Carson's Mark: School of Screams

Chapter Five

     "They also react badly if you taunt them too much," Kennedy said as he caught up.  "So don't get too cocky either."  Zeeke shot him a sideways glance.
     "Yeah," he said.  "That too."  Kenny smiled to himself.  Zeeke still acted like he'd always been, but there was a brightness in his eyes that hadn't been there at first. 
     They walked over to another door in the hallway.  This one wasn't propped open, but trying the handle told them it was still unlocked.  It appeared to be a mathematics classroom.  There were posters of different equations on the walls and a handful of textbooks sat on a table in the back of the room. 
     "I hate math," Zeeke scowled when he saw the room. 
     "Not good with numbers?"  Kennedy asked, moving towards the cabinet at the back of the room to check it. 
     "Never have been," the teen answered as he moved to search the teachers desk at the front of the room.  "Probably never will be."  He suddenly banged his shin on one of the student desks in the front.  He cried out in pain and sucked in a breath.  
     "What's wrong?"  Kennedy hurriedly walked over to him.  "Are you okay?"  Zeeke was favoring his left leg a little more than he had been before. 
     "I just bumped my bad leg," the teen answered.  "I'll be fine in a few minutes."  He didn't put weight on the leg, but he was bracing himself with one hand on the teacher's desk and the other on another desk. 
     "Are you sure?"  Kennedy eyed the teen with concern. 
     "Yeah," he answered.  "I'm okay, really.  I just broke it a couple years ago and wasn't taken to a hospital for it, so it didn't heal properly.  It hurts like hell if I bump it on something, but it's not as bad as it seems."
"If you need to sit for a minute, you can," Kenny told him. Zeeke took a seat on top of the teachers desk.
"You probably should get it checked out, though," Kennedy said.  "If it didn't heal properly, there might be issues later on." 
     "I'm used to it," the teen replied.  "Like I said, it was a couple years ago." 
     "Still," Kenny said, flipping through the textbooks for hidden notes or something similar.  "It should be checked out just in case.  We have a family friend who's a doctor, I can call him for an appointment, if you want."  Zeeke shook his head, gingerly standing up again and carefully walking around to the front of the desk to check the drawers. 
     "You don't need to," he said.  "I've managed this long, I can deal with it."  Kennedy sighed in response.  He didn't want to see Zeeke in pain, but he knew when to stop pushing for something. 
     "Find anything interesting?"  He asked instead.  He put the textbooks back the way he found them, having not found any useful information.  Zeeke opened one of the bottom drawers of the teacher's desk, looking for a second before taking out a folded piece of paper. 
     "Does this count?" He asked, holding it up.  Kenny strode over. 
     "Could be," he answered.  "Let's see what's on it."  Zeeke unfolded the paper. It turned out to be multiple pieces of paper folded together in a bunch, appearing to be some confiscated notes between students. Kennedy took the pages and read over them in his head before showing them to Zeeke. 
     "Look," he said.  "These appear to be talking about some sort of prank." 
     "Seems like these fuckers were going to scare someone else," the teen observed, putting on more of a deadpan expression. "My ass woulda got beat if my foster parents even thought I was going to do something like that." He let out a short laugh, but it sounded like it was more of a nervous reaction to the thought than a joke. 
     "It looks like this one mentions something about figures in dark cloaks," Kenny pointed out one note in particular.  "I remember the neighbors who mentioned this place said something about hooded figures, maybe these are similar figures." Zeeke smirked.
"So, what?" He asked. "These bitches were gonna start some rumors about a cult, then they were gonna dress up to scare someone?" Kennedy nodded.
"Seems like it," he said. "These appear to have been confiscated before much could be done, but we'll hang onto them in case they can be connected to something else later." Jack suddenly barked at something on the other side of the door.
"What is it, buddy?" Kenny asked him. Both he and Zeeke turned to see a large, shadowy figure looking into the room through the door's narrow, rectangular window. The figure moved out of sight once it realized they'd spotted it, but Zeeke dashed over and yanked open the door.
"Hey, shithead!" He yelled down the hall in the direction the figure had appeared to go. "What's your game? You creep on people, then you run like a coward once you're spotted? Get your ass back here and face us!"
"Don't taunt it!" Kennedy told him worriedly. "If that was really a supernatural, dark entity, taunting it could cause it to attack us, and we don't need that right now." Jack had trotted several steps past them and was growling and barking down the hallway.
"What, then?" The teen asked. "We just let go of the fact we were being watched?" He scowled.
"We leave it for now," Kenny told him. "And we do a bit more searching before heading back to the castle to see what Chloe and Simon have found, and we see if anything matches. Then we decide how to handle anything that might be dwelling here."
Zeeke gave an annoyed huff, obviously wanting to chase down the figure in the moment. Then a low, short, throaty gurgling rumble emitted from his mouth as he gritted his teeth. The noise surprised him, but Kenny let out a short chuckle.
"Your draconian form is being to show itself," he said. "If you work on it, you could probably learn to shift pretty soon." Zeeke offered no response, seemingly still grumpy about not being able to confront the shadow. Kennedy gave him a small but understanding smile as he put the papers in his pocket. 
"Come on, grumbles," he said. "We'll search a couple more rooms and then we'll head back. I'm sure Scarecrow is starting to miss you." The mention of his little plushie companion made the teenager crack his usual half-smile.
"He's dealt with me being away for longer," he responded. "But fine." Kenny gave a short whistle for Jack to follow before they chose another room to look in.  This room seemed to have been a history classroom. 
     A map of the world hung on one side of the white board.  A small replica dinosaur skeleton sat on a length of storage counter at the back of the room beside a small statue of an ancient deity.  A cabinet in one corner sat partially open, a bunch of textbooks and other supplies waiting inside for someone to pick them up. 
     Kennedy went through the teacher's desk this time while Zeeke walked through the rest of the room.  He went to the back to check out the dinosaur and the statue.  He picked up the dino, a t-rex, off of its rock-like base and started turning it over in his hands. 
     "I don't think that's going to come to life in your hands like the drake did," Kenny half-joked as he moved closer to the back of the room. 
     "I thought it might have a button or something," the teen responded.  "You know, like in video games."  That made Kenny give a small chuckle. 
     "Good thinking," he said.  "But I doubt the Fates would give us something like that this early in the investigation.  It might make things a little too easy." 
     "You have a weird sense of humor," Zeeke told him. 
     "Indeed," Kennedy had made his way to where the teen stood. He picked up the statue beside the dino.
"Anubis," he observed. "Someone liked Egyptian mythology."
"What does that have to do with the investigation?" Zeeke asked him.
"It might have nothing to do with it," Kenny admitted. "But it could have something, at the same time. It'd be a good idea to keep it in the back of our minds." Zeeke nodded, but was now fascinated by what was inside the storage cabinet. 
     He dug through the old textbooks, looking through the pages before tossing them back on the shelf.  A small globe sat on the bottom of the cabinet, surrounded by a handful of other small items.  Kenny had joined him by this point, and picked up the little globe to examine it.  He checked the base, then began slowly spinning the globe to check it out. 
     "Looking for vacation destinations?"  Zeeke asked, showing his cocky half-smile.  Kennedy smiled but shook his head. 
     "Just checking for any marks or buttons that could lead to a clue," he answered.  Zeeke was still crouched down rummaging through the other items at the bottom of the cabinet.  He suddenly pulled out a small, wooden box from a dark corner at the back.  He was about to hold it up to show Kennedy, but something else hidden in the cabinet suddenly shot out from the dark space.