what I mean.' Then he sank to the ground.
Chapter 29
I had no idea where Vee was. The obvious thought came to me to think like Jules-where would I hold Vee hostage if I were him?
He wants to make it hard to escape and hard to be found, I reasoned.
I brought up a mental blueprint of the building, narrowing my attention to the upper levels. Chances were, Vee was on the third floor, the highest in the school-except for a small fourth floor, which was more of an attic than anything else. A narrow staircase accessible only from the third floor led up to it. There were two bungalow-style classrooms at the top: AP Spanish and the eZine lab.
Vee was in the eZine lab. Just like that, I knew it.
Moving as quickly as I could through the darkness, I felt my way up two flights of stairs. After some trial and error, I found the narrow staircase leading to the eZine lab. At the top, I pushed on the door.
'Vee?' I called softly.
She let out a small moan.
'It's me,' I said, taking each step with care as I maneuvered up an aisle of desks, not wanting to knock over a chair and alert Jules to my location. 'Are you hurt? We need to get out of here.' I found her huddled at the front of the room, hugging her knees to her chest.
'Jules hit me over the head,' she said, her voice rising. 'I think I passed out. Now I can't see. I can't see anything!'
'Listen to me. Jules cut the electricity and the shades are drawn. It's just the darkness. Hold my hand. We have to get downstairs right now.'
'I think he damaged something. My head is throbbing. I really think I'm blind!'
'You're not blind,' I whispered, giving her a small shake. 'I can't see either. We have to feel our way downstairs. We're going to leave through the exit by the athletics office.'
'He's got chains on all the doors.'
A moment of rigid silence dropped between us. I remembered Jules wishing me luck escaping, and now I knew why. A perceptible chill rippled from my heart through the rest of my body. 'Not the door I came in,' I said at last. 'The far east door is unlocked.'
'It must be the only one. I was with him when he chained the others. He said that way nobody would be tempted to go outside while we played hide-and-seek. He said outside was out-of-bounds.'
'If the east door is the only one left unlocked, he'll try to block it. He'll wait for us to come to him. But we're not going to. We're going out a window,' I said, devising a plan off the top of my head. 'On the opposite end of the building-this end. Do you have your cell?'
'Jules took it.'
'When we get outside, we have to split up. If Jules chases us, he'll have to choose one of us to follow. The other will get help.' I already knew who he'd choose. Jules had no use for Vee, except to lure me here tonight. 'Run as hard as you can and get to a phone. Call the police. Tell them Elliot is in the library.'
'Alive?' Vee asked, her voice trembling.
'I don't know.'
We stood huddled together, and I felt her pull her shirt up and wipe her eyes. 'This is all my fault.'
'This is Jules's fault.'
'I'm scared.'
'We're going to be fine,' I said, attempting to sound optimistic. 'I stabbed Jules in the leg with a scalpel. He's bleeding heavily. Maybe he'll give up chasing us and go get medical attention.'
A sob escaped Vee. We both knew I was lying. Jules's desire for revenge outweighed his wound. It outweighed everything.
Vee and I crept down the stairs, keeping tight to the walls, until we were back on the main floor.
'This way,' I whispered in her ear, holding her hand as we speed-walked down the hall, heading farther west.
We hadn't walked very far when a guttural sound, not quite laughter, rolled out of the tunnel of darkness ahead.
'Well, well, what do we have here?' Jules said. There was no face attached to his voice.
'Run,' I told Vee, squeezing her hand. 'He wants me. Call the police. Run!'
Vee dropped my hand and ran. Her footsteps faded depressingly fast. I wondered briefly if Patch was still in the building, but it was more of a side thought. Most of my concentration went into not passing out. Because once again, I found myself all alone with Jules.
'It will take the police at least twenty minutes to respond,' Jules told me, the tap of his shoes drawing closer. 'I don't need twenty minutes.'
I turned and ran. Jules broke into a run behind me.
Fumbling my hands over the walls, I turned right at the first intersection and raced down a perpendicular hall. Forced to rely on the walls to guide me, my hands slapped over the sharp edges of lockers and doorjambs, nicking my skin. I made another right, running as fast as I could for the double doors of the gymnasium.
The only thought pounding through my head was that if I could get to my gym locker in time, I could lock myself inside it. The girls' locker room was wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with oversize lockers. It would take Jules time to break into each one individually. If I was luck), the police would arrive before he found me.
I flung myself into the gym and ran for the attached girls' locker room. As soon as I pushed on the door handle, I felt a spike of cold terror. The door was locked. I rattled the handle again, but it didn't give. Spinning around, I searched frantically for another exit, but I was trapped in the gym. I fell back against the door, squeezed my eyes shut to stave off fainting, and listened to my breath hitch up.
When I reopened my eyes, Jules was walking into the haze of moonlight trickling through the skylights. He'd knotted his shirt around his thigh; a stain of blood seeped through the fabric. He was left in a white undershirt and chinos. A gun was tucked into the waistband of his pants.
'Please let me go,' I whispered.
'Vee told me something interesting about you. You're afraid of heights.' He lifted his gaze to the rafters high above the gym. A smile split his face.
The stagnant air was sodden with the smells of sweat and wood varnish. The heat had been turned off for spring break and the temperature was icy. Shadows stretched back and forth across the polished floor as the moonlight broke through the clouds. Jules stood with his back to the bleachers, and I saw Patch move behind him.
'Did you attack Marcie Millar?' I asked Jules, ordering myself not to react and give Patch away.
'Elliot told me there's bad blood between the two of you. I didn't like the idea of someone else having the pleasure of tormenting my girl.'
'And my bedroom window? Did you spy on me while I was sleeping?'
'Nothing personal.'
Jules stiffened. He stepped forward suddenly and jerked on my wrist, spinning me around in front of him. I felt what I feared was the gun press into the nape of my neck. 'Take off your hat,' Jules ordered Patch. 'I want to see the expression on your face when I kill her. You're helpless to save her. As helpless as I was to do anything about the oath I swore to you.'
Patch took a couple of steps closer. He moved easily, but I sensed his tightly reined caution. The gun probed deeper, and I winced.
'Take another step and this will be her last breath,' Jules warned.
Patch glanced at the distance between us, calculating how quickly he could cover it. Jules saw it too.
'Don't try it,' he said.
'You're not going to shoot her, Chauncey.'
'No?' Jules squeezed the trigger. The gun clicked, and I opened my mouth to scream, but all that came out
