Chapter 24

KATHERINE

I screamed, shattering the silence with the tact of a hammer, and the figure immediately began to scream too before a bright light suddenly hit my face, making me lift my hand to shield my eyes. ‘What the–’

“Katherine?”

My brows snapped together at the familiar voice before I lowered my hand a bit to see who it was and surprise, immediately followed by immeasurable relief at no longer being alone in this damn building, washed over me at the sight of the person holding a flashlight. “Josie!” I quickly closed the distance between us, wrapping my arms around her like she would disappear if I didn’t and she hugged me back.

“Stop screaming, Zac!” she shot at the guy next to her who was still yelling and he immediately shut up, letting silence settle over the building once more. Then we pulled away from each other and she tipped her head to the side, drawing her brows together slightly. “What are you doing here?”

“To find the keys. What about you?”

“Same thing.”

“How did you figure it out?” we asked each other at the same time before smiling and she nodded for me to go first.

“The orientation video and the school map.”

Her smile grew wider. “You’re smart,” she said and the corner of my mouth twitched before I raised my brows, silently asking her how she figured it out too. “Oh no, I didn’t figure it out. Zac was the one who did.” She gestured at the guy that had been screaming and I gave him a small smile while waving. “Zac, meet Katherine.”

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“He fixed your phone,” she added as she handed me my phone.

“Oh…” I returned my attention to him once more. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” he replied, collecting the flashlight from Josie and shining it in another direction before I leaned closer to Josie.

“Do I have to give him money or something?” I asked, hoping that if it was money, he wouldn’t ask for much because I barely had any.

“Nah, he owes me a favor so it’s free of charge.”

I smiled at that and once again felt lucky to have her, Priyanka and Lenore as my friends here. They were from bigger and much more powerful packs so they could have just ignored me, but they didn’t and I was grateful for that. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

A sharp bang, as if something heavy had fallen, suddenly came from the second floor and we all directed our attention to the ceiling before another bang came.

“Fucking hell,” Zac muttered, darting the flashlight all over the ceiling like he expected something to fall through. I was also scared but it wasn’t as bad as when I’d been alone and Josie’s presence made relief course through me again.

“God, I could kiss you right now,” I muttered, clinging to her arm, while we all still stared at the ceiling as the bangs continued.

“Don’t. Zac’s a perv. He’ll watch.”

My eyes darted to the boy and I found him already staring at us with a brow raised, making the corner of my mouth turn up before I remembered that I had only waited for her for thirty minutes after I was done at the student affairs building. “I’m sorry I didn’t wait for you,” I said and she gave me a confused look before realization dawned on her face.

“Oh, that’s fine. I didn’t even know you’d come here so I’m sorry I didn’t look for you,” she replied and I nodded before smirking at her.

“So you also really want to join the CMES, huh?” She had acted like she couldn’t care less if she didn’t figure out the test last night so her being here was a little surprising.

“Meh. When Zac figured it out and I didn’t find you in the student affairs building, I decided to come with him because you seemed like you really wanted to join the club last night.”

‘Oh…’ “You came to get a kay for me?”

“Yeah.And for myself if I found another.”

“I was going to get two keys too,” I muttered and her face lit with a smile.

“Aww, you do love me.”

“Of course, I do.”

“Okay, look, I’m all for girls getting it on but maybe not here,” Zac cut in just before the bangs coming from above finally stopped and Josie frowned.

“Seriously, fuck Theo, Blake, Hunter and every other fucking person who decided the keys should be kept in this fucking haunted building.”

My brows shot up at that even though I’d already suspected the building was. “It’s haunted?”

“Yeah,” Zac answered. “By old man Ernest. He was the last residence master of Renfield.”

“Is he malevolent?” I asked, moving even closer to Josie, and she made a noise in her throat.

“The boys are crazy, but not that crazy,” she said. “He’s just terrifying is all.”

“Oh… Okay. Have you guys found any keys?”

“Yeah, Zac found one. We’re trying to find more but there are no other ones on this floor.”

‘So I was right about this building being where the keys were.’

“How about the second floor?” I asked and a panicked expression crossed Zac’s face before he shined the flashlight on my face, making me frown and shield my face.

“How about we get the fuck out of here?!” he countered.

“Easy for you to say, you already found a key.”

“Okay then. How about ‘I’ get the fuck out of here?”

“You’re ‘not’ leaving us here,” Josie stated, snatching the flashlight from him when he didn’t point it away from my face, and as she did that, I noticed movement in the hallway behind him.

“Watch me.”

Something thrummed through the air and I became sure that it wasn’t just shadows playing tricks on my eyes when the moving figure became clearer the closer it got. Though the figure wasn’t really definite, it took me less than a moment to realize that it was a person.

“Guys, what the fuck is that?” I said, pointing at the shadow person who was only a couple of feet away now, and Zac immediately glanced over his shoulder just as the person made a rasping sound.

“Out of my way dorks!” Zac burst out before shouldering past us at super speed. Before I could react, Josie grabbed my hand, pulling me in tow as she rushed in the direction that he had.

When we finally came to a stop, we were in a room that only had windows on the roof and my heart was threatening to beat out of my chest. Josie shut the door behind us while Zac frantically worked at what I assumed was a door that led out of the building.

“Fuck this. Fuck the CMES. Fuck old man Ernest. We’re getting out of here now,” he said and it was then that I noticed the big smile on Josie’s face.

“Calm down, Zac. He’s not malevolent.”

He glanced over his shoulder, shooting her a glare. “Fuck you, Josie… And fuck you too, Katherine.”

I drew my brows together. “What did I do?”

He ignored me and returned his attention to the exit while scraping noises came from the hallway outside and I returned my attention to the door we came in through. Josie had said the ghost, if that was what was out there, wasn’t malevolent but I did ‘not’ want a scenario where we’d be trapped in a room with him.

It didn’t look like Zac was going to get that door open fast enough so I began to look around for another way out and my gaze fell on a painting on the wall. It was larger than the other paintings I’d seen in the building – taller than me even – and it dominated the space. It had a medieval knight statue in front of it and I tilted my head back to absorb the image.

It was a beautiful painting of a sunset and as I stared at it, I remembered Hunter’s painting – the one of a sun setting over a lake.

‘Wait…’ I narrowed my eyes at the painting before sliding my gaze to the knight, then back to the painting as I tipped my head to the side. ‘Did Hunter hide a key there?’