Take Over

Chapter Twenty-Three

            "Are we really locked inside the janitor's closet? Is this what everything has come down to?" I sighed turning on the flashlight on my phone.

"Yes, we're in prison." Simon nodded. He found the light switch and turned it on. He tipped a bucket upside down and sat on it.

"What are we going to do? How are we going to get out of here?" I paced the tiny space after turning off my flashlight.

"I don't think we're going to get out of here." Simon shrugged. "Ouch!" he lifted his foot after I accidentally stepped on it.

"Sorry," I murmured.

"Calm down, it's probably better we're locked in here," Simon said putting his foot back down on the floor.

"Something really bad could happen though," I said as Simon lifted his foot again once I almost stepped on it again. "They could burn the school down and we'll be stuck in here."

"That's morbid." Simon hugged his knees to his chest.

"It's true,"

"They're not going to burn the school down."

"There's like, 1,000 kids out there running amok. Who knows what they're doing?" I claimed.

"Could you stop pacing? My legs are cramping." Simon said.

"What if the teachers are able to stop the students and no one tells them we're in here? We can't stay overnight!" I panicked.

"Roxie, we'll be fine."

"We're going to run out of oxygen!"

"Okay," Simon stood up. He grabbed my shoulders and pushed me down to sit on the bucket. "We need to get you out of here." He turned his back on me and stared at the door.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

He shrugged and then looked around the small space. "There's got to be something in here that will help get this door open. Maybe we can pick the lock or break it down..."

"Break it down?" I stood up in a panic again.

Simon sighed turning to me. "Please try to keep calm about this. We'll figure it out. We're not going to die in here."

"Well, now I am... You just said die." I muttered.

"You already mentioned burning and suffocating, I think you win," Simon said rolling his eyes.

Someone screamed outside.

I grabbed Simon's arm and squeezed it tight. He put a hand on my arm reassuringly, but he stared at the door with a panic-stricken face. I was glad we weren't out in the hall, but being locked in the janitor's closet wasn't much better.

All the noise that was going on outside of the closet was getting louder. Aside from the scream, it sounded as though everyone was having a great time. However, it didn't seem as though there was an order to what was going on. I was sure things had gotten out of control on Brad and the others.

As I watched Simon rummage through the shelves on the wall for a lockpick, I wondered how Brad was dealing with it all. I knew he was nervous and didn't want to go through with the Take Over anymore but he was too proud to admit. Now things were certainly backfiring on him and I couldn't imagine him staying cool about it.

After a few moments of sitting in uncomfortable silence while Simon searched for a way out (I supposed I could have helped, but I was too busy thinking of all possible awful outcomes of this whole ordeal), the doorknob jiggled.