Lacey Delgado walked down the long, dark hall leading to the locker room bathrooms. The chill and the odd echo of her footsteps gave her the creeps, even as she could hear her teammates practicing cheers in the distant gym. Burned-out lights and dark windows of abandoned classrooms unnerved her. Twice, she swore she heard a slight scuffle behind her, but turning revealed nothing. She felt watched by unseen eyes from the empty rooms. Just as she was about to turn back, she saw the girls' bathroom.
Pushing the door open, Lacey entered an old-fashioned restroom, clearly long unused. The mirror over the sink was clouded with dust. The stained sinks were dry and discolored. The chipped tile floor was littered with torn paper towels and peeling paint. Still spooked, Lacey used the nearest stall.
As she walked out and began washing her hands, she glanced up into the dusty mirror. Her heart leaped into her throat. Written shakily in the grime were the words: "Get out...NOW!" Panic seized her. She bolted for the door, a primal fear coursing through her. Just as she reached it, the entire room began to shake violently.
Lacey was knocked to the tilting floor by the deafening tremor. Lights crashed, lockers broke loose, and the mirror shattered, spraying glass shards. She covered her head until the shaking passed. Knowing California was earthquake-prone but never having experienced one, she weakly climbed to her feet, determined to escape before another shock hit.
She pulled hard at the bathroom door, but it was jammed shut, the old building shifted by the quake. Then, an urgent whisper came from behind: "This way, quick! I know another way out!" Spinning around, Lacey was shocked to see another cheerleader—a blonde girl in a blue uniform with the name "Alicia" spelled in gold on her tunic.
The girl began prying at a large piece of plywood on the far wall, revealed when tiles shook loose. With a loud groan, the plywood came off, revealing a dark, musty hallway. Thick dust covered the floor, and spiderwebs blurred the dim ceiling. The only light came from a grimy window at the far end. Lacey hurried after the blue uniform, her feet crunching on broken glass and debris she didn't want to identify. The light, she realized with relief, came from an exterior door. The blonde girl pushed it open and motioned for Lacey to exit first.
Lacey stumbled into sunlight and gasped fresh air. Almost immediately, an aftershock knocked her to the ground. When she stood up, the girl was gone, and the door was closed.
Lacey's coach came running, shouting to rescuers that she was found. Frantically, Lacey pleaded with them to find Alicia, the girl who had saved her. The door was pried open, and the rescue party entered the dusty hallway. Oddly, only one set of footprints wound through the dust, leading back to the abandoned bathroom. Alicia was nowhere to be found.
Later, recovering at home, Lacey learned no one else was hurt. Alicia was never located, and no cheerleaders were reported missing, leading to assumptions she was from another squad. A knock came at the door. Lacey's mother led in a blonde woman named Amy Porter.
Amy explained that she and her twin sister, Alicia, were cheerleaders at the old school years ago. During a practice, a terrible earthquake struck. Both girls were in the bathroom and ran for the door at the first tremor. Amy made it out safely, but Alicia was killed by a falling beam in the hallway. The school boarded up the unsafe hallway, later tiling over its entrance. The school was eventually renamed Alicia Porter Memorial High School, and the tragedy was largely forgotten.
That is, until a cheerleader named Alicia led Lacey Delgado to safety down the old, abandoned hallway.