Authors: Carolee Dean
ALLY
I know your type. You’re just a garden-variety bully.
HANGMAN
And you’re just a garden-variety whore. Did you really think the big football player was going to leave his pretty girlfriend for you?
His words should cut me in two, but they don’t, and the fact that they don’t is strange. The only explanation is that I just don’t care what this loser thinks. It feels invigorating not to care. Feels so terrific, in fact, that I start to laugh. This really pisses off the Hulk, who glares at me until his eyes are like two blue ice cubes.
All at once the room is a freezer, and the cold that didn’t faze me before becomes unbearable. The tile beneath my butt is a sheet of ice that grows so cold it burns. I jump to my feet, and when I turn around, the Hulk is reclining on the spot where I was just sitting, head cocked up on his arm, smirking. Makeout girl stands at the opposite end of the hallway, watching us.
JULIE ANN
You’re new here.
HANGMAN
(to Julie Ann)
She was here all day yesterday, which you might have noticed if you hadn’t been sucking face for eight straight hours.
The girl in black glances up at me, and the pink yarn on her lap looks like a dead poodle. She’s almost done with her knitting project—a sweater that’s about ten sizes too small.
SISTER
(softly)
It’s easy to lose track of time.
The Hulk sits up and makes a sweeping gesture with his arm toward the girl in black.
HANGMAN
Alley Cat, meet Little Sister. And down the hallway we have Rotceo and Julie Ann Fries.
The ROTC guy grabs the hand of the girl in bell bottoms, and pulls her back onto the bench seat.
ROTCEO
Come back, baby. I need you.
HANGMAN
So what do you think, Alley Cat? Do you like our
accommodations?
ALLY
Why are you calling me that?
HANGMAN
Alley Cats always land on their feet. You can toss ’em off the roof headfirst, but it’s their little toes that always hit the pavement before anything else.
For some reason this causes me to look outside at the yellow crime-scene tape and wonder if someone has been pushed off the roof.
ALLY
Why do I get the feeling you speak from experience?
HANGMAN
(shrugging)
Some cats want to go off the roof.
ALLY
And you’re just the guy to help them.
He smiles as a security guard in a red T-shirt steps onto the H Hall. I look at the ROTC dude, who doesn’t even try to hide the fact that he has both hands up his girlfriend’s shirt.
We’re all going to be caught. My only solace is knowing I’ll be sent to in-school suspension instead of back to class.
HANGMAN
He won’t bother us.
ALLY
How can you be so sure?
The security guard stops in the middle of the hallway and takes a referral form out of his back pocket.
HANGMAN
Watch.
(walking up behind the security guard)
Keep walking, mister. Hear no evil. See no evil.
The security guard quickly pockets the referral form and hurries out of the hallway.
ALLY
Wow! That was impressive. I don’t even think Will Jones could get away with that.
HANGMAN
Stick around, Alley Cat. I’m just getting started.
SISTER
You really shouldn’t encourage him.
She sounds afraid of him, but I’m not. Actually, I find him as intriguing as he is repulsive. I don’t know many people who say exactly what’s on their minds.
ALLY
You’ve introduced me to everyone else. What’s your name?
HANGMAN
I’m the Hangman, at your service.
ALLY
Strange name. Why do they call you that?
HANGMAN
I like to hang out and I like to play games. How about Wheel of Fortune? Wanna take a spin?
SISTER
You really shouldn’t encourage him.
HANGMAN
Don’t listen to her. Too much time in Catholic girls’ school. Total party pooper. Would you like to buy a vowel?
While he’s been talking, the Hangman has drawn a stick gallows on the wall in red Magic Marker with four blank lines underneath. Great. When security catches us, they can add vandalism to our list of offenses.
HANGMAN
And since you’re new to the hallway, I’ll even give you a hint. Four-letter word starting with F.
SISTER
Oh my!
HANGMAN
“OOOOO my” is exactly right. You’ve just bought yourself two O’s.
He writes two
O
’s after the
F
.
SISTER
No. No! I didn’t say I wanted to buy a vowel.
HANGMAN
Too late.
ALLY
What does a vowel cost?
The girl in black presses her lips together and shakes her head. She tries to say something, but she can’t seem to get any words out. The sweater she’s been working on for the past hour unravels, and then the pink yarn floats up to her lips and stitches them together.
ALLY
What’s happening?
HANGMAN
Told you she was a party pooper.
ALLY
What did you do to her?
HANGMAN
Don’t worry. It doesn’t hurt. Now give me a consonant. That won’t cost you anything. Unless you get it wrong.
ALLY
(standing and moving toward the door)
I don’t want to play this game.
HANGMAN
(yelling)
Give me a consonant!
The whole building seems to shake with the thunder of his voice.
ALLY
What’s happening?
HANGMAN
(screaming now)
GIVE . . . ME . . . A . . . CONSONANT!
JULIE ANN
(calling from the other end of the hall)
D.
The Hangman turns and glares at Julie Ann.
HANGMAN
Not fair when you’ve played the game before, Miss Fries.
She shudders and looks away like she’s expecting to get hit, but all the Hangman does is write the letter
D
up on the wall and erase the stick gallows with his sleeve. When the gallows disappears, the pink yarn disentangles itself from the lips of Little Sister.
HANGMAN
F-O-O-D. Rule number one. No food on the hallway.
I look around at the four strangers and realize they are exactly that—strangers. They’re all odd enough to have stood out on the quad, but I’ve never noticed any of them.
ALLY
Who are you guys? What is this place?
HANGMAN
Don’t you know?
I look outside at the yellow tape in front of the Fine Arts Building and wonder what happened there. Brady Theater is taller than anything
else on campus. There’s a ladder leading up to the top and sometimes kids sneak up there to get stoned. I went up there one night with Davis after a football game. I went up there with Darla when she introduced the freshman Ravenettes to Jim Beam. I remember having a huge fight with Dad and thinking it would be a good place to hide.
ALLY
I went up there.
HANGMAN
Ah, yes. It’s coming back to her now.
What happened after that is a blur. Was it hours later, or maybe days when someone else was up there with me? I can’t seem to remember. All I remember is a voice saying
You’d be better off dead
over and over and over again.
You’d be better off dead. You’d be better off dead. You’d be better off dead. . . .
ALLY
I went to the edge of the roof.
HANGMAN
And then . . .
ALLY
I went to the edge of the roof because I thought I was going to vomit. I leaned over the side and I got dizzy. I lost my balance and I . . .
HANGMAN
Yes?
ALLY
I fell.
HANGMAN
Is that how you remember it? As I recall, you tried to go headfirst. Landed on your feet. I was worried there for a while, but you still managed to knock your head against the pavement. Might have been really nasty otherwise.
ALLY
No. That’s not what happened. I didn’t mean to do it. I feel sick. I have to get out of here.
I run to the door leading out to the G Hall, but it’s locked. I run to the elevator, but I don’t have a key. I run to the window and pound my fists on the glass, but no one hears me. Then I see the letters from the exit sign falling to the ground . . .
one by one.
ALLY
What is this place?
HANGMAN
Oh, goody, she wants to play another round.
The Hangman draws another gallows on the wall, and I realize that the red ink is coming not from a pen but from his finger.
SISTER
You really should try not to ask him questions.
HANGMAN
Four-letter word, starting with
H
. Would you like to buy a vowel?
JULIE ANN
L.
HANGMAN
(tersely)
It’s not your turn, Miss Fries.
(composing himself)
But Alley Cat is new here and she obviously needs some help, so I’ll let it slide. This time.
He writes the letters on the wall.
H
L
L
.
ALLY
No! It can’t be.
HANGMAN
Yes, it can.
ALLY
This place is hell, isn’t it? I’m dead, aren’t I? I’ve died and gone to hell.
HANGMAN
Would you like to solve the puzzle, or do you want to buy a vowel?
I turn to the girl in black.
ALLY
Or maybe it’s just purgatory.
She looks away.
HANGMAN
Too many letters. Are you ready to solve the puzzle?
I sit on the tile bench and start to cry. I feel an arm around my shoulders and realize that Julie Ann has come to sit beside me.
JULIE ANN
This place isn’t as bad as it seems.
ALLY
I really am in hell, aren’t I?
HANGMAN
Is that your final answer?
SISTER
(nervously raising her hand)
Excuse me.
The Hangman looks at the girl in black with irritation.
HANGMAN
Yes.
SISTER
I’d like to buy an
A
.
HANGMAN
(in irritation)
Fine, then. Have it your way.
The yarn spins itself into a giant pink web with the girl wrapped up in a fuzzy cocoon in the middle. The Hangman adds an
A
.
HANGMAN
H-A-L-L.
The bell for second period rings, and kids start flooding through the G Hall and out of the building. Julie Ann takes my hand and leads me to the window. On the quad below I see Davis and Darla kissing under a tree.
JULIE ANN
Don’t try to make it complicated.
(she points outside)
That—is high school.
That—is hell.
This is just the hallway.
Night
falls.
Water
falls.
Snow falls, soft and wet,
gathering on tree branches