Twelve Hours

7:00 AM

7:00 AM

Elias ran through the snow ignoring the cold. He ran faster than he knew he could, not stopping once to catch his breath. He needed to get out of here. He needed to get someone to help. He needed to do something before they died.

Nearing the front of the school Elias began to sprint. He noticed headlights of a car and despite himself let out a laugh of relief. "Help!" He shouted as he drew closer. "Someone help! Please!"

He ran toward the front door where people stood in coats and Principal Lauer had just walked in the school.

"Elias?" A young woman asked.

"Eliza!" Elias shouted running and pulling his surprised older sister in a hug. "Oh my god! I have never so been happy to see you!"

Eliza pulled back from their embrace kind of uncomfortable. Then she noticed Elias' strange appearance. "What- what are you covered in?"

The smile melted off of Elias' face and he began speaking hurriedly. "Blood. They're dead. You've gotta call the cops! They're being held hostage in the Spanish room! There's someone else who moved Matteo's and Nani's bodies too! I don't know who it is, Duke, Veronica maybe? or maybe Cristiana or even Riley- no he didn't know about it either."

"What are you talking about?" Eliza asked him.

"Bodies?" A woman echoed. "Nani's body?"

"You have to call the cops!" Elias yelled. "They're working with the Uprise and people are dead!"

~~~~

"No. No. No!" Cristiana shouted kicking the wall. She walked back and forth muttering to herself.

"Cristi just put the gun down," Duke said slowly.

"No! I need- I need things to work to help him."

"Help who?"

"Shut up!" She screamed holding the gun toward him with shaky hands. "I will shoot you idiot! Just shut up!"

Duke opened his mouth again and Cristiana shot toward him with shaky hands. She had been aiming for the wall beside him but with her shaking hands her aim was off and the bullet pierced his eye. Duke screamed in pain and doubled over clutching his eye while Cristiana stared at him in shock.

"D-Duke... I-I-I didn't mean to..."

~~~~

"Why the fuck are we standing here?" Elias shouted at the adults gathered around him. "Did you not hear me? People are dead? There's someone in there trying to kill people!"

"We need to wait for the police," Eliza told him patiently.

"What happened to Nani? I'm her mother," a woman asked Elias.

Elias shook his head and turned his gaze to the floor. "I'm sorry."

The woman sunk to the floor. "But who...?"

"Who else is... hurt? I'm Matteo's father."

Elias continued staring at the floor as she quietly answered the question. "Matteo, Nani, Colin, Ashley, Jordan, and Jackson was shot as I ran- I think Mickey was too..." Elias said nothing as parents gasped introducing themselves and demanding to know more about their children.

"Who killed them?" A man- Jordan's father- asked.

"How did this even happen?" Another woman- Colin and Veronica's mother- sobbed from where she lay on her husband's shoulder.

"It- it started as a prank..." Elias said slowly. "Started by Nani and I. It was just to freak people out, no one was supposed to actually die-"

"So this is all a prank then?" A man- Veronica and Colin's father- asked sounding semi relieved.