“Yeah. And he looked just like he does on the internet.”
Dammit. He must have had on a mask. “Why didn’t you tell your mother or Kami?”
“Because he said if I told anyone he’d hurt Juana!”
Juana…that damned iguana. Whoever was behind this was a sick bastard.
“It’s OK,” I said, hugging him tight and trying to calm him down. “It’s OK, little guy… But I need you to listen to me very, very closely. If you and Momo are both in here, then there must be one door that’s still open. Which doors did you lock?”
Cameron thought for a few seconds and said, “Just two. The gym and the cafeteria…”
In my mind, I drew a map of the school, trying to figure out which door was likeliest to be open. The auditorium, maybe? That was nowhere near the kitchen. I tried to ignore the horror, my hatred for Julian—because it was Julian. Who else could it be? I felt guilty. I should have taken him more seriously, I should have done more to convince the police that he wasn’t just some teenage runaway… Maybe I should have killed him when I had the chance.
But none of that mattered now. I needed to focus.
Cameron and I looked up when we heard the sound of helicopters overhead. And then I saw it: the skylight. It was big enough tofit through. We just needed to be careful climbing up, and it would lead us to the roof.
“Cam, over here!” I said, standing directly under it.
I just needed a ladder and something to break it with. But where in the hell would I get a hammer?
Cam must have known what I was thinking, because he said, “It’s too high.”
“Fuck!”
I looked all around. The windows were reinforced glass, they’d be almost impossible to shatter, and they only opened a few inches. Unless the police showed up with battering rams, that option was out. As I looked back at Cam, I heard a terrifying voice come over the PA.
“Attention, students. Despite what you might think, my intention isn’t to kill you. Not all of you, anyway. You’ll be allowed to leave, one by one, if you help me fulfill today’s mission, a mission I’ve been planning for months, a mission to rid you of the scum who walk among you.”
I shivered with recognition. It was distorted, but I’d recognize it anywhere. I couldn’t help clenching my fists. When I saw the fear on Cam’s face, I realized that this was the same voice, speaking through some kind of masking device, that had threatened him and forced him to do things he’d never have done otherwise.
“Relax, buddy,” I told him, and we looked up again, listening to the words of the madman.
“I’ll make it very easy on you. Just bring me the people on the list I’m about to read out, and after that, you can go. Let me repeat: If you bring me these losers, you can leave, one by one, without a scratch on you.”
He then began to name off not random students, but basketball players, cheerleaders… I shuddered as I heard the guys from my team called out, their girlfriends, the popular kids, the elite…
“Danny Walker, Harry Lionel, Ellie Webber, Aaron Martin, Victoria Tribecky, Amanda Church, Victor Di Viani, Marissa Digeronimo, Chloe Harrison…”
And the names went on, until he had reached twenty students. He paused, and I tensed up as he spoke again: “And now, for the final three. The stars of the show. You all know them, you’ve all wanted to be them, we’ve all fallen at their feet. How can you resist the two brothers who look like they stepped out of a fricking Hollywood film? You know who I mean, right, girls? The ones you all slobber over like bitches in heat. I’m talking about the Di Bianco brothers. And finally, the person who ruined my life as soon as I laid eyes on her…”
Cam was staring at me with terror in his eyes. And I, too, was shaking as I guessed which name would come next.
“She’s the girl you all love and hate, the girl who doesn’t have to do anything to light up the room…the girl who played with my heart, who trapped me with her eyes and her smile, and who threw me out like a broken toy…”
“You son of a bitch,” I murmured under my breath.
“I heard what you said about me, Kamila: ‘You guys see him as some kind of danger, but for me, he’s just a pathetic loser who had to lie to me and lie to himself to make friends. He’s a creep, a liar. He’s a pathetic asshole, and he’s going to spend the rest of his life alone.’”
What the…? Those were the same words Kam had said the day she’d been walking to school, the day Taylor and I had gotten angry with her for not watching her back because Julian was still out there… He’d been listening to her somehow…following her.
“But who’s going to be alone now, Kamila? You. Because I’m going to kill everyone you love right in front of your eyes. And then I’ll finish you off. Because you don’t deserve to live after what you did to me. If I can’t have you, then no one can.”
Cam was holding on to my leg tight, and I was so stunned I couldn’t even find the words to calm him down.
“If you want this to stop, bring me the people on my list… especially Kamila.”
The PA system screeched, echoing all around me, and that was the last thing I heard before the cafeteria door flew open.
