"What do you think she's doing in there?" Aero asks me, pacing back and forth across the church doors. All the while, he massages his knuckles from when he hit Mr Copulas. He's jittery and nervous – unlike the usual Aero, who's quiet and contemplative."Do you think she'll forgive me?"
"Aero, I think if she's going to be mad at you, it'll be because you punched the guy and she didn't," I assure you. "Relax. She's in a church. What bad could go wrong?"
Abruptly, he stops in his tracks. "Someone could be in there and they could kill Reyna," he spits.
"No one's in there," I render. "You know that." Aero being unnerved makes me unnerved. What if he's right? What if someone has been lurking around the whole time? Whether it's the original killer or a pissed-off family member, someone could retaliate for whatever reason.
"I don't know, Mare..."
"You know what? If you're so worried about it, then go check on her." The moment I speak the words, the lights from inside the stained glass windows vanish as if someone pulled a mass-electric plug. Aero and I lock eyes. "Well, that's not exactly a good sign."
"I'm going in," Aero grumbles. He clutches the handles and pulls on the doors. Theybudge, but they don't open. Aero tries again. Nothing changes.
"Are you sure you're not doing the whole 'push not pull' mistake?"
"Yes, Maren," he promises. "Look!" Aero pushes and pulls the doors, which shift together but don't even give a crack of what's inside. "You think Reyna locked us out?" he rhetorically asks.
"Okay, what do we do?"
The moment I ask the question, Aero is whipping his phone out and rapidly dialling a number. "Send police. Someone ambushed our friend, we need help immediately. This might be linked to the Solaris Hospital lockdown..." he proceeds to give them our location and demands that they hurry.
"What do we do in the meantime? If there's a killer in there, then they came to do one thing: kill. And that doesn't take long unless you're in the film 'I Know What You Did Last summer...' then it takes forever. But this is real life, Aero!"
"We could smash the windows," he suggests.
"Good idea, but that's all it is: an idea. The windows are barred from the inside. We can smash them all we want but we can't get through the barricade. What about a back way in? There's always a back way, right?"
"Should be," Aero nods. "I'll go around the left; you go around the right. We'll meet in the back."
"Hold the phone..." I say, grabbing the back of Aero's slate-coloured shirt before he darts\off. "You're saying we split up?"
"I mean, that's how two people scope out an area faster..."
"No way," I negate. "I'm glued to your hip. I'm not a fearless SH lockdown survivor. I'mMaren dyes her hair depending on the weather. We're going together."
A car growls as it slows to a stop in the easement. "Who's this?" Aero hisses.
A girl with a black biker jacket and choppy black hair walks up, combat boots kicking up gravel along the way. Kellin Kodiak. "You guys need help?" she asks, electric blue eyes scanning us up and down in curiosity.
"What would make you think we need any help?" I nonchalantly inquire, grasping a clump of Aero's shirt.
"You're holding onto...Aero, is it?" she questions, cocking her head to the side, still coming forward. "...as if for your life." Finally, Kellin gets close to us and stops, crossing her arms.
"We're just waiting for someone," Aero ends, not wanting Kellin in on this. "No need to–"
Just then, a large boom on the doors sounds as a knife plunges through the wood. Startled, we jump. There's another bang and the knife sinks through the wood again before there's total silence. "Shit," I sound.
"You might not need help, but whoever is in there does," Kellin grunts, kicking the doorwith her boots. The knife uproots itself from the entryway, startling the black-haired girl. In turn, she sprints away from the scene.
"Are you kidding?" I call, prying frantically at the door. "You just run away?"
A car engine starts and a horn beeps twice, barely snatching my attention. In her navy blue car, Kellin sits in the driver's seat and revs the engine. She waves us out of her way as if we're flies around her head. I get the message. "Aero," I call. "Move!"
We both back up as Kellin floors it and bursts through the church doors. Now that's an entrance. Inside, there's darkness – no lights and no sun to poke its rays in the windows. Kellin turns her headlights on, and I really wish she hadn't.
The church chairs are tipped over and scattered as if pushed away in a frenzied mess. The curtain separating backstage and upfront has been slashed to tatters. The flowers on Nancy Copulas's coffin has been torn apart and smooshed on the ground by multiple, heavy footsteps. The floor has pools and splatters of scarlet blood.
I would've called for Reyna and asked where she was. Asked if she was okay. But this is a real-life horror movie. Calling out in the stifling, unsettling, potential murder scene is forbidden. It's How to Get Killed Tip #1.
So we tiptoe inside, looking for any trace of Reyna Copulas.