"How could something this horrible happen in my school?" Jefferson shouted hysterically. "Now, every single one of my students will become drug addicts!"
He leaned back in his chair and placed his hand on his sweating forehead. "This is going to be on the local news!"
His eyes widened. "What will the parents think of me?!"
While Jefferson continued to paint a mural of the worst logical outcomes, Aniatha reached over and touched Dark Cry's knee.
Dark Cry took the hint and spoke up. "Sir, we are in a terrible rush, and we need to get on with this. Is the girl on her way here?"
Jefferson stopped in the middle of his rambling. "Huh? Oh, well, she should be! After all, I called her twice, but the warning bell sounded off. The halls will be swarming with students for the next five minutes or so. It would be so easy to lose her in that crowd. We should just sit here and wait."
"'Five minutes,' you say?" asked Aniatha.
"Yeah, it's approximately five minutes. Well, you remember what it was like in high school. It's just enough time to get the kids to their locker and the next class. Not a very long time, to be honest."
Aniatha stood up from her chair. "It's perfect timing."
Without a word, she exited Jefferson's office with Dark Cry following closely behind her.
"Hey, wait!" shouted Jefferson, standing up from his desk chair. "This girl is only seventeen; she's still a minor. Do you have a warrant for this procedure of yours? Have you notified her family?"
Both officers went out the door and into the hall, ignoring Jefferson.
"She will be making her way down the main hallway," said Dark Cry, taking the lead.
"What is Jefferson like?" Virginia asked Charles.
"He has his ups and downs," replied Charles, "but all-in-all, he is just very picky about how his school runs."
"Would he see me as one that would tamper with how his school runs?"
Charles laughed. "No, no! I doubt that he would see you like that. Something must have set him off."
Dark Cry and Aniatha rounded the corner and continued down the main hallway, swarmed by students.
Dark Cry walked no more than five steps when he suddenly stopped in his tracks. His eyes were fixed on something in front of him. Aniatha stopped and stared, too.
"What could have possibly set him off?" Virginia asked. "Does it relate to me in any way?"
Suddenly, Virginia felt Charles grab her hand tightly, preventing her from walking any farther.
She stayed still and looked up at him. "Charles, what's wrong?"
Charles was frozen like a statue. His eyes did not break contact with something down the hallway. Virginia turned her head to see what he was staring at.
Two police officers, a man and a woman, stood no more than fifty feet before them. Virginia noticed that the woman had a very cunning smile, like a cat that had cornered its prey. Charles never took his eyes off the policeman while the officer glared back at him with pale green eyes.
Dark Cry began to take deep breaths, like a bull about to charge its victim. The white of his eyes faded away as pale green consumed his entire eye. A deep, booming growl proceeded from his mouth as he gnashed his teeth like a beast.
Virginia never took her eyes off the two officers but, in a worried voice, asked, "Charles, what's going on?"
Charles took a step back in what appeared to be a fighting stance. His shoulders bulked up as he glared back at the male police officer. "Virginia, no matter what happens, stay close."
"What?" she asked.
Dark Cry raised his head and let out a terrifying cry like a wild animal. He pulled his gun from his hip and charged at Charles and Virginia.
"Virginia! Run!" shouted Charles.
Without letting go of her hand, he turned around and led her back in the direction from where they came. Adrenaline rushed through their veins as they fished their way up through the river of students.
"Get out of my way!" thundered Dark Cry.
He started grabbing kids with his hands and tossing them out of his path. He clubbed his gun into the temples of others, sending them falling to the ground.
"This way!" shouted Charles.
He pulled her to the left and down another less crowded hallway.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Three shots from Dark Cry's gun had every student drop to the floor, fearing for their lives. Both he and Aniatha jumped and hobbled over the prostrate kids on the hallway floor.
"Keep running!" shouted Charles.
"Charles, what's going on?" cried Virginia.
"Just trust me!"
He pushed a door open to his left, and they ran through the school's large gymnasium.
"They went this way!" shouted Dark Cry.
He and Aniatha turned down a hallway to the left, which branched off the main hallway. They came to a stop. All the kids in the hall were lying prostrate like the others before them, but none were Charles and Virginia. Dark Cry stood still and took a big, long sniff through his nostrils.
"This way," he said.
His voice was becoming deeper and his complexion darker. He ran to a far door on the left of the hallway, pushed it open, and ran into the gymnasium with Aniatha following close behind.
Charles and Virginia were making their way through the kitchen, which led off the back of the gymnasium. They ran past the kitchen staff and to a back door. Charles pushed it open, and they both ran outside, standing on the back parking lot of Mason High's property. Charles quickly closed the door behind them.
"I'm sure he already has our scent," he said. "It's only a matter of time."
He ran over to a dumpster on their right. Reaching in, he pulled out a grey backpack. He quickly ran back and placed his shoulder against the door. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
"What are you doing?" asked Virginia.
"Sending a text to your uncle," he said.
"What?" she asked, confused. "Why are you texting my uncle, now of all times? What's going on?"
"Send!" ordered Charles, tapping the 'send' button on his screen. He stared anxiously at his phone as the text was slowly sending out. "C'mon, C'mon, C'mon!"
"Charles?" screamed Virginia.
"Yes!" exclaimed Charles. "It sent!"
He placed the phone back in his pocket and looked at Virginia, whose eyes were wide and skin pale.
"Virginia, listen to me," he said. "There are a lot of things that you don't know about me—about where I come from, my family comes from, or even where your uncle comes from! There's a lot you don't even know about yourself, but listen to me very carefully: you have got to stick with me. If you don't, you will die."
"Those cops! Those cops back there!" stammered Virginia. "Why are they trying to kill us?"
"They're not cops," said Charles.
"What?! W-Why are they wearing police uniforms, then?"
"They were trying to get to you—to kill you!"
Virginia's voice was like a scream. "Why are they trying to kill me!?"
"Listen!" shouted Charles as he grabbed her shoulders, trying to pull her out of the shock. "All will be explained, but for right now, you must follow me! This is an arrangement I made with your uncle in case something like this was ever to happen."
There was a loud thud on the door behind them. Charles and Virginia heard the sound of a growling beast, followed by the screams of the kitchen staff coming from the other side. Charles placed his shoulder firmly against the door and gripped the handle, preventing it from turning. The metal in the door began to bend outward as if something was trying to force it open.
"On the count of three, we run, and we run fast!" said Charles. "Ready?"
Virginia was about to start crying. "I-I don't know if—what about—"
He took her hand and looked into her eyes. "Virginia, I need you to trust me! Do you trust me?"
Virginia looked back into Charles's eyes, those same eyes she looked into when he rescued her from the falling ladder, those same eyes that befriended her when no one else would, those same eyes that now wanted to save her. "… Okay… Okay, let's just do something! I trust you!"
"Then run with me, now!"
She nodded her head.
Charles took a deep breath through his nose. "One… two… three!"
Charles took his shoulder off the door. Then, hand-in-hand, they dashed across the back parking lot and onto the school football field.
"Where are we going?" shouted Virginia.
"Into the woods!" replied Charles.
There was a loud sound of an engine revving up behind them. Virginia looked over her shoulder and saw a gray truck driving across the parking lot toward them. With a powerful rev of the engine, the vehicle bounced off the asphalt and onto the grass field.
"Charles!" shouted Virginia. "There's a truck behind us!"
Charles turned around and saw the grey truck in hot pursuit. He reached inside his backpack, pulling out a pistol. While running, he fired at the truck behind them but had no success stopping it.
"Get down!" he said, throwing Virginia to the ground.
Standing still, Charles held the gun in both hands, took aim, and fired three shots. The truck's front right tire blew a flat. It swerved and crashed into the bleachers on the sidelines.
Grabbing Virginia's hand, he picked her up. "C'mon! They can run very fast. Sprint like your life depended upon it!"
The back door of the kitchen flew off its hinges. Dark Cry stood in the doorframe with Aniatha behind him. His figure was bulkier, so much so that the seams of his uniform were starting to rip. His canine teeth were enlarged and sharper. The nails on his hands were longer. The darkness around him was thicker than before, and his breaths sounded like a growling beast. His hat was off; his long, black hair fell to the middle of his back and across his chest. He looked far into the distance and saw Charles and Virginia entering the woods beyond the football field.
Dark Cry gnashed his teeth together, threw his gun to the ground, and began to run. His pace was abnormally faster than any human. He lunged into the air and began to run on all fours like a dog.
The two guards exited the wrecked truck and followed Dark Cry, carrying rifles on their backs. They, too, were beginning to puff up in strength as darkness surrounded them. Sprinting fast, they ran to catch up with Dark Cry.
Princess Aniatha was surprisingly faster than them all. Passing Dark Cry and the other two, she made it to the woods first.
"Do not let them escape!" she thundered.