Chapter 1: The Glow-Down
The lighting in the West Wing girls' bathroom was notoriously awful, but Chloe and Maya were professionals. Chloe adjusted her angle in the cracked mirror, expertly tapping a massive brush full of translucent setting powder onto her cheekbones.
"I'm telling you," Maya said, aggressively applying a layer of hyper-glossy lip oil, "if he thinks he can just ignore my texts and get away with it, he has another thing coming. I'm literally going to-"
Drip. A thick, dark drop of water hit the porcelain sink between them.
"Ugh, gross," Chloe groaned, not looking up. "This school needs to fix the plumbing. Anyway, what were you saying?"
Gurgleeeeee. A sound rose from the drain. It didn't sound like rusty pipes. It sounded like a wet, heavy cough mixed with a growl.
The flickering fluorescent light above them gave one final, dramatic buzz and died, plunging the bathroom into complete darkness.
"Maya? Not funny. Turn your phone flashlight on," Chloe whispered, her heart starting to thud.
"I didn't do anything!" Maya's voice cracked from the corner stall.
Then, they saw it. A faint, eerie, neon-green glow pulsing near the floor by the handicap stall. It wasn't a phone screen. It was a fleshy, bobbing little light, hovering just above the ground. And beneath the light, the silhouette of a massive, wrinkled jaw lined with hundreds of needle-sharp teeth began to open.
Chloe froze, her hand still clutching her oversized powder brush like a weapon. The neon-green light bobbed closer, casting a sickly glow over the damp tile floor.
"Maya..." Chloe squeaked, her voice barely a whisper. "Tell me you brought a glow stick to school."
"Does it look like I brought a glow stick?!" Maya hissed from the dark.
Suddenly, the creature lunged forward into the dim light. It was a massive, slimy nightmare-a school-bus-sized anglerfish dragging itself forward on stubby, impossible fins. Its jaw snapped shut with a terrifying CRACK, missing Chloe's designer sneakers by inches.
"SCREAM!" Maya shrieked at the top of her lungs, kicking her stall door open.
Chloe didn't need to be told twice. She let out a piercing yell, panicked, and slammed her hand down on the top of her setting powder bottle. A massive, blinding cloud of beige dust exploded right into the creature's bulbous, pitch-black eyes.
The anglerfish let out a wet, coughing screech, totally blinded by the matte finish.
"RUN!" Chloe yelled.
They scrambled for the heavy bathroom door, bursting out into the bright, crowded hallway just as the bell rang for third period. Students turned to stare as Chloe and Maya sprinted past the lockers, breathless, covered in makeup powder, and yelling about a deep-sea demon in the West Wing. Behind them, the bathroom door creaked open again...
