Until Dawn - 6. Chapter 6

Bending under the support column at the bottom, I came out beside a load of pointy rebar. And on it, there was an impaled boy, but it wasn't Bao. I was struck with guilt when I rounded the jagged cropping to get a better look at the kid who was skewered on the top of the pikes. More confusion manifested when I saw that it was Sebastián. My mind couldn't offer any viable excuse as to why he was hanging up there with spikes through his entire body.

‘Why was he trying to kill me?’

He was my friend; it didn't make sense. I had known him for three or four months. The two of us joined around the same time when we were both about 12. More importantly, how did he become a werewolf? It's not like there was a phone number on some billboard announced for you to call 055 3302 2020 to avail of a free werewolf transformation. And why did he suddenly want to try and kill me after being friends for over a year? I didn't know, but my mind jump-started again at the thought of Jonathan being alone, and it would have been better to be with somebody than being alone.

Something just unnerved me about the lonely night. The crickets of summer had disappeared, and the only thing that remained was the occasional hoot from owls and cawing from birds.

Heading back inside, I jogged for the emergency exit. A few yards inside the door, I stopped abruptly, swung around, and shut the door.

How could I forget?

It's like the number one rule of horror movies; close and lock all your goddamn doors. People in those movies must live without ever locking them before going to bed. It's just the perfect recipe for murder. It's almost insinuating that any deranged serial killer should be on the lookout for doors that are not locked. So, they can make themselves at home, come in and butcher some poor family. At that rate, what is the point of even having a door if you don't lock it when you are at your most vulnerable?

Tracing the edge of the pool, I took the long way around rather than having to traipse through all the blood again. Eyeing up all the damage from my injection through the lifeguard office window, I studied the glass all about the floor and then checked my body.

It was a miracle that I didn't sustain any cuts or broken bones from the intense chase I had. I thought I was a goner; I even went as far as to lift my clothes up to see where Sebastián had clawed at me, and I was relieved to see nothing other than some torn clothing.

Entering the lifeguard office, I reached for the handle of the locker room, the door rattled, and it folded back to its midpoint and clopped the other half of the door. I'd never seen a wooden door do such a thing, but I didn't dare complain—the odds were in my favor; a door opened without a fuss.

Pressing on, I left the office, rounded the corner where I had been hiding in the locker to find that Jonathan's cabinet was torn open from the top down. As I approached, I kept my wits about me but was crushed when I saw the empty locker without Jonathan in it. It made me wonder what had happened in the short time I disappeared. I could have understood that Jonathan left when I distracted the werewolf, but seeing the place where he had been hiding now a wreck, my mind turned back to Bao. Checking to see if the door leading to the lobby was still intact, I was baffled when I found how I had left it. The sight made me even more apprehensive that Bao was able to skirt around without me knowing. More importantly, where exactly did he get into the locker rooms?

Looking around for a while, I tried picking up on the trail of Jonathan, the way you see in all those movies where people can track, but I couldn't do it. Yet, there weren't any signs of a struggle or more blood or a body. There was just some good old mystery and Jonathan's disappearance.

After seeing everything, I decided to leave the changing area and follow the blood trail. In the hallway that led to the large indoor court and gym, the blood sloppily guided me to the stairwell. Looking up through the gap between the stairs, I took a gulp, then realized just how thirsty I still happened to be. Luckily at the base of the stairs, there was a water fountain.

Therefore, I bowed my neck, hit the switch, and drank. It was refreshing, and it refueled me. I didn't have all day to hang around, so, after some coaxing, I climbed the levels nervously. I clung to the wall all the way up so I could see to the top of the upcoming flight of stairs. My eyes darted to all the shadows, and I kept feeling paranoid. I never had a problem with looking over my shoulder, though I was afraid that the monster would sneak up on and disembowel me.

At the top of the stairs, I peeked out of cover to make sure everything was safe. When I saw nobody, I started searching for my friends.

At first, I wasn't aiming to go to any particular location, but I ended up by the gym and found an interesting dilemma as a good proportion of the gym equipment was wedged up against the glass windows.

It looked like there was an attack; some of the glass was cracked, and it turned that milky white just to the point where it started becoming flakey.

The hallway was quiet, other than the building's occasional groaning; it made the whole ordeal uneasy. I was feeling perturbed about my dear friend, who was probably dead for all I knew. But what kept me going was the cardinal desire of finding Elliot. Not that he knew how I felt, or if he did, he hid the nature of his knowledge of my attraction from me to be kind.

The blood trail headed straight for the entrance, so I willingly followed it until I was met with the barricade.

Cupping my hands to the door, I looked inside. The red smear ran to a bench press where the pool attendant's body was slanted on the ground against the equipment's base. My eyes were transfixed to the horror show unfolding in front of my very eyes, and I could see from that distance that his entire stomach had been ripped out. I turned away in horror, looking up and down the corridor. I had to watch my back.

Though surely, he wouldn't have been strong enough to stack all that furniture.

Facing the barrier, I knocked on the window, just in case, in some twist of faith that there might be somebody inside who can help me, or in turn, help them.

I scanned the room, following the double line of concrete pillars down the studio. It seemed like an eternity, but eventually, a head popped out from behind a post further into the gym, and I got excited.

I tapped for the second time, and a person got out from cover.

It was Elliot; he was okay, and wow…

But I was blown away when Jimmy crawled out into the open from the far pillar and stood alongside Elliot. The two of them were alive, but it made me realize that I was on the far side of a colossal barrier, and I wouldn't be safe just yet.