Page 53 of We’re All Going to Die Tonight!

She’s got that teacher voice, even all the way out here, miles from the classroom. Disappointment mixed with bewilderment.

“We thought you were dead,” I say. “We thought—”

Caulder’s back now, with a clean towel that he must’ve grabbed from the linen closet and the first aid kit, which he must’ve retrieved from the bathroom where Lucas is still lying on the ground. I open my mouth to ask if he’s okay, but Ms. Dorman starts speaking before I can.

“Again: Why would you think that?” Ms. Dorman asks. “I know you kids can be imaginative, and those true crime documentaries are something else entirely, but—”

“Things have happened,” Caulder says simply as he wipes the blood off her skinny arm with the towel, red streaking the white cotton.

Things have happened. That’s an understatement.

“What things?” Ms. Dorman asks. “What’re you talking about?”

Caulder tosses the towel aside and pulls out the gauze, winding it around Ms. Dorman’s arm. I can see that he’s measuring his words, weighing what to say.

“Kids, you’re starting to scare me,” she says, and I hear it then, the worry in her voice, the concern fraying the edges. “What’s going on?”

“Before we tell you everything, you need to tell us something first,” Caulder says, keeping his voice steady in a way that shocks me. “Where were you? Didn’t you hear us yelling?”

Ms. Dorman blinks, the question taking her off guard. She glances from Caulder to me.

“And what about Mr. McCullough?” I ask urgently. “Did he come back with you? Where is he?”

Again, Ms. Dorman looks between us, her brow knitting together in worry.

“Where’s everyone else?” she asks. “What’s going on? What’s happened?”

“You’ve been gone for hours, and we thought you might’ve been dead,” Caulder says. “Now you show up, and you’re avoiding my question about where you were. I told you: Things have happened. Prove to me that I can trust you before I tell you what’s been going on.”

And I get it now. Why he’s not telling her everything. Because as much as I don’t want to believe that my cardigan-wearing, slang-misusing teacher would hurt any of us, people have been hurt tonight…And as of now, we don’t know why she was gone or where she was.

“Well, I was trying to go to bed, and I thought I’d see if I could get cell reception if I walked away from the house, so that I could call Triple A and schedule them for the morning,” she says. “Mr. McCullough went with me, and then he realized he left something in the van and went to retrieve it while I came back.”

She sits up straighter, then winces and adjusts her arm before continuing. “Is that sufficient? Now will you tell me what’s going on?”

She glances at both of us, waiting for a response. Instead, I look at Caulder. Suddenly, the words are gummy in my mouth, unwilling and unable to be pushed past my teeth.

“Kaitlyn, Marlene, and Javi went to get help,” Caulder says.

“Help for what?”

“Like Caulder said,” I say slowly, fighting back tears, “something horrible’s happened. We don’t know exactly what’s going on, but Emerson’s gone. Lucas was hurt. And Mr. Jay…”

Ms. Dorman’s forehead knits together. “You’re saying the others left? And Mr. Jay went with them?”

“No,” I say, trying to keep my own voice steady. “I mean, yes, the others left, but Mr. Jay…He’s dead.”

It takes Ms. Dorman several seconds to compute what I’ve said. She stares at me, and even after I look away, I feel the impossibility of her gaze, her shock. It’s like she’s waiting for me to yank the words back or add a “Just kidding!” But when none comes, I hear her shift on the couch.

“That’s not…Are you joking, Avery?” Ms. Dorman asks. “Because this isn’t funny.”

I sniff and shake my head.

“We’re all in danger,” Caulder says. “That’s why Avery attacked you. She thought you were the killer. This place…We think someone’s trying to kill us. Emerson said he fought the attacker off when they came in through the window, and then they stabbed Lucas—”

“Someone stabbed Lucas?” Ms. Dorman echoes, jumping to her feet. “Where is he?”

My voice cracks as I answer. “He’s in the bathroom down the hall. He—”