Blood Water by Dean Vincent Carter Page B

she
hadn't knocked herself out. But as it wriggled onto her
body, it had decided that it needed someone stronger;
someone who could help it find the answers it sought.
It needed something – something it had been seeking
for a long time – and it was sure the key to it was in
this school somewhere . . . But where? It had slid away
from the teacher's inert body and oozed up to the basin,
squeezing itself back into the pipe. It had heard voices
mention a headmaster. In Phoenix's mind it had come
across this word too. It referred to someone in charge,
in control. And from Phoenix it also knew the location
of this individual's office.
    James made up his mind: he ran back round into the
building, then along to the headmaster's office. He burst
in to find Mrs Rees crying on the shoulder of the headmaster,
who was consoling her as best he could.
    'James?' he asked when he saw the boy.
    'It's in there . . . in the basin!' James pointed to the
small washroom.
    'What is?' the head asked, detaching himself from
Mrs Rees.
    'The thing! The specimen from the study centre!'
    'The what?'
    'It can't be,' Mrs Rees insisted. 'It's inside me. It attacked
me. Oh God, what's going to happen to me?'
    'But . . .' James was confused. 'But it can't be. You
wouldn't be in control of yourself if it was.'
    'But it was on me, in the staff toilets. I could feel it on
my face before I passed out.'
    'I saw it through the window,' James insisted. 'It's in
there.'
    'What's in there?' Titus asked, sounding like he
was losing patience with the whole matter. He went
into the washroom, switched on the light and looked
around. 'Well?' he asked, turning back to James. 'There's
nothing—'
    At that moment it dropped from the skylight above
them, partly because its target was in exactly the right
spot but also because the light had startled it. It dropped
onto Titus's face and slipped effortlessly into his mouth
before he could do anything about it. He began thrashing
about and making choking sounds, staring wide-eyed at
the other two, imploring them for help.
    Sean was wondering where James had got to and was
about to ask Waites, when the teacher went over to talk
to three remaining pupils, who were huddled around a
mobile phone, reading a text message.
    'Listen, guys, you'd better go home now,' he told
them.
    'But it's pouring, sir!' the boy said. 'We can't go out
there.'
    'Yeah. Besides, me and Steve live out of town,' said
one of the two girls, 'and Emma's still waiting for her
dad to get here. Mr Titus said we had to stay here
because it wasn't safe to go outside.'
    'Yes, well, we have a situation here now that means
you'd be better off taking your chances outside. Is there
a friend's house you can go to until you can get lifts
home?'
    'We could go to Stacey's – she lives in town and said
we could go there if we couldn't get home.'
    'Fine,' Waites said. 'Go to—'
    His last words were cut off by a loud and horrifying
scream. He quickly shared a knowing and anxious look
with Sean, then turned back to the three startled pupils
and said: 'Go! Now!'
    'What the hell was that? What's—?'
    'Just go,' Waites ordered.
    They scooped up their bags and coats and headed for
the exit, exchanging confused and frightened glances.
Waites and Sean rushed out into the main hallway,
then down the corridor towards where they thought the
scream had come from. There was no one around, but
Sean had the distinct feeling that something awful was
very close by, possibly watching them at that moment.
Then came a loud bang, like a heavy object being
knocked over, and they turned in the direction of the
headmaster's office.
    Suddenly everything went quiet again. They looked
at each other before proceeding, neither really knowing
what to expect. Could James be in there with Mr Titus
and Mrs Rees? Sean wondered. He didn't like to think
what might have happened. As they approached the
door, they heard what sounded like scratching on