Chapter 2 The Two Who Survived

Faint screams lingered in the distance, haunting the silence that followed.

Then, the cab jerked forward and sped away.

I gasped for breath, my heart thundering as if it might explode. What had just happened felt unreal, too abrupt, too twisted to make sense.

I turned to look at Julian.

He slumped against the seat, his hands trembling, eyes fixed on the rearview mirror as if it held the answer to our escape.

He stared into it, bracing for something monstrous to burst from the darkness chasing us.

Not until the school vanished from sight did he finally exhale, his breath ragged and uneven.

I was still reeling.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded. "Where are you taking me? What's in the school?"

Julian didn't answer. Instead, he suddenly pulled me into his arms, his voice low and strained against my ear. "Autumn, don't ask. If I say it out loud, we won't get away."

A cold shiver sliced through me. 'What could be so dreadful that even speaking its name might doom us?'

I should have pushed him away. I should have demanded the truth. But instead, wrapped in the familiar scent of him, I found myself giving the smallest nod. "Okay," I whispered. "I trust you."

I tried to laugh, but it sounded thin and hollow. "It's not like you'd ever betray me."

That finally caused him to loosen his grip slightly. A weary, bitter smile appeared on his face. "You idiot. I would sell myself before I let anything happen to you."

The cab tore through the night, its headlights cutting open the darkness.

The driver, a weary-looking man, kept glancing at us nervously through the mirror. He had taken the money, but his unease was obvious. We probably looked exactly as we felt—like two teenagers fleeing from something unspeakable.

We stayed on the road all night.

…

By the time dawn began to pale the horizon, we had crossed into another state.

Julian finally told the driver to stop in a small, forgettable city. The kind of place people passed through without ever remembering its name.

We checked into a budget motel just after sunrise.

The moment the door shut behind us, Julian got to work.

He didn't sit or rest, not even for a heartbeat. Instead, he rummaged through his bag and pulled out a roll of black tape.

Without a word, he sealed the peephole in the door.

He crouched down and methodically sealed the gap beneath the door, layering tape until not a sliver of light remained.

Only then did he stop.

He collapsed onto the bed's edge, shoulders sagging under a weight he had carried far too long.

I stared at the black tape sealing the door, a chill crawling over my skin. "What are you doing?"

"Blocking the line of sight," he explained quietly. "They like to watch."

My blood turned to ice. 'They?'

I didn't ask who they were, what he meant, or what he saw. Something in his face told me I didn't want the answer yet.

"I need to wash my face," he muttered.

He pushed himself up and staggered into the bathroom. A second later, water began rushing from the sink.

My hands shook as I picked up the phone Julian had handed me.

The screen flickered on, revealing a news alert.

All warmth drained from me in an instant. My fingers numbed around the phone's edges.

A bold red headline at the top of the screen read, 'Mass Casualty at Blackwood Academy: Entire Student Body and Faculty Found Dead Overnight.'

My mind went completely blank for a moment before I opened the article. The report was brief, brutal, and hard to believe.

'All 5,000 students and faculty at Blackwood High died the night before due to catastrophic bleeding. Only two students who missed the study hall survived.'

I sank onto the edge of the bed, clutching the phone as my entire body started to shake. 'How is this happening?'

Only last night, those people were still alive. My classmates. My teachers. Everyone I had known for the past three years.

And now they were all gone. Every single one of them.

Barely breathing, I clicked into one of the attached news videos.

The footage showed Blackwood High's front gates, but the place was unrecognizable.

Police cruisers blocked every entrance. Ambulances and coroner's vans crowded the street. Medics rushed bodies away, each hidden beneath a white sheet.

Beyond the barricades, thousands of parents pressed together.

Some shouted their children's names into the chaos.

Others collapsed in sobs, barely able to stand.

Meanwhile, a few hurled themselves at the police line, desperate to break through.

Even the reporter's voice trembled.

"Authorities have secured the area. Early investigations rule out food poisoning as the cause. Surveillance footage indicates that shortly before the incident, two students climbed the outer wall and fled the campus.

"Police have issued an emergency alert and are conducting a nationwide search for the two surviving students…"

I couldn't listen any longer.

I looked up just as Julian stepped out of the bathroom, his face pale and damp, exhaustion carved into every line of it.

I stared at him and asked whether he had known all along.

He crossed the room quickly and wrapped my freezing hands in his.

He was silent for a moment before he murmured, "Don't think about that right now. At least we got out alive."