GREY

"Dude, where were you guys?" Cody asked the moment we'd darted inside the main gymnasium, shutting the double doors behind us.

"Yeah," Brayden added. "We were getting worried."

I glanced over Brayden's shoulder, made eye contact with a few of the other guys on the team—fear and uncertainty etched on all of their faces.

I gulped. "We were just...um—"

"Looking for stragglers," Dash spoke up. "I wanted to make sure nobody was still in the locker room when the cops showed." He nodded in my direction. "Grey was helping me."

"Y-yeah," I managed, nodding once. "Locker room's all clear."

Dash fished out his phone. "Coach isn't here, so I'll take roll." He tapped on a file listing everyone's names, calling out each one until he'd made it to the end. 

Right as he spoke the final name, Darden Ríos, the double doors to the gym clanged open behind us.

The same group of four cops we'd seen hustling into the locker room a few minutes before strode onto the court, the sound of their footsteps carried through the air by the swift doorway breeze.

All four wore stoic scowls as they stared ahead at us, bulky black vests matching their upturned peaked caps and the dark weapons holstered at their waists.

One of them, the second from the left, took three steps forward, his eyes straight and darkening with each passing moment. "Call your parents," he ordered. "All of you." He shook his head. "Goldengate Academy's entire campus is now officially a crime scene."

A torrent of gasps erupted, heads swiveling left and right with panic as the officer held his unforgettable stare:

"We have reason to suspect that the person who murdered your teammate...might still be somewhere in this school."

I turned to Dash, my eyes wide as a pair of balloons.

"Under no circumstances are any of you to leave the building unless accompanied by your parent or guardian." The officer paused. "The department has dispatched additional units to escort those of you unable to reach your parents. I know this is a lot to take in, but please—we need all of you to be brave."

A wave of cold shivers tingled down my spine. They really think whoever killed that guy is still here? I glanced to my left, where the other basketball guys were huddled in groups of twos and threes, frantic whispers swirling among them.

I shuddered to think the killer could be in Goldengate...that he might even be standing mere feet away from me—

"Grey!"

I jumped at the sound of my name, heart pounding as I was ripped immediately from my thoughts.

"Whoa, take it easy, bro," Cody said at my shuddering.

I turned sheepishly toward him, Dash, and Brayden.

"Did you hear a word we just said?"

"Um...not really. Sorry, guys."

Brayden shook his head with a slight smirk. "No big deal. I was just wondering if you guys wanted to head to Shake & Cake. I texted my mom, and she can sign us all out when she gets here. Her work's just two blocks over, so it's not that far."

"Oh...yeah," I tried. "That sounds...that sounds great."

Dash quirked an eyebrow. "You alright, Grey?"

I nodded quickly. "Yeah, yeah, I just...this whole thing with the cops is...freaky."

"You can say that again," Dash sighed, his voice distant as my thoughts drifted into space, as my eyes sailed back toward the entrance to the gymnasium, the three officers now standing guard.

...Wait—three? Where's the other one?

I tilted my head, strained to see past the leftmost officer and into the foyer just outside the gym.

And there he was.

The fourth and final officer had retreated beyond the double doors and now stood with both hands in his pockets, staring at something—someone—beyond my gaze. As I held my stare, a cascade of flowing braids swayed into view before hiding away again behind the doors' edge.

TaKylar...he's talking to her.

"Adams, Ashford, Hartley, Matthews!"

I was shaken from my thoughts again, this time by one of the cops keeping watch.

I turned to him.

"The four of you. You're good to go."

Brayden's mother stood at the doorway, blond hair swaying as she waved at us, a small smile painted on her face.

Dash and the others ran over to meet her, and I did my best to keep up as I followed behind.

Mrs. Adams thanked the officers, then led the four of us past the double doors and out into the hallway.

I turned and shot one final glance at TaKylar as we passed her, as she spoke in muted tones to the officer with a pointed nose and dark waves of hair that fell on either side of his head—as even the cool winter air that crept in beneath the building's exit seemed to whir with trepidation...and with terror.

****

We all headed straight to Shake & Cake as soon as Brayden's mom finished checking us out of school. Since she had to head back to work right after, we left campus in Dash's car; and the ride wasn't a long one.

Our school was right at the edge of the City of Gold's Business District—not to mention the biggest outdoor shopping destination in the entire state, the Goldengate Mall. As we drove inside the expanse, passing underneath gilded archways of smoothened brick, fear bubbled inside my chest.

On any other day, it'd have been a blast to roll down the window, to reach my hand toward the bombastic brush of bushy shrubs at the edges of sidewalk paths, to stare after the pedestrians strolling between stores and crooning into smartphones as they stuffed their mouths with giant salted pretzels.

But this wasn't any other day.

And when we finally arrived at Shake & Cake, the shudder of the air spearing beyond the window with a murderous whisper, the four of us climbed somberly from Dash's car and headed inside. 

Passing through the glass door at the front of the building, we trudged to our usual spot, a checker-top table with a chromed hourglass base.

Dash and Brayden took seats across from me and Cody, shrugging of backpacks as a waitress in a vibrant butterscotch skirt scurried from behind a door marked Kitchen to take our orders.

After scribbling everything onto her notepad, she gave a sweet smile before scampering off into the distance.

Dash sighed as she left and pulled his phone from his pocket, the sound of new notifications blipping out a steady beat.

"Is that the team group chat?" I asked.

Dash nodded. "Guys're really freaking out." He sighed. "Can't say I blame 'em."

Cody shuffled his sports bag between his legs on the floor, retrieving his own phone flooded with messages. "I can't believe Coach still hasn't said anything," he mused.

"He might not have met up with the cops yet," I offered. "He said he wouldn't be back for a while—maybe he's still out."

"Man," Brayden muttered. "I was running late this morning...I was so tempted to just shower at school today to save time." He shook his head. "I can't even imagine finding a body like that."

Dash slung an arm around Brayden shoulder as his eyes fell.

Cody shifted in his seat. "So I might be stating the obvious here, but Jacquarious and that girl with the braids...they've gotta know that dead guy. And if I had to guess, at least one of them probably knows who killed him."

Dash rolled his eyes. "Wow, bro. Nobel Prize for sensitivity over here."

"Hey, I'm just saying. Those cops wouldn't let them outta their sight—"

"For crying out loud, somebody just got murdered, man."

"You're right," Cody fired back. "Somebody did get murdered—then his corpse got dumped in our locker room." He lifted a hand from the table to raise above his head. "And I'm betting his only connection to Goldengate's about yea high and sets his watch by CPT."

Dash shot Cody a vicious glare. "Dude!"

I sighed. "Well, you're right about one thing. Jacquarious definitely knows the guy who died—he said as much when the cops were talking to him and TaKylar."

"Wait, what?" Brayden blurted.

Dash sighed. "...It's true." He turned to me. "Show 'em, Grey."

Cody quirked a brow. "Show us what?"

I hesitated. "Me and Dash—we, um...we went down there to check things out." I grabbed my phone, unlocked the screen with my thumb. "Here," I said as I navigated to the video I'd taken. "Look at this."

Brayden and Cody both leaned toward the center of the table, eyes fixed on my screen as it replayed the scene Dash and I'd already watched unfold in real time—Jacquarious, TaKylar, the officers...every second flashing through the pixelated glass.

As the crimson blur of the video's final moments focused to reveal the dark message against the shower tiles, that all-too-familiar icy shiver returned to scrape down my spine.

"Whoa," Cody shuddered as he stared wide eyed at my phone.

Brayden shut his eyes. "Wow, that's...wow." He twisted his head away. "I can't believe you guys actually caught all that on camera."

"Me either," Dash mused. "And I was there."

BLIP! A notification rang out, Dash turning to check his own phone.

"Man," he whispered, reading from the group chat. "Andy just said he's thinking about quitting."

I let out a heavy breath. "Makes sense, honestly."

BLIP! Another notification.

BLIP! BLIP!

Dash's hands swept furiously across his phone's micro-keyboard, fielding the flood of replies the best he could as they poured in one by one.

Faintly, I registered the backsway of Cody's chair next to me; I turned to him, saw him grabbing at his sports bag from the floor between his legs.

"Um...you alright, Cody?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just got a text from my sister...gotta meet her at the house."

I paused. "Huh?"

"Sorry, I need to go." He managed a smile, his eyes twitching in sync for the briefest of moments. "...You can have my milkshake, Grey. If...if you want." He stood to his feet, taking a quick glance around the building before reaching down to grab his bag.

"Whoa, slow down, man," Dash spoke up. "Your car's still at campus. I can drive you back to—"

"No worries," Cody interjected as he tapped into his phone screen. "Just got an Uber."

What the—?

His grip tightened around the straps attached to the top of his bag, the pleated edges peeling away from the zippered interior—and that's when I saw it.

Strewn within the tote's fabric frame and shadowed beneath the underside of Cody's chair, a collection of folded towels formed a thick bundle of white waves—and uneven splotches of faded red were smeared on every single one.

"Cody," Brayden tried. "Are you sure you're—"

"Later, guys," Cody said. "I'll...see you tomorrow." He nodded at all of us, then beelined for the front door, pushing wide the clear glass before power-walking across the parking lot.

"What's his deal?" Dash mused.

I shook my head absent-mindedly, twisting only to stare after Cody as he darted away, as he turned the corner and raced up the sidewalk, marching out of view.

And all the while, his grip never loosened on that bag of bloody towels.