Eidolon

Chapter 5: The Tall Man

When the final bell rang at the end of the school day, the hallways of East Point High School flooded with students almost immediately. Like a stampede, they moved almost as a single mass towards the front entrance, where the parking lot and the bus pickup zone were located.

Ordinarily, this was not a problem for Alex. She just waded through the rush like it was a wave carrying her to shore. Unfortunately, she really needed to use the bathroom today, and there was no way she could wait the entire twenty minute bus ride. As a result, she found herself swimming against the tide of student bodies, trying to make her way back up the hallway in the opposite direction everyone else was going.

Unsurprisingly, the bathroom was completely empty when she finally got to it. "At least I can pee in peace for a change," she mumbled to no one in particular.

By the time she finished her business and washed her hands, there were very few students left milling about in the halls, just a few stragglers that probably had an after school club to go to. It was surprisingly quiet with most of the students gone. The only sounds were the occasional metal ka-chink of a locker door closing, or the gentle clack of footsteps on the tile floor.

As she made her way towards the front entrance, another sound caught her attention. Someone was crying. It wasn't the gentle, quiet weeping of someone who had just gotten dumped or maybe just had a bad day—no,this was the mournful, wailing sob of someone who had fallen into a deep despair.

Alex turned the corner to see a girl sitting on the bench just outside of the principal's office. Her face was in her hands, long brunette hair dangling down to conceal her features. She wore a black jacket over a red cardigan, and there was a little smiley face button pinned on the jacket, a stark contrast to her current demeanor. Her shoulders shook with each gasping sob.

Alex hesitated. She didn't like to get involved in other people's business, but it was hard to ignore someone in such obvious distress.

"Are you okay?" she asked, approaching cautiously. No answer. It was a stupid question, Alex realized. She tried something else. "Is...there anything I can do?"

The girl fell silent, unmoving. Then, slowly, she lifted her head to look at Alex. Her face was ghastly and pallid, more gray than tan. Tears streamed down her face, and her eyes glistened like crystal orbs in dark sockets.

"Are you... talking to me?" she asked, her voice a strained whisper.

Alex nodded, finding it hard to speak for some reason. The girl's tearful eyes lit up, and she grabbed Alex's hands. "Yes! Yes, please. I need a favor. You've got to help me."

She had to restrain herself from jerking her hands away. The other girl's hands were ice cold and clammy, and her grip was too tight. But Alex felt bad for her. "What do you need?"

The girl released one of her hands and retrieved something from her jacket pocket, handing it to Alex. It appeared to be a folded-up piece of notebook paper, the kind of note kids used to pass in class back before everyone had cell phones. "Give this to Rachael Allen for me."

Alex stared at the folded rectangle in her hand. "Um, okay. I'm sorry, why can't you just give it to her yourself?"

"Please," the girl pleaded. "Please, it will only take a moment. She's always in the library first thing in the morning. You can just give it to her and be on your way."

Alex hesitated, but finally nodded her head. "Okay, I'll do it."

There was something unsettling about the girl's desperate insistence, and Alex was getting a strange feeling about the whole situation. Suddenly, she wanted very badly to get away. She felt sorry for the poor girl, whatever was wrong with her, but she was seriously starting to get creeped out, and she didn't want to miss her bus.