Nightfall (Devil's Night 4)

I looked down, swallowing as I saw a little girl looking up at me.

Who…?

“Let’s go,” she whispered.

Blonde hair and maybe eight or nine years old, she wore all black except for the white undershirt I saw poking out from the bottom of her sweater. A black cap on her head, and a braid hanging over her shoulder, she smiled and pulled me along. I followed, looking to Michael and Rika for an answer, but they just gaped at her, looking equally confused.

She let me go and shot ahead, dipping down and diving through the tarp covering the crawl space underneath the warehouse. “Through here!” she called.

We hesitated only a moment before following, Michael ushering us in her wake and then following us.

We crawled, digging in our hands and knees, the cold earth seeping through my jeans as the kid led the way under the floor, all of us glancing over our shoulders to see who was following us.

“You sure you know where you’re going?” Michael asked.

“I own this town,” she fired back.

He chuckled despite the rush we were in, but I had no time to wonder where the hell this kid came from, or if she was really leading us to safety.

Right now, we had no choice.

Stopping, she rose up and popped up a floorboard, all of us crawling up into the warehouse, and right into the Mad Scientist’s wing again.

As soon as we were all inside and we knew where we were at, Michael picked up the kid, threw her over his shoulder, and ran, all of us following him.

“Oh, my God, I can walk.” She raised up and held out her hands. “Dude!”

But he wouldn’t stop as we raced into the lab, no one following us as we swung open the door and dived inside the room. Michael carried the kid down into the tunnel, followed by Rika and Alex, but I paused, sensing something.

Looking back over my shoulder, through the doorway and into the chem lab, I locked eyes on a group of figures draped in white in the other room. They stood like statues, black holes for the eyes and all of them looking like they were watching me.

Something crawled on my skin, fear snaking its way through me as my feet sprouted roots and dug into the ground.

Frozen, I stared at their faces, knowing.

I just knew.

And then…one turned his head, and my heart leapt into my throat. I screamed, knowing it might not be one of them, but it could be. Shit.

I slipped into the tunnel, closed the door, and raced after the others, tripping over a rock as I kept looking over my shoulder.

I stumbled, catching myself, and rushed up to the tracks.

Micah, Rory, and Lev were in the car ahead, already strapped in, and I barely had time to catch my breath before they sped off, their rail car zooming down the track.

There were only two cars left, so hopefully that meant that everyone else had already gotten out.

They got strapped in, Michael started the car, and I looked back, hearing the door creak open back down the tunnel.

Will…

But someone grabbed me and pushed me into the seat.

“Will!” I cried, feeling the seatbelt strap onto me. “Michael, no!”

“Hurry,” Rika yelled to him, the girl in her lap. “Go!”

The car shot off, my neck jerking back, and I twisted in my seat, seeing the lights behind grow smaller and smaller.