Page 104 of Ice Me Out

Thank goodness I don’t see any creepy creatures when I put the box of tools on one of the metal shelves that cover every wall of the storage room, floor to ceiling.

The air smells musty and damp around here, and I hurry out of the door as quickly as I can. I need to get used to coming back here. This is where some of the extra art supplies are kept and I might need them.

The heavy door closes behind me with a thud and I exhale, relieved that I can get out of here and go home.

As I quicken my pace back into the main room, the lights go out when I’m still in the middle of the long hallway full of classrooms and study rooms.

“Shit.” I suppress a shudder. I’ve never been too scared of the dark, but there’s something about an empty school building in the dark that’s deeply unsettling. No wonder a lot of horror movies are set in a school at night.

I switch on the flashlight on my phone, using it to guide my steps back to the main room where I left my purse.

Once I gathered all my things, I try the light switch in the big room, but nothing happens. “They must have cut the power.” I say out loud. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

I spot movement in my peripheral vision and turn around toward the door that connects the main classroom to the exit hallway. “Fiona?” I call out.

No one answers me.

“Jesus.” I chuckle nervously, goosebumps appearing on my bare arms. “No more horror movies for me.” I shine my phone light at the door to reassure myself that there’s nothing to worry about.

But I’m not alone.

A man is standing in the doorjamb. He’s tall and broad. My light hits his black sneakers, black jogger pants, dark gray long-sleeved sweater and… a hockey mask covering his entire face.

“Hello?” Aside from the full mask, he looks exactly like the guy I kissed at the Zeta party. “Connor?” I call out.

It has to be Connor. I don’t think Luke would lie to me that the man behind the mask is one of my roommates. I know for sure it wasn’t Jamie, and there’s no way it can be Keene. That kiss was soft and sweet, everything Keene is not.

He doesn’t answer, but he steps closer to me.

“Connor, is that you?”

He’s right in front of me in a few long strides.

My back hits the wall. I didn’t even realize I was retreating until I found myself trapped between the wall and the tall, masked stranger.

He comes closer, so close that our chests are touching. He leans closer and closer and I almost expect him to remove his mask, at least partially, to kiss me.

But he doesn’t.

He slaps my phone out of my hand and I hear it hit the wooden floor at my feet. The impact is so hard that I’m pretty sure the screen must have cracked.

I squint, trying to look at his eyes through the mask’s slits, but now it’s too dark to see anything.

He has on hockey gloves, like at the party.

One of his gloved hands hits the wall on one side of my head, the other hand comes to my throat.

It’s a gentle, almost hesitant touch at first.

“Connor, I’m not enjoying this. Please take that mask off. You’re starting to scare me.”

My plea has the opposite effect. Rather than taking his mask off or stepping away, he pins me to the wall by tightening his hand around my neck.

I don’t know if this is Connor. Even when he and Jamie fought those guys at the pier, the blond Cove Knight defenseman has never given me a dangerous vibe.

Sad, maybe. Closed off. But never dangerous. Out of my brother’s three roommates—my roommates now, I guess—he’s the one I liked the most from the get go. At least before I got to know Jamie better.

“Keene?” I ask.