Cheerleaders: The New Evil (14 page)

Sweat dripped down Alex's face. His thick blond hair was matted to his forehead. His eyes flashed wildly, excitedly.

Corky glanced around the dimly lit locker room. Her friends huddled in twos and threes, some leaning against the gray lockers, some hunched close together on the low benches.

The blue-uniformed New Foster police officers had questioned each of them. Two officers were still questioning Ms. Closter near the locker room doorway.

Upstairs, Coach Hall's bloated body lay sprawled on its back as officers searched the arena for clues. Corky wondered if they had removed the water bottle from his mouth.

It's so sick, so
sick
, she thought, forcing back a wave of nausea. She leaned close to Kimmy. “I just want to go home,” she whispered.

Kimmy's eyes were red rimmed and bloodshot. She slumped on the bench beside Corky, her face pale and expressionless. “Me too,” she whispered back.

Corky overheard two basketball players murmuring to each other against the wall behind her. “Who would kill the coach? He was such a good guy.”

“It had to be someone really strong.”

“Yeah. Those water bottles weigh a ton!”

“It had to be a psycho. A total psycho.”

Corky swallowed hard. The killer wasn't human, she knew. The killer had inhuman strength because he—or she—was inhabited by the evil.

Forcing back the dread that made her stomach turn and rumble, Corky gazed around the room at the dazed faces.

Only Alex seemed to have shaken away his shock. He continued to deliver his emotional pep talk,
thrusting his fist above his head, his blue eyes wild, his voice hoarse and breathless.

Why is Alex
doing
this? Corky wondered, studying him as he shouted. He tried to rouse the others to cheer with him. How did he get over his shock so quickly?

And then her eyes stopped on Jay.

Jay stood beside Alex, one foot on the low bench in front of him, his Mighty Ducks cap pulled low on his forehead, a white towel wrapped around his neck.

Corky gasped as she realized Jay was staring back at her. His eyes were narrowed, his expression cold and hard.

“Kimmy, do you see Jay?” she whispered. “Why is he staring like that?”

“Maybe he's just upset,” Kimmy replied, raising her eyes to the front of the locker room, where Jay continued to stare, unblinking, unmoving. “Maybe he's just as frightened as the rest of us.”

“But why does Jay look so different? He doesn't look like Jay at all,” Corky insisted. “He—he's really scaring me.”

“We're all scared,” Kimmy replied softly, lowering her eyes to the floor.”

Corky remembered how angry Jay had been before the game.

“You don't think that Jay—” she started to say.

Kimmy interrupted her. “We just have to get home, Corky. We have to get away from here. Before we all die.”

♦ ♦ ♦

The police didn't allow them to leave the arena until evening. After one set of officers questioned them, another set appeared.

After stopping for dinner at a fast-food place in town, the cheerleaders wearily made their way to their rooms.

“Too late to call home,” Corky whispered to Kimmy. “My parents wouldn't drive up here this late.”

Kimmy glanced at the bathroom, where Ivy was taking a shower. “We'll wake up early and call,” she said. “Did you tell Debra?”

Corky nodded. “Debra wanted to run away—tonight. Just leave all our stuff and try to hitch a ride home.”

“That's crazy,” Kimmy replied, frowning. “We'll be safe till morning. Then we'll call our parents to come get us.”

“But what about all the others?” Corky whispered, pulling on her long nightshirt. “Shouldn't we warn them too?”

“Would they believe us?” Kimmy demanded. “If we told them there was an evil spirit here, would any of them believe us?”

Corky stared back at Kimmy thoughtfully. “No. I guess not,” she replied finally.

A chill ran down her back. She could feel the goose bumps rise on her arms. She climbed into bed, shivering, and pulled the blankets up to her chin. “I guess not,” she repeated.

The bathroom door swung open, and Ivy emerged,
stepping out of a cloud of steam, one towel wrapped around her body, another around her hair. “I feel much better,” she announced. “Much, much better.”

♦ ♦ ♦

Corky couldn't sleep.

She had the shivers and couldn't get warm enough to stop them. Staring up at the ceiling, she listened to trucks rumble by out on the highway—and she pictured the horrors at the arena again and again.

Closing her eyes didn't make them go away. She still saw poor Lena, her face twisted in horror as she did backflip after backflip, unable to stop, unable to control her own body.

She heard Lena's helpless shrieks. They repeated and repeated in Corky's head until Corky covered her ears with both hands.

She saw Jay's angry outburst. Saw him shout at Coach Hall, heave the basketball into the seats. So strange for someone so laid-back, so good-natured.

She saw Coach Hall lying bloated and beached on the hallway floor with the huge green water bottle jammed in his mouth and down his throat.

She couldn't stop these scenes. She couldn't force them away. It was, she realized, as if
she
had been possessed, possessed by these pictures of horror.

Desperate for sleep, Corky shut her eyes and tried to count sheep, silent white sheep.

But a sound from across the room made the sheep vanish.

Corky opened her eyes and gazed through the darkness to see someone moving. Ivy. In the shimmering
pink and blue light from the parking lot, Corky watched Ivy pull on a sweater and jeans.

Adjusting the sweater sleeves, Ivy turned toward Corky's bed. Corky instantly shut her eyes, pretended to sleep. A few moments later she opened them again.

Moving silently, with quick, eager movements, Ivy pulled on her shoes, brushed out her long hair, stepped to the window.

Corky raised her head from the pillow to watch.

It must be about four in the morning, she realized. What is going on? Why is Ivy sneaking out?

The window slid open.

Corky sat up a little straighter, squinting into the pink and blue light.

Silently, Ivy raised one leg over the windowsill. Then she leaned forward, pulled up the other leg, and disappeared out the window.

Corky lowered her feet to the floor. “Kimmy?” she called, her voice a hoarse whisper. “Kimmy—did you see that? Ivy sneaked out.”

Silence. Kimmy didn't move.

“Kimmy?” Corky called a little louder. “Kimmy?”

“K
immy?” Corky called weakly, feeling dread in her chest. She crossed the room to Kimmy's bed. “Kimmy?”

Kimmy finally stirred. “Huh? Corky—what
time
is it?” she asked in a sleep-choked whisper.

“I—I don't know,” Corky stammered. “But something weird is going on. Wake up. Ivy just sneaked out the window.”

Kimmy sat up and lowered her feet to the floor. “She
what?”

Corky grabbed Kimmy's hands and pulled her to her feet. “Hurry. Get dressed. We've got to follow her.”

Kimmy shook her head as if trying to shake away
her sleepiness. “I don't believe this,” she muttered. She clicked on the bedside lamp and began pulling on the jeans and sweatshirt she had tossed on the chair.

A few seconds later both girls were dressed with their jackets on. Corky led the way out the window.

Under the glare of the neon sign, she could see two parked vans and a small car. No cars or trucks moved on the highway. Nothing.

No sign of Ivy.

“This is crazy,” Kimmy murmured, pulling her jacket closed as she stepped up beside Corky. “Maybe she's just meeting some guy.” Her breath steamed up in front of her as she spoke.

“I don't think so,” Corky whispered, her eyes searching the darkness. “Ivy's not very good at keeping secrets. She would've told us.”

Corky shivered. Such a cold night, she thought. She found a wool hat in the pocket of her jacket and pulled it on.

Keeping to the deep shadows, she led the way around to the far side of the motel. She stopped and pressed her back to the wall, when she heard voices up ahead.

Familiar voices.

Kimmy grabbed on to Corky's coat sleeve. “Who is it?”

They both leaned forward, squinting into the parking lot.

Corky recognized Ivy first. She stood in front of a black Jeep, pulling her long hair back over the collar of her coat with both hands.

She was talking excitedly to Heather and Lauren.

Corky felt a chill that made her entire body shudder. Even in the darkness of the parking lot, she could see the strange expressions on their faces. Eager, excited faces.

Excited about
what?

If some kind of secret meeting was planned, why weren't Kimmy and I invited? Corky wondered.

Then she saw figures moving at the side of the Jeep. Alex and Jay stepped into view, followed by six other players on the team.

“They're all here,” Corky whispered, hanging back in the shadows. “The whole team.”

The players greeted the three cheerleaders. All of them seemed to be talking at once. Corky strained to hear what they were saying. But their hushed voices didn't carry on the still night air.

“They all seem really pumped,” Kimmy whispered.

“This is so weird,” Corky replied. She saw Alex slap Jay a high-five. One of the guys playfully tugged Ivy's hair. Heather and Lauren were moving their arms in unison. They seemed to be performing a whispered cheer. Two of the players were wrestling with a third.

Then, as if they had been given a signal, they all stopped talking and kidding around. Corky watched their expressions become solemn. They all turned and made their way off the parking lot and into the woods beyond it.

“Should we follow them?” Kimmy asked, still whispering even though the others had left.

Corky hesitated. Where could they be going?

“Those woods lead down to a lake,” Kimmy said, stepping away from the building, her eyes narrowed on the black trees beyond the parking lot. “Do you think that's where they're going? Do you think they're having some kind of party, and they didn't invite us because we're the captains?”

“That doesn't make sense,” Corky replied. “Maybe you and I should—”

She stopped when she heard rapid footsteps on the pavement behind them.

She gasped. “Kimmy—someone is coming!”

They both spun around.

“D
ebra” Corky cried.

Debra came trotting up to them, her breath rising in rapid puffs, her cold blue eyes locked on Corky. Her down vest was open, over a dark purple sweater that came down nearly to the knees of her jeans. Her normally perfect blond hair was unbrushed.

“Debra—what are
you
doing here?” Kimmy demanded shrilly.

“Are you going with them?” Corky pointed toward the woods.

“Huh? Going where?” Debra was confused. “I don't get it. You and Kimmy—why are you out here?”

“I asked you first!” Kimmy replied sharply.

“I heard Heather and Lauren get up,” Debra explained. “They got dressed and sneaked out. I could see they were trying not to wake me. After they left, I decided to follow them.”

She grabbed Corky's arm. “What's going on?
Tell
me!”

“We don't know!” Corky replied.

“We really don't!” Kimmy said. “Ivy sneaked out too. The three of them met up with the basketball players. All of them. It's like they had it all planned or something.”

“Well, why weren't
we
invited?” Debra demanded.

Corky shrugged. “We don't know.” She pointed to the dark trees. “They all walked off that way.” She pointed.