"What do we do?" I whispered, surprised I could even get the words out. My heart had dropped to my stomach, and my stomach had dropped to the floor as my body shook with adrenaline.

There was the sound of a key being stuck into the lock, making it obvious that whatever the answer to my question was, we'd better figure it out quickly.

"Let's go," Maddie said, taking the lead and sprinting over to the other set of doors, her sneakers squeaking against the shiny floor. It was our only option other than taking the third set of doors into the school building, which wouldn't have been smart-- as soon as whoever was on the other side of that door saw what we did, they were going to start looking for the culprit, and probably call the cops while they were searching.

We followed Madeline, making sure to bring all the cans with us and not leave any evidence behind. I was silently praying that no one left any sort of DNA, even though I knew it wouldn't be conclusive anyway-- staff and students were in and out of the gym every day. Every student in school had been in it just last week for an assembly.

Maddie opened the door as silently as possible, peeking her masked head out into the cool night. Apparently the coast was clear enough, because she slipped outside, all of us following suit as quietly as we could manage. I flinched at every noise, hating the way the grass and leaves crunched under my shoes, or how my clothes rustled when I moved.

After a second of hesitation, Maddie crouched down and started sprinting away from the school, back into the woods we came from. Ian and Roy quickly mimicked her actions, and I knew I need to follow.

I could barely feel my legs as I watched the other three race away-- Madeline was already enveloped in the trees, out of my sight. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion, my head filling with a thousand thoughts, mostly about how stupid I was for getting into this.

In the split second before the door behind me fell shut, the other one opened. There was a tall silhouette standing against the moonlight, and just as my door closed loudly, I heard him shout. "Hey!"

I was frozen in place, my fight or flight response malfunctioning and resulting in me doing nothing instead. My breath caught in my throat as I heard the other door slam again: he was coming around the building now.

I was pinched for sure.

Great, I could remember how to quote Ferris Bueller, but I couldn't remember how to run.

The seconds passing felt like hours as I yelled at my limbs to start moving. There were fast footsteps, but it wasn't coming from the man-- someone had come back through the forest. The next thing I knew they were grabbing my hand, tugging at my arm.

"Jade," Roy said, brown eyes looking at mine through the holes in his mask, "you need to run."

I let him pull me, and thankfully, my lead-filled legs finally recalled how to move, each taking the widest strides they could manage, one after the other, again and again. We were hidden in the darkness of the trees in seconds, weaving in between trunks as we bolted in the direction of Roy's car. I swore I could hear sirens in the distance over the rush of blood in ears, and I begged them to be for someone else.

My lungs felt like they were on fire, and the cold night air stung my throat and chest as it passed through my body. My mask blocked most of my vision, so my limbs were hitting various branches, feet tripping over twigs and rocks I couldn't see. But Roy was guiding me, his gloved hand warm in mine, and through all the chaos, I knew that it was part of the reason my heart was beating so fast.

We finally made it to his car, our hands separating as he entered the driver's side and I scurried around to the passenger's door. We clambered inside, Maddie and Ian already waiting in the backseat, fumbling with their seat belts. Roy promptly started the car, the engine revving to life as he tore off his mask. His face was flushed and red, hair sticking up in various directions.

I pulled mine off too, allowing myself to breathe properly for the first time in what felt like forever, and glanced around at the others. We were all wide-eyed and sweaty, our faces filled with a mix of excitement and worry. As Roy began to drive away, Ian turned to look out the back window, watching for any sign of someone following us. Maddie and I met eyes, and I noticed a small smile playing at her lips.

I smiled too before turning back around. But I couldn't help it-- my smile turned into a grin, which turned into laughter that bubbled inside me, soon filling the car. "Holy shit!"

Roy's eyes were serious and focused on the road ahead of him, but he bit his lip, face threatening to breaking into a smile of its own.

"I can't believe we just did that!" I said, adrenaline still running thick through my veins.

We made a turn back onto a main road, and Roy's car quickly merged with the sea of others. As we settled into traffic, just another unremarkable car, it actually started to feel like we might've managed to get away. Still, even as I started to calm down, I couldn't stop grinning.

We approached a red light and I sighed into the silence, allowing my body to relax into the seat. My eyes closed as I ran my fingers over the plastic in my hands. "So... what do we do with the evidence?"

"I think I might have an idea," Maddie began.

"This reeks," Roy complained, covering his nose with the collar of his T-shirt and nudging his mask further into the fire with a stick.

The four of us were in Maddie's backyard, sitting around the small firepit. Her idea to burn the masks might not have been the most logical solution, but I could feel my paranoia dropping as we watched them slowly go up in flames. The spray paints were sitting in a trash bag in Roy's backseat-- he planned to take a detour on the way home and throw them into a random dumpster, where they couldn't be traced back to us.

"It does stink pretty bad," Ian agreed. "I hope your parents don't smell it."

Maddie shrugged. "I'll just tell them we dropped something in the fire by accident."

"Have you told Daniel we finished?" I asked, wondering how he would take it. I was pretty sure after everything he'd said, he was at least half expecting us to drop out.

A part of me wondered if we should have--I couldn't seem to make up my mind on if it had been the coolest or stupidest night of my life. One the one hand, I finally knew what it felt like to be a part of something. I had friends. Roy came back to help me when he could've saved his own ass. On the other hand, no matter how amazing all that stuff was, thanks to tonight, I was a criminal.

She nodded her head. "I told him we did it, but I didn't go into detail-- I don't want him to panic. He hasn't replied yet."

"How do you think someone knew we were there?" Ian pondered.

"Someone must've seen us," Roy stated.

Maddie nodded. "Either that or The Seven is messing with us."

"You think they'll like, take people in for questioning and stuff tomorrow?" I asked.

"I didn't even think about that." Roy ran a hand through his hair. "Maybe. Probably."

"Should we make some sort of pact?" Ian joked, a smile crossing his face. "Like a vow of silence?"

Maddie pursed her lips. "Actually, that's not a bad idea."

"Okay." He shrugged. "Everyone who promises not to say anything about what happened tonight ever again, to anyone but us, say aye."

"Aye," we all announced, laughter mixed into the agreement.