“What is this room? And what is this?” I asked, tapping the glass again.
“This is Big Top’s security room,” she stated, refusing to look away from the screens, her face drenched in green. “William works—workedhere.” Her curls bounced as she turned to look at me. “The man Crissa killed earlier tonight. He would sit here and watch everything, flipping between the cameras. Andthat”—she pointed to the glass—“is a two-way mirror. It’s how they were able to keep an eye on everything at all times. William and Tawny.”
I turned to look back at the mirror, peeking into the pizzeria. “Whatever that thing is…it’s not Crissa.” My breath fogged the glass. “She’d never hurt a single soul. She couldn’t.”
Lavender scoffed, drawing my attention back to her while she kept flipping through the feeds. “Yeah, I said the same thing.” Her blue eyes shifted back to me. “But yet, here we are.”
“Wait. Stop!” I ran over and tapped one of the monitors, pointing out a cracked door that led to the outside. It had a glowing exit sign above it, but no other indications as to where it was located. “Where is this?” My fingertip tapped the screen again.
And how did we miss it?
Lavender peered closer, tapping the keyboard. “It looks like it’s an emergency exit near the other side of the pizzeria, at the end of the hall with those old party rooms…but…that doesn’t make any sense.”
“Why not?” I asked.
She turned to look up at me. “Because that exit has been locked for nearly a year. Tawny shut it down when we closed the party rooms.” Her eyes returned to the screen. “It shouldn’t be open.”
I stared at the screen as static flickered, rippling the live feed. “Well, it is. And if we can get there, we can escape. Maybe find a phone booth and call for help or something.” Lavender began to frantically toss the food trash from the desk onto the floor, searching for something. “Uhh, what’re you doing?”
“Tawny always kept a phone in here for William to use in case of emergencies. I’m pretty sure he used it to call her when the power went out earlier tonight.”
My brows furrowed. “How could he call in the middle of a power outage? Aren’t the phone lines dead then too?”
Lavender eventually found the landline and grinned. “No, cause this one has that copper wiring.” I made a face and she sighed. “It means even when the power goes out, it should still work.” She raised the receiver to her ear. “Yes! I got a dial tone!” She punched in the numbers 9-1-1 and waited.
“Hello? Yes! Yes! Oh my god!” She began to shake from how relieved she was. “Yes, there’s an emergency at the Big Top Pizzeria…yes, the one in the mall.” She paused, looking at me as she covered the phone with her hand. “What do I say?” she whispered.
“Tell them what’s happening! That someone is hunting us down and killing us!”
She bit her lower lip. “But…do I tell themwhois doing it?”
And then it hit me.
If Lavender told the police what was going on, what was truly going on, then they’d surely show up. But when they got here, they’d find Crissa. Or…whatever that thing was inside her. Not to mention, they’d find all of us here, after hours, breaking and entering.
Shit.
After thinking it over for a few more minutes, I ripped the phone from Lavender’s hands and slammed it back onto the receiver.
“What the hell, Montey?! The police could’ve helped! They would’ve?—”
“They’d kill her,” I said in a low, monotone voice. Lavender blinked, understanding my meaning. “After everything we’ve done to her, could you live with Crissa’s blood on your hands?” She remained quiet, dropping her head. “Neither can I. Which means our only option is”—I looked back at the monitor and pointed—“finding that exit and getting the hell out of here.”
She sighed, crossing her arms. “I know my way to the exit, but something doesn’t feel right.” She softly pushed me out of the way and flipped through the camera feeds. “I’m telling you…that exit hasn’t been open in months. We were down there earlier and didn’t see it. So why is it open now?” Her eyes snapped to me. “We need to be careful. Cris—thatthing—could be playing more games.”
I nodded before looking around the messy office. “Too bad William didn’t have more guns in here.”
Lavender scoffed. “I didn’t know he had the first one. No one did. But if we stick together and move fast, we should be able to reach it pretty quickly.”
“Youshould. You go on ahead.”
“What?” she snapped. “What about you? I can’t just leave you here alone!”
I crossed my arms and sighed. “Yes, you can. And you will. You’re the only one of us who ever tried to stop things from getting too far. Who tried to stop Sybil and her fucked up pranks. But, even still, I can’t just leave her.” No matter how much I want to.
My palms pressed against the desk, my body hunching over as my head fell forward. I was angry at Sybil for putting all of us in this situation, but I was more pissed at myself for ever letting things get this far. I should’ve stopped her…I should’ve stopped it long ago. But for some stupid, fucked up reason, I just let it happen. And the worst part was I never even had a reason for picking Sybil over Crissa. I just fucking did, and now, all I wanted to do was save Crissa from whatever the fuck was inside her. But how?How?
Lavender gently touched my back. I slowly turned to look at her, my blue and purple hair brushing along my eyes. “Don’t do that,” she whispered. “Don’t go blaming yourself. We all did this.”
