I couldn’t swallow.

If it wasn’t Will and his pals, then that changed things.

Running past the stall, I threw open the door and dashed into the hallway, making my way for the chemistry lab. It had a window like the bio lab, and I could crawl out onto the roof—flail, scream for help, whatever. I was safer in the open than stuck up here with God-knows-who.

Laughter broke out from somewhere, echoing down the hall, and I noticed more wet tracks on the floor, some leading back to the bathroom where I was and some moving alongside me.

Tossing a look over my shoulder, I saw a dark shadow moving through the glass in the other hallway and the door to the bathroom swing open, another figure emerging.

My stomach rolled. What the hell?

Racing into the chem lab, I closed the door, locked it, and pulled the shade down on the window.

Rain fell all around, pummeling the roof and tapping the windows, but I heard it louder in here.

I narrowed my eyes.

It was loud. Just like in the bio lab.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw that one of the windows was open in here, too—rain bouncing against the roof outside and drenching the countertop along the wall.

I dropped my eyes to the floor, my heart sinking as I saw more wet footprints.

Only this time, they weren’t leaving the room. Following the trail around the desks, I walked toward the back of the room and stopped as they disappeared into the dark corner.

I tried to inhale a breath, but I couldn’t stop shaking.

Grabbing a pair of tongs off the tray on the table, I kept them in my fist before picking up a flask, rearing back, and launching it into the corner.

It shattered against the bookshelf, missing the corner by a mile, because I suck, and I picked up a beaker next, throwing it at him—whoever it was—and hitting the wall this time.

I kept going, picking up a cylinder and loading my arm, but then…

He stepped out, his dark form somehow much bigger than I was expecting.

I took a step back but released a breath, looking up.

Jeans, black hoodie, and a white paintball mask with a red stripe down the left side.

Will.

I almost relaxed. Until I dropped my eyes and noticed the gloves. Black leather. He balled his fists, making them grind and whine as he stretched the material that glinted in the moonlight.

I glanced at the door, but it was no use. Kai and Damon, I assumed, were out there somewhere still.

I glared at Will as he took a slow step toward me.

“I’m not scared,” I told him.

He cocked his head.

“I’m annoyed.” I clenched my weapons in my hands. “I have to walk home in the rain now.”

I threw the cylinder at him, damn-near hitting him, but he whipped out his arm and swatted it away before it hit his face.

It crashed to the floor, and I backed away, snatching another flask off a table as he stepped closer. “You got a problem with my brother, then you take it up with him. Don’t be a coward.”

He stalked toward me, and I launched the flask. It hit him in the chest, making him stumble, but it didn’t break, tumbling to the floor instead, the glass finally shattering.

He walked, the glass cracking under his boots, and I watched as he laid his gloved hand on the black lab table, gliding it over the top as he moved.

My heart pounded in my chest, my stomach swirling as the fear took root, and I looked up at his face, his eyes through the little holes in the mask barely visible in the darkness.

I stopped, suddenly lost in those voids for a moment.

He took another step, and a jolt hit my heart, my whole body warming.

Still, I didn’t move.

I couldn’t.

Another step. He was almost at me.

Why wasn’t I moving?

My pulse raced more by the second, and the feeling almost made me smile because I kind of liked it.

Something built inside me, stacking one brick on top of another until I was a wall, and every second more that I stood there, the more the room started to spin around us like a storm.

And he and I were the eye.

What was I doing? What if this wasn’t a joke?

Just another second. Just one more second. I wanted to push it.

With every moment that passed, my lungs worked faster to take in air, and I just wanted him to take another step—one more step—to be closer to me. Until…

Until he was there, two inches from my body and looking down at me—so close that if I spun around to bolt, there was no way I’d get away.

My stomach swirled, and my knees shook.

I tried to swallow, but I couldn’t. “Is this the part where I giggle?” I said, trying to sound tough but failing. “Or beg?”

He cocked his head to the side again, like he was studying me.

I forced a smirk despite my hands shaking with fear. “Stop it, you’re scaring me,” I whimpered, imitating one of his Barbie dolls. “Oh, no. Whatever will I do? Don’t be too hard on me, Daddy.” I bat my eyelashes. “But I admit, I like it when you’re hard on me. Sooooo hard.” And then I moaned for good measure.

Then I dropped the smirk and cocked an eyebrow. Is that what he expected from me?

“You… don’t scare me,” I repeated.

Shooting out my hand, I grabbed a set of test tubes and reared my arm back, throwing them through one of the windows. I growled as it crashed through, all the glass hopefully falling on top of the skylight of the gym below and alerting someone I was up here.

The sound of rain filled the room even more, and cool air rushed in, the wind blowing my hair. I looked up, glaring into his eyes, hoping that that did it and he’d stop now.

But he just stared down at me.

And then, as if accepting a challenge, he reached out and swiped an entire stand of beakers, flasks, and funnels off the countertop and onto the floor.

The crash ached in my ears, but I didn’t flinch. Reaching out, I grabbed hold of another stand and pulled it onto the floor, every empty vial and container shattering between us as I backed away and he advanced.

Passing the next student worktable, he reached for the left and pulled the chemistry set onto the floor, and I reached right, yanking another between us as he continued walking, the glass crackling under his feet.

We moved faster, him reaching left and me reaching to the right, metal stands clanking to the floor between us as glass crashed and filled the room with chaos after chaos.

Again. Left, right, left, right. We kept going, his getting faster and me stumbling back to grab the next table’s stand as something filled up in my stomach, my muscles charged, and I started to smile.

He moved into me, and I stumbled back, tripping on my foot and losing my balance. I fell backward, but he followed, his arm circling my waist just in time as his other grabbed the table for support.

I looked over my shoulder, seeing bits of glass on the floor where I would’ve landed.

Turning back to him, I stared up into his eyes as my fingers clutched his shoulders.

And then I felt it. The smile still on my face.

I was smiling. A little.

Shit.

Slowly, I let it fall, but I couldn’t take my eyes off his. Guilt washed over me at the mess we made, knowing I couldn’t pay for it, but the worry left as quickly as it came, because all I could feel was the here and now.

The rain and wind blew through the room, and I reached up, my hands shaking as I lifted his mask off his face and dropped it to the floor.