Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog Read Free Book Online

and put me at ease? As I quietly curse this new, more intense version of Cam that is reducing me to behaving like a four-year-old girl, I notice something. There's a brand-new expression dawning on his face. It's... fear. "Urn, it isn't his lunch, is it?"
    "Not even close. Does he have it with him?"
    Oh, God, it is a severed head. "Um, no. We put it in his locker."
    "You what? " He looks at the clock, grabs my hand, and pulls me up. "Go to your class. All hell is about to break loose, and I don't want you to be in the middle of it."
    "What? No. What's going on?" He's pushing me toward the door, but I resist, trying to dig the heels of my Sam & Libbys into the linoleum.
    Just then, Katie rounds the comer, out of breath, a Dixie cup in each hand. She stops short, and before I can react, my chest is covered in something wet. Katie stands there, mouth open like a goldfish. It takes me a moment to realize that (a) it's ice-cold and (b) it's not water; it's some hot-pink stuff that looks sort of like watered-down Pepto. It's like Barbie threw up all over my white cashmere sweater. Blast. "What is that...?" I ask amid the endless apology that's flowing, like a volcanic eruption, from her mouth.
    "Hi-C. You looked like you could use something, um, stronger," she squeaks, and then straight back to the regularly scheduled "I'msorryl'msorryI'msorry."
    She produces a balled-up Kleenex from her backpack, and as I'm dabbing away at my sweater, I say, "Cam, just let me help-"
    But that's when I realize that Cam is gone. Standing where he once was is a painting on an easel-an arrangement of daisies, or a bunch of eggs sunny-side up. Or maybe a portrait? If only that were the most confusing thing on my mind.
    So rather than get my second tardy of my school career on the same day as my first, I report to bio as scheduled. Then, I quickly fake a case of massively full bladder and ask Ms. Simpson if I can use the lav pass.
    I pace back and forth at Pip's locker, not because I have any clue what is going on, but because I figure that, based on our completely cryptic conversation, if Cam was going to be anywhere, it would be here.
    But he's not.
    Blast.
    All hell's going to break loose. What did he mean by that? He obviously seemed concerned about the thing in Pip's locker. So what can it be? A weapon? Drugs? I haven't yet ruled out the human head, either.
    Gah. I don't care if it is a human head. I need to know.
    I close my eyes and mouth the word "Fluffernutter" a couple of times, but the beating of my heart drowns out the sound. "Show me Pip," I say.
    But nothing comes. A minute passes.
    I open my eyes and realize I'm clutching the wooden lav pass so tightly in my hands that splinters are stalling to prick my palms,
    This isn't working,
    Fine. I take a quick look down the hall and, seeing no one, fix my hand on the dial. The first number was twenty-eight, I think, And ... twelve? I need to start taking ginkgo biloba.
    But that's when I hear it.
    It starts like a scratching, like the sound of a cat sharpening its claws. At first I think it must be coming from the room behind the row of lockers. Then, the rub-rub-rubbing noise intensifies, to a tinny banging.
    Something is inside. Something alive.
    That's impossible, I tell myself. Still, my hand is frozen on the lock. Something tells me that Cam is right, that all hell might be breaking loose... out of this locker?
    And, if so, I'm going to be in the middle of it.
    I drop my hand to my side and back away, and as I'm turning to run, I hear it.
    A voice, a whisper. But not a sweet-nothings whisper; more of a subhuman hiss.
    "Let. ... me ... out..."

Chapter Eleven
     
    AS I'M RACING down the hall, thinking how nice it would be to be safely ensconced in Ms. Simpson's class, learning about the mollusk phylum, I turn a comer and careen headfirst into Pip and Cam, who, judging from the fact that Pip's breathing like a woman in labor, must have been running toward me.
    Cam grabs me by the shoulders.