"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
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Chapter One-Hundred-And-Thirty-Nine: Max Is Next
(Dear Billy)
***
They arrived at the school in record speed.
Valerie's car squealed into the parking lot seconds after Nancy's. Rowan didn't wait for Valerie to stop the car before she was out, snatching a flashlight and rushing to the doors, her friends right behind her.
They crashed through the doors and sprinted to Ms. Kelly's office, the beams of the flashlights bouncing up and down over the floor, lockers, walls and ceiling. Rowan's legs burned and her breaths were pants in her ears, but she kept running.
Because when they were halfway to the school, the walkie in Valerie's bag had crackled to life, and Dustin had said something happened to Max. It was all Rowan could do to keep from teleporting right then and there.
When they finally arrived at the guidance counsellor's office, Rowan saw Steve, Cami, Alistair, Max and Dustin there. Files were on Ms. Kelly's desk, lying abandoned as Steve, Cami, Dustin and Alistair stared in concern at Max. And Max...
Max looked like she'd seen a ghost.
The two groups stared at each other, before Nancy asked, "What happened?"
***
"it was here. Right here."
Rowan stared at the empty wall, illuminated by the glare of their flashlights. It looked just like an ordinary wall, but according to Max, she'd seen something inside it.
A grandfather clock, ticking away.
"A grandfather clock?" Nancy said, skepticism in her voice.
"It was so real," Max whispered, voice quavering slightly. "And then, when I got closer, suddenly, I just... I woke up."
"It was like she was in a trance or something. Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy," Dustin said to Rowan, Nancy, Robin and Valerie, and icy fear shivered in Rowan.
Max turned around and croaked out, "That's not even the bad part."
Like that, Rowan's fear ratcheted up.
They went back to Ms. Kelly's office, where Rowan, Nancy, Valerie and Robin saw the abandoned files. And Rowan's heart clenched when she saw the names on top.
Chrissy Cunningham. Fred Benson.
These were Chrissy and Fred's files. They'd both been seeing Ms. Kelly. And as Rowan read through the files, the fear that hadn't gone away squeezed her throat at seeing the symptoms they both had.
Nose bleeds. Headaches. Nightmares. And past trauma.
Symptoms of someone who'd might have gone through something traumatic and it was affecting them physically, but the symptoms could have been something else. Something more sinister.
