Carver Pike - Scalp

Robbie froze. A man stood there watching him. If it was a teacher, he was busted. He’d stepped out of the girls’ room only moments before. The teacher would have seen that. If he made a run for it now and quietly slipped back into his room, he’d never get caught. He could get into his bed and shower tomorrow morning.

The man at the end of the hall moved forward, slowly, and Robbie waited for the overhead light to pop on. If it did, he’d be able to see which teacher was watching him. Then again, if the light came on, the teacher might get a better look at him as well.

On the count of three. One… two…

Heavy footsteps sounded off as the man moved toward him, stumbling forward.

Robbie didn’t wait for the lights. He dashed down the hall, hit the stairs and took them three at a time, and was back in his room with the door shut and locked in a matter of seconds. With his heart pounding in his chest, he slid to the floor and sat with his back against the door. He waited for the teacher to come knocking, but he never did.

Bianca stood at the door pouting. Robbie was exactly what she wanted, and she didn’t want for much. She was the kind of girl who usually got what she desired. That didn’t make her a bitch. Some of the girls at her school thought so, but it wasn’t true. In fact, she cared more about what others thought than most of her friends. She hated being hated. She loved being loved. So, boys like Robbie were confusing. He was somewhere in the middle. Of course, he didn’t hate her, but it was clear he wouldn’t be falling in love with her anytime soon.

“I can’t believe he left like that,” Misty said.

Bianca had a feeling Misty didn’t like her. Desiree seemed okay with her, but Misty had made a few comments throughout the day that got on Bianca’s nerves. Like when Bianca came to class a few seconds late, Misty said, “The girl with all the dough can’t afford a watch?”

Sure, her family had money, but that didn’t mean she flaunted it. She was a nice girl. She spent a lot of time making sure everyone knew that. She volunteered at the children’s hospital every Saturday and spent Tuesday evenings at her church’s youth choir.

“I know,” Bianca said. “I guess that’s what makes him kind of special.”

“That he’d ditch you?” Desiree asked. “Sounds like an asshole to me.”

“He’s just tired,” Bianca defended him. “I have to admit, I am too.”

Bianca was about to climb the ladder to her bed when there was a thump at the door behind her. She smiled.

“Ohhh sounds like lover boy might be back,” Trevor said. “I had a feeling he’d regret leaving.”

“Don’t open it,” Misty told her.

“What?” Bianca asked. “Why not?”

“Let him wait a bit,” Misty replied. “Being in our room is a privilege. He’s lost that privilege.”

Desiree and Steven both laughed. They would make a good match. Desiree was a tennis player who always kept her dirty blonde hair up in one of those headbands tennis players wore. Steven was obviously a jock. If she had to guess, she’d say he played one of those sports she’d never actually seen anyone play like polo or lacrosse.

Something smacked against the door.

“He’s desperate,” Misty said. “Hear that? He’s slapping the door now.”

“Oh, let’s let him in,” Bianca said.

“No, a little longer,” Desiree suggested.

“I say don’t let him in at all,” Steven added. “He’s kind of an asshole. If he wanted to go back to our room so badly, I say let him.”

Sounds like you’re the asshole.

Bianca hadn’t had any reason not to like the boy before, but now he seemed like a total jerk. What had Robbie ever done to him?

“No,” Bianca announced, “I’m going to let him in.”

She turned, threw the latch on the door, and pulled it open despite her friends’ calls to keep the door shut. As the door opened inward, she saw a shadowy figure standing in front of her.

“Robbie?” she asked.

She knew it wasn’t him. Her first thought was they were busted. A teacher had heard all the noise from the other side and was here to check on the disturbance. They would all be in trouble. She wondered if they would call her parents or handle this internally.

“Who is it?” Misty asked.

Bianca gasped when she heard the sound emanating from the man. She couldn’t describe it, and she couldn’t move to close the door even though she knew she should.

It was loud.

Angry.

Hungry.

Determined.

And it pounced on her. Like a hundred hot droplets of acid on her scalp, instant sizzling-like pain bit into her head and seemed to be quickly driving deeper and deeper into her skull. Bianca fell backward and right into the arms of Trevor who’d stood to check on her.

“What the fuck?” he asked. “Are you okay—”

His voice caught in his throat, and Bianca knew he was feeling the pain too. The way his body locked up caused them both to crash to the floor. There, on her back, Bianca rolled away from Trevor and stared up at the old man she recognized from the day before. The caretaker. He’d been working on the lawn. Now, he stood in her room, drool dripping from his mouth.

Bianca’s body spasmed and her back arched so hard she felt a muscle rip. The stinging and burning were like a thousand nails shot from a nail gun and riddling her scalp. Her hands flew to her head and her fingernails clenched at her hair, pulling so hard clumps of it came off in her hands.

And she dug. Her nails bit down into her flesh and she skewered herself, digging into her skin and pulling back, desperately trying to peel the pain away from her body.

Behind her, Trevor screamed in agony, and she realized she was screaming louder.

“Who are you?” she heard Steven yell.

Through blurred vision, she saw the big boy rush at the old man. The two went down on Misty’s twin-size bed. Then there was more thrashing around and more screaming.

Bianca fought to free herself of the miniature, squirming insects chewing their way through her skull, racing toward her brain.

The door slammed shut, locking them all inside with the deadly visitor.

Then all went black.

“Yeah, at Cloud 9,” Hal said into his phone as he cruised around the woods, doing his normal checks of his area. The cop on the other end of the line was one of the smuggest, cockiest assholes Hal had ever had the pleasure to meet. It was the same cop that caught him driving under the influence. “I don’t know where everyone was, but it was quiet.”

“Quiet?” the cop asked.

“Yeah, it was weird, man. Can y’all just go check on the place?”

“You want us to check on a ‘quiet’ trailer park?”

“This isn’t a joke.”

“I’m not saying it is, but you have to understand how that sounds. Hal, we’ve got only two officers on duty at night. You know how things are around here. They’re quiet.” He put emphasis on the word as if to further make fun of him. “This means we don’t really have the manpower to go checking on things unless there’s an actual problem. Now, I’m not saying there isn’t, but none has been reported to me.”

“I’m reporting it to you now,” Hal said. “I was attacked by a damn dog. A mean motherfucker, too. He wasn’t normal. I’d say that thing had rabies. What if he attacked the people at the trailer park?”

The phone became muffled on the other end like the cop had placed his hand over the speaker. Hal was sure he heard laughing on the other end.

“Well,” the cop came back with, “I can assure you we’ll take care of this.”