Unprepared, Conner glanced at the first section: Identifying common factors. Easy. He breathed a sigh of relief.
Several minutes into the quiz, and nearing the end of the second page, Conner spotted a shadow in the corner of the room. There was nothing particularly unordinary about it. It could have been the bookshelf or a tree outside the window. But the longer he stared at it, the more it seemed to resemble the shape of a person. Not wanting to freak himself out, he told himself to ignore it. Don't look at it. Don't study it. Ignore it.
He noticed Melanie Crawford, two rows over, watching him. She quickly averted her gaze to the quiz, then looked at the wall, staring as though something about the shadow had piqued her interest as well. Seemingly transfixed, she dropped her pencil, which clattered to the floor. Her body stiffened and trembled—mildly at first, but the shaking intensified. She whimpered as her chin dropped to her chest.
Mr. Peterson, his face morphed into horrified concern, rushed toward her desk. "Melanie. Melanie, what's wrong?"
Everyone seemed frozen by shock, witnessing Melanie's apparent seizure.
At her side, Mr. Peterson knelt and reached out to her shoulder. "Melanie. Can you hear me?" He glanced at the students closest to her. "Someone, run to the nurse's office."
Her body jerked with violent convulsions, causing the metal legs of the desk to hop and rattle on the floor.
"Everyone, move away," he ordered. "Give her some space."
Several kids jumped to their feet and cleared the area.
Conner joined Adam near the front of the class.
Mr. Peterson scanned the students. "Does anyone have experience with seizures?" When no one responded, he returned his attention to her. "Help is on the way, Melanie."
She jerked her head back, saliva dripping from her mouth. "I saw."
Leaning closer, Mr. Peterson asked, "What, dear?"
"I saw," she repeated and then looked at the student nearest to her. "I saw the devil, Jesse."
"What?" Jesse asked with blatant confusion. Then he fell to his knees. Within seconds, he was trembling as violently as she had.
Melanie sat rigid, staring straight ahead.
Everyone catapulted out of their seats and gathered near the front of the class.
A girl down the hall, in another classroom, screamed.
Jesse's seizure abruptly stopped. He whipped his head back, drool bubbling and oozing from his mouth. Then he looked to the side, fixing his eyes on the captain of the girls' volleyball team. "I saw the devil, Amanda."
She collapsed onto her stomach and twitched in a fit of spasms. Her forehead bounced against the vinyl-tiled flooring, her legs kicked, and her arms flailed like featherless wings.
A door somewhere down the hall banged against a wall. The sound of rushing feet and terrified cries followed. Apparently, what was occurring in Mr. Peterson's Algebra II class was also happening in other classrooms.
The fear that Amanda or another trance-stricken student would call him name prompted Conner to clutch Adam's wrist and hurry toward the door. "Let's get outta here."
Several students ahead of them pushed their way toward the doorway, their bodies pressed against each other in a frenzied struggle to leave the chaos behind.
Before they walked out into the hall, he heard Amanda say, "I saw the devil, Ashley."
In every direction, students banged against lockers in a rush to flee, nudged each other out the way, and plowed through small clusters of kids. Screams, cries, squeaking shoes, muffled voices, and the sound of quick footsteps filled the hall. In the midst of it all, a random kid would fall to the floor, shaking and mumbling until another collapsed in imitation.
"I saw the devil, David."
"I saw the devil, Natalie."
"I saw the devil, Rebecca."
"I saw the devil, Jason."
Adam yanked Conner by the T-shirt, directing them toward the closest exit as they twisted and pushed through the crowd. "Go, go, go! Move it," he yelled.
From around the corner Hailey and Jasmine appeared, crying and wide-eyed with fear.
Conner called out to them through the horde of frantic teenagers.
The girls attempted to reach Conner and Adam, but the rush of students between them made it impossible for the girls to cross the hallway.
Outside on the main steps, Conner hauled Adam to the side and searched for Hailey and Jasmine through the entrance. He waved his arms in the air. "We're right here."
Kids scattered. Very few lingered near the school building. Most continued on a path leading to the parking lot.
A female reporter with a microphone and a cameraman dashed toward the school.
Conner cast his sight back to the entrance. He could see Hailey, a dozen or so students separating them.
A boy yelled, "I saw the devil, Hailey."
And then she dropped out of sight.
TWENTY
Tap, tap, tap on the door. And then a forceful pounding.
"Open up," Dave shouted. "There's something going down at the high school, right now. We gotta get there."
Lou jerked the door open. "What happened? What's going on?"
"Some freak out. Kids having seizures and collapsing one after the other. It's like mass hysteria."
Spinning on his heels, Lou snatched his wallet and coat from the desk and then ushered Dave back out into the hall. "Let's go check it out. I'll call the boys on the way."
Down the elevator, through the lobby, and out to Lou's car, Dave recounted the phone call he'd received from a police source. At that time, nearly two dozen students had fallen into hypnotic fits. Paramedics had been dispatched and were attending to the students who had collapsed.
As Lou sped out of the parking lot, he called Trevor. When it went to voicemail, he called Conner, who didn't answer his phone either. He called Adam.
At first all he heard was noise—the distraught voices of kids and sirens blaring in the background. Then Adam said, "Who is this?"
"It's Lou Price."
"It's that Lou guy," Adam said.
Conner grabbed the phone. "Hey, Lou? This is Conner."
"What's going on at the school?"
"Um. I really don't know." Conner glanced around the parking lot. Kids continued to rush away from the school. The
