Book I - ch 27. Down the Winding Path Into Darkness

* * *

Sarah threw some more cold water on her face, taking a deep breath before opening her eyes. In the mirror, only her reflection remained. And it was herself, she was sure of it.

Her own eyes, tired from a sleepless night and red from crying, confirmed it. She watched as the water dripped from her chin, waiting for a change that never happened.

Reluctant to blink, she was afraid she would lose sight of herself and find something else waiting for her in the mirror. She steadied her breathing, holding out until she could no longer endure before allowing her eyes to close.

She wiped her tears and the water from her face with her hands. Nothing had changed.

Was she being paranoid? What was she even expecting?

She stared into the darkness of her own eyes, trying to see anything beyond the distorted reflection of the world around her.

Movement caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. When she turned to look, there was nothing there.

It was a small blessing that there was no one else in that bathroom to see her freaking out.

Come to think of it, it was a bit weird that there was nobody in here. Was it time for the next class?

She checked her watch and realized she’d already missed half of her Introduction to Economics class. It had been a struggle to pay attention even before all this. There was little point in going back now. She might as well go find Robyn.

Her sister had been strangely silent today, not having replied to any of her messages. She hadn’t even picked up when Sarah called during lunch.

Out of stubbornness, if nothing else, Sarah tried calling her one more time. The ringing insisted, over and over again, until the mechanical voice informed her to leave a message that Robyn would never check.

Sarah finished wiping her face with the edge of her sleeve. Her reflection didn’t look too bad now. Schooling her expression, she pressed a fingertip against her swollen eyelids. It had gone down a bit. Not perfect, but well enough that random strangers wouldn’t be compelled to ask her if she was alright.

When she finally started moving, she had to consciously slow her pace so it wouldn’t match the rhythm of her racing heart. Panic was trying to start up again on its own, and she did her best to calm down.

The feeling—that strange, horrible feeling—that had been eating away at her for most of the day was still there. She’d tried to ignore it, then she tried to conquer it. Nothing worked as she wished. But at least she knew what it was now.

Fear.

At first, she thought she was afraid that these foreign sensations and visions were all some hallucination concocted by her own mind. But what she realized now was that the fear itself was also a foreign thing, without cause or reason.

She was afraid, she was so very much afraid. But of what?

Something related to Robyn was her guess by how anxious she was at her inability to find her sister.

Now she was also afraid that whatever was behind that unwelcome fear was also real. Wasn’t that ridiculous?

She forced a laugh. Nothing had happened to Robyn. Nothing was going to happen.

She took a left turn down the corridor, headed towards Robyn’s classroom.

It wouldn’t hurt to check.

* * *

Not for the first time, Sarah thought she heard footsteps outside in the hallway. Probably more tricks her mind was playing on her. There seemed to be no shortage of those lately.

Even though she knew that, she couldn’t help trying to hear something more. She held her breath for as long as she could—which wasn’t that long at all—but it was no good.

More than once, she imagined a faint sound interspersed with the silence, but her own heartbeat drowned it out.

There was no knock on her door. She expected as much, but she couldn’t help be disappointed.

She slid one of the photo albums towards her, pushing aside her bunched-up bedsheets. Her hand lifted a page before she’d thought about it. Almost by inertia, she flipped through the pages, but she wasn’t looking at any of the photos.

She kept glancing at the door instead, intermittently imagining she heard footsteps right outside. Her glances lingered longer with each turning page. It wasn’t until she’d reached the end of the album that she forced herself to stop staring at the door.

Stolen story; please report.

Flipping the pages back to the beginning, Sarah focused on the images this time. The first photo that caught her attention was from her birthday, maybe seventh or eighth judging by her short hair.

Sue, her best friend at the time, spent the night. There was a dark, blurry photo of Robyn’s face lit up by a flashlight as she entertained them with a ghost story.

Sue asked her to stop so many times. Sarah only remembered laughing—she’d never believed in ghosts. When Sue went to the bathroom, Robyn tied a string to the doorknob. At the end of the night, when Robyn got to the end of her last ghost story, she pulled on the string, the door creaking open with perfect creepiness. Sue screamed and tossed the pillow at the door.

Mom was so angry, they got their TV rights revoked for two weeks.

Even after they explained the trick and showed Sue that it was nothing more than a string, the girl kept her wide eyes on the door until she dozed off.

Sarah glanced at the door. Sue would be the one laughing right now. There were no ghosts, but she was afraid of things that weren’t real, so what was the difference?

A sudden knock on the door made her jump. Maybe it was a bad sign that she could recognize the knock now. Then again, there weren’t many options.

Sure enough, it was Pegasus. She tried to hide her disappointment that it wasn’t her sister.

“Is Robyn back?” she asked.

Pegasus shook his head. “But they’re done, so they’re starting back now. I thought you’d like to know.” He gave her a concerned look. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah.” Being terrified out of her mind didn’t mean she wasn’t okay, right?

Pegasus looked less than convinced by her reply.

Scared as she was, she wouldn’t accept that everything was fine until she saw her sister.

“I’m worried, that’s all,” she confessed. She could at least get away with downplaying her true emotions. “Is everyone okay?”

“A few bumps and bruises from what I heard, but nothing major. A couple of hours and they’ll be home.”

Home. What an odd way to describe these lifeless gray hallways.

What made up a home anyway? She rubbed her temple, wishing she could disperse such thoughts. “Did they do what they wanted to do? Their mission or whatever…”

He shrugged. “Things didn’t go exactly according to plan.”

“What do you mean?”

She watched his eyes settle on the albums. He came closer, smiling when he saw the photos she’d stopped at. A teenage Robyn was sticking her tongue out at the camera.

Distracted or stalling for time, he flipped a few pages, the smile never leaving his face.

“If you’re hoping to test me on the stuff you left here the other day, I haven’t actually done any studying.”

“No, I just stopped by to update you on Robyn.”

“Were you bored?” Not that she was complaining, but he could’ve told her via the intercom.

Pegasus chuckled, not looking up from the photos.

Sarah pulled the pillow closer, hugging it tight. “What went wrong with their mission?”

“They got what they were looking for, in part. We’re still working on the rest.”

Sarah didn’t insist, sure she’d get another cryptic reply.

Pegasus turned the album towards him and rearranged a photo that had been slipping from its plastic pocket. “But their job is done for now.”

She really hoped she wasn’t dreaming this time. Her mind couldn’t play that many tricks on her, right?

* * *

Sarah watched her feet as she hurried along towards Robyn’s classroom. Judging by the number of students cluttering up the hallways, several classes had ended early today.

She tried calling Robyn again as she wove through the crowd, but the same mechanical voice demanding a message was heard on the other end. Sarah ran up the first flight of stairs to the second floor. She didn’t think she’d be out of breath this quickly.

There was no actual emergency. She could afford to slow down.

Robyn was okay, of course she was. There was no reason to think otherwise.

Nothing was wrong.

What was she even expecting to find?

There was no cloud of dust and debris, no smoke in the distance, and no crowd of screaming bystanders.

Sarah couldn’t think of any other disasters. It wasn’t as if this side of the country had ever seen a hurricane. And they were far enough inland that a tsunami would never reach them.

She forced herself to calm down before she started thinking of alien abductions and the like. Racing up the next flight of stairs, she almost ran into a couple of fellow students who’d stopped on the steps to copy notes.

It was a few minutes before the hour when she made it to Robyn’s class. She didn’t even bother trying to catch her breath before she looked inside.

It was empty.

Nothing on the white board suggested class had been moved elsewhere.

Sarah hurried back out, heading for the staircase opposite the one she’d taken. She spotted one of Robyn’s classmates further down the hall.

Unable to remember his name, she couldn’t call out to him, so she ran to catch up with him instead.

The boy came to a startled stop when she touched his shoulder.

It took her a moment to catch her breath. “Hey, have you seen Robyn?”

He nodded. “She left with Tim, April, and the new foreign student… I can’t remember his name.”

“Yeah, I know him,” Sarah said impatiently. She didn’t remember his name either, but she knew Tim and April.

“I think they went to get some food.”

“Do you know where?”

“No, sorry. But I think Robyn’s going straight to her internship later.”

“Thanks.”

Sarah glanced at her watch. Robyn’s phone had to be dead or buried somewhere inside her bag. She’d tried calling enough times.

Unfortunately, she had neither Tim nor April’s contact. She could call Melissa—Tim’s ex—and ask for his number, but that would be an awkward conversation considering the shouting match they’d had last week. Maybe she could call Jenna and get April’s number, they both were in soccer together, but that would only work if April was still with Robyn at this point.

She placed a hand on her chest as she steadied her breathing.

Was it really that important that she reach Robyn? Or was the fear and worry only in her head, like so many things seemed to be lately?

Sarah squeezed the phone in her hand, staring down at her lock screen. Should she go back home and wait for Robyn there? Intent on heading back to her class to grab her things, she turned back to the first stairway.

That’s when she heard the gunshot.

The phone almost fell from her hand.

Hanging on by a shred of control, she looked around.

No one was running, no one looked scared or even startled. Laughter sounded in the distance. She breathed out a relieved sigh. She thought it was a gunshot, but she’d never heard one before.

Someone screamed.

Sarah whirled towards the desperate sound.

There was blood everywhere.

She let out a muffled cry.

Footsteps intruded from far away as people ran towards her. She thought she screamed, but maybe she hadn’t. A shout echoed in the silence, but even that didn’t make sense.

Sarah’s phone slipped from her trembling hands, landing painfully on her foot.

She stumbled back, running into someone.

Before her terrified gaze, blood and bodies vanished as if they’d never been there.