"You sure this is the right place?" A woman spoke while she was in the passenger's seat of an older vehicle.
"It's the only house here for miles." A man was now talking. "He's got to be here."
The car was parked near a large stack of firewood leaning on a shed. The man was the first to exit, then he proceeded to get the door for his colleague. The only tracks that were visible in the snow were their footprints and the pattern of the tires. The woman had her red hair neatly tucked into a French twist, while the man beside her was wearing a plain black beanie to keep his bald head warm. The two suited adults headed towards the two story home with an air of confidence.
The door began to slowly creak open, and the two looked down to find a nervous looking girl with pink hair, possibly aged around four or five. "H-Hello?"
"Why hello there," The two tried to make themselves look friendly in order not to scare her. "Is Mr. Waldo Schaeffer home?"
The girl looked behind her towards the stairs, then looking back up and shaking her head. "Daddy isn't seeing anyone right now."
"'Daddy'?" The man repeated what she just said. The female beside him seemed just as taken aback as he was.
"Waldo never told us he had a daughter!" The woman put on a happy face. She knelt down so that they could be meet eye to eye and extended her hand. "My name is Wendy, and this is my partner Lawrence. What's your name, little one?"
"A-Aelita..." She stuttered slightly, taking Wendy's hand pensively.
"That's a pretty name." Wendy complimented. "Do you mind if we come in for a minute?"
Once again, Aelita looked upstairs and back up to the two adults. She shook her head. "Daddy said not to let anyone in."
"Not even for a short visit?" Lawrence asked.
"Nuh-uh."
"I assure you that our stay won't be too long." Lawrence tried to convince Aelita. "Just a few words with your father and we'll be out of your way."
Aelita bit her lip and looked down. She was scared of what her father would do, but she seemed more frightened by what wouldn't happen. She finally gave in and opened the door wide open for them. Once she was sure the two were inside, she closed and locked the entrance behind them. Aelita retreated into the kitchen to grab a white cup with an elephant on it.
"Daddy's upstairs." Aelita pointed to the wooden staircase.
"Thank you." Lawrence nodded and went upstairs while Wendy decided to keep the little girl company. Aelita had just got done refilling her cup before returning to her puzzles.
"Do you mind if I sat here?" Wendy grabbed the chair beside her. There was a table parallel to the oven and cupboards. Aelita nodded in approval as the adult observed her writing. Wendy was expecting coloring books or maybe even a little tea party, but no. There were things like crossword puzzles and word scrambles in its place. On the table parallel to the oven and cupboards, there were different word puzzles strewn about with different colored pencils. Wendy found it awfully strange that a girl of Aelita's age was spelling words beyond normal reading comprehension.
Soon, the pinkette's attention would be drawn to something else entirely. Aelita seemed to be staring at Wendy for some unknown reason. She finally pointed at her after what seemed like forever.
"What are those?"
"Hm?" Wendy looked to where Aelita was pointing at, making her slightly embarrassed. The white, form fitting ruffled shirt she had on was exposing some cleavage. "Oh, breasts."
"I wish I had some..." Aelita looked down into her cup.
Wendy chuckled lightheartedly despite the awkward turn the conversation went. "Don't worry, in a few years you'll have a pair of your own."
The little pink haired girl looked disappointed. "No I won't. Daddy says I don't need that extension."
"Extension?" The woman asked. "Sweetheart, what are you talking about?"
"Daddy likes to fix me with patches and extensions."
Wendy gave her a perplexed look. "What do you mean by fix?"
"Aelita!" A man wearing tinted glasses with dull brown hair and a matching facial hair came upstairs from upstairs. Lawrence closely followed Waldo. Aelita instinctively hid behind Wendy. "I thought I told you not to let anyone in!"
"Please, it's not her fault," Wendy tried to reassure him, holding Aelita close. "We just really needed to see you-"
"You weren't answering your phone, and we hoped we might be able to contact you in person-"
"I don't want to hear it!" Waldo exclaimed. "I already told you people that I'm not going back to that project!"
"This isn't about that." Lawrence told him firmly. "This is about your wife."
Waldo's eyes widened. His glance shifted from the two suits and his daughter. He felt his mouth suddenly grow dry. A lump grew in his throat.
"She hasn't reported to work in two years." Lawrence continued. "We were able to buy that she went missing based on your account. But now..."
"Where is she, Waldo?" Wendy spoke up impulsively. "Where is Anthea Schaeffer?"
Waldo's rough hands had now become fists.
"There's something you're not telling us, Waldo." Lawrence proceeded to prod the older man. "The evidence we gathered and the story you told us aren't adding up."
Waldo lowered his head. Aelita's eyes had a forlorn color to them now. She was trying to make sense of everything going on around her. She was at a loss.
"Now, if you would like to explain yourself and clarify a few things, we-"
"Get out." Waldo softly mumbled.
A deafening silence grew over the four.
"...What?"
"GET OUT!" Waldo exploded. He rushed over to Aelita and held a tight grip of her wrist. "You will get out and stay out! NOW!"
"Daddy, you're hurting me!" Aelita tried to break free.
"Waldo, you're being completely irrational!" Wendy fought. "Just come with us and-"
"NO!" Waldo continued to yell. "You two will leave at once... and you!"
Aelita's face was held up by Waldo's other hand. "You're going in the scanner."
Aelita's eyes had tears coming out of them. "No, No! Daddy, no!"
"Waldo, enough of this!" Lawrence tried to break the two apart. He was met with a punch to the face. Afterwards, he began to force the two out of his home, while still having his daughter close by. She was now crying and thrashing about.
"I'm not telling you anything." Waldo breathed out.
Before the two could get another word out, Waldo slammed the door in their faces. The two looked at each other in hopes that one of them could piece together what just happened. The two could still hear the poor girl's cries from the outside. Their hearts ached for the child. Wendy and Lawrence knew what they had to do in order to try and keep her safe.
Just as they were about to leave, they turned around and saw the lights completely go out through the windows; even the porch lights went dead. Not even the light hanging above the shed was safe. Wendy and Lawrence simply shrugged it off as pure coincidence, more concerned about reporting Waldo Schaeffer's strange behavior back to the company.
It had been eight years since that close encounter in Switzerland. Waldo and Aelita moved from Switzerland to France within that time period, where Waldo held a teaching career at Kadic Academy for some time. Waldo had also changed his last name to Franz Stones, in reference to his grandmother's maiden name. However, a string of peculiar events resulted in Mr. Stones being fired from his position and his daughter being placed in as a day student. One of these events involved indoctrinating his students into a sort of technology based religion. It was nerve wracking enough to be the new girl in a school that was in another country; it was another story with rumors about Franz Stones still lingering and the memory of his actions within public memory. Aelita certainly wasn't doing anyone any favors with how inept she was to social cues and topics. As far as academics were concerned, however, she was one of the brightest minds in the whole school. If only brains could transfer over into popularity points.
Aelita had only been at Kadic for roughly two years, yet the taunting and teasing from her classmates felt eternal. What she didn't anticipate was how it would escalate starting today.
Today, it was boys versus girls in a game of football. Jim Morales, of course, was coaching the boys while the girls were left with Ms. Keningston. The regular female gym teacher was currently on maternity leave, so Ms. Rachel Keningston offered to fill in for her while she stayed at home with the new bouncing baby boy. While she was by no means an Olympic athlete, Rachel performed her new duties well and even joined in the workouts on occasion. In the left goal post, Aelita Stones stood with one hand gripping her arm across her body. She decided to follow the advice of her female classmates and just stay out of the way so it would be an easy win.
Apparently she wasn't the only one being singled out by her team. A glasses-wearing blonde haired boy was also kept at a distance from his team, but was seemingly doing a better job at making it look like he was helping. Everyone else was having a good time with jokingly trash talking each other and making the other team slip up at times. Aelita would jump at any instance the ball came even slightly towards her, causing annoyance in her team as the boys were gaining a lead.
"Come on, Aelita!" One voice nagged. "Don't make us lose again!"
"S-sorry..." Aelita mumbled. She was never good at sports, unless chess counted as one.
"Here comes the ball, Aelita! Go on, hit it!" Another voice altered her.
Aelita's heart jumped. She ducked down with her hands above her head as the ball flew above her head and into the net. She could hear cheers from the boys and groans from the girls.
"It's okay, Aelita! You did your best!" Ms. Keningston tried to make the scenario less embarrassing for her.
"Time to hit the showers, everyone!" Jim blew his whistle. One boy with a purple diamond in his hair held the ball close to his hip as he was chatting it up with his friends.
Aelita was met with glares from the rest of the girls. They all went ahead towards the girl's locker room in a hurry.
"Thanks a lot, Aelita..." "Why did Ms. Keningston have to makeher part of the team?" "Great, we lost again..." Were just some of the comments Aelita overheard.
One girl didn't bother to apologize when she ran into the pinkette. The last girl who seemingly had it in for her the most, Elizabeth "Sissi" Delmas glared at her with cold brown eyes and whispered to her icily. "You suck."
Sissi, acting as though nothing happened, caught up to Laura Gauthier and Sorya Abulabbas. Aelita wondered if those two girls were just as aware of Sissi's two faced nature as she was. With her being the principal's daughter, she could practically get away with murder if she felt like it. Aelita managed to catch a quick glimpse of the boy's team goalie. He gave her a reassuring smile before going off on his own business. This made Aelita smile as well, feeling at least somewhat wanted here.
"Get a move on, Stones!" Ms. Keningston called out to her lone student. Aelita ran into the building like a speeding bullet to avoid any more trouble.
The locker room was filled with gossip and steam from the showers. There were only a few girls left in the showers, each of them sharing various plans and other news going on.
"-she didn't even ask me if she could have it-"
"-I'm so going to kill him for that-"
"-so anyways, what's with you and Ulrich?"
"No way! Congratulations!"
Aelita, the last one to get in, felt everyone's words and her own worries go down the drain. The water was warm enough to relax her, but not hot enough that it would boil one's skin. Even though she wasn't particularly great at it, Aelita loved to swim. Being in the showers made her feel like she was in the ocean. The water felt much more relaxing than usual today.
Something, somehow must have spooked her and caused her to drop her bar soap. Before she grabbed it off the tiled floor, Aelita saw something strange. Her bar had turned red. Aelita's breathing deepened. She felt that something was moving inside her. She brought both her hands up. The same color was on her palms and inside her legs. Her heart was beating faster. What was happening to her body? There was only one thing she could assume: death.
"Help me! Help, me please!"
Aelita rushed out of the shower towards the other girls. Much to everyone's annoyance and squeamishness, Aelita had touched the girls with her blood soaked hands. "Help!"
"Hey! You ruined my shirt!" Laura scolded the pinkette, her red hand-print visible on her white blouse.
"Oh my God.. that's period blood!" Sissi made the connection.
"Please, please!" Aelita continued to beg.
"Calm down, Aelita," Sissi nonchalantly brought the hysterical girl a tampon. "Just plug it up."
However, this didn't seem to help at all. If anything, this just made her even more nervous.
"Come on! Plug it up!" One girl said.
"Yeah, Aelita! Plug it up!" Another girl joined in, this time throwing a pad.
"Plug it up!" A giggling voice continued.
Sissi walked over to a metal container attached to the wall. She opened the door and grabbed a handful of sanitary products. "Plug it up!"
The other girls began to follow her lead, her words now an ominous chant.
"Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up!"
Even Laura found herself in the madness. In her mind, it wasn't anything serious. Just some playful teasing. She took some pads and tampons and threw them like there was no tomorrow. Aelita found herself being backed into the same stall she came out of.
One of the girls witnessed the commotion inside and rushed out to tell the other girls who were starting to leave. She waved to them to come closer so nobody else would hear them.
"Aelita's riding the red river," Magali said with a huge grin on her face. "And she is freaking out."
The girls looked at each other and knew that this was something that they had to see. Meanwhile, Aelita was still in a panicked frenzy. When the other girls poured in, they began to join in like mindless drones.
"Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up!"
Aelita tried to swipe them all away. Little did she or anyone else know, with every product that came flying, all of them slowly inched away from her. The steam from the water made the other girls look like phantoms. Aelita was begging for the torment to stop, hoping for something, anything, to end it all.
"Hey, hey! What's going on here?!" Ms. Keningston burst into the locker room, her voice going unnoticed with the ongoing chant. As she continued to get to the source, the voices in the back began to quiet down. That didn't stop the majority from continuing.
"KNOCK IT OFF! ALL OF YOU!" Ms. Keningston exploded. The girls immediately stopped and made a hole for her to pass through. That's when she saw Aelita Stones huddled into the tiled corner of a shower stall with sanitary items strewn around her. Ms. Keningston knelt down to her and tried to diffuse the stress.
"Aelita, honey, tell me what happened." Ms. Keningston tried to get through to her. She was a hyperventilating and screeching mess. Aelita shook her head repeatedly and grabbed Ms. Keningston's pants, leaving a dark stain. "Honey, just take a deep breath... Aelita, calm down! Aelita! AELITA!"
At the exact same moment she was slapped, half of the lights in the locker room went out. This was followed by some startled yelps by the girls. Even their teacher was looking up. Everyone could feel the room get instantly colder. They looked up at the ceiling and huddled among each other. Aelita's frantic moans turned into soft crying. Ms. Keningston allowed Aelita to bury her head into her stomach.
Ms. Keningston glared at the girls. "Well? What are you waiting for? Show's over, get out of here!"
The group slowly exited the locker room, some looking back at Aelita with grins and giggles. Laura was the last to leave, feeling guilty for not showing some restraint as she looked back at the pink haired girl. Sissi, on the other hand, was still grinning from ear to ear.
"See? They're all gone." Ms. Keningston's voice became more soothing to the ears. She wrapped the girl up in a large clean towel. "Everything's gonna be okay."
"Am I... Am I dying?" Aelita shakily asked her teacher, the tears beginning to cease.
Ms. Keningston was confused. Doesn't she already know? All she could do at the moment was guide Aelita into a calmer state of mind.