Hollow by Rhonda Parrish

Author:Rhonda Parrish [Parrish, Rhonda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: YA Horror
Publisher: Tyche Books
Published: 2020-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

THE HALLWAYS ARE empty. Completely empty. The hallways are never completely empty. Ever. There’s always someone on a spare or filling a water bottle from the fountain, someone on their way from a classroom to the washroom, but not now. Because of course there isn’t. This is the only time in the history of the school that every hallway is empty because it’s the only time in the history of the school that I’ve wanted them to be full. That I wanted a big crowd, because I need to disappear.

I’m in big trouble. There is no way in a million years Keith is going to forgive and forget me kicking him in the balls. Not in a million, million years.

I’m dead. I’m so dead. I’m dead or I’m going to wish I was.

I’ve been running mindlessly through the halls, looking for, I don’t know what. A crowd to disappear into, perhaps? Now I realise that is a bad idea. The high school wing of the building is shaped like a giant squared-off donut. If I keep this up with Keith and his buddies pursuing me I’m guaranteeing that they are going to catch me. And then what are they going to do?

I’ve never felt physically intimidated by Keith and his friends, never worried they were going to attack me, not even that day. But something had changed. Back in the showers, that had been a different story, a different Keith, a different Simon than I’ve ever seen before. More intimidating. More predatory.

I hear feet approaching from around the corner, and without waiting to see who they belong to, I duck into the nearest door. I’m in the library. The librarian looks up and raises an eyebrow. “No running in the halls, Morgan.”

“Sorry, Mrs. Rushfeldt,” I murmur, slowing my pace. I think about telling her what’s going on, asking for help, but that would require too much context. Too much explaining. I’d have to tell her about that day. I dismiss the idea and, instead, move deeper into the library.

It is a sharp contrast to the hallways. The lights are a little less stark, the concrete walls feel a little warmer and there is carpet rather than shiny tiles under my feet. All that combines to make a soothing, intimate feeling. My racing heart rate, my whirling thoughts, they all feel out of place here. Plus, it’s probably the one place in the school Keith and company won’t think to look for me. I don’t know if they even realise the school has a library. It’s not the sort of room that would be on their radars.

I walk further in. Two of the walls facing the hallway are glass from the waist up and I don’t want to boys to spot me and come in. Pretending I have an actual reason for being here, I square my shoulders and move to the heart of the library, where no one will be able to see me from the hallway.

I feel like I should cry.

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