If you didn't read the description, there will be a trigger warning put in the chapter because there is a mention of a made up school shooting. There will be bold before the section and bold after the section when it is safe to read.

"Jess, wake up," the teen heard before her dark brown eyes flew open. She looked around, confused by her surroundings before recognizing the hallways of the school.

"Why in the world did you wake me up," Jess hissed at the girl who woke her up.

"Detention ended Jess," the brunette answered.

She groaned and replied, "Liz, how long have I been asleep?"

"About an hour."

Jess got up, grabbed her bag, and followed Liz out of the room. As soon as they were in the hallway Jess asked, "Where's Mike?"

"He should be waiting for us by the doors."

Immediately after Liz got the last word out of her mouth, Jess almost walked into Mike. She shot a playful glare at him, then Mike muttered, "Sorry."

"Aren't you supposed to be waiting for us by the, uh, doors?"

"Well, the doors are either jammed or locked. I can't get em open," Mike sheepishly admitted.

"How many times did you try to open the door?"

"Four or five."

The two continued bickering while Jess quietly listened to them. She then remembered something important.

"If we stop by my locker I do have some keys in there," Jess quickly and quietly spoke up.

"Let's head that way then."

***

When they all got to Jess' locker, Jess was surprised to see a note taped to it. She ripped the note off her locker and shoved it into her jacket pocket without reading it. She then quickly put in the combo and opened it. After moving some of her stuff around, she pulled out a bunch of keys.

"Where did you get those," Liz asked, amazed.

"You'd be surprised how easy it is to get into the janitor's closet and steal some keys," Jess replied with a mischievous grin on her face, while she inspected the keys. "I don't have one for the main doors."

"Oh come on!"

"Field trip to the janitor's closet so I can get one."

Before heading to the janitor's closet, Jess hid the keys in her locker. She then closed it, unzipped her bag, and quickly shoved the note inside.

***

Mike and Liz awkwardly stood in front of the janitor's closet while Jess picked the lock. Jess tested the doorknob, and the closet easily swung open. She slipped inside, quickly grabbed a key to the main doors, and one to the janitor's closet so she wouldn't have to pick the lock next time she used it. She closed the door and locked it using the key she just stole.

"Ready to go," Jess asked the two, making them jump because they didn't hear her quiet footsteps.

"Yeah, this is a creepy hallway anyway."

"Could be worse," Jess shrugged and started walking, "It could be in a main hall where there are more cameras and more risk of getting caught."

"I guess we should head to the main doors now," Liz mumbled.

"Yep," Mike replied, following Jess.

***

Jess looked at the lock and shook her head and muttered, "The lock's busted. There's no way any key is gettin' in there."

"Then how are we gonna get out," Liz asked, "My mom was expecting me to be home by now."

"Don't worry Liz," Mike said, trying to comfort her, "I'm sure we'll figure out a way to get outta here."

The trio walked around the school, checking every door. Each door was the same, the lock was busted so that a key couldn't be used to escape. They sat down in the main lobby of the school.

"I'm so sure we're gonna get out of this situation," Liz sarcastically exclaimed.

"We'll be fine," Mike replied, putting an arm around her shoulders, "We all have food, we can and will find a way out of here."

Jess ignored the conversation and was thinking of ideas, trying to figure out who would do this and why. She immediately thought of the 'popular' crew. They picked on Jess all the time because she wore all black and would rather hang out with the friends she already had, and being a transfer student didn't help the situation at all. This happened every day, but she never told anyone, not wanting to drag them into the mess. The next thing her mind flew to was her history teacher. Even though Jess tried her best, history was her kryptonite. She couldn't do well in that class for the life of her. She would always ask for help and receive none with the response, "Figure it out yourself. You do fine in all of your other classes."

She was ripped from her thoughts and flinched when an ear piercing scream echoed through the halls. She saw Liz and Mike jump when it sounded. Jess slowly got up and tried to figure out where the scream came from. As she walked around to each connecting hallway, she heard loud voices echoing through the building.

"This stupid door isn't opening!"

"You sure you're turning the knob the right way?"

"I know I am, I use this door all the time."

"Hurry it up, I need to get to the mall to meet up with Hope."

"Why don't you try to open the door then?"

"Move it, I know a way that should get it to open."

Jess was walking back to where Liz and Mike were sitting when they heard a BANG echo through the halls.

"Wh-what was th-that," Liz stuttered out.

"From the sound, I would guess someone tried to use brute force to break down one of the doors," Mike replied, rubbing his hand up and down Liz's back in an attempt to calm her down.

"A-are y-you sure it wasn't a g-gunshot?"

"Gunshots would be louder and with the echo, we would probably hear the shell hit the ground," Jess told her.

"You sure?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"How?"

"Don't wanna talk about it," Jess replied, closing her eyes, trying to evade the memories that invaded her head.

***

Liz shook Jess' shoulder to get her attention. She was ignored, and Liz sighed in annoyance.

"Why isn't she responding to us anymore," Liz asked Mike, somewhat whiny.

"She's probably trying to figure out a way out of here," Mike told her, hiding his fear behind his confident words.

"Well, she better hurry up."

Jess opened her eyes, stared at her legs for a couple seconds, then got up. Her head suddenly cleared, and she remembered a door that they forgot to check. Her feet brought her to the one place that her memories reminded her of, the auditorium. She checked the doors and found that they were unlocked. She walked inside and down the isles. She stood in front of the stage, looked at it for a couple seconds, then jumped onto it. She winced a little when her left leg landed on the stage and made her way backstage. She saw the familiar glow of the emergency exit door and walked towards it. She reached into her pocket, took out her phone, and turned on the flashlight so that she could see better.

After trying to turn the knob and finding it was locked, she brought her phone down so that she could see the lock. She saw that this lock was also busted and felt almost all of the hope of escape drain out of her. Jess walked out onto the stage, jumped off the stage, and walked to the back of the auditorium. She paused back there, looked longingly at the stage, and left the room.

When Jess approached where Liz and Mike were, she could hear them arguing about something. She walked in front of them and sat back down.

Jess sighed and asked, "Were you two so busy fighting that you didn't notice me leave?"

"No!"

"Yes."

"Shut it Mike!"

"Calm down you two, seriously. If we are going to get out we have to stay calm and keep a level head."

"Like that's possible with Liz around."

"Mike, that's not helping any."

After getting Mike and Liz to stop arguing, Jess remembered the note she shoved into her bag. She dug it out and looked at it. The note read:

There's only one way out of this. You need to figure it out. I know you can, Jess, and if you don't, I'll be very disappointed in you. You wanted a challenge, didn't you?

-L

Jess' eyes widened and she felt her stomach drop. There was only one person that would write that note and knew how much she liked puzzles. She was just confused about how he managed to bust all the locks without anybody noticing. She suddenly found herself smiling when she realized that Liam had set up a crazy puzzle for her to figure out, just like the old days.

Jess quickly got up and grabbed her bag.

"Where are you going," Liz asked when she saw Jess stand up.

"My locker," Jess replied shortly.

"What could you possibly need from it?"

"Just want to check something."

"Just tell me."

"No."

"Why?!"

"None of your business."

"How is it none of our business when you are about to leave us to go to the opposite side of the school and wherever else you might wander off to!?"

"Read this and you might get a clue," Jess replied and dropped the note.

Liz read the note then asked, "And why does this require going to your locker? How do they know your name? What does it mean by wanting a challenge? And once we get out, shouldn't we report this to the police?'

"That's where the note was found, I know the person who wrote the note, I wanted a challenging puzzle to figure out, and it would be a bad idea to tell the police."

Before Liz or Mike could ask any more questions, Jess began walking. Her two friends scrambled to their feet, grabbed their bags, and rushed after her. Any questions that Liz asked while they were walking either got brushed off or ignored until Mike shushed her.

***

Jess inspected the lockers she stood in front of while Liz stared at the lockers and Mike played on his phone. After standing still for a few minutes Liz got bored and didn't notice when Jess started walking towards the lockers. She reached up and grabbed something that she saw on top of a locker down the row from hers.

She looked at the note and saw that it was the same style as the last note she found. Her eyes quickly scanned the note and saw it was a riddle. She quickly figured it out and walked over to where Mike and Liz were.

"Ready to go," Jess asked.

"Why are we leaving so soon," Liz replied.

"Already found what he wanted me to find and figured out the riddle on the note."

"That quick!?"

"Yeah. You wanna to see the note?"

"Yes," Mike replied, jumping into the conversation.

Jess flicked the note at Mike, who caught and opened it. His eyes skimmed the riddle and his eyes widened. A couple moments later, Mike nodded and passed the riddle over to Liz.

"That was a pretty easy riddle," Mike muttered.

"Yeah," Jess agreed.

Suddenly, Liz let out a groan of frustration, making Mike jump and Jess flinch.

"How did you guys figure this out so quickly," Liz exclaimed.

"It's just a warm up puzzle, so it's not that difficult," Jess replied.

"Shut it."

"Let's go," Mike said, after quickly glancing at Jess.

Liz reluctantly moved from where she was standing and followed Jess and Mike to the next destination.

***

As the trio made their way to the second entrance, they heard an extremely loud THUD.

"What was that," Liz asked, slightly panicked.

"It didn't sound like the noise we heard earlier," Mike added.

"It sounded like someone or something fell," Jess replied, shrugging, "No big deal."

"How are you unfazed by this?"

"There was speculation that the high school I used to go to was haunted. We would hear random sounds and footsteps all the time."

The comment effectively ended the conversation, and they continued on in silence.

***

A few minutes later, the group made it to the second entrance to the building. Liz and Mike sped up once they saw the daylight streaming through the doors. Jess immediately grabbed both of their elbows, and pulled them back to where she was standing.

"What was that for," Liz shouted.

Jess ignored her and asked Mike, "Remember what the riddle said?"

"Yes. We were stupid to rush ahead like that."

"What am I missing out on!?"

"Either of you got somethin' you don't mind getting destroyed in your bags?"

Liz and Mike shuffled through their bags, trying to find something. Liz shook her head and zipped up her bag. A couple seconds later, Mike found a blank piece of paper in his bag that he didn't need and handed it to Jess. She crumpled it up into a ball, then threw it into the gym lobby. The paper ball fell to the ground, cut in half. Liz's and Mike's eyes widened when they saw the piece of paper get cut in half.

"Sorry," they muttered.

"Its fine. Just be more careful next time," Jess replied smiling.

"How are we going to get past here? Besides, where is the note?"

"Its taped to the door," Jess replied.

Mike and Liz immediately looked at the door, and saw the slight discoloration of light where the note was.

"How did you see that so easily," Liz asked.

Jess ignored her and inspected the lobby.

"There's wires hung up all over the lobby. If I didn't stop you, you could've gotten hurt or died," Jess commented.

Once again, Liz's and Mike's eyes widened. At the same time, Jess' eyes darted around the room, trying to find a way through the wires to the doors. She eventually figured out the way over, put down her backpack, took off her hoodie, and pulled her hair back so it wouldn't get in the way. She quickly and carefully made her way over to the door. Once she got over there, she grabbed the note from the door and put it in her pocket. She then made her way back over to where Mike and Liz were standing.

"What does it say," Liz inquired.

"No clue. I just grabbed it and came back over."

Jess reached into her pocket and took out the note. She saw it was another riddle, but it had a short message written under it in different, familiar handwriting. The message read:

Be careful getting to this one. He's been working on the puzzles and making them difficult to get to whenever he has time.

-M

Jess smiled after reading the message, then quickly solved the riddle before handing the paper to Mike. He looked it over and solved the riddle while Jess put her hoodie on again. Mike nodded when he figured out the riddle, then passed the paper to Liz to see if she might be able to figure out this riddle with a stroke of luck. Liz's eyes showed her emotions and Jess took away the paper before she could rip it up.

"Give me the piece of paper from the other riddle," Jess softly said.

Liz slowly reached into her pocket, took out the piece of paper, and gave it back to Jess.

"Who's the small message from," Liz questioned.

"A friend from my old high school that knows how much we like puzzles," Jess replied smiling, "Now let's get on our way to the next puzzle."

***

They were halfway to the destination of the next puzzle when Liz noticed something odd. She stopped, which caught the attention of Jess and Mike. Liz moved over to the side, and looked at the wall. She saw a hole that looked the same size as a piece of shrimp. She was about to look into it when Jess tapped her shoulder, making her turn her head quickly to look at her. Her hair moved in front of the hole, and suddenly a small arrow flew out of the hole she was just looking at, cutting off a few pieces of her hair.

"H-How did that not trigger during the day when other people walked past it," Liz stuttered, shocked that an arrow just flew out of the wall.

"The way he programed the machine," Jess replied, before picking up the arrow and inspecting it.

Jess fiddled around with the arrow for a little bit and was eventually able to take apart the metal arrow.

"This would be a real pain to get out if one of us got shot by one," Jess absently commented.

"Why?"

"The tip of the arrow has tiny barbs on it. It would be really difficult to get it out of someone's leg without hurting them even worse."

They made a plan to get through the hallway without getting hurt. Liz on one side, Jess on the other, and Mike in the middle. About halfway through the hallway, Liz commented that she felt like she was looking for land mines in a war zone. Jess shook her head and Mike ignored her.

***

They got to the next puzzle, which was by Mike's locker. Mike and Jess knew that this was where the puzzle was located and stopped walking, but Liz didn't and started walking towards Mike's locker. Jess and Mike grabbed her arms and pulled her back to where they were standing.

Liz glared at them and opened her mouth to ask a question, but Jess whistled loudly, triggering the 'trap'. Liz glared at Jess again, then closed them when she saw a sudden bright light.

***

When she opened them again, she saw Mike standing next to her, and saw Jess strapped to a chair on the other side of a glass window.

She was about to say something when Mike covered her mouth with his hand, pointed at a small microphone in the corner of the room, and held his finger over his lips. Liz reluctantly nodded and Mike moved his hand from in front of Liz's mouth.

While this was occurring, Jess inspected the straps that kept her attached to the chair. The restraints were loose on her right wrist, so she pulled her hand out of them. She was able to stand up and walk around the room a little bit now, since she was still chained to the chair. She saw two puzzles, a simple slide puzzle that she could easily get to, and a number puzzle that was on the wall behind her chair that she couldn't reach with the chain around her foot.

Jess quickly made her way over to the smaller slide puzzle and solved it with ease. It was a picture of a heart and the empty square had a small key in it. She reached down to the lock, inserted the key, and unlocked it.

She then walked to the more difficult puzzle and looked at it for a little bit. She quietly hummed while she looked at the puzzle. Suddenly, she remembered a number sequence that her and Liam talked about while making puzzles. She quickly inserted the sequence and heard a soft click as the door unlocked.

At the same time as the door in Jess' room unlocked, Mike and Liz heard a soft click in their room as the door unlocked. Liz rushed over to the door and Mike slowly followed her. Liz opened the door and they saw that it lead outside.

"What about Jess? Does her door lead outside," Liz asked.

"Hopefully hers does. Even if it doesn't and there is another puzzle, she should be able to solve it. She's solved them all so far, so why would she not be able to solve this one?"

"Good point."

Liz quickly ran outside, Mike stood in the doorway, and glanced back one last time before exiting the room.

At the same time, Jess opened the door in her room and saw another room. She shook her head and walked into it. The door swung shut behind her and a note fluttered to the ground in front of her. She walked forwards, picked up the note, and read it.

Your friends are already out of the building and are on their ways to their houses. The room they were put in lead outside once the puzzle in the room you were in got solved. For your final test, go to the one place you always avoid even though you want to be there again.

-L

Jess folded up the note and put it in her pocket. She was about to whistle so she would be brought out of there when another note fluttered to the ground. She picked it up and read it.

Liam wouldn't let me write on his, so I get to write my own! This puzzle is much more difficult than all the other ones according to Liam. I believe in you though. There are no more traps on the way there, I know because I convinced him to let the way to wherever you are going to be easy so you can relax a little bit. We will be waiting outside when you exit. We can't wait to see you again!

-M

Jess smiled and put the note in her pocket. She then closed her eyes, whistled loudly, and saw a bright light surround her.

When she opened her eyes again, she was back by Mike's locker. Jess smiled because she knew that Liz and Mike were safe. She began her walk across the building to the auditorium.

***

Jess stood in front of the auditorium doors, not wanting to enter the room, but knew that she had to in order to be able to leave the school. She took a deep breath in, opened the doors, and walked into the auditorium. She walked down to the stage, where a whiteboard was standing.

There was a note written on the whiteboard that read:

I know you don't want to remember what happened before you had to switch schools because I don't want to think about it either. I know you remember everything said before the event happened, so you need to recite all of your lines that you read and do the blocking. That is your final test, good luck.

-L

Jess half smiled because she knew that Liam and Mary were waiting outside for her to finish this final 'puzzle'. Jess took a deep breath and climbed onto the stage. She stood up and began performing her part, trying to force out all the bad memories and force away tears.

(Trigger warning for this next part, skip if school shooting triggers you)

***

Jess was walking through the hallways of her old high school. She was happily talking to her best friend Liam. The two messed around, made jokes, and clearly didn't have a care in the world. School had already ended and the duo were walking to the auditorium where the school drama club practiced. They were both in it and had 15 minutes to get there, so they took their time.

About halfway there, Jess felt someone grab her hand. Jess only let a few people hold her hand, so she quickly narrowed it down to three people. She then felt the person rest their head on her shoulder. Only one person was allowed to do that, so she figured out who it was.

"Hi Mary," she said, continuing to walk towards the auditorium.

"Good to see you Mary," Liam said happily, since he knew about the relationship Mary and Jess had.

"Nice to see you too Liam," Mary said excitedly, "Are you guys going to drama?"

"Yeah," Liam answered, and noticed Mary's expression change.

"Awww, so I won't see you until 3:15?"

"Yeah, can you give me a ride after its over?"

"Of course I can Jess."

The trio were at the lobby by this point.

"See you later Mary," Liam and Jess said at the same time, glanced at each other, and started giggling.

"See you guys after rehearsal is done," Mary answered before leaving the building.

Liam and Jess walked into the auditorium, and began to practice their lines.

Halfway through rehearsal, the auditorium doors opened and someone walked into the room. Everybody ignored it, since they were used to janitors, other students, and sometimes parents entering the room during rehearsals. Nobody noticed that the person wasn't a janitor, a student, or a parent.

They almost finished the blocking for the end of the play when the gunshots rang out. Everybody scattered, trying to find cover from the firing, but a few unfortunate souls weren't able to get out of the way quick enough and got injured. A few people escaped backstage, but a few brave students decided to try and stop the gunman, and Jess was one of them.

The people backstage tried their best to keep people from being injured even more. Someone ran to the main office and told them what was going on so they could call the police to help and stop anyone else from being injured.

The police got there after five minutes and were able to catch the gunman. An ambulance crew and the school nurse started to help all the injured students. As soon as everyone was bandaged, the teacher in charge told everybody to call their rides and tell them rehearsal ended early.

Eventually everybody except Jess and Liam had gotten their rides.

"Why are you still here," Liam asked curiously.

"Mary isn't answering her phone and I've already texted her. How about you?"

"My parents aren't answering their phones and don't like when I text them."

"You could always ask Mary if she can give you a ride."

"That's true."

The two stood and watched the rain pour down for a couple minutes.

"Did you get hit," Liam asked, breaking the silence.

"Yeah. One grazed my arm and another hit my leg."

"I was one of the lucky ones, but I feel like I should have gotten hit."

"It's fine Liam, you don't need to blame yourself. You did what was natural and ran, but then helped others that got hit that managed to get backstage."

"Thanks," Liam said, smiling weakly at Jess.

"You're welcome," Jess answered.

The teens sat down on the curb waiting for Mary to get there. Eventually, Liam shook Jess' shoulder, getting her attention, and pointed at Mary's car. They walked over and got in, they all chatted as they drove home, Liam and Jess purposely leaving out what actually happened that afternoon.

***

(Trigger warning is over, it is safe fore everybody to read now!)

She was able to keep the bad memories away, but halfway through her 'performance' tears began rolling down her face. As she continued and got closer and closer to the end, she felt as if she was dancing with death.

After she finished the performance she bowed to the empty seats, imagining that everybody from her old high school filled the seats of the auditorium. Jess walked over to the edge of the stage and sat down with her legs hanging over the edge. A note rested next to her.

Jess picked up the note and read it, not caring that her tears fell on the paper making some of the words run.

Good job Jess, I knew you could do it. Now dry your tears, we are waiting for you outside. Don't worry about your backpack, we have it in the car. We can't wait to see you again in person instead of on Skype.

-L

Jess sat there for a few minutes and, after the tears stopped dripping down her face, wiped off her face. She jumped off the stage and made her way to the auditorium doors. She opened one of them, looked back at the stage once more, and left the room.

She rushed to the main lobby and exited the building. She saw Mary's car and walked over to it. She opened the door to the backseat and sat down.

"It's so nice to see you guys again in person," Jess exclaimed with a huge smile on her face.

"I know," Liam replied.

"It feels like its been years since we've seen you," Marry added, "We are going to my place, want to come with us?"

"Of course!"

"Your parents won't mind?"

"They're barely home anyway. If anything they would be happy I'm out of the house."

"Let's go then."

They left the school and got on the highway. Jess and Liam both fell asleep on ride back to Mary's house.

Once they got there, Mary shook Liam's shoulder and woke him up. She then shook Jess' shoulder and said, "Jess, wake up."

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I hope you all enjoyed this, I feel like you guys deserve something for still following my account even though I rarely post anything on my stories.

Word Count in the Story: 4,696

Total Word Count: 4,799

Posted: December 29, 2018