986 (Complex Series, #1)

Chapter Twenty

Piper forgets her argument, sprinting to Kate’s side. Kate kicks her legs, trying to get the silhouette off her. Piper yanks at it. I reach them and try to help. The silhouette sucks in raspy breaths. A person.

Is it the girl? Have we found the girl? Should it have been this easy? Why would she come to us?

Piper grips the person’s shoulders and pushes them on to the glowing floor. Her long braid is missing. Short, bristled hair in its place.

A boy.

Probably an eight or nine year. He struggles against Piper’s hold. I push down on his shoulders too.

I cry out in surprise. His skin freezes my fingers, turning them numb. I glance at his face, illuminated by the glow, and scream. I’m not the only one. Screams echo over the walls.

His skin is pale. Too pale. Whiter than white. It almost glows in the darkness. His eyes have no pupils. They’re only the same glowing white. He opens his mouth and lets out a high-pitched screech. Like when something metal is caught in the track of a sliding door.

He shakes uncontrollably against our hands. My perfectly manicured fingernails pierce his skin. Where his blood should be, inky thick liquid seeps out. When it touches my finger, it’s so cold it burns. I resist the urge to snatch my hands away from him.

His own pale hands push against me, pointed fingernails breaking my skin. Red scratches trace down my arms, blood prickling in some spots.

He twists, ripping away from our hands. I grab at his shirt, but it slips through my fingers. He disappears down the left hallway.

I’m breathing hard. It went over so fast, what just happened? What was that? A boy? It couldn’t have been human.

Piper stands further down the hall. She must have tried to catch the boy before he disappeared. Kate’s still on the floor, her face pale. How does she feel about the Heads right now? Does she still think they’re perfect?

Piper slowly walks back to us, her lips pressed into a thin, white line. Kate gradually stands up, her knees shaking. Her eyes are blank, like she’s not even here.

Piper glances at her, concerned. She works up the courage to open her mouth, “Listen, Kate, I’m sorry. I didn’t—”

Kate tries to toss Piper a conceited look over her shoulder, but she struggles. She’s fighting off hysteria and tears. “Just stop. You did this to me. I don’t want to deal with you anymore. Why don’t you just leave me alone?”

Piper’s eyes flare open and she presses her lips even tighter together. She doesn’t reply. Kate limps past me, down the right branch of the hallway, away from where the boy went.

Piper reaches my side. She whispers. “I did warn her. I said I heard something but she didn’t listen to me.”

It’s true. Piper warned us before I even heard it. It wasn’t Piper’s fault. She didn’t make that thing attack Kate. She’s just as shaken as the rest of us. We follow Kate down the hall. Piper mutters something about how we are just going back the way we came.

We allow Kate to turn left down a path. We turn a corner and Kate chooses left again. Does she have a plan or is she just wandering? I’m too shocked to do anything about it. What if there are more of those creatures in here? Was the boy the only one? Why was he like that? Was he human or something else? What else could he be? Is he still following us?

I just want this test to be over. I don’t care about what Profession I get anymore. I just want to be done. Kate gasps in front of us. My eyes leave the floor. There’s a door in front of us, the door we originally walked through.