Inside Evil

Chapter 6 - Part I

*Inside Evil and its sequels are available on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Smashwords and iBooks*

It was mid morning when Susan and Martha arrived at the school. Though she wouldn't normally do it, Susan decided it was best for the pair to sneak in the back entrance to the dorms rather than make themselves obvious. Marching through a high school without being invited was sure to raise a few eyebrows, and Susan wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible. The students seemed to still be in lessons, so the pair stowed themselves in the girls toilets after some resistance from Martha, who made it quite clear that never, even in her younger years, had she felt the urge to skulk around in toilet cubicles. For Susan however it actually brought back a nostalgic feeling, she'd been one of the very few people that she knew who had actually loved her high school days. By lesson, she'd focus on the task in hand whilst trying to get a smile from her stunningly gorgeous art teacher. By lunch, her group of friends would sneak under the hedge and talk to the strong jaw lines and erupting stubble of the pupils from the bordering boys school.

A commotion in the corridor signalled the end of class, and Susan shoved Martha into a cubicle as girls flooded into the toilets, leaving the door open a crack so that she could scan the opposite mirror for a familiar face.

"That's her," Susan whispered as a rake thin brunette leaned over the sink and touched up her makeup. The girl puckered her lips to apply a deep outline, before turning towards Susan and marching into the cubicle next to her. Wide eyed, Susan looked at Martha for advice on what to do. "How should I know?" Martha hissed back, with absolute contempt on her face for being put into this situation.

"I can't just knock," Susan whispered.

"Well I'm not staying like this," Martha replied disapprovingly before rapping loudly on the divider and gesticulating for Susan to say something. There was a pause where Susan was unsure of what to do, but knowing that Martha's patience was drawing perilously close to it's end, she whispered,

"Emily?"

A few seconds passed before the girl in the next cubicle responded.

"Hello?"

"Emily?"

"Er, no, who is this?"

Susan grimaced. She couldn't even bear to look at Martha.

"Never mind," she whispered, withdrawing her face from where it was almost pressed against the divide.

"We're going," Martha said crossly, putting her hand on Susan's arm and preparing to open the door.

"Mrs Lingly?" The voice came from above, and Susan saw that a very puzzled looking girl, who actually looked very little like Emily Stone, was peering over at them.

"Hi," Susan managed to say through a thin and embarrassed smile. Martha shrank into a corner in an attempt to hide. "Not Emily then, we'll just go."

"Wait, wait," Susan heard the girl call as she and Martha moved swiftly towards the toilet door. She heard the girl jump down from the toilet and unlatch the door.

"I can get her, wait here a few minutes."

Martha stood at the mirror, pinching her cheeks slightly and pushing a strand of hair back behind her left ear. Susan didn't dare say anything, and it seemed like an eternity that the pair were waiting. Young lithe girls wanting to preen came through the door, saw the women and turned away again, leaving Martha and Susan to their own devices.

"Mrs Lingly, what are you doing here?" The voice was familiar, and Susan looked up from where she'd been watching Martha in the mirror to see her daughter's best friend come into view. Emily had a thin face and her hair was pulled back loosely into a ponytail. There was mud on her cheek and her knees, the latter of which poked out from under a pair of blue shorts and were pink with cold. "I'm sorry, it's hockey practice. I was out on the field. Is everything ok?"