The School: A Supernatural Thriller (Val Ryker Series)

by Ann Voss Peterson

  Any sign of anybody.

  “Once was funny. Now the joke is worn out. If you’re in here, I need you to answer. Right now.” She was rarely stern with Josh, she rarely had to be, but she let her voice get firm now, echoing off bare walls.

  Still no response.

  Rachel walked back toward the bathrooms. Even in the dim light, the closer she got, the clearer it was that no one was there.

  Water hit her again, a stream from the fountain.

  Huh?

  She’d been looking right at it, and no one had pushed that button.

  Rachel forced her feet to remain still. She refused to let a simple plumbing problem freak her out. But what really had her worried is that if Josh hadn’t been operating the bubbler, then he could still be trapped somewhere, hurt.

  Where was he?

  Unless…

  Scooping in a deep breath of dead air, she approached the offending fountain. She checked the boys’ bathroom first. The room smelled of stale urinal cakes. Cold light glinted off fixtures.

  “Josh? Are you in here?” She flashed her light under the stalls.

  Not here.

  She would be shocked if he was hiding in the girl’s bathroom. Ever since he turned two, he’d refused to step foot inside, preferring the men’s room or a family bathroom with a male figure accompanying the female figure on the door.

  She checked anyway, pushing the girl’s room door open. Strange. The light was on in this room, and here she’d assumed the electricity was off all over the school. “Josh?”

  Rachel stepped inside and slipped her phone into her jacket pocket. Pulling her hair back out of her eyes with one hand, she bent low, the bathroom’s fluorescent light illuminating beneath the partitions.

  No feet.

  A sound come from the end stall, soft mewing like the cry of a kitten… or a child.

  “Josh? Are you okay?”

  The crying hiccupped, and then it grew louder.

  She hurried down the row, following the sound. The closer she got, the less it sounded like Josh’s cry. But there was a child there. Sobbing now. A girl. She was sure of it.

  She passed one stall door. Then another.

  Kept walking… and walking.

  The bathroom was small, only four stalls. It should take seconds to reach the end, but the faster she walked, the longer the row of blue doors seemed to grow.

  Something was wrong here. Very wrong.

  She launched into a run. Her heart raced, her breath coming hard and fast, footfalls echoing off the tiled walls. The crying grew louder, the distance longer. As if a nightmare was swallowing her up.

  But this was no nightmare. She was awake, she was sure of it.

  Without slowing, Rachel pinched the back of her hand. She felt it, all right. Felt her feet hitting the tile. Felt the breath rushing in and out of her lungs.

  Then suddenly she was there, her hand on the door’s latch. It swung open easily, not even waiting for her push.

  Empty. The stall was empty. Then the light switched off, and blackness engulfed the room.

  “Josh? Somebody? What’s going on?” She fumbled for her phone, pulling it from her pocket, finding the on button, swiping the open the screen, and stabbing the flashlight app with an index finger.

  Light illuminated the stall, still empty. Heart pounding, she spun around, ready to head back outside.

  Hands curled around her arms. Fingers dug into her biceps. Her attackers behind her, unseen. Then more hands, capturing her wrists, her ankles, making her face the toilet, pushing her forward.

  “Help!” Her voice echoed off tile. Her cell phone clattered to the floor.

  Laughter surrounded her. Female voices, straight out of her nightmares. The hands forced her forward, long fingernails stabbing into her back, pushing down on her head.

  “No!”

  They drove her forward, tipping her off balance.

  She ripped her own hands free, splaying them in front of her. Her palms hit the toilet. Her knees struck the floor.

  She gripped the seat with both hands. A strangled sound burst from her throat, unintelligible, more a scream of animal distress than a voice.

  This had happened to her before. Many years ago. But she remembered the pain, the fear, like it was yesterday.

  She straightened her arms, like two steel rods. “No, no, no!”

  The force from behind swamped her, overwhelmed her, beating her down. Her elbows buckled. Her head dipped low. Closer and closer to the water.

  It was no use. Whoever had her was bigger, stronger, meaner. There were more of them. She could hear so many girls’ voices, feel so many hands, too many to fight.

  She gasped in a deep breath then another. Her palms slid on the plastic seat. The last of her strength crumbled under the downward pressure.

  Her face hit the water, cold as a slap. Then the force pushed her deeper, and the toilet flushed.

  Rachel struggled, straining to pull her face from the whirlpool, but hands clutched the back of her neck, holding her down.

  So strong. So many.

  Seconds ticked by, dragging like hours.

  Her lungs screamed for air.

  Another flush.

  Her body panicked, frantic and unthinking, taken over by the visceral need to breathe.

  Another flush.

  Darkness edged her mind, sharp and hard. She couldn’t hold out. Needed air.

  Rachel opened her mouth and gasped in the cold water.

  Chapter Three

  Nate was not ready for this. Not in the least.

  He raced down the dark halls of the school, peeking in classrooms, listening for any sign of life.

  Rachel was here. He’d seen her cross the soccer field when he’d first arrived home from the supermarket. By the time he’d thrown the hamburger in the freezer and followed, she was nowhere to be seen. But her son’s bicycle lying abandoned in the playground, and no sign of either of them, suggested the worst. When he’d tried the school’s closest door and found it unlocked, he figured they must be inside.

  Nate had to get them out of this place before something terrible happened.

  He’d detected the distinctive energy surge with his equipment two weeks ago, and he’d had a bad feeling he knew the cause. Even now, he could feel reality shift around him. His senses untrustworthy. His feet unsteady. He understood what was happening, expected the sensation. But Rachel? She had no idea what she faced. And Josh?

  A strangled sound of panic echoed down the hall.

  Real? Imaginary? Nate didn’t know, but he pushed his feet to move faster. Reaching the main hall, he turned in what seemed to be the direction of the scream.

  A low sound rumbled through the hall.

  Nate slowed to a walk, and then held his breath, waiting.

  There it was again. The groan of ancient plumbing, barely audible.

  Nate hadn’t set foot inside the school until today, but when he’d realized the threat the building likely contained, he’d memorized the floor plan. He could picture the pair of bathrooms, half way down the hall. Even in the dimness, he found them in seconds, just in time to hear the flush of a toilet coming from the girls’ room. Trying his best to clear his mind, he pushed the door open.

  The darkness inside felt heavy. He groped for the switch on the wall, and miraculously the light turned on. “Rachel?”

  A sound came from the last of four stalls, the scramble of rubber soles on tile.

  Nate ran for the sound. And ran. And ran. Three stalls stretched to fifty or more. The muscles in his legs ached as if he was sprinting through deep sand.

  Clear your mind. Control your emotions.

  He reached for the door, his fingers gripping the latch, yanking it open.

  Rachel was on her knees in front of the toilet, her body heaving, her head thrust deeply into the swirling bowl.

  What the hell?

  Nate grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back, lifting her head out of the water.

&n
bsp; She plopped back onto her haunches, choking, gagging, shudders seizing her body, water streaming from nose and mouth.

  “Rachel.” Nate knelt down and tried to pick her up. “We have to get out of here, before something else—”

  She whirled on him, punching, scratching in an unseeing fight to survive.

  He pulled her against his chest, pinning her arms to her sides in a bear hug. “Whoa, whoa, whoa.”

  She struggled, alternating between coughs and something that sounded like a mix of scream and growl.

  “Stop, stop. You’re okay. Listen to me. It’s Nate. Your neighbor, remember? You’re safe. You’re safe.”

  “Nate? Nate? How did you—”

  “You’re safe now. But we have to get out of here, understand?”

  She was still breathing hard, her chest rising and falling. Her wet hair pressed cold against his cheek and dripped onto his shirt. “There were people… girls… grabbing… forcing me down, holding my head under… They were trying to drown me.”

  “I know. I know.” She felt delicate in his arms, not weak, but small, and although he didn’t dare let go, he softened his grip just a little, as not to hurt her. “We have to get out. Now.”

  “Who were those people? Why were they trying to kill me?”

  “There’s no time. I’ll explain later. Can you stand?”

  Feeling her nod, he rose to his feet, guiding her up with him. She was unsteady, and he kept his arms around her to prevent her from falling.

  “We have to find Josh.”

  “Can you walk?”

  “Nate? Answer me. Where’s Josh? What happened to Josh?”

  “I don’t know where Josh is, Rachel.”

  She shook her head, hair swinging like wet whips. “I’m not leaving here without him.”

  “You can’t help him now. We can’t help him. We need to get outside.”

  “Not without my son.”

  “I’ll come back for him. I promise.”

  “Come back? We need to find him now.”

  Her stubbornness wasn’t helping matters. He had to convince her to cooperate. But how? The full truth would only endanger her, not that she would believe it anyway. But a small slice might be enough to get her out the door until he could come up with a plan to find her son. “Listen, Rachel. There’s something strange going on here.”

  “Strange? Are you kidding? People were trying to kill me. And now you want to leave Josh in here?”

  “People weren’t trying to kill you.”

  “What?”

  “When I pulled you out of the toilet, there was no one in here. No one but you.”

  Her eyebrows tilted low over her eyes. “Why are you saying this? We need to hurry.”

  “I’m not making it up, Rachel. Those people holding you down? They were in your mind. A hallucination. When I arrived, you were alone. You were drowning yourself.”

  She shook her head. “That’s impossible.”

  “It’s this place. We can’t trust our own senses here. We have to get out. Regroup.”

  “But Josh…”

  He inched toward the bathroom door. “We’ll talk about it outside.”

  “Talk? If this is happening like you say, if we are hallucinating, then Josh is too.”

  Nate guided her through the door and into the hall, her muscles tense under his arms, coiled and ready to fight for her son. “We’ll come back for Josh.”

  “He needs me.”

  “I swore I would protect you, Rachel. You and Josh. Now let me do that.”

  “Swore you would…” She stared at him, and he could almost see his words fitting together like a puzzle in her mind. “Swore to… who?”

  He shook his head. He couldn’t tell her, not without raising more questions, questions he couldn’t answer. “Please Rachel. We need to get outside.”

  “Not without Josh.” She pulled away from him, grasping at one of the wooden shelves lining the wall. Then she froze, her eyes wide.

  “What is it?”

  “This makes no sense. My son went to this school. It doesn’t have metal lockers like this.”

  Nate eyed the wooden shelves lining the hall, not a single metal locker to be found. Exactly what he was afraid of. And he had no way of knowing what might come next. “Altered consciousness. Illusion. Out now.”

  “You don’t see the lockers lining—”

  He bent at the waist and scooped her up, draping her over one shoulder. Grasping her knees, he ran for the door.

  For a moment, Rachel didn’t react. Then she was pounding his back with her fists and kicking her feet. “Let me down!”

  He reached the door. Free hand slapping the push bar, he burst outside and kept going across the playground, the cold evening air making the water dripping from Rachel’s hair feel like ice against his back. Reaching the swing set, he lowered her to her feet.

  As soon as the soles of her Keds touched the wood chips, she bolted back toward the school.

  Nate caught her wrist, grasping hard enough to leave bruises. “I’m sorry, Rachel. But you’re no help to your son, not rushing in blindly. I’ll find him.”

  Rachel was breathing hard and fast, her breath fogging in the late afternoon air.

  “Slow down. You’re going to pass out.”

  “Let me go.”

  “Can’t.”

  “Can’t or won’t?”

  “Won’t. But I can help.”

  “How? By leaving Josh in there unprotected?”

  “First you need to tell me what you saw in there. You said there were lockers.”

  “The halls are lined with metal lockers, you know, the ones with doors. This school doesn’t have those.”

  “No, it doesn’t. Did you go to a school that did?”

  “What does that matter?”

  “Forget it.”

  “What’s going on here, Nate?”

  “I’m as confused as you are.” He wasn’t, and he hated lying, but prompting her to ask questions he couldn’t answer would only make things worse. Nate had spent the last two years of his life trying to protect her from all of it. He’d owed that to Steven… that and so much more.

  And if Nate was honest with himself, his concern for Rachel and her son wasn’t mere duty. In the two years he’d lived next door, he’d come to care more than he wanted to admit. He’d come to wish they were his own. “I’ll find Josh. I promise. But to do that, I need to know you’re safe.”

  “I’ll be plenty safe.” Using her free hand, she pulled her cell phone from her jacket pocket and swiped the screen alive. “My son needs me, and I’m not about to let him down.”

  “Who are you calling?”

  “The police.”

  Chapter Four

  In a small town, everyone knew everyone. Yet Rachel had never met Lake Loyal’s police chief until now.

  Blond, businesslike, and more beautiful than Rachel thought was usual for a cop, Chief Valerie Ryker climbed out of her sedan and walked toward the playground where Rachel and Nate waited. She wore a regular police uniform, and Rachel could have easily mistaken her for a patrol officer, except for the fact that her photograph was everywhere.

  Not just in this tiny town, but every media outlet in the state. In the country. And as far as Rachel knew, maybe some beyond the U.S. borders as well. After Val Ryker had brought down killer Dixon Hess so dramatically, how could the twenty-four-hour news cycle resist? The upcoming trial was sure to be a media circus.

  Now the chief’s sharp blue eyes combed the school, Josh’s bike lying on the playground, Rachel, and Nate, in that order. Rachel couldn’t help wonder what she saw.

  “Rachel Meier?” Chief Valerie Ryker said.

  Nate stepped forward, extending his hand. “Nate Welks. Thank you for getting here so fast.”

  Rachel eyed Nate. When she’d called 911, he hadn’t protested, but she could tell by the way he fidgeted that while he didn’t want her to go back inside, he was itching to do so himself.

&nb
sp; The Chief focused on Rachel. “You told our dispatcher that you already looked for your son inside the school?”

  “I wasn’t able to search very long.”

  “Wasn’t able to?”

  “It was dark, and there were some… strange things that happened.”

  “Like what?”

  Rachel described the unusual behavior of the water fountains.

  Chief Ryker narrowed her eyes. “Is that all?”

  “You’re going to think I’m crazy.”

  “Try me.”

  “I heard something in the girl’s bathroom. A sound like the crying of a child. And when I went in to see what was going on, the lights turned off and hands pushed my head into the toilet and flushed.”

  “You mean someone gave you a whirly?”

  The term sounded so frivolous. The actual experience was anything but. “Yeah. I guess that’s what we used to call it.”

  The chief said nothing, just held Rachel’s gaze as if waiting for her to go on.

  “I thought I was going to drown, then the hands were gone and a man was pulling me to my feet.”

  “A man?”

  “Nate.”

  Two black-and-white patrol cars filed in behind the chief. A tall blond man and short African-American woman climbed out of their vehicles, and Chief Ryker introduced them as Sergeant Pete Olson and Officer Ginny Jones.

  “And how did you come to be in the school, Mr. Welks?” the Chief continued.

  This time she didn’t narrow her eyes or lower her voice or do anything that one would normally think of as showing suspicion, but Rachel’s pulse picked up all the same. “Nate didn’t attack me. He saved me, got me out of the school.”

  “I see. Mr. Welks?”

  “Please call me Nate, Chief. I saw Rachel cross the soccer field, and I thought something was wrong, so I followed. When I found her in the bathroom, there was no one else there.”

  The chief said nothing, her expression neutral.

  Rachel glanced Nate’s way, hoping he’d pick up her unspoken apology for dragging him into this. Maybe the cops would just chalk her up to being crazy. She didn’t care, as long as they found Josh.

  Leaving Rachel and Nate under the watchful eye of Officer Jones, Chief Ryker and Sergeant Olson went into the school. Nearly an hour had passed before they returned… without Josh.