lovely
Horror.
open your pretty mouth for meeee…
NO—
A stall door jerked open somewhere behind him.
Andrew’s heart punched against his ribs hard enough to bruise. “Hello?” For the first time in his life, he did not freaking care who walked in and saw his bloodied face, with fungi crawling up his arm as he had the mental breakdown of a lifetime.
Please be Thomas.
But no one turned the corner.
Another stall door slammed so hard it crashed against the wall. Andrew’s heart clawed up his throat, sweat slick on the back of his neck, and suddenly he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t—
He took a step backward, then another. Then he ran for the last toilet and locked himself inside.
Somewhere down the row of stalls, another door slammed. Then another. Like gunshots against the stillness.
The breathing grew heavier. Something scratched against the stall doors with a high-pitched shriek. Then silence.
Andrew wiped his nose, smearing blood up his cheek. His eyes blurred as he swallowed hard. This wasn’t happening. Whatever it was. It couldn’tbe happening.
He squished himself onto the closed toilet lid and pulled his knees to his chin and tried not to hyperventilate. Above him, electricity crackled along the fluorescent lights and they snapped off again. On.
Off.
Darkness fell, absolute. It crawled over his arms and pinned him there, no air to even scream.
Another stall door slammed,slammed—SLAM SLAMSLAM.
It would get to him next. He’d locked the door, but he had to choose to believe it wasn’t happening, couldn’t be happening. It was all in his head.
In the green glow from the emergency exit sign, legs appeared under Andrew’s stall door. They were hard to distinguish, half eaten by the dark, but he could tell they were slender and furred.
A senior prank, it had to be. They hoped to make him piss his pants and then they’d laugh about it for weeks. He could get through that. He knew what it was to be a target and survive.
His mouth trembled. Too soft, too sensitive.
Pathetic—
Panic bricked up his lungs. He just wanted this to be over.
BANG.Fist against the door. It shuddered.
The legs shuffled and made two sharp, clear taps. Like iron horseshoes on tiles.
Andrew forced himself to peer under the door.
Hooves. Each leg ended in perfectly round hooves.
Fingernails scratched against the stall lock. The lock began twisting, slowly. Slowly—
just a little
a little more
