Then why do I feel like we’re being followed?” She muttered to herself.

  Adan stuck his head in one classroom, then wandered to another across the hall. “Why did that sound like… like a window flapping open?” Adan finished.

  The sound rang through the halls once again, and we all bolted into the classroom Adan had been heading towards.

  “Right there!” He said, pointing to an open window, the unlatched glass popping open and closed in the breeze.

  “It’s too small,” Valentina grumbled. She turned to step back outside the door, but it slammed shut only inches from her face. Another group scream fell involuntarily from our mouths. Valentina rattled the handle, but the door didn’t budge.

  “It’s locked!” She yelled to the rest of us.

  “The other door!” Nina pointed her flashlight to another door adjoining this classroom to the one next to us. Adan booked it over there, but just as he hit the threshold, the heavy wood smacked him in the face as it closed. One of Shane’s cronies waved from the window opening in the door. Adan grabbed fruitlessly at the handle and threw his weight up against it to no avail.

  I looked back at Valentina’s door, seeing Shane’s face pop up behind it, his devious smile making my heart sink. I ran up to them and joined Valentina in banging on the window, cursing and yelling at Shane to let us out.

  A muffled “Bye, bye” sounded through the windows thick glass. He flipped us the bird, then turned and ran off.

  Valentina let out a cry of frustration. “Shane, I swear to god if you don’t let us out, you’re done for! You know I’ll do it, too!” Her words rang hollow towards the empty hallway.

  A bang sounded behind me as Adan tried the side door again. “It looks like…” Adan pressed his head against the door’s window and craned his neck. “I think they shoved a wooden hockey stick against the door.”

  Valentina mimicked her brother. “Yeah, this door too. Those little shits. I’m going to kill Shane the next chance I get. This has to go against some Order rule.”

  “I doubt it,” Nina said, leaning up against a lab desk. “Cunningham said the only rules are, ‘do not break school property, do not call for help.’ Locking other challengers in classrooms doesn’t really make that list.”

  “Fuck!” Valentina slammed her palms against the heavy door. “This isn’t over.

  FIVE

  Valentina walked in angry circles around the classroom, only breaking the pattern to jiggle the door handle or occasionally smack her palms against the door.

  “Well, one thing that we know for sure won’t get us out of here is that,” I said to the room, jutting my chin up in
Valentina’s direction. Valentina scowled at me, and for a second, I thought she might charge at me, but Adan stepped between us. As he led Valentina to the other side of the classroom to calm down, Nina jumped up onto the lab desk beside me.

  “I hate to say it, but you were right about the coat thing.” Nina handed me her flashlight and pulled her arms inside her sweatshirt, letting the empty sleeves hang loose. “But only this once and only because Cunningham apparently sees this whole challenge thing as a Survivor episode.”

  We stared straight ahead as we spoke, observing Adan’s back as he spoke in calm tones to Valentina tucked somewhere behind him.

  “Let me know who I should call to cancel his cable subscription.”

  “No one watches cable.” Nina’s Gucci boots kicked my high tops, leaving a scuff on the white material.

  “Hey!” I screeched and kicked her back.

  Nina grinned as we started a kicking war. “They were already dirty!" She shouted at my sneakers, our hands getting involved as we started pushing at each other playfully. All smiles, we started falling off the table when Adan spoke up.

  “Maybe we should come up with a plan here.”

  Nina and I let our hands drop, our amusement following suit. “Right,” I agreed, smoothing down my now messy hair. “Like, we look for an exit for X amount of time, then if we can’t get out, we call Y person to get us out of here, that kind of thing?”

  Valentina pushed out from behind Adan. “Actually, I was thinking more like, we most definitely get out, then we fucking murder Shane. Sound like a plan?”

  “Sounds good to me!” Nina agreed, grabbing her phone back from me and jumping off the table.

  “Nina,” Adan said quietly.

  “Yeah, don’t encourage me, Nina.” Valentina sing-songed.

  “That’s not what I -” Adan started, but I cut him off.

  “Okay, everyone, look around. Forget about Shane for two seconds, and let’s focus on getting out of here. This looks like a science lab. There’s got to be something. Adan, maybe you can keep banging up against one of the doors and see if it will eventually budge. In the meantime, maybe we can figure out an alternative.”