Haunted

Chapter 16: An Unexpected Night

After a lot of searching, Clark eventually found Jackson in the locker room. It had been the first place he'd checked but after checking everywhere else and confirming that his Porsche was still in the school parking lot, Clark had decided to double-back. They must have missed each other at some point. The locker room was empty and unnervingly quiet; Clark had never been in there after so many people had left. He was used to the rowdiness.

The only noise that was being made in the almost empty locker room were sporadic thuds as Jackson angrily shoved his gear into his bag. "Yay! You won!" Clark cheered sarcastically. The way Jackson was acting made it seem like a bad thing. The team's captain only grunted in response. Clark frowned, puzzled as he leaned against the nearest locker. "Hmm. Aren't you supposed to be happy?"

Jackson shot Clark a look which clearly said 'are you kidding me' as he chucked his gloves into his sports bag. "You saw McCall at the end of that game. He was insane. It was like he was..." Jackson trailed off, trying to find the right word to describe it.

"Possessed?" Clark filled in for him with a smile.

"Don't go all Jamie on me," Jackson replied with a shake of his head, immediately catching Clark's reference. "But come on, the other team were passing the ball to him. That's not normal."

"Since when is McCall normal?" Clark returned with a shrug. "I don't know, man. Maybe he bribed them?" It was the only explanation Clark could find in the moment that Jackson would potentially accept.

"Maybe," Jackson nodded in agreement but secretly he wasn't convinced. Scott's torn glove which he had found abandoned on the field only added to his questions and his determination to find out what exactly was going on with McCall. "At least your brother's been released," Jackson moved the conversation on partly upon remembering Derek's wordless presence on the field when he'd found the glove.

"Oh, you heard about that?" Clark asked in surprise.

"Yeah, saw him at the field," Jackson told him as he returned to packing his stuff away in a slightly calmer manner than when Clark had first entered.

"You did?" Clark replied, Jackson's words surprising him again. He frowned, wondering if Derek had seen any of the game and if he knew that he hadn't stopped Scott from playing. If he did, Clark knew that conversation was going to be fun.

Jackson nodded and raised an eyebrow at Clark's troubled expression. "Aren't you supposed to be happy?" He used Clark's earlier question against.

"Oh, you're hilarious!" Clark muttered, tone dripping in sarcasm as he rolled his eyes at the smug look Jackson had on his face for effectively turning the tables. Clark sighed before explaining, "I'm glad he's out. He's still my brother and I don't want he being accused of something he didn't do but I'm still more than pissed about how he lied to me. I'm certainly not in the mood to go home and face him right now." Clark studied one of the benches. "Maybe I'll just sleep here. I mean, one night in the school isn't going to kill me, is it?"

"You're not spending the night at the school," Jackson told him matter-of-factly as he did up the zipper on his bag, throwing the strap over his shoulder.

"Oh, come on! What's the worse that can happen?" Clark questioned, laying down on the bench and popping his lacrosse shirt under his head to prove his point that he could sleep there. "The janitor flipping out if he catches me," he answered his own question.

Jackson pulled the shirt out from underneath Clark's head, resulting in Clark slamming his head against the hard wood of the bench. He sat up, rubbing the back of his head and shooting a glare at Jackson as the other boy insisted, "You're not sleeping here. There's plenty of spare room at my house."