Chapter 26
C H A P T E R2 6
Confessing Time
Cade
The Present
3:36 a.m.
E lla’s scream reverberated through the entirety of the south wing hallway. Pulse thundering with fear, I ran out after her, barking, “What’s wrong?”
Stupefied, she pointed a finger at…
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
Despite the darkness and reduced vision, what I saw chilled my insides.
An apparition, cloaked in black with an odd beam of light flickering by its side, travelled headlong in our direction.
“What the fuck is that?” I hissed.
“ Es el diablo .” Shell-shocked, she backed up. “We need to get out of here.”
“Ellaaaaaaaaa,” the thing taunted in a garbled voice just as thunder struck outside.
We both screamed like little girls.
Then I grabbed Ella’s hand and ran in the opposite direction.
“Oh my God,” she cried hysterically. “It knows my name!”
“Cadeeeeeee.”
And apparently mine.
“What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck,” she chanted, trying to keep up with my fast stride. “What the fuck is going on?”
I wheezed, taking a right when the hallway split into two. “I have no idea, but keep running and don’t stop!”
“This is what we get for sixty-nining in a haunted place,” Ella wailed. “We probably pissed off some angry spirit!”
I didn’t know if I should laugh or howl with the demon—in Ella’s words—gaining speed on us. I wasn’t one to actually believe in ghosts, but she genuinely believed in the paranormal. And you know what? Tonight might be the first night I actually turned into a believer. St. Victoria was rumoured to be haunted and sentient, resting over one of the gates of hell. All those unexplainable deaths may be due to the fact that it fed on souls, tormenting them when they were alive and then binding them to it during the afterlife.
I was truly beginning to lose my mind if I was entertaining all these speculations.
“ Cadellaaaaa .” The thing behind us called out our names again, a monstrous growl that had goosebumps breaking over my skin. Ella wasn’t moving quick enough in those booted heels. Grabbing her around the waist, I hauled her up the side of my body and she instantly wrapped her legs around my middle.
I gunned it down the hallway like the hounds of hell were nipping at our feet.
Ella started praying in Spanish, but deftly broke off in a strangled, “Oh my God! It’s getting closer. It’s fucking getting closer!”
“Should I try to shoot it?” I panted.
“The solution to everything can’t be a bullet!” she chided, yelling. “It’ll go right through it! And you might just anger it more!”
The hallway before us was like a never-ending black tunnel where the sounds of our heavy footsteps, thudding heartbeats, and the rain furiously crashing against the mosaic windows was magnified.
“Hey, remember that time you wanted to audition as an extra on a horror movie set?” I struggled to keep the teasing tone out of my voice as I ran. “Now you’re in your very own.”
She dug her fingers into my shoulders and glared, unamused. “You’re not funny.”
“I’m hilarious.” And that thing was still stomping behind us. “Admit it.”
“If we make it out alive, I might.”
The thing behind us continued calling our names.
Ella screamed like a banshee.
Fear slickened my palm. I almost dropped her and my flashlight, which was no longer working, on the ground. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
From past experience, I knew the end of the hallway morphed into one of the staircases that descended straight into the crypt. However, this one was said to be cursed. No one used it. Too many incidents. The kind that involved people tumbling down and injuring themselves. In one chilling case over three decades ago, someone died too.
Short on options, I took a gamble and went in, hoping Ella’s torch gave us enough light to get down safely.
“Cade, no!” Ella protested. “Not here!”
“We don’t have a choice,” I bit out, trying to outrun whatever chased us.
A musty smell swirled in the atmosphere as I descended the stone stairwell. It was tight like the one in the belfry. I shuddered when my gaze roamed over the brick walls.
Do you pledge your allegiance was streaked along the surface in faded blood.
I cursed under my breath and Ella gagged into my neck.
Veni, Vidi, Mortus was the last saying we saw as we entered the crypt.
I came, I saw, I died.
A morbid spin on Julius Caesar’s famous proverb.
I lowered Ella to her feet and inhaled a few breaths to recenter myself. Ella wobbled and I grabbed her elbow to steady her. “You okay?”
“Barely,” she panted. “Something is really fucking wrong with this place.”
“I think we’re the only people left in the school.” We hadn’t seen any Initiators in over two hours. Initiation Night was supposed to be complete by 3:00 a.m. and now we were pushing the 4:00 a.m. mark.
“And now we’re being chased by a spirit like it’s ghost fucking busters!”
“Don’t cuss, Ella. We’re among saints.” I canted my head to the far right, where the graves of Sister Victoria and the other nuns lay to rest. A sole light hung from the ceiling, casting an eerie glow over the coffins on the ground.
“Please.” She rolled her eyes and walked further into the crypt. “Like we haven’t done worse, blasphemous things in the presence of saints.”
Touché. There was that time we snuck to the crypt a few months ago and…screwed in the confessional. Easily one of the hottest fucks of my life. I’d gotten down on my knees to show her how I worshipped and she’d creamed my face in blessing. Then I completed the service by pounding into her body six ways to Sunday. Sacrilegious of us, but we never claimed to be perfect.
The crypt hadn’t been renovated since St. Victoria’s olden days. It was probably one of the few places in the establishment that never lost its horrifying, unsettling charm.
This place was supposed to be a sanctuary, yet it felt like the devil’s lair.
I followed Ella as she paused in front of the graves, tension radiating from every line in her body. “Cade…”
“What is it?”
“The crowns.” She gulped. “They’re here.”
I froze, staring where she pointed.
Two gold crowns, encrusted with blue stones, were poised over Sister Victoria’s coffin, gleaming under the light like ceremonial relics.
“There’s no one left in the school and the crowns are still here.”
I grimaced. “That means nobody won.”
Ella shook her head. “None of this makes any sense.”
Something went awry during the competition and we had no means of communicating with the outside world. Everyone had vanished and we were stuck here, hallucinating an apparition.
Foreboding ticked into my system like a swinging pendulum. “Ella, I think we should—”
A creak resonated and Ella nearly squeaked before I clamped a hand over her mouth. Above us, another call for our name resonated and then heavy footsteps started descending the stairs.
Panicked, I grabbed Ella and dragged her to the confessional booth tucked in the corner of the crypt. I shoved us in and closed the curtain behind us so we remained hidden. I brought my finger to my lips in a ‘be quiet’ sign and turned off her flashlight.
Our breaths mingled with how close we stood. The baseball bat was stamped between our fronts. I could sense her fear and she could sense mine. Wordlessly, we wrapped our arms around each other, embracing the way we had a thousand times.
Only this one felt more monumental.
Was this the surge of life before death?
“Cadellaaaa. Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
We both perked up. I could feel Ella’s skeptical expression in the dark. “I…I don’t think it’s a demon anymore.”
That taunting voice sounded too human. I gritted my teeth. “I don’t think so either.”
“What if it’s the masked guy?” she whispered.
After everything we discussed tonight, it was possible the bastard came back to finish the job. “It could be.”
“Okay, so I have a baseball bat and you have a gun. Together, we can take this motherfucker down.”
“Didn’t you just tell me that not everything can be solved with a bullet?” I spat incredulously. “Now you want me to shoot?”
“Keep your voice down,” she hissed back. “And if the situation calls for it, yeah.”
“What if it’s not the masked guy?”
“I’m like ninety-nine percent sure it is.”
“And the one percent chance that it’s not?”
“Do you want to go with my plan or not?” she asked, vexed.
“It’s a bad plan. Let’s wait for whatever that thing is to leave, then we’ll make our way to the North Wing where there’s an exit.”
“Fine,” she mumbled sullenly. “We’ll do it your way.”
“Good.”
A few seconds later, the sound of footsteps faded away like whoever was on the other side decided to retreat back upstairs. We stayed put for another moment.
Ella rubbed herself against me. “You’re hard.”
I clenched my jaw, staring up at the wooden ceiling. “I know.”
“You’re insatiable. I sucked you off twice.”
My cheeks reddened. “It’s not my fault. You’re pressed up against me and—”
“You can’t help yourself?” She snorted. “This is so not the time, Cade.”
“You think I don’t know that—”
The curtain of the confessional was ripped open.
We screamed.
The thing screamed.
Then Ella released a battle cry and swung out the bat like a pro baseball player.
It bashed against the intruder, who fell to the ground with a groan that was very masculine and very…familiar.
Oh, fuck.
Ella heaved like a warrior as she stepped out of the booth.
Please, don’t tell me it’s…
When I switched on her flashlight and shone it over the unconscious big body, my suspicions were confirmed.
Ella gasped, cupped a hand over her mouth, and dropped the bat.
My eyes widened in disbelief and I doubled over, yanking at the roots of my hair.
It couldn’t be.
She didn’t.
“ Ella! ” I yelled at her with a ferocious quality. “What the fuck!”
Lying on the ground, cloaked in a black cape with a plague doctor mask, was Shaun.
“Oh my God.” Ella started hyperventilating. “Did I just kill Shaun?”
I fell to my knees beside my best friend. The mask was practically knocked off his head and his temple was slick with a splatter of blood. “What were you thinking? We had a plan!”
“I-I don’t know!” she cried. “I panicked and reacted, thinking it was a demon, or the masked guy, or fuck, a serial killer! I thought we were going to die! Oh my God. I’m going to fucking jail. I just killed Shaun Jacobsen the III.”
Shaun could not die. I wouldn’t allow it.
While she had her freak-out session, I felt for his pulse with shaky fingers. Thankfully, he was alive but breathing faintly. I shoved the butt of the flashlight into my mouth and unzipped Ella’s little purse, digging for clean tissues. I bundled a wad and held it to Shaun’s bleeding temple.
Ella fell to her knees beside me, doing the cross before clasping her hands together in prayer. “ Padre nuestro que estás en el cielo, santificado sea tu nombre…”
I drowned out the rest of Ella’s words, concentrating on wiping Shaun’s blood before slapping his cheek lightly. “Shaun? Please open your eyes.”
I already lost my parents. I couldn’t risk losing another person who mattered to me.
Done with her prayer, Ella cradled his face. “Shaun, I’m so sorry. I’ll never be able to live with myself knowing I killed you. You’re a pain in the ass, but I still adore you. Please don’t die. You’re too young and you have so many things to accomplish—like marrying Hera. That’s one of your life goals, right? If you don’t wake up now, she’ll marry someone else and we can’t have that. C’mon, Shauny boy. I swear I’ll never pull another prank on you if you just open your eyes. Please, I’m begging you.”
At the mention of the girl he was cuckoo about, Shaun’s fingers twitched to life. “W-Who is Hera marrying?”
“Shaun!” Ella gasped. “You’re alive!” She smacked a noisy kiss on his forehead. “I didn’t kill you! Oh, thank God!”
He grabbed his head, groaning. “My skull’s made of metal. I’m good, babe.”
I sighed in relief and dabbed at the sweat on his forehead. “Yeah, but you might have a concussion, so you need to stay awake. Ella’s got one helluva swing.”
“Speaking of…” Ella stared at him accusingly. “Why were you trying to scare us, you lunatic?”
Shaun chuckled weakly and sat up with my help. “I’m sorry. I saw you both in the hallway and couldn’t resist. Although, I didn’t think you’d actually smack me with a baseball bat. Otherwise, I’d have reconsidered.”
Leave it to Shaun to find joy in chasing us in a haunted school while roaring like a B-movie style monster.
“I’m sorry about that again.” Ella hugged him. “Do you forgive me?”
“Already forgiven.” Then he shot us a conspiratorial look. “You both look cozy for exes who hate each other.”
Ella huffed. “Cade, mind handing me that baseball bat? I don’t think I did enough damage the first time.”
I threw it her way and she caught it, pretending to jokingly bash Shaun’s head again. Like a good sport, he feigned dying by falling back with a hand on his heart.
I shook my head with a small smile. He was such a clown. “Since we have you here, want to tell us why it looks like everyone is gone?”
Shaun winced. “Yeah, about that…Someone called the cops. They didn’t make it past the gates because it’s private property, so they must have left after checking the outskirts. As instructed, no one parked their cars on campus, which gave us an advantage. Darla and me were able to sneak out everyone except for you guys since you were nowhere to be seen. That was more than an hour ago. I came back to school in hopes of finding you.”
Thank goodness he didn’t find us a few minutes before. Otherwise, he’d have gotten an eyeful of our extracurricular activities.
“Appreciate you coming back for us, Shaun.” I squeezed his shoulder. “Do you know who called the cops?”
“No.” He frowned. “Darla thinks it’s one of the Initiators. But why an Initiator would call the cops and risk getting caught is beyond me.”
I shared a look with Ella. Could it have been the masked guy?
“We need to get out of here.” I helped Shaun to his feet with an arm around his torso. He swayed. “And we need to get you to a hospital. Pronto.”
“Before I forget, Darla has your phones.” Shaun winced again, taking a step with my aid. “Everyone collected theirs on the way out. You’ll have to get them from her.”
“Great,” Ella said absentmindedly.
“I don’t get it,” Shaun grumbled. “You were like sisters, Ella. What happened between you two?”
Her jaw clenched. “We had a falling-out. Darla stopped talking to me. The end.”
“Darla wouldn’t do that,” Shaun defended. “There’s got to be more to the story. You should talk to her.”
I agreed with him. If there’s one thing I learned tonight, it was that most issues stemmed from miscommunication. And they could also be resolved by simply talking to the other person as well.
“I’ll think about it.” Ella’s tone made it clear that she was done speaking on this subject. “Shaun, if the crowns are still here, does that mean nobody won?”
“Nobody.” Shaun’s eyes narrowed on the crowns. “Though I’ll have you know, the crowns, along with the other prizes, were locked upstairs in the janitor’s closet by the foyer. Unless Sister Victoria or some other ghost magically summoned them to the crypt, I’m not sure how they got here.”
Huh. Weirder things had happened in the ancient motherhouse, but the thought of these crowns showing up here unceremoniously creeped me out in ways I couldn’t explain.
“I guess it’s fate.” Ella smiled at me. “This means we won, querido .”
I smiled back. “And you created history, sweetheart.”
Shaun’s gaze bounced between us. “Wait a minute. You’re both using pet names again and I’m not sensing any hostility. Are you back together?”
Neither of us confirmed or denied.
It hurt me a little because I wanted to say ‘ we’re back together for good ,’ but I didn’t know where we stood anymore. Ella never outright said she wanted to rekindle our relationship, despite everything that transpired in the nurse’s office. And I didn’t want to make any assumptions.
We took a lot of steps in the right direction tonight by speaking about the past and our feelings. But maybe she needed more time to think about our future before letting me know her final decision.
Whatever the case, I just hoped her answer was yes .
Shaun and I watched Ella march over to Sister Victoria’s coffin.
She picked up her crown and set it down on her head, relishing the celebratory moment with an insightful inhale.
When she turned around to face us, she looked every bit my goddess of revenge and retribution. The bandaged hand, the faint traces of mascara tears, and the fatigued but determined expression that didn’t take away from her beauty.
Ella swiped the other crown and headed my way. Gently, she deposited it on my head with a flourish. “We did it, Cade. King and Queen of Initiation Night.”
The universe worked in mysterious ways. Three years ago, I wanted nothing more than to get paired up with Ella and win this competition. Now that I had the accomplishment, it paled in comparison to what I already won.
Freedom from my demons and the possibility of being with this girl again.
Ella
I lit the way with my torch as Cade helped Shaun up the stairs of the crypt. Regret and shame gnawed at me whenever I glanced at the latter. He was in pain but doing a great job at hiding it with jokes and easy smiles. I couldn’t believe I actually whacked him with the bat. I was terrified when the confessional’s curtain ripped open that I stopped thinking and reacted first.
I knew Shaun forgave me, but I’d still send a fruit basket to his place as an apology. Maybe playing Cupid for him and Hera, one of my really good friends, would help make amends too. Shaun had liked her for years and sucked at making it abundantly clear.
My posture sagged the closer we got to the main foyer. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, I slowly registered the dull throb in my ankle, the cut in my palm, and the prickling in my heart.
I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this exhausted.
I realized both guys were notably quiet too, staring out the windows lining the hallway. The storm was still going strong and tumultuous as ever.
“I’m guessing you and Darla didn’t have a chance to clean up?” I asked Shaun, considering how everyone basically escaped to avoid getting caught by the cops.
“No.” He sighed and palmed his forehead. “We’re going to come back tomorrow to ensure everything is spick and span so Principal Hill doesn’t lose her shit Monday morning.”
Principal Hill was part of the initial group who started this tradition decades ago. She knew Initiation Night could get rowdy and would definitely cut Darla some slack if certain things weren’t in their rightful place.
“Oh, by the way.” Cade clicked his tongue. “I shattered a glass globe in Room 208 on the third floor.”
“Bro,” Shaun said exasperatedly. “You had two jobs. To win the girl and not break shit on campus.”
“You know said girl can hear you, right?” I said with dry amusement.
“Since your ears seem to be in perfect working condition, why didn’t you answer my question earlier?” Shaun hedged. “You know, the one where I asked if you two were back together.”
Cade and I both remained silent.
Shaun muttered under his breath, “Stubborn idiots. After all the effort I put in.”
No other words were exchanged as we reached the front doors. Shaun leaned against the archway for support and yanked out keys from his pocket. “Darla gave them to me so I could come back for you both.”
I thought back to what Shaun said in the crypt.
I had no choice but to go see Darla if I wanted my phone back. However, I’d take Shaun’s advice and try talking to her. One last time. I would put my pride aside for the girl who’d been like my sister.
We both deserved that, right?
And maybe this time she’d finally tell me what went wrong between us.
After being trapped for hours, we stepped out of St. Victoria and we’re greeted by another chorus of rain, lighting, and thunder. Shaun locked the doors and then we crossed the courtyard, wet grass wilting beneath our shoes.
Our plan was to take Shaun to the hospital. I’d drive his car while Cade trailed behind in his motorcycle, which he actually parked near the woods on campus.
“I’m sorry again, Shaun,” I said sheepishly. “I really didn’t mean to hit you.”
“It’s okay, Ella.” He attempted a wink, but in his state, it resembled a grimace. “I kind of deserved it, and I’m not mad at all. Plus, it makes for a funny story. I’ll never forget the way you both screamed and ran away like chickens. Totally worth it.”
While he cackled, Cade and I glared at him.
Moments later, we arrived at the front gates of the school.
And were welcomed by a flurry of red-blue lights and police sirens. A group of cops stared at us with menacing expressions. “Put your hands up! You’re under arrest for trespassing on private property.”
Cade cursed under his breath, clutching onto an injured Shaun.
The next few minutes felt like an out-of-body experience. We were forced to our knees, slapped with handcuffs, and shoved into the back of a squad car in spite of our protests. One of the cops kicked my hurt ankle and I growled in pain. Cade thrashed and threatened the cop, digging us deeper into this mess.
As we drove off, an odd sensation of being watched had me swivelling my head towards the school.
Amongst the shadowed trees, two figures stood side by side.
The same masked man who pushed me down the stairs in Balthazar Building, Guy Fawkes mask covering his face.
And next to him?
A familiar girl.
Pixie blond hair. Blue eyes. Red Riding Hood costume.
Callie .