A/N: Thank you to vintagebirdie for the amazing banner!
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“What the hell are we going to do?” Frankie asked almost desperately as she fell on the sofa, her legs coming up and her elbows resting on her knees. She runs one hand through her hair and keeps it there.
“I don’t know. We have two cheerleaders storming through the school on their own. Our Principal’s dead and the English and Art teacher are a big question mark.” I sighed, and then I realised that everyone’s eyes were on me expecting me to continue. I shrugged “I was just summing up; I don’t really have a solution.”
Archie rolled his eyes “Well we can’t just sit here and wait.”
Gavin’s head shot up and he started to frantically shake it “Oh hell no. Don’t start going all Rambo and expecting us to start wondering around the school to save the day. I am quite happy sitting here next to the toys and alcohol.”
Frankie nodded her head and pointed at Gavin “Yeah I’m with him, I’m quite happy sitting here. I don’t know what’s out there and I can live with not knowing.”
Again, I stared between the two of them. I was only starting to realise how similar these two actually were. Stupid and cowardly. I inwardly smiled, realising how ironic it was that all it took was a life or death situation for them to be on the same page.
Archie shook his head, sighing almost as if he was asking for someone to have mercy on him if he had to deal with these two.
“Well let’s all sit here then and wait for the f*cker to come in a kill us off one by one. Gavin set up the keg and let the waiting game begin.” Archie humoured, sarcasm falling out of his mouth as he fell back onto the sofa.
“Now you’re talking…” Gavin actually went to move for one of the kegs, but didn’t make it two feet before he was cut off.
“I was joking you idiot!” Archie almost yelled out, and Gavin gave him a whiny expression as his arms shot out. He clearly wanted to get his hands on that keg. Archie sighed “Look I know everyone’s scared right now, but sitting here is going to do nothing.”
I watched Archie in amazement, not being able to take my eyes off of him as he slipped into this fearless leader role. I absolutely hated myself for it, but I was impressed. I wondered for a while if these waves of respect I was suddenly feeling for him were almost mixed with being slightly turned on. I mentally shook that car crash away before it had a chance to do any damage.
“He’s right, we can’t just sit here.” My mouth spoke before I realised what I was saying. Wow, I was agreeing with him. Archie obviously was as shocked as I felt by the fact we were on the same page judging from the look on his face. A ghost of a smile appeared on his mouth.
“Well, what do you expect us to do?” Jaden asked, and I knew he was part of the ‘let’s wait this out here’ crew.
I thought for a minute, realising we actually needed a plan. I mean what did we plan on doing, leave the hall and wonder around until we found whoever was killing everyone and ask him politely to stop? That would go down about as well a nun.
“We need to find Miss Vines and Mr Cook.” I announced.
“Summer, you do realise there is almost no chance they are still alive?” Jaden asked me with his brows raised.
“I know but what if they are? We can’t just leave them to die. We need to go and help them.” I was getting more confident about my plan, realising there was no way I could sit here and just wait. I didn’t want to be an Aubree and rely on all the males to do the heavy lifting even though we were all in the same screwed position.
“What about Aubree and Tally?” Frankie asked.
I shrugged “If we find them we can try and get them back, but I don’t see that happening. To be honest if I see them, there is a good chance I might make a dive for Tally and drag her back here with us. Aubree or no Aubree.”
“Yeah, what the hell with Tally by the way? She actually seems like a decent human being. I thought she was infected with the same virus as Aubree.” Gavin said in amazement, reflecting what I had been thinking almost all night. A few people nodded in agreement clearly seeing the same thing.
I glanced at Alex who had a stone expression on his face, clearly pondering over the words Aubree had viciously thrown at him earlier “You okay?”
He snapped out of his thoughts and looked at me. After a few seconds he nodded his head “Yeah. I’m good.”
“You know no one listens to anything Aubree says right? She’s like the adverts on TV. Always on but you never actually pay any attention to them.” I smiled at him, and he let out a breath of laughter.
He looked at me, his eyes warm and almost thankful “Good to hear. I might be crazy but I’m not Hannibal Lector crazy.”
My smile widened, amazed that he could joke like that about himself. It was nice to see. Like I said, he barely spoke a few years back, so seeing him like this was like a breath of fresh air.
I noticed Archie’s eyes on me, his head slightly cocked as he had not missed the exchange between his brother and I. He seemed a mixture of thankful (probably because I was talking to his brother like an actual human being) and curious. The only thing I could think would make him look like that was the whole thing about me having a soft spot for Alex. Archie probably thought I was on a quest to bang the broody Henderson.
I mentally rolled my eyes as I looked between everyone else “Right, this is the time we sort the pussies from the men. Who’s staying here and who’s coming?”
“I have no shame in admitting I’m a pussy.” Gavin immediately raised his hand, obviously sitting this one out and not moving from this room anytime soon.
“Yeah I second that; I’ll keep guard of the booze.” Frankie also lifted her hand, and I had to resist the urge to scoff sarcastically, not at all surprised that again she and Gavin were on the same page. Gavin walked over to where she was sitting on the sofa and high fived her hand which was still in the air, before throwing himself back and onto the sofa next to her.
I heard a heavy sigh and turned to face Jaden, who looked almost ashamed.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this but I agree with dumb and dumber.” He admitted, gesturing his head towards Mr and Mrs Coward who were comfortable on the sofa, now grinning smugly.
“I thought better of you man.” Archie shook his head in disappointment. Jaden turned to him, his defence now up as he pointed at him.
“Hey, I almost made it out the door! I wouldn’t even be in this situation right now if I wasn’t a loyal friend, so screw you all I’m staying here.” Jaden snapped, and Archie’s eyes widened slightly as he had to stop himself from laughing at his best friend’s outburst.
“Whoa, calm down no need to have a Britney breakdown.” Archie laughed with his hands up in surrender. Jaden glared at him for a few seconds, and Archie was still chuckling as he pushed himself to his feet and looked at me “Well since I am in fact a man and not a bitch, I’m going.”
“Yeah so am I.” Alex agreed, looking between me and Archie. For a second I thought Archie was going to argue with him, which would have been a weird sight. The younger sibling telling the older one to stay where it’s safer while he went out there and, as Gavin stated, went ‘Rambo’.
Archie nodded, before turning to me “You’re really coming?”
“Just because I have a vagina does not mean I’m useless.”
“HEY! What are you trying to say?” Frankie exclaimed as my words offended her.
I ignored her and kept my eyes on Archie. He had a hint of a smirk on his lips before nodding, almost impressed. He walked forward heading for the door. Before he walked past me, he stopped and leaned in to whisper something in my ear.
“Don’t worry if you get scared, you can hold my hand.”
“The only way I’d agree to that is if I was holding it in a pan of boiling water.”
His smirk widened and he didn’t break the eye contact. Someone voice snapped us out of it eventually.
“What about you kid?” Alex asked, and I realised once again I had completely forgotten about Kevin.
He looked nervous, which I think was his default face if I am perfectly honest. He shrugged.
“I don’t mind, I’ll come with you if you want?” his voice was shaky, and I knew he didn’t want to come but felt like he couldn’t say no. Jesus, were we really that scary?
Archie and I shared another look, almost like we were discussing what to do about little Kevin. We didn’t use any words, but I could basically read his thoughts from the look he was giving me. If we took him with us, it would be like babysitting if anything went wrong.
I turned back to Kevin “It’s fine, stay here with them. Thank you though for offering.” I gave him a warm smile, which he returned. I didn’t miss the relief in his face though.
“Right, come on men off we pop.” Archie pointed to the door, making a gun with his index finger and thumb. He walked on ahead as me and Alex followed.
“Did he just call me a man?” I asked Alex, leaning my head in.
“Let it go.” Alex almost begged me, not wanting to act as referee between me and Archie now we were officially alone.
We walked out into the hallway, Archie stopping and looking around quickly to make sure there was no one else in here. He gestured for us to follow him after he didn’t see anyone.
“What floor is the Principal’s office on now?” Alex asked.
“Second floor.” Archie and I answered simultaneously, before looking at each other trying to stifle a laugh. Obviously we were no strangers to that office.
“Been there often I’m guessing then?” Alex asked amused.
Again, Archie and I exchanged a look.
“More than I am in my normal classes if I’m honest.” Archie admitted, and I nodded in agreement.
We made our way to the office in silence after that. As we got nearer to it, I could feel the nerves building up. I was seriously regretting not bringing some kind of weapon now.
“What if he’s still in there?” I asked Archie, my voice almost a whisper as we were now on the second floor.
“Then we either run like hell, or I’ll throw you at them while me and Alex make a break for it.” He answered, not even looking my direction so he didn’t notice the glare I was sending his way. After a few seconds, he turned to me with a smartass grin “Actually, considering the size of your ass I’ll probably waste too much time trying to pick you up.”
It was a reflex when I swung my arm back and punched his shoulder. He made a loud yelp, and I widened my eyes realising our silent entrance was way out the window now.
“What the hell is wrong with you two?” Alex whisper yelled, even though it was no use anymore. If someone was here, there was no way they hadn’t heard us.
“HELP!” Apparently, someone was up here and they had indeed heard us. We all snapped our heads to the sound of a woman shouting for help, and I instantly knew it was Miss Vines.
We all took off down the hallway and we were nowhere near the Principal’s office when we saw two figures stumbling out of another classroom. Well, one was stumbling. The other was out cold.
Miss Vines was trying with everything she had to carry Mr Cook out of the room, one of his arms was slung over her shoulder but I could tell she was struggling. She looked like she was going to collapse and drop him any second.
“I can’t hold him anymore!” She called over as she saw us, and as soon as we reached her Archie and Alex took over each taking an arm of Mr Cook’s and throwing them over their shoulders.
“What the hell happened?” Archie questioned, his teeth slightly gritted as he stood straight carrying Mr Cook’s weight as well.
“He came for us! We got here and the landlines weren’t working. Nothing was, and we were just about to leave when the door opened and then he was there.” Miss Vines explained frantically, tears falling from her eyes. I debated on hugging her or something, then realised that would help no one. Especially me. I wasn’t a massive fan of affection with strangers. Unless I was drunk and they were hot.
“Why didn’t he kill you?” Archie asked.
She was breathing heavily, almost like she was trying to catch her breath “He came in and straight away knocked him out…” she gestured towards Mr Cook, before shrugging almost embarrassed to admit the next bit “…after he played that song down the tanoy, I took advantage of the fact he was distracted and hit him around the head with the laptop.”
My brows shot up in surprise, feeling an overwhelming pride as I looked at the little blonde woman.
“Good girl.” Archie praised her as we hurried down the hallway.
“Wait so is he still there?” I found myself asking.
She shook her head “I don’t know, once he was down I grabbed Adam and carried him to the nearest classroom with a lock. I would have brought him back downstairs but I couldn’t carry him on my own.” She explained. I was having an internal debate with myself when I stopped walking. The others also stopped and looked at me like I was crazy.
“Summer what are you doing?” Alex asked, his voice urgent as he clearly wanted to get us and the dead weight safe back in the hall.
“We need to check if he’s still there. What if he’s out cold and this is our chance?” I don’t know why these words were coming out of my mouth, apparently I was channelling my inner Lara Croft or something because I could feel the nerves screaming at me to stop being such an idiot, but Lara just lifted her big boot and kicked the crap out of them until they shut up.
“And what if he is? What are you going to do?” Alex challenged, looking at me again like I was crazy. The irony did not escape me that this look was coming from the guy who recently got released from a mental hospital.
“I don’t know, but we need to do something. If she knocked him out, then we can tie him up and maybe get the hell out of here.” I tried to reason with them.
“Look, let’s get him in the medical room or something. Judging from the blood on his head something’s open up there. Plus, she could do with an ice pack on her face as well.” Archie gestured towards Miss Vines, and I suddenly realised now as I looked closer at her face that a big purple bruise was beginning to show at the side of her cheek just below her left eye. Jesus, she must have taken a right haymaker.
“We need to go ch-“
“I’ll come with you okay, let’s get them in a room with a lock and medical shit first and then I’ll come with you if it will shut you the hell up.” Archie cut me off, turning and moving down the hall again towards the stairs. I nodded, realising that was a fair deal.
I followed after them until we were on the third floor where the medical room was. Since our school was what you would call ‘rough’, we didn’t just have one nurse that dealt with cuts and bruises and illnesses, we had three. To be honest, it wasn’t even illnesses and stomach bugs they dealt with, it was more black eyes and pepper spray tears. We had some hot heads at Riverbank let’s just say that.
Since we had such a high demand for medical stuff at the High School, the medical room wasn’t as tiny as you would imagine. We could probably fit a good 15 or 20 people in here. Sure it might be a squeeze but it was doable, even with the bed in the corner. Yes, there was a bed. This was for those who got knocked clean out in fights and had to sleep it off.
So of course, as soon as we reached it the boys threw Mr Cook on the bed like he was a backpack and they had just got home from school with dinner waiting on the table. Not just any crappy dinner either, one they wanted to rush too immediately. Like hot dogs and potato dinosaurs.
Archie turned to Alex “Right, stay here. Lock the door behind us and look for something to fix his head and her face.” Archie suddenly realised how his words came out and looked at Miss Vines “Not your face, there is nothing wrong with your face. I mean the bruise. Not your actual facial features. You’re hot, so it doesn’t need to be fixed.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed his arm as I pushed him towards the door to stop his rambling.
“Come on Romeo.” With one final push, he was out of the door. I looked over my shoulder “Lock it!”
We were out in the hallway and he was looking at me with a ‘what the hell’ expression.
“I just wanted to explain that it didn’t sound as bad as it came out.” He tried to justify, standing there with his arms stretched out either side.
“I know exactly what you were doing.” I scoffed as I started to make my way towards the stairs. The asshole was trying to hit on the Art teacher even though we were currently in the middle of a screwed paste and we were just about to be shoved in the oven to cook and most probably burn.
Jesus, that was grim…
“Is that jealousy I hear in your voice Jacobs?” He humoured, cocking his head as he followed me down the stairs.
“No, this is judgment you hear in my voice, judgement that you are still trying to dip that thing in dark damp places even though we are in a seriously f*cked up situation.” I pointed at his crotch, staring in disgust at the thing in question.
“Don’t judge me, this f*cked up situation is exactly why this little guy wants to join the party. What if this is our last night alive? Huh? He wants to explore new places.” I groaned in disgust at his metaphor. He turned and looked at me, almost seriously. Almost. “Sex is like a reflex for people, especially in life or death situations.”
“No, it’s a reflex for pigs and slime balls.” I counter “The rest of us normal people concentrate on the more pressing matter at hand, like staying alive.”
“Little miss high and mighty over here.” He scoffed, before he suddenly remembered something and turned to me with his brows raised and an amused expression “Actually, not so high and mighty are we? Tell me Summer, who had the great pleasure of deflowering you then?”
I had almost forgotten about that. He now knew I was not actually a virgin like he had though, and I was suddenly regretting ever letting him in on this fact.
“Mick Jagger.” I replied with a monotone expression and kept my eyes in front of me.
“YOU DOG SUMMER! He’s so old!” Archie pushed my shoulder playfully, and I couldn’t help the smile that came to my mouth as he played along. I knew he was going to press the matter, but I was quite thankful he didn’t right now.
“May have been old, but that did not slow him down.”
“I bet, tell me though did his neck look like his balls? You know, all wrinkly and shrivelled?”
“At one point I got confused and didn’t know which end was up.”
Archie burst out laughing, and I couldn’t stop myself from joining as I looked at him. It was amazing, we were about to check a classroom to see if a murderer was passed out in it and we were actually laughing about Mick Jagger sex jokes.
This probably says a lot about us as people.
We finally reached the Principal’s office and we slowed down, stopping just besides it. Archie immediately stood in front of me, one of his hands reaching back and pushing me against the wall by my stomach so I was completely behind him.
I expected his hand to drop once I was where he wanted, but he kept it there even as he slowly moved towards the door and I followed. If I wasn’t so nervous, I probably would have slapped it away.
Archie reached the doorframe, and the door was already opened. He peaked his head in and slowly made his way into the room, taking his hand off my stomach but keeping it behind him telling me to keep a safe distance back. Again if I wasn’t so nervous, I would be seriously shocked at this protective caring side of Archie.
When he lowered his hand, I walked until I was standing next to him and our eyes scanned the room.
“Oh shit!” I groaned and turned my head as I spotted Principal Gregory by his desk in a pool of his own blood which was pouring out of his neck.
“Poor bastard.” Archie muttered besides me, shaking his head as he looked at the body. I was quite stunned to hear the faint hint of sadness in his voice. Not enough for it to stand out or for him to even frown, but there was enough there which did prove what philosophers had been trying to discover for almost 16 years.
Archie Henderson did in fact have a heart.
“Come on, look around and see if there’s anything we can use. Don’t step on him or anything.” Archie nudged me before walking over to the desk.
Well, there goes that heart theory.
We both moved around the room looking around. We didn’t even need to say it to each other, but it was obvious the killer was long gone. I don’t know what we were looking for, but Archie was rooting through the Principal’s desk, throwing things out of the way once he decided they were useless.
I moved to the side of the room which was the furthest from Principal Gregory. It creeped me out I’m not going to lie, being in the same room as a corpse. I would be so screwed if I ever had one of those really cool jobs like CSI. I would take one look at the dead body and probably show my breakfast to everyone within a 50 metre range from me.
I looked around the room, not quite sure what Archie had me looking for. Did he mean look for clues?
Were we now a two man Scooby Gang?
“Jackpot mothafuckaaa!” Archie’s voice filled the room, and I was just about to comment on his awful American accent when I noticed he was right. It really may be a jackpot.
He was standing behind the desk staring down at one of the open draws. He leaned down and pulled out a butterfly knife, holding it up to me with a big toothy grin on his face.
“Why the hell is Principal Gregory packing?” I asked in horror, staring at the old man who was on the floor. I didn’t believe it, he had a knife? Was he part of some gang or something? I suddenly had an awful image of Principal Gregory with a bandana on his head sporting hood colours.
“Yes, he was secretly a member of the Warriors back in his younger days.” Archie replied sarcastically, before rolling his eye “It’s in the draw with a bunch of other crap he must have confiscated off kids.”
My mouth opened to form a small circle, that making a lot more sense than my gang member theory. I walked around to stand with Archie, staring down at the open draw to see what else was in there.
I started to laugh as I leaned down and picked up a purple bra. I looked at an amused Archie “This have something to do with you?”
“It’s not mine if that’s what you're asking.” He grinned, grabbing the strap I wasn’t holding and lifting it so the bra was straight “Think we can use it?”
“What as a weapon? What are we going to do, ping the killer to death?” I scoffed, and his grin spread further on his face.
“So that’s a no on the using it then?”
“Well I can use it, not sure it will do much good for you though.” I commented, touching his flat chest area with my index finger like I was trying to push up a pair of breasts. Unfortunately, saggy breasts are not what met my finger. What did meet it was a hard chest that the guys off 300 would be proud of.
He thought for a minute, looking between the bra and my chest. He shook his head “No you couldn’t use it either.”
I raised my brows questioning “I couldn’t?”
“Nope, would be too much free room.” He was still shaking his head as he mimicked my previous action and used his index finger to push my breast up slightly. I slapped his hand away and he let out a laugh.
“HEY! No sampling the goods okay pretty boy!” I snapped, letting go of the bra strap and pointing my finger at him.
“What, I can’t try before I buy?” He asked innocently, dropping the bra back in the draw.
“You’re banned from this shop.” I tell him sternly, and I see the corner of his mouth fighting to rise up. His eyes dropped again and were back on the girls, lingering on them as he pulled his bottom lip into his mouth, almost like he was in pain.
“And I’d be the best customer you’d ever have as well…” he muttered.
I furrowed my brows “You realise this metaphor has gradually turned me into a hooker?”
He looked back up at me and thought it over, before realising how his last remark sounded. He let out one quick burst of laughter “Oh yeah, it does.”
I shook my head, either in desperation or amusement I wasn’t quite sure and turned to look at the desk. There were a bunch of papers all scattered around, blotched of red all over them from our dear old Principal a few feet away. I also noticed the laptop that Miss Vines had hit the killer with was back on the desk.
“He must have cleaned up before he left.” I told Archie and pointed at the laptop. It was open and back on the start-up screen.
Archie’s eyes studied the laptop for a while “Why would he do that?”
I shrugged, having no idea. I leaned in to look at the laptop closer, maybe there was something on it that could help or there really could be a clue on there. The Scooby Gang vibe was strong right now.
The screen suddenly went black, and I jumped back instantly bumping straight into Archie’s chest. His arms went around and caught me, and as we stared at the screen and waited that’s exactly where they stayed.
Letters started appearing on the screen, like they were being typed.
‘Stay tuned viewers. 30 minutes until show time.’
We waited for anything else to happen, but those words just stayed on the screen for the next 5 minutes. I realised my breath had hitched quite a bit now at just how creeped out I was.
“What the hell does that mean?” I asked panicked. Archie shook his head, not taking his eyes off the screen almost like he was in a trance. I swallowed hard as I turned to look him in the face. He tore his eyes away from the screen and met mine “What do we do?”
He debated for a minute, looking as lost as I felt “I don’t know. Keep watching?”
“For the next half an hour?” My voice was getting louder, I think the panic was controlling my volume button “What if we stay here for half an hour and he comes bursting through that door?”
He cocked his head quickly with his brows raised, realising I had a point “We can take it with us? At least we won’t be in this room and if anything comes up we can see it.”
I swallowed hard, my voice coming out very small “What if we don’t want to see if anything comes up?”
His eyes softened slightly as he took in the fact I was really shitting myself right now. One of the hands that was still on my arm rubbed it reassuringly “We’ll be fine Summer. He can’t come through that laptop.”
I nodded, trying to find comfort in his words “Okay.”
He gave me a faint reassuring smile “Come on, we better get back. At least we’ve got something in our favour now.”
He gestured towards the butterfly knife in his hands, and I actually let out a nervous smile as that actually did help. Knowing you have something sharp and pointy to protect you really can work wonders when you're nervous as hell.
I grabbed the laptop, not even closing it in case that somehow made it angry. I don’t know how a laptop would show that it was pissed off but I sure as hell was taking no chances. We made our way out of the room and back up to the third floor where Alex and the teachers were.
We reached the door to the medical room and knocked on it. Archie’s eyes never stopped scanning around as lookout in case anyone came at us. After a few seconds, Miss Vines opened the door. She let out a breath of relief as she saw us. We walked into the room and she closed the door behind us.
“Is he still out?” I asked, referring to Mr Cook who was exactly where we left him. I had noticed some of the blood was gone from around his head telling us she had cleaned him up a little.
“Yeah, he’s still breathing though which is something.” She replied, turning back to one of the counters and picking up the ice pack to put it back on her cheek. She noticed the laptop in my hand and looked at it curiously “What’s that?”
“This is the laptop which you thumped around that bastards head.” I told her, resting the laptop on the counter and stepping away from it. She looked surprised.
“Why have you got it?”
“Look at the message on it.” I told her, and she glanced at the same words that Archie and I had read back in the Principal’s office. They weren’t going anywhere apparently.
“Where’s Alex?” Archie’s asked, his voice suddenly hard as he looked around the room and sure enough, Alex was not here.
“He went back down to the hall to get the others and make sure they are okay. We heard someone scream.” She told us, and my stomach dropped as I realised Alex was out there on his own. On top of that, there was screaming. Screaming was never good.
“F*ck!” Archie cursed as he went straight for the door.
“He went to see if they were okay. I don’t know who screamed but he went to make sure they were okay.” Miss Vines tried to justify, seeing the sudden fury in Archie’s face. She looked a little panicky now as she realised it probably wasn’t a wise move to let him go out there on his own. Not that she really could have done much to stop him if I'm honest.
Archie unlocked the door and swung it open, his jaw clenched.
“Archie wait!” I called out and walked to him. The last thing we needed was for him to go wondering around on his own as well.
“I can’t wait, the stupid idiot wants to play superman and go out there on his own. I don’t really have waiting as an option Summer.” He almost growled.
“He took a pair of scissors with him.” Miss Vines told us as if that would calm Archie down “He’s got something to protect him.”
I turned back to Archie “See, he’s got something to defend himself.”
Archie looked at me, his expression almost deadpan “You know that none of this is going to stop me from looking for him right?”
I sighed “Yeah I know but a girl’s gotta try.” I turned to Miss Vines and began to walk towards Mr Cook “Help me lift him up.”
“Why?” She asked confused.
“We need to get everyone together again and get back to the hall. We don’t need more people on their own.” I explained. Weirdly, I started to agree with Gavin. Splitting up was not a good idea right now, especially because Miss Vines was on her own and Mr Cook was out cold. If someone came in here he would be no good in a struggle, and judging from the size of the little blonde art teacher she wouldn’t be that helpful either.
She nodded and walked towards the bed. We both heaved him up in a sitting position before pulling him off the bed. I was grunting as I tried to support his weight. Jesus, for a hot guy he weighed about the same as Missy Elliot in her bloated days.
I heard an annoyed groan from the door “Get out of the way.”
Archie walked straight up to the bed and with a lot more ease than me and Miss Vines, pulled Mr Cook up until he was slung over one of his shoulders. I raised my brows, impressed at this show of strength.
He began to walk to the door before he stopped “Summer, get the knife out of my pocket.”
“Why?”
“Because if someone jumps us I won’t be able to get it, now just shut up and grab it.” He was very snappy right now.
“Jeez calm down…” I muttered as I walked forward. I put my hand in his jeans pocket and began to rummage around until I found the knife and pulled it out. I looked back up at Archie, and even though he was struggling slightly from the dead weight on his shoulder, there was a hint of a smile.
“Not even ashamed to say I took great pleasure from that.” He informed me, and didn’t even bother to wait for my disgusted face before he turned and made his way down the hallway. Miss Vines and I both followed him down the stairs, and we reached the hall again with no trouble. That didn’t stop me from clutching hold of the knife in my hand like I was hanging on to the edge of a very tall cliff.
When we stepped back into the hall, everyone else was exactly where we left them. Frankie and Gavin were on the sofa, while Kevin had pulled a chair up to the sofa and was talking to Jaden who was sitting on the floor. Well that was nice at least.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I also saw Alex standing by the sofa and talking to Gavin and Frankie. I could basically feel the atmosphere change as Archie’s body relaxed at seeing his brother.
“Oh my god, is he alive?” Frankie gasped with her mouth hanging open as she saw Mr Cook slumped over Archie’s shoulder.
“Yeah he is, get up.” Archie ordered her and Gavin and they instantly obliged. He walked up to the sofa and layed Mr Cook down on it, letting out an exhausted breath once the weight was off his shoulder. He turned to Alex and without a second though punched him in the arm.
“What the hell man?!” Alex exclaimed looking at Archie in shock.
“You need to stop disappearing you tool.” Archie almost barked, and Alex rolled his eyes at his protective little brother. I guess he was used to Archie treating him like his child, making sure he was never alone and always safe. He had more patience than me because if I was Alex I would have slapped Archie by now for being such an overprotective douche. It was sweet, but I can imagine it getting very tedious after a while.
“Did you find him?” Jaden asked Archie and I, and I realised Alex had already filled in the guys about what happened on our little trip.
I shook my head “No, we went to the office but the only person there was Gregory.”
“Dead?” Gavin asked, and Frankie glared at him like he was an idiot.
“No, he came back to life.” She replied deadpan. Gavin just shrugged as if to say ‘just making sure’.
“So there was nothing else?” Alex asked.
“This and a bra.” I replied, lifting the hand that was holding the butterfly knife. I heard a few murmurs of approval, and I actually smiled as I heard Jaden shout ‘hallelujah we are saved.’
As I said, a pointy sharp thing makes people feel a lot safer when come face to face with a psycho.
“A bra?” Frankie actually picked up on the other bit of my sentence, and Archie laughed.
“It wasn’t either of ours as we established.” He told her, pointing his index finger between me and him. I couldn’t help but breathe a laugh “Oh and a laptop.”
“Yeah Alex said you wacked him with it. High five for that one sister.” Gavin grinned at Miss Vines and lifted his hand. She looked a little confused but complied with his request and smacked his hand with hers.
“The laptop had a message on it.” I announced, and suddenly everyone was all ears. Archie and I explained the weird message about it being show time in half an hour, and how we took the laptop in case something came up on it for us to watch but we didn’t want to stay in that room in case it was some kind of trap.
I noticed Frankie, Jaden and Gavin exchange a look as they glanced between Archie and me. They even took a good look at Miss Vines and even Mr Cook as if to make sure of something, then their confused eyes were back on us.
“So if you took it with you..."Jaden asked, his forehead wrinkling with confusion "...then where is it?”
I was just about to open my mouth to reply when I froze. I looked at Archie who was mirroring my expression. After a few minutes of silence as we stood there looking at each other with our mouths hanging open, we started a round of curses that bounced off the wall and ironically they actually bounced of each other there were so many of them. It was like a Flubber version of swearing.
We forgot the fucking laptop.
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