Out Back

The locker door clicked shut with finality, and Mark stood there for a moment, listening to the soft echo drift down the hall. Gabriella was secured—silent, unseen, and perfectly still.

Katie leaned against the row of lockers with a sly grin. “I don’t think she will be going to college now.”

Mark smirked but said nothing, his thoughts already moving ahead.

“Dawn next,” he said after a pause.

Katie straightened up. “Yeah… the thing is… I actually haven’t seen her all day. She wasn’t in class in morning.”

“She’s probably skipping again,” Mark said, knowing full well she had a reputation for this. “The good news is she usually comes to the actual school, just saw here no one can find her.”

Katie raised an eyebrow. “The courtyard?”

“Or the old gym. Maybe both.” Mark started walking, and Katie followed without needing to ask what came next.

They headed toward the back of the school, where the less-patrolled areas offered plenty of places to hide from teachers and cameras. Dawn had always been bold—cocky, even. The kind of girl who knew how to charm her way out of trouble and thought the rules didn’t apply to her.

But Mark was a different kind of authority.

They found her not far from the side doors near the old gym, lounging on a bench half-hidden behind a storage shed. Her legs were kicked up, phone in hand, earbuds in, paused as if she had been bobbing her head to some beat only she could hear. She wore a black windbreaker over a tank top, and jean shorts that showed off her tan legs. Her shoes were unlaced, like she hadn’t planned to do anything but kill time.

Katie stopped beside Mark and gestured. “Found her.”

Mark wasted no time (at least for him and Katie) “Dawn. Stop.”

The power surged through him like a pulse of electricity, invisible but undeniable. The world around them held its breath—and so did Dawn.

Mark reached down and gently lifted Dawn’s arm. It held stiff in the position he left it in.

Katie stepped behind her, placing her hands on Dawn’s shoulders. “So with my locker occupied, and yours as well, where will we store her?”

Mark nodded. “Maybe a janitors closet or something. Take the key so no one can find her.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Without another word, they moved into action—Mark crouched to gather her legs while Katie kept her steady. She was heavier than Gabriella despite being shorter.

Mark and Katie carried Dawn’s frozen form around the side of the old gym building. Her lifeless arms hung slightly bent, her fingers still frozen in the act of gripping her phone, while her expression held that smug half-smile she always wore when skipping class.

“She’s heavier than she looks,” Katie muttered as they maneuvered her awkwardly through the back corridor.

“Yeah, she’s not built like Gabriella,” Mark said, readjusting his grip under Dawn’s ankles.

They turned down a seldom-used hallway behind the gym—lined with worn cinderblock walls, faded banners from years past, and barely functioning fluorescent lights that flickered overhead. At the end of the hall sat a heavy, dented door marked Janitorial Supplies / Maintenance in fading red letters.

“Perfect,” Mark said.

Katie tried the handle—it was unlocked. The inside was cramped and dusty, shelves lining both sides, stacked with buckets, cleaning chemicals, and forgotten school junk. The air was thick with that old industrial cleaner smell.

“Hold her,” Mark said, stepping inside to clear a space. He shoved aside a mop bucket and pulled an old, torn wrestling mat off one of the lower shelves. “Okay. Bring her in.”

Katie guided Dawn’s upper body while Mark handled her legs, carefully folding the frozen girl into a seated position on the floor between two shelving units. Her knees were drawn up against her chest, her head tilted against the wall at an awkward angle. Her earbuds had slipped loose, one dangling against her shoulder. Her phone was still clutched in her hand.

“She looks like she’s just taking a nap,” Mark said, brushing a few stray strands of hair from Dawn’s cheek.

Katie fished around the doorframe and found the key hanging on a little hook beside the door.

“No alarm, no camera. And now—” she held up the key with a grin, “—no way in.”

Mark took the key and slipped it into his pocket. “She’s not going anywhere.”

They stepped out, giving one last look at the frozen girl slumped in the corner, still caught in the moment she thought she was free from school, responsibility—everything. Now she was - forever.

Katie pulled the door shut. Mark locked it with a solid click.

“You know she’s going to be missed,” Katie said as they turned back down the hallway. “All three of them will be.”

Mark shrugged. “Eventually. But not yet. Let’s get them to my house this afternoon, and we will figure out how to explain their disappearances then.”

“You’re a bad influence on me you know that.” Katie pointed out.

“Well then where would be the fun if I wasn’t,” Mark pointed out.

The two best friends laughed as they walked back to where they were before time froze, the key safe in Mark’s pocket, the hallway behind them echoing with every fading step.