“No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they'd die for.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
Kaithlyn didn’t think she would be able to run so fast. She didn’t think she would forget to feel pain or even to think, but she did. The crushing fear made her do that and the only thing that rushed through her fearful thoughts was that she needed to run, and to keep running.
Caleb, who was well trained, because he did so many sports and he sported more than everyone of them. She could hear him breath, but that was probably just an illusion. The creepy song played itself over and over again and resounded against the walls. It was really confusing and it was looking like it came from everywhere, but it just got louder – but that could also be her imagination - , like the killer was coming closer. Kaithlyn didn’t dare to look after her, to see if the killer really was there, because she knew that that would cost time. Time that she didn’t have.
The stairs were close and this was the most dangerous and tricky part, because the stairs were slippery and running on them, could make you fall. Kaithlyn knew that if she fell, the killer would probably get to her and kill her.
Caleb opened the door to the stairs and pushed the door, which automatically closed itself behind students, so hard that Kaithlyn could get to it and run further. Kaithlyn also pushed the door and ran on the stairs. She could only hope two things: that if she fell, her friends wouldn’t stop to help her and that the doors weren’t locked yet, because every night on of the teaches closed the doors and locked them, so they couldn’t get out, and the killer couldn’t get in. If the doors were shut, they were trapped.
Kaithlyn heard footsteps on the stairs. The ones of her friends and the ones of the killer. Now she thought more, she could feel her tired body, but she didn’t stop running. Caleb was a couple of meters before her, and that motivated her to run further. They were arrived at the second floor. You needed to get out of this cabin, to ran to the other cabin, if you wanted to go to the first floor.
Kaithlyn’s breath speeded up, as she made a sprint. She was now close to her friend, who also ran tirelessly. Now Kaithlyn was sure that hearing him breathing was really her imagination. He didn’t make any sound with his mouth, he only looked forward and ran.
‘Where do we go?’ Kaithlyn gasped.
‘I – don’t – know.’ Caleb wasn’t speaking at the speed he talked on normally. This was the first clue of him being even human.
Kaithlyn heard her friends coming closer, as they made a sprint. But she also heard the song, who was now in the chorus. They came to the stairs and Caleb opened the door, what cost a lot of time. The killer came closer. And closer, and closer.
They ran again. Kaithlyn didn’t believe in anything like a god or something but now she prayed and that was so stupid for her that she felt hopeless. She prayed to something she didn’t even believe in. There must really be something going on with her. She must be devastated.
A teardrop came out of her eye, like it had been there for a long time. Her life wasn’t supposed to be like this. She was suppose to sleep in her bed, but she didn’t. In fact, she was running from a killer. Why was she in this creepy game? Why didn’t she just skip school for one day?
Running became harder every second, but every second counted. Every second could make an end to her life. Why did the killer do this? It was useless. Why would you kill pure teenagers, who probably never did anything wrong. What revenge did he wanted to get? The questions were foolish and she wished her thoughts were silent for one second, or two. She wished she could go back to the time she couldn’t worry, or the time that she didn’t need to.
She wiped the tear away and thought of her family, her friends. This wasn’t the time to be emotional. She needed to survive this, even if it just was so she could smile the next day, to say that she lived. But now, she felt like she could better be dead, or that she would be dead any minute.
That was a peaceful thought. Death was easy. But she didn’t deserve it. She needed to play, for the fallen. The dead people didn’t deserve to die and she couldn’t because of that. It seemed to get some pattern. Kaithlyn blocked her thoughts. She was sick of them.
The door of the first floor was in her sight. Her feelings became more positive. Being dead maybe wasn’t her endpoint today. But Caleb looked devastated.
‘What’s going on?’ Kaithlyn asked irritated. Every second they were spending here, was an option to die.
‘I can’t open it,’ Caleb said, almost crying. Kaithlyn startled and that wasn’t really because the door didn’t open, but more of Caleb crying. She had never see him cry. It was beautiful and ruining at the same time. Like something that you knew you didn’t deserve. A thing that you want so badly, but you know that you can’t get it, because you did something wrong.
‘We will find a way,’ Kaithlyn said and she surprised herself. She never talked so calm when someone close to her cried. Normally she couldn’t breathe when someone she cared about cried, but maybe Caleb was an exception. Maybe it was because he looked like a fallen angel when he cried.
Caleb looked up and his face was wet, but Kaithlyn smiled to him.
‘Kaith, your hair,’ Caleb said dismayed. Kaithlyn knew that they didn’t have enough time. She took something out of her hair. It was a clip. She gave it to Caleb. The others were on the last stairs. Caleb tried to unlock the door with her hairclip and he was struggling a lot, but that was probably because of the fact that he needed to do it really quickly.
The others were on the end, now they all stood in the hallways, and Caleb was still trying to open the door. Grayson pushed him away and began to do it himself. The killer was on the last stairs and they could see him. He or she was completely dressed in black clothes. They couldn’t see his face in the dark, but Kaithlyn was pretty sure that he wore a mask.
An electronic voice said: ‘Well well, I really hoped that I could save you for longer. You are probably my favorites, you know that, right?’
Grayson didn’t look up from his work. He was still trying to unlock the door. Kaithlyn couldn’t get herself to move. She saw that Caleb was bashing on the door and screaming for help, but it seemed to happen in another world, like she wasn’t really there. The only thing she could hear clearly was the electronic voice of the killer.
‘You want to know what to story is?’ it said. ‘You know that you’ll be killed after it.’ A creepy laugh came out of the box. ‘Well, we have some time. The police are too busy finding other body’s. Oh, for the record, you can skip Eddy, and two other names from the list. Soon I’ll skip yours.’ The masked killer took a seat at the stairs. He probably liked this very much.
‘Once upon a time, like almost a year or two ago, I came to the perfect idea to take revenge at this woman. She had been really, really naughty. So I had this idea, and I had to work on it. So I took my computer to work every single day of the upcoming year. I worked really hard on the project. I was really spending much time, energy and money on it. But it was worth it.
When the golden day came, I got to the school that I had been looking at for a long time. I knew what I needed to do, I knew what texts you needed to get and I knew who was going to die. And so it happened.’ Now all of them were listening. Even Grayson, who was still trying to open the door.
‘I killed Anna and I got away with it. The police don’t even look to me when they’re thinking of suspects. I knew that I was save. So when I sent the text, you became scared, and that was exactly what I wanted. I wanted you to be scared, to think that everything was going to be fine, as soon as the police would find out more about the killer, but they didn’t and you were locked up at school, where the killer could stand and do what he liked. And you’re all my puppets. I can play with you whenever I want. So I did.
It had became so easy to come up with mew idea’s to kill people and let nothing. And then the bloodbath. One of my personal favorites. You all still don’t know who killed everybody. I can tell that it wasn’t me, but if you wonder, he’s dead right now. But not all the dead people are really gone, you know. I’ll make sure that they will come back in some kind of creepy way.
Oh, I almost forgot, I have a present for you.’ The killer looked for his phone and tapped something. ‘I’ve been collecting all of your phone calls you got since you were trapped at school. You thought that your family was forgetting you existed? You thought wrong. I’ve made a perfect combination of all of the calls. I hope you like it!’
‘Mommy, who are you calling?’ Caleb’s little brother’s voice said.
‘Grayson, where are you?’ Grayson’s dad asked angry.
‘I’ve heard from the police that you’re trapped at school,’ Ellie’s mom said.
And really quickly the owners of the voices weren’t important anymore, because they were all telling a story. ‘Alicia called us yesterday. Remco was asking you on a date, but I told him he could screw himself. Mommy, who are you calling? It’s Caleb darling. Hi Caleb, where are you? I love you. I’m sorry, my boy. Your dad is telling the truth. You need to ask her that, it isn’t my task to tell you. It’s not about your friends. Trust nobody. Call me when you get this message. Oh, and when you get home, you’ll have so much trouble that you’ll never see that cheeky girlfriend of you again.’
But the last sentence was the most important one, there was a silence before it, and a huge silence after it. It was the voice of Caleb’s mother.
‘I’m sorry,’ she cried. ‘This is all my fault.’