Traps and Specters (25 page)

A
s Megan rushed deeper into the school, the sound of the fight faded and then vanished altogether. The only light in the lower-el wing of Clarksville Elementary streamed down from a pair of fluorescent bulbs toward the middle of the hall, leaving the ends dark. Megan peered into the distance and saw Charlie, his fedora hat once again on his head, his trench coat fluttering behind him. He turned right, disappearing from view.

She charged faster. Seconds later, she reached the end of the lower-el wing. The hallway continued straight, passing between the media center and the cafeteria. A new hallway branched off to her right.

Megan turned and chased after Charlie. To her left, the glass wall of the media center blurred past, a few lights revealing long rows of bookcases, tables, and computers. Megan sped past Halloween decor: fake cobwebs in corners, papier-mâché pumpkins in glass cabinets, black cat posters on the walls. She stopped at another corner and spotted Charlie Red nearing the far end of the hall.

“Charlie!”

Megan tore after him, lockers and classrooms streaming by. She passed through a cone of light and then closed in on Charlie, who'd stopped at the dead end. Two double doors blocked him from getting outside, a thick chain coiled around their steel handles. Charlie fumbled with the padlock, and Megan wondered why. Surely he didn't have a key—a security guard from the Clarksville Zoo had nothing to do with the school.

Then she realized what Charlie was doing. He was pulling down on the lock to make certain it was latched. Charlie wasn't trying to escape—he was making sure Megan couldn't.

She abruptly halted twenty feet from the end of the hall. “Charlie?”

Charlie turned and looked out at her from beneath the brim of his hat. He smiled a wicked smile and took a few steps toward her. Even in the dim light of the hallway, Megan could see the spattering of oversized freckles across his face.

“Hey, Meg … funny we should meet here—the school, of all places.”

She took a step back. Something was wrong with Charlie. He seemed … different. He had a new swagger in his walk, and a deep drawl in his voice, as if he was having trouble getting vowels out of his throat. As he took off his fedora hat and held it in his hands, his bangs dangled across his forehead. His hair seemed more red than ever before.

Megan collected her courage and spat out, “What are you doing?”

The corners of his mouth curled upward. “Me? I've simply embraced the inevitable.”

Megan began to back up. She suddenly realized she didn't have a plan to stop Charlie. “What are you—? What's inevitable?”

Charlie moved toward her, his trench coat clapping against his feet. “Him.”

“Who?” Megan asked. “DeGraff?”

Charlie nodded. “And it's very important now that you and your friends don't interfere.”

A low growl sounded behind her and she spun around. At the far end of the hall, more than a hundred feet away, was a sasquatch. Like an ape, it was standing on its four limbs, rocking from side to side. When it threw back its head and roared, Megan saw the silhouette of its fangs. It dropped its chin and crept toward her.

Charlie walked past Megan and headed toward the far end of the hall. “Good-bye forever, Megan.”

She simply stood still. Then she scanned her surroundings and fully realized her predicament.

She was totally trapped.

CHAPTER 49

R
ichie, his eyes wide with fear, charged down the lower-el wing. Instead of following the first turn, as Megan had, he continued straight, running between the cafeteria and the media center. At a four-way intersection, he stopped. Ahead was the main entrance, its glass doors appearing as a small, clear rectangle. To his left and right were new hallways.

Richie turned his head one way, then the other. Which way was Megan?

He charged down the hallway to his right. He ran beside the long wall of the media center and then passed the hall that rejoined the lower-el wing. In the upper-el wing, he slowed down and scanned the classrooms as he moved through rows of lockers on both sides. He checked a few closed doors and discovered them locked. The hallway ended at an exit that was chained shut. There was no sign of Megan.

Richie started to return up the dimly lit hall and noticed something standing at the far end, beyond the main entrance and toward the gymnasium.

“Megan?” he muttered.

He peered forward and pulled the distant figure into focus. It was too big to be Megan. In fact, it was big enough to be only one thing. A sasquatch. Richie realized it was knuckle-walking, like an ape.

His heart dropped. He retreated a step and stared over his shoulder at the locked exit. There was no place for him to go.

The sasquatch moved to one side of the hall and began to sniff at something, a classroom door, perhaps. The sasquatch hadn't spotted Richie—at least Richie didn't think it had.

To get out of plain view, Richie dashed to the side of the hall and pressed his back against the lockers. When the metal doors clanked, he winced and stared up the hall, hoping he hadn't been heard. The sasquatch, now perfectly still, seemed to be looking in his direction.

He stretched himself flat against the lockers. Fear raised beads of sweat on his brow. With his chin on his shoulder, he continued to stare up the hall. For a long time, the sasquatch didn't move. Then it raised its snout and began to twitch its head. Richie realized it was pulling scents out of the air.

A drop of sweat streamed down Richie's temple. A second drop became trapped in his eyebrow. He'd once read that animals could smell fear. Had Richie given off an odor while running through the school?

The sasquatch suddenly looked down the upper-el wing of the school. Seconds slowly passed, and then the beast began to knuckle-walk toward Richie. It moved away from the gym and then past the main entrance, its pace slowly increasing.

Richie held his breath and kept perfectly still. He stared at the only intersection between him and the sasquatch, which was as far as a hundred feet away. He'd never be able to reach it in time.

The sasquatch began to heave its weight back and forth. And there was nothing Richie could do.

CHAPTER 50

E
lla realized that Noah was no longer breathing. Where she'd once felt his breath on her face, she now felt nothing at all.

The sasquatch was hunched directly beneath them. Through the steel grate, she saw the top of its head, the bulge of its back, and its hulkish shoulders. Its hair hung off its body, and its huge feet pressed wood chips into the ground. Silently, she began to will the monster away:
Move. Get out of here
.

The sasquatch took a step forward and stopped. Its upturned nose, shiny with snot, began to twitch as it sniffed the air.

Ella's stomach sank. The beast could smell them. Noah's eyes bulged, revealing that he understood this, too.

The sasquatch slowly craned its neck upward. Its crusty hair slid down its brow and off its swollen temples. It stared at the scouts, its yellow eyes streaked with bloodshot veins. Its fangs were as sharp and thick as the tusks of a boar. The thing beneath the scouts was no animal—not anymore. Filled with the hate and magic of the Shadowist, it had evolved into a true monster.

The sasquatch threw up its fist and punched through the steel grate. It shoved its entire arm through and reached for the scouts. Noah rolled onto the bridge. The sasquatch swiped at Ella's leg and just missed, its open hand banging the metal grate and rocking the walls. Its huge fingers had square, knotty knuckles and were tipped with long claws.

As Ella tried to crawl away, the monster wrapped its powerful hand around her arm, just above her wrist.

CHAPTER 51