Page 144 of Tag

A toilet flushed, giving me a pause for the second time.

“Who’s in here?” My voice came out sharper than I meant it to. Not wanting to sound totally freaked, I added quickly, “We’re late.”

There was the unmistakableclinkof a stall door being unlocked. A second or so later, Brittany stepped from around the corner. “Sorry if I scared you,” she apologized with a small, sheepish smile.

“It’s fine.” I was more concerned with what I saw. Her blonde curls were slightly damp at the ends, one arm cradled her stomach, and her face was a few shades paler than usual.

“Are you okay?”

She grimaced. “I ate sugar-free gummy bears at lunch without thinking. I have no gallbladder. You do the math.”

“Oh, that’s brutal,” I replied sympathetically.

“Think Roxxi will let me sit out tonight? I can’t tumble.” She rubbed her stomach like even saying the word triggered a cramp.

“She’s not an overlord, Britt. You’re in no position to run any routines.”

She gave me a flat, skeptical look. I couldn’t help laughing a little.

“I’ll talk to her for you. Do you have an extra hair tie I can borrow before we head out? Mine’s apparently gone AWOL.”

“Yeah, hang on.” She turned to her locker and popped it open, digging through a pile of half-folded uniforms and a hoodie that had seen better days. She finally pulled out a fresh elastic from a package of them and tossed it my way.

I caught it, thanking her.

“What do you think about being Marked this year?”

I shrugged, careful to keep my voice neutral. “Not remotely ecstatic, but it’s all about Crowsfell tradition, right? There isn’t anything I can do about it.”

A loud, violentslamechoed through the room. Sharp enough to rattle the surrounding lockers.

We both flinched hard.

The lights flickered overhead, shutting on and off as if someone was playing with the switch.

“Oh, hell no.”

“Time to get the fuck out of here,” Britt declared sharply, right beside me.

We barely made it three steps before we were plunged into darkness, and a voice rang out. It was distorted.Warped into something that sounded like a kid’s toy melted in a microwave, cartoonish and wrong.

“Two little cheerleaders alone in the dark. Which one should bleed first?”

My heart shot into my throat.

Brittany grabbed my wrist just as I caught her elbow, and we bolted, our sneakers squealing across the floor. We rounded the corner at full speed, just as the lights came back on. Both of us stopped so abruptly that we almost fell. Standing directly in front of the only exit was a person cloaked in all blackwith a hood up and sporting gloves. Their face was concealed behind an LED mask that glitched between a laughing face and a skull.

“Running’s no fun if there’s nowhere to run,”the voice drawled, mechanical and slick with menace.

We backed up immediately, steps matched, instincts flaring. I sensed it before I saw him over Brittany’s shoulder. Our crow was behind us. How had he gotten in here without us hearing?

Brittany sucked in a sharp breath, her grip on my arm tightening. “Wait, they can’t do anything yet. The Hunt hasn’t started! They don’t have the hours, and—.”

She screamed as the person in front of us lunged.

We broke apart, her going right and me left, back into a row of lockers. I made it to the end and was circling the bench when Dennis slammed into me, arms padded and heavy, locking tight around my waist before I could fall, carrying me backward.

Fighting him was like trying to fight off a moving boulder because of his damn bird suit. He hauled me along like I weighed nothing, but I didn’t make it easy. I caught a flash of Brittany being backhanded. Before she could hit the ground, the masked fucker carrying out the assault tookhold of her by the hair and started dragging her in the same direction Dennis was going.

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