Costa Crew: Our Turn To Die

Chapter 11: Curse in Disguise

"Alright class," the teacher announced to the new schoolchildren. "It's now interval. Please take some time to play and get to know each other better. You'll have twenty minutes before we're back in class."

The class of primary ones stormed out of the room together, packed tightly as they tried to all squeeze through one door. Except one. Hannah had her jacket zip stuck. After a minute or so of struggling, she finally got it. She quickly ran to change her shoes and ran to catch up with the others.

The playground was vast. The concrete semi-circle of ground stretched for 50 yards. Perfect for a game of tag. Which must have been what the rest of her class had thought since they were all playing one giant game. Kids were running in circles around benches to avoid getting caught. One kid sat off to the side, using his inhaler. Another kid took advantage of this vulnerable moment to tag him. Hannah ran to get in on the action.

"Sorry Hannah," a kid named Eric told her. "We've already started our game. You can't exactly join now."

"But is this not just a game of tag?" she asked, confused. "Why wouldn't I be able to join?"

"Look," the kid replied. "You just can't. I don't make the rules, okay? If you really wanna be involved that badly, go sit over there and watch. Be a referee or something."

Hurt, Hannah pulled away from the game and sat down. This was not how she had planned out her first day. All because she got the stupid zip in her jacket stuck, she was missing out on the fun.

Strangely, she noticed someone walking her way. When they reached her, they took a seat beside her.

"You know," they said. "I've always preferred watching tag to actually playing it."

"Same to be honest," Hannah replied. "I just didn't want to miss out on the fun everyone else is having."

"You're not missing much," they replied. "Turns out that schoolchildren unrelentingly cheat... I'm Charlotte by the way."

"I'm Hannah," she replied. "I hope we can get to know each other really well."

"You know," Charlotte said. "I think we will. Come on, I'll go get some of my friends out of tag and we can have our own, even better fun. I know Mrs Hutcheson has connect four so, if we ask her nicely, we might be allowed to have a little tournament. What do you say?"

Hannah smiled and grabbed Charlotte's hand. "Sounds awesome. Let's go!"

***

A chilling feeling filled the room as they all looked down in front of them. On the floor, in front of them, Hannah was unconscious. Charlotte didn't skip a beat. She immediately jumped down to check for a pulse. She recoiled after touching the body's neck. It was cold. Hannah was cold on the floor.

"Sorry," Paul said, laughing. "I only took her out of the freezer recently. Probably shoulda let her defrost a bit but I didn't know how long it would take you guys to get here."

Charlotte didn't care. That wasn't proof enough to her that Hannah was dead. She put her fingers onto her neck, desperately scanning for a pulse. She couldn't find one, but she wasn't going to give up. Not until she felt it. Not until she knew her friend was still alive.

After a couple of minutes, Becky pulled Charlotte away from her.

"Becky, what are you doing?" she asked. "I was seconds away from finding it."

"Charlotte," Becky replied. "You weren't. It doesn't take two minutes to find a pulse."

"But she can't be dead!" Charlotte shouted. She pulled herself from Becky's grip and went back to Hannah.