No Control

“I think I’m going to puke.” Callie choked out, a hand went over her mouth and her face turned three shades paler. She was speaking my thoughts, because I felt like my stomach was going to regurgitate the grilled cheese and chicken soup I had for lunch today.

“Well there goes my theory about Alyssa being in on it.” Liam said, a few of us actually muttered out agreements to that.

A while went by, most of us were deep in our thoughts. For me, I didn’t see the images of Alyssa getting her throat slashed, all I saw was that mask. That fucking creepy ass mask. By now we have all moved away from the laptop, nobody even wanted to pick the thing up off of the ground like it was tainted or something. Niall and Callie were back on the couch, and so was Mr. Clark. Ms. Roberts was standing beside him with her head in her hands. Liam and Wes were sitting in the chairs they were previously in, and Dax, Harry, and I were sitting on the floor a few feet away from the couch. I think everyone was waiting for someone to speak first.. to say what we thought about what the hell we were going to do from here. I sighed, realizing the unlucky first speaker was going to be me.

“Look, I know we are all shook up from seeing that, but we can’t sit here in silence. We need to figure something out.”

“Like what? What the hell are we going to do when there’s a fucking psycho running around freely?” Niall replies, and I actually hesitate for a second as I tried to think of an answer for him.

“No she’s right, we need to figure something out.” Harry was nodding, trying to convince himself to get his head back into the game. Unfortunately for him though, this wasn’t Mario Kart.

“Like what?” Niall repeated.

Ms. Roberts took a step forward, “That message-” She said, snapping her eyes to me, “-what Alyssa said, and what he typed.”

Harry pointed at the teacher and looked around to everyone else, “She’s right.. what the hell does 'love thy neighbor' mean?”

“Yeah, and the whole 'do to them what you would expect be done to you' thing?” Liam added.

“I’m no bible basher, but isn’t that one of those commandment things?” Niall asks, “You know, there’s like ten of them telling you how to live your life if you want to go to heaven with the angels and all that bullshit.”

“He’s right, but what does that have to do with us?”

Niall shrugs, “I’m not really the Sunday mass type of guy. The only reason I knew that was because they had a porn version of the passion of the Christ.”

If this were any other situation, I would have laughed.. as I’m sure everyone else would have. Now though, looking between everyone, all I saw was confusion.. actually Callie was making a more-so disgusted face. Seriously, I could tell minds were working so fast right now that I’m surprised there weren’t a bunch of light bulbs above people’s heads.

Dax was looking straight ahead of him, his eyes were wide and he wasn’t blinking. He hasn’t said anything since the video and I knew he was so deep and lost in his mind right now that not even a lifeboat could save him. I was starting to get worried, a serial killer running loose in the same building you’re in right now is bad enough, but he could have a breakdown at any given moment and lose all control over himself. I wondered if he even had any medication with him.

“What about the other thing?” Kevin spoke up, “The message at the end, who’s Robin?” Everyone looked around, as if someone would admit that Robin was their alter ego or something. Everyone was clueless, and not a single person came up with an explanation for the last message.

My mind however was working overtime, and I don’t know how I did it.. but I came up with a theory for the whole Robin thing. There was no way I was going to share it with the group though. I actually did hope my theory was wrong, I prayed with everything I had that it was false.. and real prayers by the way, not Niall’s XXX version of the passion of the Christ prayers. Apparently though, my facial expression gave a lot away because when I looked up, Harry’s curious eyes were on me.

He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side, “Clearly nobody has any theories, so we might as well press pause on the whole clue investigation for now because I am starving. I don’t know about any of you, but I haven’t eaten since lunch.”

“I hear you on that, it’s like four in the morning. My stomach is screaming at me.” Liam agrees and Niall nods as well.

“How can you people think about food after watching that?” Callie asks in amazement.

“Easily, I barely ate today because I wanted to get drunk faster. Since that’s obviously not happening anymore I could do with half a dozen cheeseburgers right now.” Niall replies, and Callie was still staring at him with a stunned expression. He gave her a cocky smile before lifting his hand to her chin and closing her mouth with his index finger, “You making that face gives me ideas.”

Harry walks over to Niall and high fives him for the crude remark to Callie, then turns to me, “Well until we figure out a better plan this hall is the safest place to be. The kitchen is just down the hall in the cafeteria so we can go and grab some food. You come with me.”

“Me? Why me?” I pointed at myself.

He shrugs, “Why not? Let’s go.”

Before I could say anything, Harry turned away and began walking towards the door. I had many reasons not to go with him, not only because he got on my nerves, but because I knew what his intentions were, he wanted to get me alone so we could talk. He obviously knew I had something on my mind. I don’t know how the hell he read my face so clearly, but it kind of freaked me out. I didn’t want to tell him, mostly because I hoped it wasn’t at all true.

“I’ll come with you.” Dax tells Harry, I’m guessing he sensed my discomfort and how much I didn’t want to go.

“No, she’s coming, now hurry up Elliot before I throw you over my shoulder and carry you.” He says, without turning around.

I sighed, realizing he wasn’t joking on his threat and began to follow behind him. I’ll be honest I was more nervous to step foot out of the main hall than I ever was before. If it weren’t for the knife and Harry’s keen protectiveness, there would be no way I’d be going anywhere, not after Alyssa.. nope, nope, nope.

For the trip to the kitchen, it was silent. When we reached the double doors that lead into the cafeteria, Harry did the usual drill of pulling me behind him while he makes sure the coast is clear. After a minute or two of creeping through the dark, he finally found the light switch and gestured me to come in.

The cafeteria was pretty big. With the dozens of tables folded up, it made the room seem even bigger and more open, which made me feel more comfortable being in here, considering there wasn’t really anywhere for the creep to hide. We made our way to the back corner of the room where the kitchen area was, and again Harry inspected it before I was able to go in.

The kitchen was rather large as well, and mostly empty. I began to think that there may be some knifes or something we could use for defense, but everything seemed to be hidden or stored away. I scanned the shelves and most of the cupboards for anything to eat, but everything turned out to be empty.

“Are you sure there’s even anything to eat in here. I mean, it’s the middle of summer and they probably don’t keep food in sto-”

“You know there’s food in the big storage cupboard so stop with the small talk. What were you thinking earlier?” Harry again saw right through me, and his eyes were glued on me as he expected an answer. It was true though, there was food in the one big storage cupboard. I mean, we broke into the school during summer, you’d have to expect that we’d pick up on a few tricks along the way. It’s not like we starved the whole weekend.

Therefore, I tried to keep my expression as neutral as possible, “What are you talking about?”

Harry rolls his eyes, “Don’t play innocent with me Mia, we both know you’re far from it, especially with your broken hymen confession. What were you thinking earlier in the hall?”

I glared at him, “Harry, I don’t know what you’re tal-”

“You may be able to bullshit them in there, and apparently your little BFF too, but I grew up with you. I’ve known you since you had pigtails and before you wore bras-” He smirked, “-actually, I can’t tell.. do you wear them now? I don’t think they’d make much of a difference anyhow.” Lucky for him, before I had the chance to smack him, he continued “So along the way, I have been able to tell when you’re hiding something, and I knew that’s exactly what you were doing back there, spill it.”

I was a little stunned at his words, and no not the flat chest jokes because I have heard those plenty, but he was right, I was hiding something from him. Hell, I had been hiding something from him way before we got trapped in this shithole with Freddie Krueger running around and slicing people up. The whole adultery situation came back into thought, but before I got caught up in it, I pushed it away. One fucked up situation at a time.

I sighed in defeat, I knew he wasn’t going to drop this and I wanted to get back to safety as quickly as possible, “Alright fine, it’s true.. I’ve been hiding something.”

“We’ve established that sweetcheeks, what though?”

“You know, that sarcastic vibe of yours really puts people off when they want to share things with you.”

Harry groaned, making it obvious that he was getting annoyed and impatient, “Mia, if you don’t tell me what you were thinking, then I am going to pin you against this wall and make out with you.”

I wasted no time in throwing my hands up in defense because I knew he would stick true to his word, “Alright, alright! I was just thinking about the whole Robin thing.”

“And?”

I sighed again, realizing how stupid I was about to sound, “Well the first thing that came to mind was Batman.”

The amused smile on his face appeared, but when he noticed I was serious he tried to pull it back down, “Batman?”

“Yes asshole, Batman. I should have probably had a better opening, but I mean Batman as in Batman and Robin.” I say and Harry furrows his eyebrows. He thought over my words for another minute, and judging from the look on his face I think he was actually seeing my point of view on this theory.

“Like a sidekick?” He asks, and I hesitate before nodding, his mouth parted slightly as he was still thinking this over, “So you think he was talking to his sidekick?”

“Yeah I mean the whole message to this Robin person just seemed fishy. What else could that mean?” My voice came out quieter than I had intended. I was hoping Harry could somehow come up with some other explanation for this. I really didn’t want to believe somebody in that hall was the creep’s Robin.

“You know what that means right?” He asks me.

I nodded and began to chew nervously on the inside of my cheek, “Yeah that someone in that room isn’t exactly on team survival.”

Harry ran a hand through his hair and then over his face, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth as he did so, “Is that why you didn’t say anything?”

Again, I nodded, “Can you imagine if I said that in front of everyone? We would turn against each other faster than you could say Batman and Robin.”

Harry actually breathed a laugh at my wording, then nodded in agreement. He suddenly looked puzzled when he looked back over to me, “If this is your theory, how come you’re telling me? Aren’t I a suspect to you?” I thought about it for awhile, realizing it was true. Hell for all I knew, he could be Robin. I don’t know why and I can’t stand the arrogant dick, but a part of me knew it wasn’t him. I hate to say it, but I actually trust the idiot.

“Well first of all, you didn’t give me a choice after your little threat.” I reminded him, and he wholeheartedly smiled at me.

“So you would risk spilling your theory to the person you thought was behind this, just so I wouldn’t kiss you?” He asks.

“Obviously,” I replied like it was that simple. Harry laughed, and I found myself joining in, “Plus, you never really crossed my mind for a second.” His laughter stopped, but the smile never left his face. He didn’t say anything about the statement, he didn’t tease me or get cocky. He just kept smiling and nodded once, happy that I actually trusted him.

After a few moments of staring at each other, I realized we were having a moment. I was having a damn moment with Harry Styles. You know like in films where the guy and the girl stare at each other in silence, almost like they were seducing one another with their eyes? Well that was happening to me right now and I needed to pull myself out of this black hole before it closed around me. There was no way I could have a moment with Harry. Harry didn’t have moments, he had pregnancy scares with random girls.

I looked away quickly and let out an awkward cough to break the weird state we were in. Once he realized how odd it actually was, he too began coughing. We went from deep eye contact to an asthma attack in mere seconds.

“So um, we’re keeping this between us, yeah?” He asks, clearing his throat.

“Oh yes, yep we definitely need to do that.” I quickly agreed, not quite looking into his eyes.

“Great,” He says, still nodding, “Who do you think it is?”

I looked at him with confusion, “Huh?”

“Who do you think Robin is? I mean if your theory is true, then who could be working with him?” He asks and I was finally back to reality. I just got over a fucking Notebook moment with Harry Styles, I barely had any idea what we were even talking about anymore.

“I don’t know, but I do think we can rule out our friends. I mean Niall is too stupid to pick up a knife the right way around.” I pointed out, and he agrees.

“Yeah, and Callie gags when she sees sushi, so I don’t see her doing well with the blood, guts, and gore thing.” He says, and he’s right.

“True, and Liam thinks he’ll burn in hell if he even thinks about kicking a puppy in the face.” I say, repeating Liam’s very own words from earlier. I managed to make Harry snort a laugh, but it wasn’t as natural as before. That’s when I noticed the worried look on his face, which instantly made me worry, “What’s that look for?”

His eyes snap over to me, and he tried to keep a neutral look.. oh how the roles were now reversed, “Nothing, there’s no look.”

“Harry, I have known you since you wore Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirts and your penis was the size of a caterpillar-” I smirked, “-actually.. from the picture you accidently sent Callie instead of that Claire girl, nothing about it has changed. So along the way I have been able to tell when you’re hiding something, spill it.”

“Or what, you’re going to pin me against the wall and make out with me?” He joked, which brought a smile to both of our faces.

“No, I’ll just kick the balls clean off your body.”

Apparently my threat worked just as well as his make out one did because he threw his hands up in defense and sighed, “Well I’m just thinking, what if we’re wrong? I mean, just yesterday.. no actually just twelve hours ago I would have never thought I would be in a situation where I was being hunted down by a killer with no escape. What if we can’t really rule anybody out?” He questioned.

His words terrified me. That questioning statement scared me more than anything else I had witnessed tonight because if he was right, then nobody in there could be trusted. People I’ve known since I was modeling pigtails and being able to go bra-less could infact be plotting against me- or us for that matter. I swallowed hard, and refused to look back over to him.

“I really, really hope we’re wrong about this Robin thing.” I admitted.

“In all fairness, I could give you three reasons why it can’t be anyone in that room, including the teachers and the ginger kid.” He says, and he had a point. I could also come up with multiple reasons why none of those people were smart enough, or ruthless enough to pull something like this off.. or be in on something like this for that matter. A light bulb suddenly went off and I thought, the creep could have been the one to plan this, “There’s that look of yours again.” He commented, and I naturally took a step away from him. It’s really freaky how he keeps doing that.

“What if he planned this?” I ask him, “What if the creep said the whole Robin thing to sketch us out because he knew we would come up with a theory and start doubting each other?”

“Like he wanted us to turn against each other?”

“Exactly, I mean it would be perfect, we would all start doubting each other then we would probably split up, which would make it easier to make his attack on us.” I explained, and judging his facial expression, he was on the same page as I was.

“If that’s true, then the bastard is smart and I’ll give him that,” He started, then moved closer to me so that he was about four inches away from my face, “Look, your second theory sounds more believable than thinking any of those morons are in on this. This prick wants to play mind games with us. Why else would he make us watch Alyssa’s death and send us all these messages? Let’s just get some fucking food and get back in there. I could murder someone for some Oreo’s right now.” I caught on quickly to his word choice and narrowed my eyes on him, this was not the time for jokes, “Kidding.”

We were just about to turn around and head towards the back where the huge storage cabinet was, and where we knew the food would be, when we did infact hear movement. Mine and Harry’s eyes snapped over to each other and instantly our guards were back up. I felt my whole body go into alert mode, and when I saw him stiffen up, I know his did too.

He flicked his head gesturing me to go over to him, which I didn’t argue with that. I followed him as he began to walk towards the door leading out of the kitchen and back into the cafeteria. Harry’s head turned toward me slowly, and without a word I knew he was silently asking me if I was ready for him to open the door, I don’t know how I knew, but I did. I slowly nodded and tried to swallow the fear down as Harry reached out for the door handle.

Before he even had the chance to touch it, the door flew open and many things happened at once.

First of all, the sound of an ear piercing scream filled the room.. on second thought, it was so loud and high pitched it probably filled the whole school. There were actually multiple screams, but that one definitely stood out the most.

The next thing that happened, due to the fact we were taken by surprise, Harry automatically pulled his fist back and punched one of them in the face.

the screeching cat noise stopped and was replaced by a painful yelp, which came from none other than the village idiot, “What the fuck man!” Niall yelled, covering his nose which was now bleeding quite rapidly. Even as she was trying to regain her breath from screaming, I didn’t miss Callie doubling over in laughter when she saw Niall get drilled in the face by his best friend.

Liam and Dax were also here, and I realized the majority of the people in the room right now were males, but their choir of screams sounded like a bunch of teenage girls seeing a spider at a sleepover.

“Now that-” Callie said between her uncontrollable laughter, pointing at Niall’s nose, “-almost makes this whole situation worth it.”

Notes

I may or may not have a triple update for you guys tonight. If I don't then it will definitely be up tomorrow :)

If you have any theories on what's going to happen or who the guy is, I would love to know them hahha

xoxo