I smiled at Eddie as the loud music rang in my ears. It was the dance before winter break, nicknamed by such creative people "The Winter Dance". There was fake snow, peppermint flavored punch, and even though the music wasn't holiday themed, somehow even that seemed to have a jolly sort of feel.
"You know Yacker, you're getting better at this dancing thing. You only stepped on my foot around 8 times, a major improvement from last time's 14-" Eddie teased
"Oh ha ha," I said mockingly, "at least I'm getting somewhere, you on the other hand have not made any progress since the first time we danced."
"Oh really? Hey, how about I get you some punch and we call it even?" He proposed
"Yeah, sure." I replied
He walked over to the punch bowl as I moved off to the side of the dance floor. Joy walks over to me. She's wearing a bright red strapless dress along with gold dangly earrings and matching heels.
"So…" She began making that "tell me everything" face.
"Joy-" I started but suddenly I spotted a familiar face. That slightly curly brown hair, the long face, the unsure smile. It was him. I hadn't seen him in over a year. I thought, I thought… My mind was a blur as I found my feet walking over to him. My heartbeat was so loud I could feel it pulsing in my brain. He looked over at me.
"Patricia-" He said, his eyes sympathetic.
"Jason." I choked out in astonishment. Jason Winkler, my history and drama teacher from a few years back, when Nina first started going to school here. He was young, fresh out of college, and let's not forget he was diagnosed with a degenerative illness. I thought he was dead. Before I could say anything, he pulled me off to the side.
"Listen I know there's probably a lot of questions you want to ask me-" He said warningly
"That's an understatement." I interrupted
"I get that, but you and the others have to get out of here." He informed
"What others? You mean Amber, Nina, Fabian, -" I started confused
"Yes, yes and Alfie and Sweet's son Edison." He rushed
"It's Eddie. But why? And what are you doing back here? Where have you been?" I asked overflowing with questions
"There'll be plenty of time for questions later, now go tell the others!" He whispered
"But-"
"Just go!" His eyes flashed.
"I rushed back towards Eddie when he came back with the punch.
"Hey, is something wrong?" He asked caringly
"Just get out of here." I said to him
"What just happened? I thought we were doing fine, I mean we barely argued and-" He was cut off
"This has nothing to do with us, you just need to go now." I interrupted
"Well fine, then I guess we have some issues to work out." He said storming off.
I wanted to call back to him, but I had to find the others. I saw Amber, or at least it looked like her. The gym was covered with blinding white sparkles and fake snow so it was kind of hard to tell.
"Amber!" I said tapping her on the shoulder.
I suddenly realized her hair was a vivid strawberry blonde. When she turned around, unlike Amber she wore much less makeup. Her eyes were jade green and she looked seemed to be more mellow than Amber.
"Oh sorry, I thought you were someone else." I said
"That's okay. I'm new here, my name's Willow- Willow Jenks." She smiled
She wore a cream colored gown and a pearl necklace.
"I'm Patricia. Listen I'd love to talk, but right now I'm kind of busy." I said rushing off.
I quickly found Alfie. Just when I was about to shout out his name my vision got really blurry, like when I was blinded last year. My forearm just above my wrist stung. That was where Senkhara marked me. It couldn't be happening. Not again, I mean what more crazy Egyptian stuff exists? I don't remember leaving, but I found myself in the hallway leading outside. What am I doing? I'm supposed to be getting everyone out of there.
I was running. Running from what? Running to where? I didn't know, but the only thing I did know is that I had to get away. The calf high snow pricked at my bare legs. The dark violet colored dress I wore wasn't nearly enough to block out the freezing cold. My hands were shaking and I could barely walk, much less run. I could see my misty breath against the freezing air. The snow sparkled in my eyes and seemed oddly beautiful even though it was torturing me. Why didn't I bring a jacket? I'm so stupid. I couldn't walk anymore, but I forced myself to keep going. That was my first mistake.
I tripped over my shoes and landed face first into the snow. I couldn't move, the snow was so cold that was all I could focus on. I was going to die or at least get hypothermia if I hadn't already. There was one thing I noticed before I blacked out. The smell of smoke. I could just barely make out the swirling shapes of it, but fire wasn't a big problem, there was snow it would just melt the fire. My second mistake. I didn't realize where it was coming from. It was coming from the gym.