"There's a battle ahead."
-Don't Dream It's Over, Crowded House
________________________________
Alec
"I can't hear her anymore."
Seth stops when I do and looks around. The corridor we are standing in is completely empty. I don't know what time it is- sometime late at night- but it feels like we've been searching for hours.
I don't want to believe that Liv and Jasper are together. Just thinking about it makes my hands tense with anger. I guess I thought Liv chose me over him.
Maybe I'd thought wrong.
Seth looks exhausted and frustrated at the same time, which doesn't seem right on his face made to have a childish smile on it. He sighs heavily, shoulders slumping a little.
"Dude, I hate to break it to you, but maybe she's not lost," Seth says. "Maybe you just don't want to admit she's with-"
"She's not with Jasper!" I interrupt in a loud voice.
He puts his hands up in surrender and replies calmly, "Okay, this freak-out you're having right now is not a good colour on you."
I sigh and I'm about to respond when Rosa walks down the corridor, eyes frantically scanning her surroundings.
When she sees us, she stops abruptly and grins a fixed grin. "Boys, what are you doing up?" It must be after curfew, but she doesn't seem too concerned about scolding us.
Seth puts on his best grin and greets, "Hey, Miss Rosa. We're looking for our friend, she seems to have gone missing."
Rosa looks away quickly, brushing her pitch black hair out of her eyes. When she meets our gaze again after a split second, she replies in a forced-calm voice, "And your friend's name?"
"Liv. Well, Olivia," Seth responds in his light, charming voice that makes a lot of the girls here swoon.
She freezes for a split second but it's enough. Rosa knows something. "Sorry, boys, I can't help you. I think you should be heading off to bed now."
I share a look with Seth, who shrugs passively, and then I turn back to Rosa. "Goodnight then."
She smiles briefly and nods, before scooting past us and speed-walking down the corridor.
"Okay, I'll catch you at breakfast-"
"We need to follow her," I interrupt Seth, who had begun to walk up the stairs to his dorm. I watch Rosa's disappearing form.
Seth makes a face, standing beside me again. "For the love of-"
I grab his arm and pull him along. "Come on."
We tiptoe behind her but she seems too focused on wherever she's going to realise she's being followed. She makes it outside and rounds the school on the opposite side to where we normally walk to get to the gardens. The storm is stronger than earlier, rain crashing on the ground and the night is unclear, not a star in sight. My mum used to tell me that starless nights aren't good. Alec, the night sky should be full of stars, when they're not, it's a sign that something is wrong.
Seth and I crouch in front of the brick building, rain crashing around us, and watch Rosa approach a big metal box. She pulls out a key and slots it in the keyhole, heaving the steel door open.
Inside is the generator.
Seth punches my arm.
"Ow!" I hiss, turning around to glare at him.
"She's going to the generator, moron," Seth snaps in a hushed voice. "Liv is probably just with-"
"Don't say it," I spit, and he stops. I turn around to look at her again as she fumbles around with the generator. "Something isn't right here, and I'm going to figure out what it is."
Seth looks like he's about to say something, but I shush him when Rosa exits the generator and starts heading our way. I grab his arm and run around the other side of the building, skidding through puddles, and crouch behind the wall, watching her make her way back inside.
When she slips through the door after eyeing her surroundings one final time, I bolt after her with Seth at my heels. When we arrive in the main foyer, I glance around and see Rosa disappearing down a corridor to our right while Seth glares at his soggy clothes and wrings out his shirt.
I point. "There."
Seth spots her and we quietly run after her, keeping light on our feet. It feels like we're following her for ages, into corridors that I've never visited in my four years here. Eventually, she comes to a staircase and after checking no one is following her, shuffles down the steps and disappears.
I make a move to follow her but Seth grabs my arm, stopping me in place. "Dude, what if there's dead bodies down there?"
I snatch my arm away, eager to follow Rosa. "It's not the worst thing this school has seen. Now come on."
He makes a face, and I roll my eyes. "Fine. Keep guard."
Seth breathes out heavily and slumps against the wall until he's sitting down with his legs crossed.
I spin around, fists clenching, and steadily tread down the stairwell.
Olivia
Rosa walks back into the room, slamming the steel-iron door shut behind her. "Some students are getting suspicious," she says quickly, hurrying to the box again.
Jasper frowns, pushing away from the wall that he was leaning against in silence while Rosa was gone. He had been ignoring all of my questions. "Who?"
Rosa shoots me an accusing glare and replies, "Alec West and Seth Ryder."
My stomach warms up and I can feel hope soothe my insides. Alec and Seth are going to come rescue me. I slump in my seat in relief.
But my relief disappears and is replaced with fear when Rosa adds, "It means we need to speed this up. I'm going to turn up the voltage."
"Hey, that could kill her," Jasper says with a hint of hesitation in his voice, raising his hand slightly. Now he's deciding to care about my wellbeing? The voices in my head are yelling in protest, and it feels a lot emptier in their, like a theatre had played a bad film and the audience weren't happy so started to leave.
"So? It's for the benefit of the school," Rosa says, pushing her stray hairs around her ears. She has this wild look in her eyes and that tells me that maybe she's just as crazy as the rest of us.
My eyes widen, the hairs on the back of my neck sticking on end. Realisation kicks in: I'm going to die here.
And it's going to be a painful death. But maybe I deserve it. I stabbed Mr Jefferson. I pushed Jacob off a roof. I slit Naomi's throat. Even down to Whiskers, whose neck I snapped. Because wherever I go, pain and hurt follows. Doesn't matter that I couldn't control it, I still did it.
I deserve this.
She turns up the voltage and presses the button, sending a tsunami of electricity through my body. I scream out but I don't try to get out of the chair.
I don't fight anymore.