Losing Everything [COMPLETED]

Day One

👻Spectra Vondergeist👻

"Pardon the irony, dear, but you look like you've seen a ghost," I said as Clawd and Draculaura came back into the gymnasium. Clawd shook his head. His breaths were quick, shallow, panicked. Maybe they hadn't seen a ghost, but they had certainly seen something.

"What happened?" Clawdeen asked.

With Draculaura still in his arms, Clawd sunk to the floor. "I don't know. It couldn't have been real. None of it's real."

"I'll go see what's up," Romulus said quietly. He headed for the door. As soon as he reached it, Clawd's arm shot out, his hand wrapping around Romulus's ankle.

"Listen, brother, I'm going to ask that you stay here," Clawd said.

Romulus squatted down and placed a hand on Clawd's shoulder. "I'll stay if you tell me what has you so bothered," he said softly. Clawd leaned over and whispered something that none of us could hear. The color drained from Romulus's face as he rose to his feet. He cleared his throat. "Are you all listening?" he asked.

There were replies scattered from all over the gym. Most of them were 'yes'. I grabbed my phone and pressed record. Whatever was about to be said was going to be good, and I knew that it belonged on my website.

"While the lights were out, our school nurse was murdered."

I gasped - along with almost every single monster in the room - as my phone slipped from my grip. "What?"

Romulus's head twisted in my direction. Every wolf in the room repeated the action. The phone dropping caught their attention, not my voice. "Why were you recording this?" he asked.

"I wasn't!"

"You were." He growled as he stalked towards me. "Why would you record this. This is serious! This is not something you can just put on your website. This is real, Spectra!" Romulus shouted.

"Of course it's real, Romulus. I know that. But I didn't know what you were going to say until you said it. I had no way of knowing anything," I said quietly.

"Sure you didn't kill her? For the fame? The immediate traffic to your webpage?" Romulus. He paced me in a threatening circle. "After all, your page would be the first news to get around. It'd circle the students, teachers, then the parents and the media... What more could a mediocre reporter want?" he asked.

"It wasn't me!" I exclaimed. "I know what it's like to be killed. Why would I do that to someone else?" I asked.

"She's right," Clawd called from the other end of the room. "I don't think it was her. We can't just blame people for anything. We need to calm down and think."

Romulus drew in a deep breath. "Right. What do you suggest?" he asked.

"I say we get out." Clawd rose to his feet, pulling Draculaura even closer to his chest. "Follow me. We'll go out through the main doors - by the office." So we all followed Clawd out of the gym, down the stairs, through the hall, and to the office. From the office, we could see the nurse's office. I shivered, knowing that a woman had been murdered there.

Clawd set Draculaura down, forcing her to lean against the wall for support. He pushed on the door, but it didn't open. "No," he whispered. He pushed harder. "These doors can't lock from the inside. You can't be trapped inside." Another push. He hit the glass so hard that it should have broke. But it didn't.

"The commons. We... we go to the commons." He looped his arm around Draculaura's waist, and we followed him down the hall and into the commons. He helped Draculaura to a siting position on the stairs before heading back for the doors. He pulled. And pulled. Locked. "No!" His fist slammed into the window. He retracted his fist, rolled his wrist, flexed his fingers, and shook out his hand, most likely to stop the stinging or the pain that he had just caused himself. He pressed his forehead to the glass. "Check the other doors. There's one at the end of the elementary building, one outside of the gym by the girl's locker room, one in the middle school hall, and another on the main floor. It's the oldest door. One of them... one of them has to be unlocked."