“Montey! Hurry the hell up!” Sybil shouted.
Crissa laughed, inching closer as a few rats followed. She dragged her hand along the wall, smearing blood while she hummed.
“Montey!”
“I’m fucking trying!” I snapped at Sybil, testing yet another key. “Fuck—come on!” My heart pounded uncontrollably.
“Mar–co,” Crissa sang out.
I pulled another key, testing it, but it also didn’t work. “How many fucking keys does anyone need?!”
Crissa stopped and cocked her head, dropping her smile. We all stared at her, confused and uneasy. “That’s not how this game goes.” She lifted her hand to her mouth, licking more blood from her sharp claw-like fingers. “Don’t you humans know how to play? When someone saysMarco, you’re supposed to sayPolo!” She suddenly bolted towards us.
“Montey!”
I tried another key, the lock finally giving way as I unlocked the gate. My fingers curled along its edge, straining as I raised it high enough for the others to crawl through. “Hurry! Go!” I shouted to them. Sybil shot under the gate and reached out, pulling Lavender through. They held the gate up, groaning as they tried to keep it raised enough for me to duck under. Crissa’s laughter echoed closer as I climbed under and rolled to the other side, snatching the key.
“Fucking lock it!” Sybil screamed. “Lock it!”
Together, we slammed the security gate back down and I shoved the key in the lock, securing it in place. Crissa slammed into it, causing us to stumble back in horror. Her bloodied face pressed against the metal, groaning as she glared at us. “Cheaters,” she hissed.
I helped the two women to their feet, the three of us huddling together as we all stared in disbelief at Crissa.
“S-s-s-s-s-s-Sybil.” She sang her name in a low, altered voice. “I have been waiting such alongtime for you.” A low growl vibrated in Crissa’s throat. “Still begging for your daddy to let you come back home?” Lavender and I both looked at Sybil, her face paler than usual. Crissa noticed our expressions and tilted her head. “Oh, it seems your friends don’t know. How intriguing.” Her blacked-out eyes returned to Sybil. “I would wager this whole ‘prank’,” she wiggled her sharp claws in the air, mimicking quotation marks— “was your way of using and manipulating everyone into getting exactly what you needed.” She didn’t say a word. “Mmm, I’m right, aren’t I?” Crissa tossed her head back into a sinister cackle, tugging at the gate. “Oh, you fools! You have all followed this sneaky little cunt, letting her use you! She is not your friend.” A snarl rippled from Crissa’s mouth. “She never was…were you Sybil?”
“What the hell is she talking about?” Lavender asked. “Sybil?”
“Nothing!” she snapped back. “Isn’t it obvious what’s going on? She’s trying to pit us against each other!” Sybil whipped her head back toward Crissa and her red hair swung around her face. “But it won’t work. And as long as that freak is locked in there, we’re safe out here.”
Crissa smiled and tilted her head. “Oh? Are you sure about that?” We all watched as the empty lock at the base of the metal gate slowly began to turn, squeaking as it rotated.
“Shit—run!” I pushed the women forward and we all bolted away from the pizzeria towards the food court
Crissa’s laughter returned as she flung the gate up with one swift motion. “Marco!”
The three of us watched in horror, looking back as we ran to see Crissa laugh, stepping into the mall as a sea of rats flooded in from behind her. “What the hell? Where the fuck did all those rats come from?” Sybil shouted.
“See! I told you! They’re her friends!” Lavender stated as we turned a corner.
We kept running, hearing the chittering and scampering of the vermin, mixed with Crissa’s demonic laughter as we aimed for the foodcourt. The three of us bobbed and weaved through the vacant mall, eventually losing them all.
“There!” Lavender pointed to the long row of vacant food stalls as we stopped to catch our breaths. “We should hide back in there.”
“What? You want us to just stop and hide, like sitting ducks?” Sybil huffed.
Lavender shot her a look. “No, but if we want to leave, I need to check the keys. Tawny usually kept a master key that unlocks any door in the mall on the key ring.” Her dark curls bounced around her freckled face as her eyes met mine. “Please tell me you still have them.”
I clutched the keys in my palm before tossing them to her. “Yeah.”
The three of us crawled over the counter of the pretzel stand and fell to our knees. Lavender carefully flipped through the key ring as I peeked over the counter, keeping a look out. “What’s the nearest exit from here?”
She paused to think. “Uh, there’s a main exit just down the east side past the sunglasses store. There’s also a stairwell with an emergency exit around the corner and midway down. But the easiest way out would be through the large department store there.” She pointed directly ahead. “If we can unlock the gate without making noise, we can run straight through and use the exterior doors which lead right to the parking lot.”
Sybil groaned loudly, causing us both to stop and look at her. “This is so fucking stupid!” She flung her head back. “We’re all going to die because of that psycho freak and her rats!”
Lavender flashed me a look.
“You know, I’m really getting sick of your attitude.”
