Shy but Lethal

Shy but Lethal Chapter 2-3

Chapter 2

Hurry! Can You Fit?

We were all silent for about a minute, reviewing what had recently happened. I just stared at our mascot, the tiger, painted onto the stall door. 

“Wait,” Hadley said, “ I may have figured it out. Everyone who fainted looked into the twins’ eyes. Whenever they made direct eye contact with a person for a long amount of time, they fainted, or at least that’s what we think.” 

“It all makes sense now. We just need to completely avoid looking at them, and we won’t faint,” I say, confident in my answer. “Ok, so what about the rest of the school?” Hadley asked. “I...,” I paused for a moment to think about our options,

“I don’t know,” I admitted. 

“Fire,” Wren said as if she had just solved a mystery. “What!” I shouted, “Where?”

“Shhh!” Wren said, “I mean fire alarm. It will get everyone out of the school, right?” We all bobbed our heads slightly. “There is one right across the hallway from this bathroom,” I said. Hadley nodded, “Ok, so who’s going to go? For all we know the twins could be right outside of the bathroom door,” she whispered. Everyone sat silently for a moment, taking in the information. 

“I’ll go,” I said when no one else would speak up, “but I have to be quick so this can all be over and done.” Everyone nodded, afraid to talk.

After taking a deep breath, I gathered my thoughts, slowly got off of the wobbling toilet, silently unlocked the stall door, and slowly opened it. I tip-toed across the bathroom floor on near silent feet and carefully opened the door to the bathroom. The squeaking noise that door made my body shiver right down to the bone.

I peeked my head out of the door just as all of the lights went out. “Great,” I told myself quietly and checked for twins. Nobody was outside of the door or down the right side of the hallway which led down to the eighth-grade classroom. There was nobody down the other hallway either, until she appeared, I saw a twin.

Panicked, I and ran across the hallway to the fire alarm, yanked it down, and charged back across the hall just as the fire alarm started to ring.  The bathroom door was violently yanked open and I ran across the bathroom, barely being able to see. Using the flashing lights to guide me, I found my way back to the stall door. “Let me in!” I yelled frantically, “It’s Cory!” 

The lock clicked and I launched myself into the bathroom stall. Wren locked the door and we quickly jumped back onto the toilet, almost falling off in the process. “One of the twins is in the hallway,” I whispered in between heavy breaths. “Did she see you?” Reagan asked me anxiously. “I’m not sure but it was pretty hard to see her, so I couldn’t look into her eyes,” I said, trying to calm myself down, “but I’m pretty sure with all of the noise I made, she knows we’re in here.” 

Hopefully, the school evacuated, I thought to myself. 

“Do you hear that?” Hadley said, her breaths uneven and shaky. We all listened carefully. Suddenly there was a faint click click click of somebody’s shoes. We were all on the verge of tears as the footsteps grew louder. Someone behind me on the toilet seat let out a slight sob. “We need a way out,” I whispered to the people around me. Everyone nodded in agreement. Taking a deep breath, we all looked around, leaning against the wall for support. Finally, I spotted a window at the top of the stall, just short enough for all of us to reach. Tapping Wren’s shoulder, I pointed up at the window right above her. She gave me a small thumbs-up and reached up to unlatch the window.