SANTA MARIA HIGH (COMPLETED)

Part Two: 10

Anthony Lawrence was in the physics laboratory that evening, now dressed in school shirt and trousers instead of the expensive suit he’s worn for the performance. His parents were lodged in the guest house after their arrival, but he had refused to see them. It was 8:00pm. An hour, thirty minutes after that, and he’d be breaking curfew.

He was however not reading, just staring, lost in thought when the door opened. It was the Halloween night, he wasn’t expecting anyone over here, anyone except Lisa. This used to be their clandestine rendezvous point, he had the key to the lab and when locked from the inside, no one can know if anyone is inside or not. He had imagined Lisa was tired out from all that swinging about and she’ll be sleeping by now, most students were in the hostels already. But there was Lisa at the door, he gave her a smile, “Hey.” He said and returned to work reducing the length of the string suspending a pendulum by twenty centimeters. He reached for a stop watch and pulled the bulb of the pendulum. Now Lisa was under the illusion that he was busy.

“I wasn’t expecting you today.” He said not looking at her. When Lisa’s hand clasped his over the stop watch and breathe on his neck he had stopped. Momentarily losing all focus, testosterone was in charge. “I’m trying to work…” He said. While inwardly he was smiling, “damn it Lisa, the things a guy has to do to get your attention.”

“Do you like her?” She asked.

By ‘her’ Anthony knew she meant Hope. “who?” he asked turning to face her.

Lisa blushed and looked away. “…never mind,” she said, removing the stopwatch from his hand, she walked back and lock the door to the lab from inside. “you have a nice voice.” She leaning close, “I wish you had stuck with playing piano.” I’d like to keep that voice all to myself. She whispered to his ears, “You are mine.” She said and pressed her lips to his.

Anthony Lawrence has been going out with Lisa on and off for three years. To Lisa it was more than three years, but not Anthony Lawrence.  He knew what turns her on and jealousy—making her jealous—always works. “I didn’t…”

“I’m on the pill.” Lisa replied pressing further, prying his lips open. What was a guy to do? He kissed back with passion, stopping just to gasp for air and resume again. Lisa was forceful now, pushing his chest till his back was leaning on the work bench, then straddling his laps.

Nora in her own right wouldn’t admit she was jealous, but she was. Even after she and Ada had come to some awkward sort of understanding, she had been suspicious of their moves. Junior or not, it will be unwise to not be wary of a girl like Hope getting closer with your boyfriend. But here was Anthony Lawrence, the boy whose songs tonight had melted her heart and reminded her of how she would be done for if she should lose him. She was here to remind him, here to claim him. Right here in the lab, right now. A few shot of tequila someone had smuggled in might had flown her kite, but she was ready to be loose and possessive once more.

She raised her hand to unbutton her shirt, Anthony helped. They kissed again, this time more intense, fierier. She moaned.

While they were at it, none of them noticed the fact that the needles on the ohm and ammeter, not connected to anything at all has begun to move. The only thing Lisa barely missed was the darkening of the fluorescent light above, it flickered repeated, possibly due to problems in the main grid. Well, that happens sometimes.

Her shirt was already on the ground, so was Anthony when a cat meowed.

The whole activities froze right then, at the oddest sound in a physics laboratory. Anthony was looking behind her, searching for the source of the sound maybe, but she was staring ahead at something behind the cupboard, something solid and dark, something moving… goose bumps sprouted on her arms, she suddenly felt frigid, her breath fogged before her face. Anthony was motionless.

It was real, she could see one, two… there were more immerging from all the darkness around, solidifying blackness that defies the laws of physics proved in this same lab. They were crowding in on them, she clutched to Anthony who seem struck with horror as well.

Her milliseconds of inactivity terminated when She jumped down, stared back, running for the door. Looking back, she couldn’t see Anthony again, the shadows surrounded him where he should have been. Anthony was gone. Taken! “Help!”

She had heard of shadows, of what Hope had said, could this all be real. Could Hope—the weird girl in school who left the hostel without anybody knowing how—do this? Many question roiled in her brain. She was however fumbling with the handle of the same door she’d locked, the keys turned the lock but the door wouldn’t budge, but it didn’t budge, it wouldn’t open she knew. She’s watched enough horror movies to know it won’t.

“wake up!” she shouted to herself. Can tequila make her hallucinate, this was not her first. Shadows don’t move, don’t walk, don’t interrupt sex. Lisa screamed. She was finally able to draw enough breath and scream out.

She saw from the reflection on the chrome handle of the white, two tiny yellow eyes, literarily glowing—not just retro reflecting—embedded in black fur. The cat meowed. God! She knew that cat. Oscar, that’s the name. God!

She could almost hear Madam Rosalind say, “I have one of the oldest cat in the country,” she couldn’t remember when but Madam Rosalind has made a passing comment about the cat.

Lisa grabbed the nearest thing she could find a stick leaning on cupboard by the side, she pointed it at the shadows and realized the wool twines at the end. A mopping stick. She scrambled at the door and screamed at the top of lungs. Again and again.

The shadows were closing in on her, sucking the life out of her, she shivered, her chest ached. The flickering light blared one last time and suddenly it all went dark. “Help!” she pounded at the door till she felt her hands bleed.

AN: Finally, the monsters are out! Keep reading, keep supporting, keep promoting SMH.❤️