376Prologue
If shot from the correct angle, Winslow High School wouldn't look out of place in a post-apocalyptic movie.
The grass was either dead or drowning in mud from the recent snow. Graffiti and gang signs covered the crumbling bricks.
The chain-linked fences were lined with rust, cut and pulled back in so many places that they were entirely superfluous. Even more so was the barbed wire on top. Why they thought it was a good idea to put that near a school was anyone's guess. No one was trying to get in.
Maybe it was there to keep the students from getting out.
Regardless, it did nothing to stop the lone figure who approached.
Classes were actively in session. It was the first day back after winter break.
And yet, no one saw her.
She opened one of the rusted side doors. It was usually locked, but one of the cafeteria workers had slipped out earlier to sneak in an extra smoke break, and it didn't latch back properly. It creaked, but there was no one close enough to hear it.
The woman's black dress shoes clicked on the cracked linoleum floors as she strode down the hall.
The noises reached her before she reached her destination.
"Please… help… someone…"
The broken voice was accompanied by the dull thud of flesh on metal.
"...let me out…"
The woman arrived at the correct place.
The locker door trembled with the force of the impacts from inside.
"...please…"
The woman reached out and carefully attached a circular piece of tinkertech to the outside of the locker.
The begging cut off abruptly.
No sound would escape the metal box.
No smells.
No one would even be able to think about it too hard.
No one would remember who shoved the girl into the locker.
Or that she was in there at all.
Until the device self-destructed in 72 hours, leaving no trace of its existence.
And by then, it would be far, far too late.
But it was necessary.
The Path required it.
"Door, please," the woman in the fedora said.
And then she left.
…
The moon was bright, tonight.
A silver isle, in the endless dark.
It called to her, as she drifted, lost.
A lullaby, to sleep, and dream of blood.
…