Five Nights at Freddy's Fazbear Frights Collection, page 161
Mott managed the last few feet to the clinic door. He reached for it … only to have his hand disintegrate in front of him and drop to the wet concrete.
* * *
Claudia looked up from her computer screen, out through the darkened waiting room to the blackness beyond the clinic’s windows. The clinic was hushed and still, and perhaps because it was so quiet, in spite of the storm, she could hear something odd outside. It was kind of like a splashing sound, but not a normal rain spattering the ground sound. It was a bigger sound than that. It sounded like something large and squishy was falling into a body of water now and then.
What Claudia heard between the splashes was odd, too. She heard a sort of suctioning sound, almost a whistling. This was similar to the weird noise her vacuum made whenever she accidently sucked up something wet.
After the third time she heard that sound, Claudia decided to look outside the clinic to see what might be causing the peculiar noises. Making sure her computer was secure, Claudia stood and walked through the hushed waiting room.
Hesitating for a couple seconds by the door—and not sure why—Claudia eventually pushed the heavy glass door open. She peered out into the deluge and saw … Mott.
Mott stood there as if standing in heavy rain was a perfectly normal thing to do. The rain sluiced over his brown hair, which was matted to his head. It ran down his face, and it pattered against his clothing.
Claudia wasn’t sure what to make of this. She decided to act the same way Mott was acting … as if everything was normal.
“Well, hello, Mott,” Claudia said. She kept her expression neutral.
Claudia had known Mott since he was a baby. He was a nice boy, never a problem at the clinic. He’d been in yesterday and this morning, she knew. She didn’t know why. Dr. T didn’t discuss his patients with Claudia, even when the patient was almost part of the family.
Mott didn’t look particularly healthy, though. He had an unnatural bluish tint, and he was so pale he was almost see-through.
When Mott didn’t respond to her, Claudia asked, “Are you okay?”
Suddenly, Mott smiled. “Yes. It’s a nice day. Everyone should be outside.”
Again, Claudia was a little nonplussed. She leaned forward to look in Mott’s eyes. She was checking to see if his pupils looked okay. They did. She smiled at him.
He smiled back. Then he turned and walked away into the rain.
Claudia tried to see where he was going. She thought maybe she should call him back. But it was too late. The rain was coming down so relentlessly that once Mott was a few feet away, he seemed to disappear.
I think a queen should have servants,” Jessica said as she glided to her locker and struck a pose. She examined her bright-red nails. “I shouldn’t be expected to do things like open lockers, especially when these old locks get stuck all the time. Remember last week? When I chipped a nail, right after I had that zebra polish put on? Remember, Brittany?”
“How could I not? It was tragic!” Brittany stared at her own nails, painted purple with gold swirls. She glowered at the combination lock on Jessica’s locker. “I really think the principal should do something about getting, like, maintenance to replace your lock, especially now that you’ve been named homecoming queen.”
“I know, right? Royalty should come with privileges.”
“For sure,” Brittany agreed as she opened her own locker next to Jessica’s.
Jessica scanned the long gray-linoleum-floored hallway to see who was looking at her and her best friend. Kids getting ready to go to class packed in tight around the scarred maroon lockers, chattering and shouting. Lockers slammed. Athletic shoes squeaked on the floor. The air was filled with energy and familiar smells: the pine-scented cleaners the janitorial staff had used at night, the cooking aromas drifting down the hall from the cafeteria staff’s early preparations, and the occasional rank fart that some crude boy (it had to be a boy) let loose. Everyone was busy, but that didn’t mean they were oblivious. They still noticed Jessica and Brittany.
Jessica knew that she and Brittany were the prettiest girls in their class, arguably in the entire school—which was why they were voted homecoming queen and homecoming princess even though they were just sophomores.
It had been a delicious controversy when the votes came in. The two seniors claimed the vote was rigged,
since there was no way they hadn’t been the ones chosen. They demanded a recount, which came out in Jessica’s and Brittany’s favor. They were the royalty. There was no arguing about it.
Since then, Jessica and Brittany had been getting even more attention than was usual for them. Take this morning, for instance. Right now, several freshman girls stared at them from across the hall. Two nerdy guys practically drooled over them as they loped by.
Jessica never tired of watching her classmates ogle her and Brittany. They all did, boys and girls. Even the teachers stared.
Who wouldn’t stare? Jessica and Brittany had it all—the shiny blonde hair, the big blue eyes, the high cheekbones, the pert noses, the full lips, the perfect petite figures, and the most up-to-date fashions and makeup to complement all their natural superiority. They were peacocks in a sea of pigeons. Everyone loved to admire their awesome feathers.
And they were looking particularly dope today. Over the weekend, they’d hit the sales at the mall and had gotten an amazing deal on the faux suede miniskirts they wore. The skirts weren’t identical, of course—that would be the peak of lame. Jessica’s tawny skirt buttoned up the front; Brittany’s chocolate-brown skirt had two diagonal zippers that formed a V in the front. Jessica wore her skirt with a cream-colored silk tank, and Brittany wore hers with a flouncy chocolate-and-black geometric-patterned blouse. Jessica had been delighted to discover her new skirt matched a lit pair of lace-up booties, which made her legs look amazing. Brittany wore black platforms today—they were equally rad.
“Hey, babe.”
Jessica turned and flashed her perfect white teeth at her boyfriend, Derek, a senior—the varsity football quarterback. She casually put her hand over her mouth and blew into her palm to check her breath, which was fine, of course. She lifted her cheek for a kiss.
Derek’s leather letterman jacket crackled as he threw his arm around Jessica. He brushed his lips against her smooth skin. “You smell great.”
She giggled and punched him in the upper arm. He flexed his muscles and grinned at her.
“Did you get your suit yet for the dance?” she asked him. She’d given him explicit instructions for the type of suit to buy—color, style, and cut; she knew what would be stellar on him. If he did as she told him, they’d look amazing together on Saturday night.
“Not yet.”
Jessica leaned away from Derek and glared at him. “The dance is only three days away, Derek! You won’t be able to get the suit fitted that fast. I thought you were going to get it last week!”
Derek rolled his eyes. “It’s not like I’ve been doing nothing, Jess. Coach has us practicing more for the homecoming game, which is only two days away, you know.”
Jessica stepped out from under his arm. She squinted at him. “You don’t practice all the time. You could’ve gotten your suit.”
Derek shrugged. “I’ll go get something this evening.”
“It won’t be custom,” Jessica complained. She pushed out her lips in what she knew was a pretty pout.
“Yo, Derek, Jessica!” one of their friends shouted.
Jessica turned to flutter her fingers at Chase, the school’s star running back. He was trotting past, cradling his history book like a football. She watched his long, curly hair fly out behind him as he went, and then she shifted her gaze to his butt. He had a great butt, even better than Derek’s. His face wasn’t much—his features were too flat to be called handsome or even cute, but the butt and the curly surfer hair made up for that. Plus, he had the whole star-running-back thing going for him. This had earned him the privilege of dating Stephanie, one of the varsity cheerleaders, and Jessica’s second-best friend. A distant second best.
The truth was that even though Jessica was friends with everyone in the school who was worth being friends with (a certain appearance and status was required to be entitled to her attentions), she’d never be as close to anyone as she was to Brittany, who was her BFF in the truest sense of the word.
Was BFF a word?
Jessica brushed aside the question. Who knew? Who cared?
“Gotta go, babe,” Derek said. He put a rough index fingertip under her chin and lifted her face so it looked up at his.
She studied Derek’s dark, handsome features. With his beautiful hair, intense brown eyes, and umber-brown skin, Derek had the kind of good looks that made Jessica’s legs go weak. And, of course, Derek knew his powers every bit as much as she knew her own. He and his six feet, two inches of sculpted muscle strutted through the school’s hallways like the king he was. They made an incredibly beautiful couple.
Derek gave her a soft kiss on the lips. His breath smelled like the wintergreen gum he was always chewing. She loved the smell. It went perfectly with the icy-scented cologne he wore now, which she bought for his birthday the month before. She knew he hadn’t been excited about that, but he’d loved the leather steering wheel cover she’d also given him. One present he wanted. One present he needed. She knew how to be diplomatic.
Even though she loved the smell, the gum did bug her. She didn’t think all that sugar was good for him.
“You’re going to get cavities, you know, and all your teeth are going to, like, fall out when you get old,” she always told him.
He usually ignored her. One day, though, he responded, “Yeah, and by then, we’ll both be all wrinkled, and we’ll have been together so long we’ll probably hate each other. So, it won’t matter.”
She hadn’t been sure what to make of that. Did that mean he planned to marry her? Did she want him to? She didn’t think so.
Jessica and Brittany had plans for their future that didn’t include Derek or Brittany’s boyfriend, Roman, also a senior and also a football player—the star wide receiver. Admittedly, dating Derek and Roman was great for their status, and having senior boyfriends made their lives super convenient—the boys could drive them wherever they wanted to go in kick-ass convertibles without parental supervision. But that didn’t mean Jessica and Brittany had met the loves of their lives. Neither of them had those illusions. Derek and Roman would likely dump them when they went off to college anyway, but that wasn’t a problem. They could get new boyfriends with a snap of their fingers.
Derek started to saunter away.
Jessica caught his arm. “Derek, could you please open my locker for me?”
Derek raised a thick eyebrow but then shrugged and reached out to quickly spin her lock through the combination she knew he’d memorized. The lock clicked open, and he pulled it off. Then he yanked on the lock. It jammed, as usual. He gave it a slap with the palm of his hand, then gripped it with his index finger and thumb and jiggled it. Finally, it gave way.
“My hero,” Jessica said.
Derek rolled his eyes. “Maintenance should fix that,” he said.
“Like, I just said that, right?” Brittany said. She was standing in front of her own open locker, touching up her makeup in the mirror hanging on the inside of the door.
“See you at lunch, babe,” Derek said to Jessica. “Bye, Brit.” He strode away.
Jessica watched Brittany swirl her powder brush across her forehead. She was a whiz with makeup. She could make even the angriest of red pimples disappear with a little foundation and powder. Not that she had any acne. Like Jessica, Brittany had flawless skin. But she could make the prettiest skin look even prettier. It was a gift.
Just as Jessica started to look into her own locker, Brittany’s locker door flew shut. Brittany jumped back just in time to avoid being slapped by its sharp metal edge.
“What the—?” Brittany began.
“I’m so sorry!” a chirpy voice said.
Jessica crossed her arms and attempted to skewer the owner of the voice with her best laser-like, you-are-pond-scum look. Mindy, the chirper, didn’t even notice. Instead, she laughed.
She laughed.
The moron.
“Cindy and I were thumb wrestling, and my hand slipped into the door,” she said, grinning. “I went out of bounds.” She snorted.
So did the girl standing next to her … Cindy.
Jessica curled her lip and shook her head. “Cindy and I were thumb wrestling,” she mimicked Mindy’s cartoonish voice. In her normal smooth voice, Jessica said, “Thumb wrestling?” She looked at Brittany, who was reopening her locker in a huff. When she got it open, she threw the door back so it slammed into the frame of the neighboring locker—Mindy’s. It slammed so hard that it almost closed itself again. Brittany caught it.
“You two shouldn’t even, like, have lockers in this section,” Brittany complained. “You’re eighth graders!”
Mindy smiled and shrugged. “It’s not our fault the junior high school flooded.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Brittany said. “You two are so stupid, you probably, like, tried to flush something down the toilet and backed up the sewer.”
Jessica had to speak up. “No, Brittany,” she said. “They are the things that should be flushed down the toilet.” She shifted her attention to Mindy and her friend. “You belong in the sewers. Like little sewer rats.” She lifted her hands to the sides of her nose and wiggled her fingers while she lifted her lip to expose her upper teeth. She made little squeaky sounds like a rat and looked at Mindy hard. Really hard. Any normal person on the receiving end of Jessica’s flinty look would be shrinking into a little ball of shame. Jessica’s dirty looks were epic.
Mindy didn’t even flinch.
It annoyed Jessica to no end that neither Mindy nor her look-alike friend, Cindy, were the least bit intimidated by Jessica or Brittany. And seriously, how too cutesy were those names? Mindy and Cindy? They sounded like the names of poodles or baby dolls, the kind that spoke when you pulled their cords. “Hi, my name is Mindy. Pull my cord again, and I’ll burp on you.”
Jessica smiled, remembering how Brittany had laughed her head off when Jessica had said this to her the week before. Brittany agreed that Cindy and Mindy were good names for dogs and dolls. They weren’t good names for real girls.
They didn’t look like real girls, either. Both freckled and redheaded, Mindy and Cindy were small for their thirteen years. Both were kind of cute, Jessica supposed, in a ferret or hedgehog sort of way, but she hated how Mindy’s cheeks puffed out and how Cindy’s eyes bulged. Not to mention their childlike clothes. The both tended to favor things like gingham and polka dots and animal prints and little floral patterns; it made them look like total babies. It was bad enough that the high school students had to put up with these kids in their building because of the reconstruction happening at the junior high. It was worse when those junior high kids looked and acted like grade- school kids.
Mindy tilted her head and smiled at Jessica. Jessica narrowed her eyes and lifted her chin to make it clear she was condemning Mindy to “less than” status.
Mindy didn’t seem to care. “That was really cute,” she said.
“What was?” Jessica asked.
Mindy lifted her hands to either side of her nose and did the same rat impression Jessica had just done.
“Are you, like, dissing her?” Brittany asked, stepping slightly in front of Jessica as if she was going to defend her physically instead of just verbally.
Mindy lifted her eyebrows. “Dissing?” She shook her head. “No, I don’t diss. I think it’s rude.” She shrugged. “I was being serious. It was cute, what she did.” She looked at Cindy. “Wasn’t it, Cindy?”
Cindy nodded her head several times. Her springy curls bounced.
The curls were the way Jessica was able to tell the girls apart. Mindy’s hair was straight, and it hung to just below her narrow shoulder blades.
“It was,” Cindy said. “I have a gerbil at home, and she looks a lot like that when she’s eating a slice of cucumber.” She smiled. “Her name is Aphrodite, and she’s really cute. Isn’t she, Mindy?”
Mindy nodded. “She really is. See? It was a compliment, not a diss.”
Brittany looked at Mindy sideways and snorted.
Cindy sneezed. And she didn’t even cover her nose. Snot sprayed everywhere.
Jessica and Brittany stepped back in unison. “Get your germs away from us!” Jessica snapped.
Cindy sniffled and pulled a tissue from her pocket. “I don’t have a cold,” she said. Cold came out code. “It’s allergies. I’m allergic to dust.”
Before Jessica could respond to that, Mindy leaned toward Brittany. “I really am sorry I accidentally slammed your locker door. I’ll be more careful from now on.”
“As if,” Brittany said.
Mindy flashed a big smile at Brittany and Jessica. “Bye,” Cindy said. “Have a good day.” She sneezed again.
Jessica wrinkled her own nose.
The two eighth graders, both wearing full-skirted short dresses, hurried away. Jessica shook her head in awe. She reached into her locker and pulled a towel from her gym bag. She wiped down her arms, the front of her locker, and the front of Brittany’s locker. When she was done, Brittany handed her a disinfecting wipe.
“Brilliant,” Jessica said, wiping her hands. “Thanks.”
“She sneezes on my locker all the time,” Brittany said. “I don’t care if it’s allergies. It’s grody.”
“I know, right?” Jessica agreed.
Jessica looked down the hall and watched the little redheads go around the corner. How did they take themselves seriously? Mindy sounded like a chipmunk, with her words all clumped together and a slight ch attached to all her s sounds. But Cindy’s voice was so high-pitched, she sounded like a dolphin. Even her sneezes were squeaky.
