Haunted & Hijinked

I stifle a giggle as purple and silver streamers fall on top of Lance’s head. Half of a purple one sticks to his nose while a mix clings to his dark hair. 

He waggles his eyebrows at me, causing a laugh to burst out of my mouth. 

“Here, let me help you.”

My pumps clank against the metal rungs of the ladder as I climb down from the ceiling of the cafeteria. Really should’ve worn jeans to decorate our school’s cafeteria, but this morning had been picture make-up day. Definitely didn’t wanna miss the chance to correct my horrid photos from last month when the hugest zit showed up. Bright red and right on the end of my nose like I was a cross between a witch and Rudolph the Reindeer. 

Now, I am clear-skinned, and look good in my emerald mini-skirt and loose poet-style white blouse.

“Sorry about dropping the box on you.” I pick the papier-mâché streamers off and replace them with the others. Pulsing techno music drifts across the cafeteria, my favorite song, and I start humming along.

Lance shrugs. “That’s okay, I was enjoying the view of you up there.”

A flush heats my whole face. While Lance and I had started dating during a July pool party right before school started, we’d only skimmed second base so far. It is my junior year of high school, and things are looking up. I have a gorgeous jock boyfriend, my grades are good, and I’ve volunteered to help decorate for Prom.

“Remind me why we’re doing this now when the dance isn’t until tomorrow night?” Lance leans an elbow on the ladder.

I right the overturned box and brush the spilled decorations back inside. “Because I want everything to be perfect. Especially since it’s your last Prom here.”

Which totally bums me out. He’s gotten accepted with a full scholarship into Louisiana Wildcat’s College to play for their football team. A whole state away. My high heels pinch my toes and I shuffle from foot to foot to ease the cramp.

“Don’t be sad. Next year will fly by, and soon you’ll be down with me, even if you are already eighteen and should be graduating with me.” He wraps his arms around me. “We’ll visit the riverboats, and eat étouffée and beignets until we pop.”

I lean my head against his chest, breathing in his scent of powder, mint gum, and a hint of cigarettes. If my life had been different, I would be a senior too, like him. “Promise?”

“Sure,” he says as though I asked him to hold my hand. “You can come to visit on the weekends and during school breaks. We can even throw in some gambling since you’re legal.”

“Until then, I’ll be your lucky lady.” I reach up and kiss his neck.

“You always are.” He hugs me, then leans down, brushing his lips across mine.

“God, I leave you alone for five minutes and you’re already sucking face.” Amelia, my best friend, makes gagging noises as she enters the cafeteria juggling three crates.

“Here, let us help you with those.” I untangle myself from Lance’s arms and dash to grab one of the boxes while he takes the remaining ones.

“Gesh, Amelia, you got some muscles under your sleeves, these are heavy,” Lance says in an approving tone.

“Since you’ve taken my best friend away most nights, I bought a gym membership downtown.” She pats a neon-blue nail against her dark cheek.

“Looking good.” He winks, then strides toward the ladder, setting the new supplies beside the streamers.

I had been spending more time with him than my friends. After Prom, I make a mental note to have a girl’s night out with Amelia, Jolene, and Rachel.

“Sorry, Amelia.” I put the box I held beside the others. “It’s not Lance’s fault. I’ve been busy with planning this since September.”

“If I wasn’t here now,” Lance adds, “I wouldn’t see Brene all week until Prom. She even blew me off at the movies last Saturday for some fundraiser.”

“Poor baby,” Amelia teases.

“Hey, I told you why I couldn’t go that day, Lance. Wasn’t my fault you didn’t want to listen to the story of the bag of kittens I found on the side of the road.” I’d spent the afternoon taking the kittens to a shelter that doesn’t kill them if they don’t get adopted and then stayed to help bathe them and feed them. They’d been covered in fleas and malnourished.

“See, she puts animals above me.” Lance pouts. “What am I going to do when I’m gone and she’s left alone to her own devices? She might start a halfway house for every animal within a fifty-mile radius.” 

I bristle, but force a smile. “If I was that bad, I’d have kept the whole litter of kittens for myself, wouldn’t I have?”

“And you’re saying you didn’t?” Amelia asks, her eyes wide.

So I have three dogs, two cats, a tank of fish, and a parakeet at home…so what? Isn’t like I have a zoo going on or anything.

“No, I left them all at the shelter.” Not that I didn’t think about bringing one or two back home with me. They need round-the-clock care, and I’m at school most of the day. My aunt tolerates my pets. She’d probably freak if I brought any more strays home. Guess it is my way of enlarging my family since Mom and Dad are dead. I shudder, remembering the camping trip when I was seven. How I woke up to screams and blood everywhere.

It wasn’t until I was older that I understood that they’d been mauled by a bear. No one could explain why it attacked them, but left me alone.

I move to the ladder when a stabbing pain shoots up my legs. This was it, time to get rid of these heels. “Hey, mind giving me a sec? I’ve gotta go switch out these for sneakers.”

“I’ll go with you,” Lance says.

“No, it’s just to my locker, I’ll be fine.” I smile.

“We’ll keep working till you get back.” Amelia tosses her dark, curly hair over her shoulder.

“Thanks.” I stroll down three hallways until I come to the row of lockers. Spinning the lock, I remove my torturous shoes, then shove them in my locker. I slip on my sneakers and sigh in blissful relief. Now I can finish the decorations without pain.

A low moan vibrates down the hallway. I freeze. My hand on the lockers, my heart thudding hard against my breastbone. What the hell was that? Lance trying to scare me?

“Cut it out, you guys,” my voice cracks. Maybe it was the pipes. I never noticed the whine before during the day because the noise of students would have covered it up.

The scent of decay wafts through the corridors and I gag. Has a toilet overflowed?

Not waiting around, I race back to the cafeteria, my tennis shoes squeak across the linoleum. The feeling of something chasing me makes my breath hitch in my throat. I run faster, but it feels like Lance and Amelia are a million miles away. Growls sound closer. I can’t look behind me. I’m terrified of what I may find.

Sweat drips down my back as I round the corner. I push against the cafeteria doors and they slam against the concrete wall.

“Brene?” Amelia’s face scrunches up in concern as I jog toward her. “What is it?”

This time, I look behind me. The cafeteria door clanks shut, but the glass windows show no one there.

I shake my head. “Sorry, just spooked myself, I guess.”

A gust of wind pulses through the cafeteria and all the hairs on my arms stand up. 

“What the fuck is that?” Lance asks.

“A vampire?” Amelia bites her lip.

I shake my head, my insides cramping. “It’s not even sunset yet.”

“You two stay here, I’ll check it out.” Lance dashes to the cafeteria exit before I can protest.

All I can do to calm my pounding heart is to sit on the last rung of the ladder, my hands shaking. Vampires and other supernatural beings came out over a year ago. They mostly keep to themselves. Even have their own schools scattered across the country. But, knowing that monsters, ghouls, and other things that could kill us as easily as snapping a stick isn’t something we humans get over quickly. Hell, my aunt even has dried garlic gloves tacked over the doors to our house.

Amelia clears her throat. “You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m sure it’s nothing.” I lean forward and wrap my arms around myself. I try to push aside the fear that’s clawing at my heart. Ever since the death of my parents four years ago and the paranormal creatures entered the spotlight, I’ve wondered if it were one of them that ripped my family apart.

* * *

A few moments later, Lance bursts into the cafeteria causing Amelia and me to jump.

“False alarm.” He beams at me. “Just some punks fooling around with the air conditioner and turning the bathroom faucets on full blast.”

Was that what I’d heard in the hallway? I rub my hands down my skirt. But, I notice the pinch at the corners of Lance’s eyes. He’s not telling us the whole truth. Maybe he doesn’t want to worry us or say in front of Amelia. Either way, every nerve in my body screams to run.

“Guess we’ve done enough for today.” I swallow. The desire to run pumping through my veins. “Let’s pick up dinner at Mr. Chen’s Chinese.”

“Awesome idea.” Lance tosses a tinfoil star into the air. “I’m starving.”

“You’re always hungry.” Amelia crosses her arms. “I still remember you and your jock friends eating all the large pizzas I paid for at my birthday party.”

“How about my treat tonight then?” He gives us a lopsided grin.

“Deal, but I plan on having dessert too. Those fortune cookies aren’t sweet enough for me.”

“Too many tasty mortals in one place,” a guy’s voice says from the cafeteria door.

I spin around while Lance tenses beside me and Amelia gives a choked gasp. The dude is wearing a black leather jacket, shades, and the air around him is charged like he’s a bomb fixing to explode.

“What are you doing here?” Lance glares. “This school is for humans only.”

Had he not seen this dude when he went searching for the noise a moment ago? Or is this guy a vamp and did compulsion on him to forget? My cellphone is in my purse on the other side of the cafeteria. Even if I run, this vampire or werewolf, or whatever he is, will catch me. The memory of my parent’s screams rakes across my mind.

Either way, we are royally screwed.

“Rudeness, but what did I expect from your kind?” The guy pushes off the door and strolls toward us.

Lance pushes me behind him. “Leave now before there’s trouble.”

“Oh, I’m scared. What are you going to do?” he mocks. “Call the cops?”

“We were just leaving.” I yank on Lance’s arm.

“That would be a shame since I’d hoped to join you three for dinner.”

“Isn’t there a blood bank you can pop into for a drink?” I ask though I’m shaking on the inside.

“I’m extra thirsty.” He stalks toward us staying in the shadows, easing down his sunglasses to reveal crimson eyes.

My legs tremble as I step back, dragging both Lance and Amelia with me. Just need to make it to the cafeteria’s glass backdoors. Outside, the sun hasn’t quite set. It will buy us some time to get away as the fading sunshine will fry his skin. Not as much as in the movies, but enough to piss them off and hopefully slow them down.

We don’t have any other choice.

I drift closer to the exit, but Lance is stiff in front of me like his muscles are locked in place. He’s too heavy and I can’t move him.

Is this some vamp mind-control shit?

Beside me, Amelia isn’t moving either, or blinking. She looks like a wax museum figure. My heart shoots up in my throat.

What has he done to them?

No way can I fight a vampire alone. I glance around the cafeteria for something to use as a wooden stake. Everything has been put away for the upcoming Prom, besides I’d also need to chop off his head and burn the body. Not that our plastic society would have anything here anyway. The only chance Lance, Amelia and I have is if I can go get help.

Quickly, I shuffle backward, before I spin and race for the doors.

“Don’t leave so soon, I invited guests,” the vamp says.

I don’t process what he’s saying until my hands hit the metal bar to open the glass door. Four guys block my path with huge grins on their faces. I scream, tripping over my feet to get away as they come into the cafeteria.

For several seconds, I dash right and left, trying to figure out if one of them is slower. Maybe I can get past one of them. It’s only dusk and while the sun won’t kill them, it will give them nasty blisters like frying someone in a barbecue pit. It will be enough to buy me time to get help…I hope.

My heart races as the five of them surround me in the cafeteria. I’ve already tried dodging them to no avail. Lance and Amelia are still unmoving. There’s no way out. No way to escape.

All the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and a sensation like I drop down a well plummets in my stomach. I’ve felt this before…years ago…when the bear attacked my parents.

Sweat creeps down my back and my vision tunnels.

“Let’s taste this one first, the scent of her fear is like a sweet aroma to me, like honey,” the vampire to my left says.

Despite knowing that they’ll catch me, I can’t stop myself from running again. From trying.

I race to the glass doors. One of the vamps cuts me off and gives me a kissy face before his fangs extend.

I scream as he grabs me, jerking me to him. My fist hits his jaw. He doesn’t even blink. Then I kick him as hard as I can in his groin. Surely that will do something.

His chuckle echoes in my ear.

“I love it when my dinner fights back.”

His arms lock me in place and I feel his breath along the side of my neck. I squirm. My heart crashes into my chest.

All my attempts to break free, to stop him, are useless. He bites into my neck and a gush erupts from me. I sink to my knees, my vision spiraling.

Three shadows surround me. I shrink back, thinking they are the vamps, but the eyes aren’t red. They are blue, gray, and green— this doesn’t make sense —both Lance and Amelia have brown eyes. The room spins again, bringing back the vamps and my two friends. A sensation like I’m being burned alive floods me and I scream.

Sounds of shrieks fill my ears before everything goes mercifully dark and silent.