Cold
dark heroThe man walked through the corridor without any particular hurry.
His partner had hurried ahead to catch the kid and put an end to this ridiculous charade.
He had better things to do.
Besides, the whole thing had become ridiculous.
A child had somehow escaped during the initial confusion and had spent the last several minutes making fools out of grown men.
A bucket falling from above a door.
Something slippery spread across a corridor.
Furniture moved around to block passages.
Noises coming from classrooms that turned out to be empty.
And, somehow, the brat had managed to get access to the school’s PA system.
The frightened voice had almost made him laugh.
Please… let them go.
That was what the kid had said.
His partner had laughed too.
He had even said exactly what both of them were thinking.
“Relax.”
It’s just a kid.
And now that idiot had run ahead, determined to catch the brat and end his little game.
The man shook his head.
“Moron.”
He continued toward the swimming pool.
Part of this side of the school was undergoing renovations. The end-of-year break was approaching, and apparently the administration had decided that starting work while classes were still running was somehow a good idea.
Plastic sheets covered sections of the walls. Tools and construction materials had been left behind when the workers evacuated. Temporary cables ran through areas that normally would have been kept clear.
The smell changed as he approached the pool.
He stopped.
Something was wrong.
There was shouting ahead.
Not playful shouting.
Not annoyed swearing from another stupid prank.
Panic.
“What the hell?”
He picked up his pace.
He reached the entrance to the pool area and stopped just before stepping inside.
Water covered much of the tiled floor.
At least, he thought it was water.
There was something else floating across it.
The smell told him what before his brain fully processed it.
Fuel.
“What—”
“GET BACK!”
The scream came from inside.
His partner stood trapped on the other side of the room.
Then the man at the entrance saw the kid.
On the opposite side of the pool area.
Small.
Black hair.
School uniform.
Standing perfectly still.
His partner saw him too.
“You little fucking—”
The kid moved his hand.
There was a tiny flame.
For one absurd second, nobody moved.
The man at the entrance stared at it.
Then at the floor.
“No.”
The kid released it.
Fire raced across the surface.
“SHIT!”
The room exploded into orange light.
His partner turned toward the entrance.
For a moment, he tried to run for it.
The flames spread faster.
“GET ME OUT OF HERE!”
Heat rolled through the room.
The man at the entrance instinctively retreated into the corridor.
His partner looked around wildly.
Fire.
Walls.
More fire.
Then his eyes found the pool.
The man at the doorway saw the realization on his face.
“THE POOL!”
Of course.
The pool.
Water.
Safety.
His partner ran toward it.
“WAIT!”
Too late.
The man jumped.
For half a second, the witness felt relief.
Then the kid moved again.
Somewhere beyond the flames came a heavy mechanical sound.
A switch.
The scream that followed didn’t even sound human.
“What the fuck?!”
The man in the pool jerked violently.
He tried to grab the edge.
His hand reached the tiles.
His fingers failed him.
He slipped back into the water.
“TURN IT OFF!”
The kid watched.
“TURN IT OFF, YOU LITTLE BASTARD!”
Nothing.
The kid didn’t answer.
The man in the corridor stared across the burning room at him.
There was no smile on the kid’s face.
No anger either.
That was wrong.
After everything they had done, anger would have made sense.
The girl.
The slap.
The threats.
His people had terrified an entire school.
If the kid had been screaming at them, the man could have understood that.
If he had been crying, he could have understood that too.
Even if the little bastard had been laughing, at least there would have been something there.
There wasn’t.
The kid simply watched.
His partner surfaced.
Coughed.
Tried desperately to pull himself toward the edge.
His body refused to cooperate.
“HELP ME!”
The man at the doorway took a step forward.
Heat forced him back.
“HEY!”
The kid looked toward him.
Their eyes met.
The man’s blood went cold.
He had seen killers before.
People liked to imagine killers as monsters.
They weren’t.
Most were angry.
Some were terrified.
Some enjoyed it.
Some regretted it afterward.
But there was always something.
This kid looked at him like he was looking at a wall.
Behind the flames, his partner went under again.
A hand broke the surface.
For a moment, it desperately searched for something that wasn’t there.
Then it disappeared.
The water became still.
The man couldn’t breathe.
Someone had just died.
A person had just died in front of that child.
Because of that child.
And the kid—
The kid looked away.
That was all.
No shock.
No trembling.
No sudden realization of what he had done.
He didn’t even stay to watch.
He simply turned.
As if whatever had happened here was finished.
As if the man who had just disappeared beneath the water had been nothing more than a problem that had now been solved.
And suddenly the witness understood.
The buckets.
The slippery floors.
The noises.
The frightened little voice over the speakers.
The ridiculous traps.
They hadn’t been winning.
The kid hadn’t been desperately trying whatever harmless tricks came into his head.
He had been teaching them something.
Teaching them that his traps were jokes.
Teaching them that stepping into one meant embarrassment, not death.
Teaching them not to be afraid of him.
It’s just a kid.
His partner had laughed when he’d said it.
The man stared at the still water.
Then back toward the place where the kid had disappeared.
“No…”
His voice barely came out.
That wasn’t a kid.
A kid would have cared.
A kid would have looked back.
A kid would have been horrified by what he’d done.
Whatever was walking through that school hunting them was a monster.
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