Ally returned from the memories to the spot in her room as she held the coat in her hands. It had now been almost three weeks after she’d first met Lilly and the twins. She trembled as she felt Jace tapping her shoulder.

“Hey kid, time to go,” Jace said, cocking his head over toward the clock. She hated it when he called her kid.

“You know I’m older than you,” she said.

“You may have been here longer, but I’m older,” he held his hand to his chest in a royal sort of pose. “You made me eighteen, remember?”

“Just shut it.”

Ally and her three friends have all worked together on their comic series at Ally’s house a total of three times during September. It had taken them the entirety of all three times to finally settle on a name—they all had wildly different ideas of what to call it.

“I want Starry Nights.” Rosie said with stars of her own in her eyes.

“Lame, but maybe if this was a soft romantic book,” Josie said.

“Which it’s not. If he’s a badass he needs to be heroic,” Lilly said.

“That’s exactly what he would have said,” Ally laughed. “But making him a romantic doesn’t necessarily mean he isn’t heroic.”

“Come on, what?!” Jace called out. “You totally backpedaled on that.”

“If I recall you were against the idea as well.”

“Hm, true,” Lilly said. “But it shouldn’t be a major focus. I don’t want us to write someone lame just so he has someone to fuck.”

“Okay, then let’s not write someone lame. If we’re going to give him a love interest they have to be just as fleshed out as he is,” Ally explained. “I’m not a fan of the name, to be honest. Maybe something like…she tapped her chin and then suddenly her eyes grew wide. I think I have it!”

“What?” Lilly asked. “What’s this fire I see in your eyes?” She stood, “This fire that burneth so brightly,” she masked her hand in front of her face and stared dramatically toward the window.

Ally stared at her and tried not to laugh. “I think I know what kind of story this might be…and even have a name. So get this, he lives in this city that floats in the air. Like uh…giant floating city. His town protects this mystical gem—say based on wind because the city’s in the air and stuff. Well on the planet below are a bunch of other gems based on other elements in different territories. Everything’s all hunky-dory until one of the other places loses their gem, or maybe he has to collect them all. I was thinking…maybe it could be called The Artifacts of Merlyn.”

“Merlyn? Like King Arthur?” Lilly asked.

“Wow that sounds so cool!” Rosie said.

“Sure as hell beats Starry Nights,” Josie laughed.

“Rude,” Rosie said, sullen, but then she looked up, “But it does sound better. Here, I think we’ve got a base design down, you want to take a look?” She handed Ally the sketchpad she was holding.

“Yeah!” Ally said, taking it. She was surprised to see how well they captured Jace in painted form. After that day the initial sketch hung on her wall as a gift. Every day after she woke up seeing it on the wall, and she was sure that the real Jace was starting to get a little jealous himself.

Ha, the ‘real’ Jace.

She walked out of her room. It was the last stretch of September now. Ally made it to school without any trouble. She had got the path down easy enough thanks to her walking it alongside Lilly and the twins. She found her own little clique with Lilly, Rosie, and Josie. They ate breakfasts on mornings that Ally went (it wasn’t all the time). They also met in English first period, and then convened together at lunch halfway through the day—their table propped up nicely in the corner of the lunchroom. It became their de facto meeting place whenever they had free time outside of class.

Other than that Ally shared second period Art with the twins and fourth period History with Lilly. Even though it wasn’t as much as she would have liked it was helpful having familiar and friendly faces throughout her classes.

She closed her locker shut after stuffing her bag inside. She found her rhythm for classes and saw it smart to only carry the books she needed for the first four periods before lunch and then grab the last half after. Since it was still early in the year and very few of her classes required any serious work sans English class she only held a blue binder and a copy of “A Tale of Two Cities” tucked underneath her arm.

Aoi passed her in the hall. He was one of the more popular kids around the school and she could see why. He looked quite toned for his age. He must put serious effort in at the gym. Aoi was really much sweeter than his reputation had him for. Ally liked him for it. They weren’t quite friends, but she’d definitely think of him as an acquaintance.

“Hey how are you doing today?” He smiled bright as he passed, stopped, and then stepped closer to her. “I wanted to say thanks again for helping out with that paper. I never would have gotten it done,” He said, and behind his sunglasses she could see his green eyes were honest.

She knew the stereotype of the popular kids going to the nerds to do their work for them, but Aoi wasn’t like that. He didn’t do his work because he was lazy—far from it. He simply had too many responsibilities, in fact. The guy volunteered for soup kitchens, worked part-time at the animal shelter, and even was a part of the swim team. Sure, his responsibilities are his own, Ally thought, but my work is usually finished early anyway, so helping out where I can isn’t that big a deal to me. That was what she liked about him most; he was just a nice guy. He deserved the help.

“Yeah, no problem. See you in class?”

“Yeah.” He nodded as he headed off, she saw him head over to Derek Young’s locker. If Aoi wasn’t the most popular guy in their class, then Derek was it for sure. He was rich, good looking, and like Aoi he never really made a habit of being unkind to other people. I don’t know why the girls here didn’t seem to get that memo.

Aoi stood up on his toes to kiss Derek on the cheek. They’d been close since sixth grade according to Lilly.

“Doesn’t it just make you weep, two of the school’s most attractive boys taken by each other?” Speak of the devil…Lilly appeared by her side, taking Ally by surprise. “Aw look, you’re blushing. It is a shame indeed,” she said, shaking her head.

“Y-Yeah.”

“What a shame, indeed. Now your only left with—” Jace trailed off behind her and winked.

“Cut it out.”

“Can’t you see I’m acting as a physical manifestation of your courage?”

“Go home, lion.”

“Hey, you see Rosie and Josie? I was thinking we could maybe do some more planning at lunch,” Ally said.

“I saw them at breakfast, but I left early, haven’t seen ‘em since.” Lilly leaned against Ally’s locker, her drawstring bag over the both of her shoulders. “Maybe they’ll be in English.” She shrugged, letting the bag drop a bit from her shoulder. “Probably just late...not like that’ll help us much either way.”

“Right, well, let’s just go and they can catch up.”

Lilly nodded and the two of them walked toward Mrs. Fowler’s room. Everyone settled in as Mrs. Fowler stood up to greet the class. Ally shifted in her seat, The twins’s chair was empty.

Her attention whipped back to the front of the room as the door opened. Ally expected to see the twins walk through, but a dark skinned boy wearing a black jacket stepped through instead, all eyes were on him as he entered. He stood there with obvious hesitation almost expecting someone else to take over for him. He looked uncomfortable and like he hadn’t slept in quite some time.

“Mr. McAllister, you may take your seat, quietly, and without disturbing anyone, please.” Mrs. Fowler gawked from the front of the room, her demeanor subtly shifted and Ally could feel the tension building in the room.

Everyone in the room had their eyes on the boy as he made his way through the room and took a seat in the back of the room behind Carlos, just two seats away from Ally.

“Woah, tough crowd,” Jace said, he was sitting on Carlos’s desk dangling his feet off the side just beside her. “Think this is that Tyson kid?”

“No doubt.”

Ally leaned forward and passed a slip of paper with “Who’s he?” to Lilly. Not ten seconds later she got the slip back and read the single word she’d scratched on it.

Murderer.

The words caught in her throat and she folded the sheet in two in her hands, holding them so no one else saw. She had to keep from looking back.

“Now, Mr. McAllister is going to be rejoining us for the semester, I don’t want to hear a single word about anything, do you hear me?” Mrs. Fowler called from the front of the room. Silent heads nodded up and down. “Good. Now open your books and read for the class. I need to speak to Mr. Herondale.” She rushed out of the room just like the first day and the door shut quickly behind her.

Instantly everyone turned to look at Tyson. He seemed to be aware of everyone looking at him, but he didn’t move. He was looking down at his desk.

“So, any tips on avoiding prison?” Ashley asked.

“Easy, don’t commit a crime.”

“Hm,” she replied, looking down to her hands. “Interesting. But how’d you do it?”

“Very funny.”

It was like they were playing a game of chicken, whoever looked first lost. “I didn’t do anything, so I was let go.”

“Just back off,” Carlos swung his arm around. “Mind your own beeswax and get back to reading.”

“Funny for the one person here who can’t read.” Sidney barked.

“Oh low blow you-” Carlos winced at her comment and Ally swore he was just about to jump up from his seat until Tyson held his arm back down.

“Well of course you’d defend him, you both are cut from the same disgusting rag,” Sidney said.

“Yeah.” Adam said, and looked over to Ashley.

“C’mon now,” Derek chimed in, breaking the silence from the front of the room. “What’s done is done and we’re not the people in charge of what happens beyond that. Lay off, Ash.”

If anyone else called her Ash she would have exploded and probably leapt from her own desk, but seeing that it was Derek she only looked at him. She sat back in her chair and turned to face the front of the room, saying nothing more.

“Sidney?” Derek coaxed.

“If you do anything I swear my dad will be down here faster than you can run away…” she snipped.

“Sidney…” Derek called again, and like a pup she reined herself in. “Tyson, glad to see you’re back,” Derek said. “Good to hear they’re not charging you. I always believed in you.”

This brought the slightest smirk to Tyson’s face, but he tried his hardest not to show any other emotion. The classroom was silent for a moment longer until a sound came from the wall behind them.

Ally turned. There wasn’t anything that could have made the sound—only things back there were a sink, some drawers, and a door to the supply closet.

“Is there a rat inside?” Ally asked.

“Must have been a really big rat…” Aoi said. “Although only thing I could think of making that sound was if it was throwing itself against the wall.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“I think we would’ve heard it earlier if it was doing that,” Derek added.

“If it’s a rat I’m leaving,” Sidney said.

“Oh get your shit together,” Ashley scolded. “It’s in the closet. It’s not going to get you.”

The sound rasped on the door again. It sounded heavier and this time there was a low growling sound—almost like a moan that accompanied it. Ashley now froze, gripping her seat tight.

“Who’s scared of a rat now?” Sidney asked.

“That…didn’t sound like a rat,” Derek said.

Harrison stood up. The bag beside his desk fell to its side. “If you’re all so scared I’ll take care of it.” He began to walk toward the closet, but then something stopped inside Ally.

Something was wrong there in that second she knew it even if she couldn’t describe it. “It’s the smell. Rats smell bad, but not that bad,” Jace reminded her. Something about the smell. It was something about the...

When the realization hit her Harrison placed his hand on the door knob. Whiteness filled the faces of every single kid in the classroom. It was like a bolt of lightning struck just outside the classroom. Everything became saturated with light. Everyone in the room had to shield their eyes and there was a scream that grew louder through each of their heads. The sound of bells rang through each of their minds. They chimed.

And chimed. And chimed. And chimed. And chimed. And chimed. And chimed. And chimed. And chimed. And chimed. And chimed. And chimed. And chimed. And chimed. And chimed. And chimed.

The light faded slowly. Ally rubbed her eyes and groaned. The others were out of their seats, fallen and unconscious. She looked to see Lilly beside her with her head hung back in her chair.

Ally screamed and fell out of her own chair. Harrison was lying on the ground in front of the closet door, still unopened. There was a constant sort of sound emanating from the closet now, a sort of...crying.

“Wh...what….” Ally heard from the front of the room. She turned to see Aoi stirring. He rubbed his hand on his head and pulled himself up. “Ally…” He looked around at all the others, “What happened?” He looked toward the windows and his breath caught.

Ally followed his gaze and saw that outside...well there was no outside. It was pitch black almost like if someone just turned out the lights.

“What...happened?” He asked again.

“I don’t know...I think it has to do with whatever is in the closet.” Ally said.

“Jace, are you there?”

“Yeah this is some real crazy shit,” his arms were crossed and he tried looking out in the darkness. “I’d say check the bodies to make sure they’re all still breathing.”

“How are you so calm?”

“You made me that way.”

“Oh.”

She turned behind her and placed a finger on Lilly’s neck, and then turned to Aoi, “Check if everybody’s okay.” He nodded, and began checking everyone out with her.

Nobody was dead. Thankfully they were all still breathing. Whatever happened had struck them all at once. Ally looked back toward the closet, “I’m going to open it up and see what was in there.”

“You sure you want to? I can…”

She was sure, because she knew he wasn't. Kind to a fault, but brave you were not.

“I’ll help you open it,” Jace said, already by the door.”

“Thank you.”

She walked over to the door. Aoi had moved Harrison’s body aside when he was checking him over. The door knob was ice cold when she touched it. She backed away at once, but then steeled her resolve and grabbed hold of it. She pulled hard…it was locked.

“Dang…” Ally whispered.

But then there was a voice.

“Allllllllllyy?” It was a droning sort of sound, despair filled it and hung heavy. It took her only a moment longer to place it.

“Rosie?” Ally called and placed her ear against the door. “Rosie, is that you?”

“Allllyyyyyy,” the voice cried out again. It was interrupted by sobs.

“Hey, come on, we’re going to get you out of here,” she looked to Aoi, “...come here! Rosie and Josie are inside!”

Aoi nodded and ran over. He tried opening the door himself.

“Locked.” He said, looking down at his hands and then nodding. “One sec,” he went to the front of the room near Mrs. Fowler’s desk. He pulled drawers open and then slammed them shut when they didn’t have what he was looking for.

Ally could hear Rosie from the closet. “Allllyyyyyy, its Josie….she’s not moving.”

“Hold on!” Ally said, “We’re going to get you out of there!”

“Allllyyyyyy there’s….there’s…”

“Agh, damn it!” She heard from the front of the room.

Aoi was holding something small in his hands.

“What is it?” She called.

“Mrs. Fowler keeps a key to the closet in her desk, but it seems to be broken,” he held up the key with no end.

“What? Really? Of all the bad luck…” she says.

“Methinks bad luck had no part to play in this,” Jace tapped his fingers together.

“Now is not the time.”

“Okay, go and get someone, I’ll see if I can’t get this door open,” Ally called to Aoi.

He nodded once and tossed the key aside. After yanking the door open he was out of sight a moment later. Ally returned to the door and tried yanking on it, “Rosie, you still in there?”

“...Yes,” she said, shuffling slightly, moaning.

“Are you able to unlock the door from your side? Our key on this end is busted.”

“I...I can’t carry her...I can’t get up…!”

“Is she unconscious?” Ally asked and pressed her ear to the door again.

Rosie didn’t answer. Behind her Ally heard another groaning sound. Adam began to stir from his seat. He rubbed his head and wheeled himself upright, a dazed look in his brown eyes. His eyes widened as he saw his classmates’ bodies strewn about the classroom. “Wh-What happened here?! Ashley?” He bounced up and ran over toward his dearly beloved.

“She’s fine, just unconscious like you were a few seconds ago...they all are.” Ally said.

He turned back to her, “What’s going on? Why are you where…” his eyes found Harrison. “Oh god…”

“I told you, they’re all okay. We all got dazed by that light and were like them. I woke up first and Aoi right after me.”

Adam looked around the room, “Where is he?”

“He went to go get help. Rosie and Josie are locked in this closet here. The key in Mrs. Fowler’s desk is busted.”

“Locked in there?” He mustered, “Why can’t she—”

“Josie seems to be unconscious, she can’t lift her up. Come here and see if you can get this stupid door open.”

He sat there a moment longer as if the words hadn’t reached his ears.

“Adam…” Ally said.

“I...I gotta make sure Ashley’s all right,” he said and took her wrist in his hand.

Aoi came back through the door, heaving and huffing. He sent Adam lurching up like a cat in surprise. “Th-They’re all gone. There’s...nobody out there.”

“What?” Ally asked.

“I went to the principal’s office since that’s where I thought Mrs. Fowler would be. Both of them weren’t there. Nobody else was in the halls and nobody in any other classrooms. The whole school’s emptier than…” he thought quickly, “...well, it’s empty.”

“What the hell…?” Adam asked.

“Oh, glad to see you’re awake and well,” Aoi gave him a nervous smile.

Adam didn’t notice. He only clenched Ashley’s hand tighter. “Is this someone’s idea of a stupid prank?”

“I don’t see…” Ally began.

“What?” Adam turned to her, “I can’t hear you! You need to speak up!”

“I...I said…” Ally regained herself, “I said I don’t see how or why anyone would do this as a prank. Where is the joke?”

Lilly and Tyson began to stir at the same. The both of them noticed the blackness of the windows first and then their attention drew to the students around them. Ally told them what she’d known, and then Carlos started moving just beside Tyson.

“How about...we wait for everyone else to get up so we don’t have to explain this again and again?” Aoi suggested.

Ally nodded. She let go of the door knob, “I’ve tried all I can with this thing, it isn’t opening unless it is busted down.”

Tyson stood up and cracked his knuckles. He sighed and said, “I’ll try to get it down.” He was then aware of the eyes on him. The others were scared. We all are.

“I think you should just stay in the corner and not touch a damn thing,” Adam said. “You probably caused this mess.”

Tyson stopped in place “How could I have caused this?”

“What, we’re supposed to believe that this isn’t related in the slightest to you coming back today? Isn’t that just the weirdest coincidence?” Adam asked.

“It’s not like that man,” Carlos began. “You’re just crazy enough to frame Ty twice for shit he didn’t do.” Twice? “It’s equally as likely that someone found out he was comin’ back today and set up some bullshit like flash to settle an agenda.”

Ashley began to stir. Adam was so focused on Tyson now that he hadn’t noticed her, “We don’t set up situations to get revenge,” Adam said. “We let the law handle murderers and scum like you both just fine.”

“Hey now, Adam,” Aoi said, stepping in-between the both of them. “This was over, we’re done.”

“The law,” Tyson began, “...has decided I was free to walk.”

“Everybody makes mistakes…” The voice came from Ashley. She was sitting up now. All the passion had left Adam’s face and had seemingly transferred to her. He was hugging her and muttering terms of endearment.

“Guys, can it,” Aoi said, stern. He looked at the both of them and took in a deep breath, “We’re currently in a tense situation. We don’t need to make it any worse. We’ve still got to get the closet door open, remember?”

Tyson was staring at Ashley, deadlocked. “I’ll break it down, but I don’t want anything out of any of you about what happened in the summer.”

Ashley looked like she was going to say something back, but Aoi shook his head and so she stopped before she started. As Tyson gathered himself. Carlos whispered something to him and they nodded. Ally turned back to the group, Adam had gotten Ashley up and they were now coaxing Sydney awake. Aoi had been doing similar for Derek in the front of the room. Ally never felt more out of the loop with everyone else.

“There was obviously history here, stuff you had nothing to do with,” Jace said. His face was tinged with concern.

“Yeah, something big went down in the summer...a murder.”

“That’s messed...although, I do have to give you kudos for taking charge for a little while there. That was like something I’d do,” he flashed her a smile.

“Only you would congratulate me in the same breath as learning a murder went down.”

“Coping’s a hell of a thing,” he said and vanished.

Ally then noticed how nobody had been checking on Harrison. He was still lying in the corner of the room where Ally had moved him from the closet door. She saw Lilly walk over toward her as she kneeled down beside him. He was a little bigger than the rest of the kids in the class, and now she felt awful that that was one of the only things she’d known about him. She didn’t know much about everybody, but there were a few things here and there she’d picked up. Harrison was quiet, so he never spilled much about himself into the commonwealth.

“He breathing?” Lilly asked.

“Yeah,” she said, taking her hand away from his neck. "He must be out still since he was closest to the door when that stuff happened.”

“Doesn’t explain why Derek and Sydney are still out cold.”

“True...I guess that blows my theory out of the water.”

Lilly gave his shoulder a shake. In that moment everyone had their own task they’d given themselves; all unfocused on each other. There was palpable tension in the room as if someone had filled it with powder kegs and were only seconds away from lighting a match. There was a banging sound once, twice, three times as Tyson and Carlos took turns ramming the closet door. On the third time the wood splintered and Tyson burst through, tripping and falling inside. He pulled himself up and noticed he was wet...a sticky kind of wet and then all at once the smell hit him and he backed up as he coughed out; stumbling on his feet he fell on his rear out of the closet.

“Dude, what the—” Carlos started before he saw. “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?”

His outcry turned every single head toward the back of the room. Ally and Lilly looked at the two boys beside them and Ally felt her throat catch and she for a second had lost the ability to breathe as she saw the front of Tyson’s shirt and all over his face was crimson. Blood dripped onto the carpet below.

“She’s….” Tyson said, his voice broken up by the confusion, “...she’s…”

Ally stood up. No one else said anything. The twins were lying inside the closet like they had expected, but Josie wasn’t unconscious—at least not in the sense that Ally had expected. Blood poured from the top of her skull onto their body. The top of her head had caved in as if smashed by a hammer, Rosie didn’t seem to have any injuries on her half, but she seemed to now have fainted.

“She’s dead.” Ally said.

“She’s been murdered,” Carlos added. “I don’t think anyone could just accidentally cave their own head in like that.”

Instantly everything just...descended into chaos. Ally didn’t know who started screaming what first, but only that everyone just started screaming, running for their lives as the same thought had come to them. Tyson had killed again. He was going to kill them all, not a single soul would be left alive.

Everyone ran. Everyone except for Ally and Carlos.

Ally didn’t know what to think; she was frozen to the core and couldn’t process what reality was. The way her head caved in...the blood as the light shined on it...how Rosie gasped for help. She wordlessly stepped inside the closet. Tyson and Carlos were still frozen where they remained, silently watching the new girl walk closer to the body, bend down, and slowly place her hand on Josie’s neck, and then Rosie’s. Josie was not breathing, but Rosie still was. She was still there.

Ally looked back to Carlos and Tyson immediately, “Rosie’s still alive. Can you two help me get her onto one of these desks?” It took a second for the words to click in their minds. They were still each staring out. They nodded their heads and then looked at each other, then back to Ally.

“Come on, you two go from the side and I’ll support her head.”

They brought her out from the closet and rested her on Harrison’s desk, Carlos shoved Tyson’s desk next to it and supported her legs up.

Ally looked at the two of them and nodded, but like the crack of a whip she felt woozy. Jace was in front of her now reaching out to her.

“-on’t fall” his voice echoed, and then she realized she’d missed something that Carlos had said. She tried to ask what it was but it was then she fainted. The smell of Josie’s blood forever burnt into her brain.