Alissa

TEAMS

With a shapeless hope, the kids go around the school thrashing the security cameras down. Hope. The only thing that's keeping their heads above water. Better put up a fight and die than living a life of regret.

With a new surge of excitement racing through their veins, the nine of them take a floor each, in groups of two. Except Cody, Lucas and Holly. Equipped with the two knives and a brass knuckle they found in room 209, they go around the school in hopes to find HEL. End him then and there.

Hope. The only thing that makes life worth living.

Meanwhile, the Sterling boy, with a baseball bat resting against his shoulder, walks around the ground floor, looking for security cameras.

According to Holly, each floor has three security cameras—two on either sides of the hallway and one somewhere in the middle, with each lab having one camera inside it. The ground floor has the most number of labs along with the auditorium, where they've all decided to meet after thirty minutes.

With Kevin's phone in her hand, it's torchlight sweeping across the hallway, Alissa and Kevin reach one end of the lengthy hall. Multiple red dots of light encircling the camera, scans the expanse in front of it.

Alissa points the torchlight towards the security camera, illuminating the pale yellow wall and the hemispherical glass body attached to it, light reflecting sharply on the glass.

"That's the first one," Alissa points at it.

Lifting his heel off the ground, the pressure of his body running down to his toes, he swings the baseball bat as the glass above shatters into innumerable pieces, some falling down on his head. The shards of glass seem like snowflakes tangled in his dense black hair under the light.

His toes finally give in, making his heels collapse as he wobbles back, knocking his shoulder against Alissa's.

For someone who's light and swift on the basketball court, Kevin feels as if there are boulders on his shoulder, pushing him into the ground. He wonders if the police has arrived already, if his father has called the lawyers yet. Perhaps HEL was just bluffing. There's only one thing that he knows for sure: no matter what happens to his family tonight, he's the one who's responsible for it.

For a brief second, he pictures swinging the baseball bat at Derek. What's the worse that could happen? He can hear the swish of the bat tearing past the air, the sound of the bat colliding with his skin. Derek crying out in pain. He knows Derek will hate him forever then. He hates himself at the thought of that, he's disgusted. But maybe it's worth it—

Alissa brushes the glass off his hair, her fingers running through them.

She can see his chest gently rising and falling, his eyes exhausted.

He nods and turns around, starting for the other end of the hallway.

"Thank you," she says.

He looks back at her. "What for?"

"For taking my side against Lucas." She considers, "I appreciate it, you know."

"You don't talk much do you?" Kevin grins. "I don't think I've heard you speak much other than reading out the messages."

"I mean..." her voice trails off. "I don't know anyone here. I've only been here for two days, remember?"

Kevin lets out a chuckle. Not the kind that's burdened by boulders, but the kind that people show around the ones they're close with. The kind that's full of life.

A floor just above, Derek and Aman are looking for the third and the last security camera. Derek knows there are no labs on this floor, he's walked across this hallway hundreds of times. However, nothing feels familiar anymore. Derek isn't standing in the same hallway where he raced past the sea of people with Kevin's phone—unlocked—in his hand, Kevin on his heels. He just wanted to see the girl he went out with the night before. It was unusual for Kevin to not tell Derek about the girls he went out with, so Derek thought he went out with that satanic bitch, Megan.