Today was going to be a bad day, she just knew it. For some reason time today seemed to slow down, like every step she took, every period, felt like an eternity. Like she was going to slowly fade into oblivion. It felt like she was drowning, everything was weighing her down, all the voices were muffled, but how could she be drowning if she was on land. A loud slam on her desk, jolted the teen back to reality. Staring down at the girl was a concerned face of her English teacher, Mr. Larson. "Hadley, the bell rang two minutes for break. Is everything alright?" he asked. Hadley could feel her face warm up, before quickly glancing around the room, no one there. "Yeah, Mr. Larson, I'm fine," she paused, debating whether to express her illogical concerns to her teacher or not, "I'm-I'm just tired." Giving him a weak smile, she pushed herself up and quickly grabbed her backpack, quickly walking towards the door. "Are you sure?" She paused once again, hand on the handle. "This is your last chance," a small voice piped up. Hadley turned her head to face him, giving him a forced smile, "I'm sure sir." Giving him a nod, she left the classroom. Speed walking down the stairwell, to finally open the door to leave the suffocating building. The autumn wind hit her strongly, blowing her golden blonde hair in her face. Wiping her hair behind her, she began walking towards the bench where her friends were at. As Hadley walked, dodging the groups of students who surrounded the area, she couldn't help but notice how vivid the grey sky was, how vibrant the usually dull-looking buildings were. She frowned slightly at such a strange revelation, why does it matter what the sky and building looks like? They will be there tomorrow and the day after that. She finally arrived at the blue bench, her group of friends in multiple circles, chatting. "About time you arrived Hadley, we were wondering if you ditch school or not," her friend, Jaclyn, mused. Hadley's lips curved in a small amused smile, shaking her head. "Man, I wish. I am totally feeling off today. Might have caught something." Jaclyn let out a laugh, twirling her brown hair around her finger. "Everything alright, Hadley? You don't really seem yourself," she commented, her smile being replace with a sliver of a frown.
"I just have this gut feeling that something bad is going to happen. It is probably my overactive imagination being combined with my paranoia."
"Is it because of that break up yesterday?"
"Yeah, probably," Hadley began, rubbing her hands together then shrugging off her backpack, "You weren't there Jaclyn, when I broke up with him he was like, really friggin pissed, more than usual. I honestly thought he was going to bitch-slap me."
Jaclyn snorted, rolling her caramel brown eyes, shaking her head. "I don't blame you, good riddance to that short temper prick."
Hadley let out a short laugh, nodding her head in agreement. Glancing at the rest of her friends, Amelia and Lauren, who seemed to be in a heated discussion. "What's up with them?" Hadley asked, nodding her head in their general direction. Jaclyn quickly glance them as well, before shaking her head in mock disapproval. "Am was talking shit on how bad Lauren's story was without knowing she was right behind her. And as you can tell, she didn't take her criticisms well."
Hadley mouthed 'o', before smirking. Leaning close to Jaclyn, "Well, she isn't wrong," she whispered in her ear, leaning away from her good friend quickly. Jaclyn snickered in agreement, checking her phone to see the time. "We have like 3 minutes left," Jaclyn mused aloud.
"Awesome, soon it will be lunch then soon school will be over which means winter break," Hadley mumbled, smiling at the words winter break. After rubbing her nose, Hadley noticed something from the corner of her eyes. There flying right towards her was a stunning black butterfly. She watched it continue to fly until it landed on her shoulder. Hadley's eyebrows furrowed, how odd, it is winter how is this little guy still alive? "HADLEY!" her friend shouted at her, making Hadley slightly jump in the air, scaring off the butterfly. "Jesus Christ, I have been trying to get you attention from like the past 30 seconds," Jaclyn snapped, causing Hadley to shrug.
"Sorry, sorry. I'm just off today. What were you going to talking about?"
"Have you heard about a game called Until Dawn? " Jaclyn asked, her voice becoming giddy as she mentioned the game.
"Yup," Hadley replied, raising an eyebrow. Jaclyn's stared at her in shock and disappointment. "Wait, how?" Jaclyn questioned, pouting. Hadley slowly blinked at her, as if to say 'are you serious?'. "Well my dear Jackie, you see we literally had this same conversation last week," she replied, watching her friends eyes widen in realization. "Oh, yeah. We did. Well did you watch the Lets Play I told you about?"
"Yes mother," Hadley responded, mockingly.
"Ooooo, so who's your favorite character?" Jaclyn squealed, clasping her hands in child-like excitement.
"Oh, um the blonde guy with glasses, the ginger, and um the girl who died in the beginning, I like the bitchy one also."
Jaclyn looked at her friend oddly, "You mean Chris, Ashley, Beth, and Emily?"
Hadley snapped her fingers and nodded her head, "Yes. Those ones."
The brunette let out a laugh, shaking her head in faux disappointment.
"How do you not know their name? Jesus Christ Hadley."
Hadley rose her arms up defensively, "Jeesh sorry man, not my fault there were way too many characters for me to remember, besides they literally threw all of them at me in the first few minutes. Damn. Sorry just shoot me man," Hadley defended herself teasingly. "And, you know how bad I am with remembering names, be glad I can usually remember yours."
Jaclyn let out a laugh, lightly slapping the back of Hadley's head in a playful manner. Before Jaclyn could reply, the bell rang, alerting the girls that it was now passing period. Jaclyn quickly got her backpack and started to walk away, "We will continue this discussion at lunch," she called over her back, pretending to shot Hadley with a finger gun. Hadley just gave her a thumbs up follow by a casual smile, before grabbing her backpack and rushing off to her next class.
Hadley always enjoyed child care, despite never really enjoying children. However they have been growing on her, not that Hadley would have say that out loud. She must say it was relaxing having to watch over 5 year olds for a good 53 minutes. Especially since today the children were going to play on the mini-playground adjacent to their building. She glanced at her phone, skimming over some news article while humming to the Hamilton soundtrack softly, when she noticed a dead black butterfly on the ground. Before Hadley could inspect it, several gunshots rang out. Hadley was frozen in shock and confusion, along with her classmates, teacher, and the children. "What the hell was that?" Hadley whispered to the person next to her, turning off her music.
"I have no clue," the person replied, Jack, Hadley thought his name was. Before the teacher could instruct them what to do, screams were erupting from nearby followed by more gunshots. Hadley glanced towards the field, quickly noting that she could run away. Get as far away from the shooting as possible and call for help. Or maybe she should stay with her class. Safety in numbers right? Before she could make a decision, the next couple gunshots were growing louder and louder. She felt someone grab her arms, dragging her inside the classroom along with everyone else. Her teacher, Mrs. Johnson, quickly locked the door and turned off the lights. She began quietly ordering them to all move in the corner, just like procedure. BANG! BANG! The next two shots rang out, quickly followed by the ringing of the fire alarm. Hadley could feel tears running down her face. A small cry, made her stop snivelling. To her right was one of the 5 year olds, Josie, softly crying into her small hands. Overcome with a sense of empathy, Hadley crawled towards her and just rubbed her arms. Any soft noises her classmates had been making stopped when they heard someone attempting to open the door. Once figuring on the door was lock, there was one more shot, revealing the person to be the gunman. This time it went right through the window. Hadley could see the figure unlocking the door through the broken window, slowly opening the door, turning on the lights. Before she could get a good look on who was the monster doing this, Mrs. Johnson lunged at the figure. Before her teacher could do any harm, there was a shot and Mrs. Johnson fell to the floor. Everyone let out a horrid scream and cries and the site of their now dead teacher, all expect for Hadley, who was staring at the gunman, who was covered in blood, in shock. She couldn't believe it was him. She knew there was something off about him, but to do this? She would have never thought he could do something this fucked up, or maybe she did and that's why- Hadley's thoughts were cut off as the children sobbing grew louder and louder as he closed in on them. He raised the gun, aiming at one of the children and shot. The sound of the bullet thunder in Hadley's ears, followed by a loud constant ringing, as she watched as the young child's body fall on the ground with a loud thud followed by more screaming and sobs. Hadley watched, feeling numb, as several more people joined the body count. One of the dead was the child Josie, who Hadley remembered comforting just a few minutes ago. She must had moved away from her when Mrs. Johnson tried to defend them. Before Hadley could even processed what she had just witnessed, she felt a hand yank her arm up roughly, forcing her to stand up like a ragdoll. Hadley felt the nozzle of the gun force her head to look up. Her eyes met the giddy, bloodsplatter face. "Well, well, well. Isn't it Princess?" his raspy voiced question, mocking her with each word, she could barely hear him over the ringing that was echoing in her head. He remove his grip on her arm to squeeze her cheeks, staining her face with blood. "This…" he started, squeezing her face harder, "Could have been prevented dollface, if only...if only you weren't such a fucking bitch."
Before Hadley could comprehend what he said, she was on the floor, facing stinging. He had slapped her with the bud of the gun. The rest of the class was silent, and Hadley couldn't blame them, she would do that same thing, after all at the moment it was her life or theirs. "Oh are you going to cry?" he asked her, kneeling in front of her. She could feel tears running down her face as she cursed herself internally. "Don't cry, that's what he wants, don't fucking cry," she chanted silently, these words were the only thing that could bring her some peace. "ANSWER ME!" he roared, firing the gun. Hadley whipped her head just to see another body on the floor. Biting her lip roughly, she faced the monster. She stared at him, deadeye, "Yes," she answer, holding back an insult knowing it may very well get another student killed. He stroke her head, like one would pet a dog or to wipe dirt on their jeans. "That wasn't so hard, now was it?" he asked her gently, using a soft voice similar to the tone that would comfort of child, like the children he just killed. In a spurr of recklessness, Hadley spat in his face. She watched as he blinked slowly, whipping the her saliva off his face, hands trembling. Another gunshot went off, but this time Hadley felt a burst of pain coming from her shoulder. As if in a daze, she gently touch the area in question, retracting quickly as another jolt of pain passed through her body. Glancing at her hand, all she saw was red, so much red. A sob escaped her mouth, slowly leaving her shocked phase. "You always loved fucking testing me dontcha?" he snarled, yanking her up by her bleeding wound, nestling the gun beside her head. "You just love to keep fucking pushing, you bitch!" He was going into a frantic rage, and Hadley didn't know what was worse, this or his previous calm demeanor. Before the monster could do anymore harm, one of Hadley's classmates let out a shaky, relieve sigh. He snapped his attention away from Hadley, keeping a strong grip on her, he pointed the gun at the student. "You got anything to say?" he growled, but before the student could answer, the monster heard a gun click behind him. Before the person behind him could take a shot, he quickly swung around, forcing Hadley in front of him as a human shield, the gun back to her head. There at the doorway was SWAT team, guns all pointing at them. "Put down the gun," one of them said, but he did not respond. The repeated the demand several times, but he just stared at them with his shark eyes. That's when Hadley knew that he would refuse to go down alone, she knew he would try to take as many people down with him. This was her fault, like he said,therefore it was her responsibility to end it. Just as she felt him shift the gun away from her head, she took a deep breath and forced it down and towards the two of them. The next moments went by so fast, Hadley was only able to register it when she landed on the floor with a bullet hole in her stomach while the loud ringing in her head grew louder, alongside the monster. She let out a moan of pain, it hurt, it hurt so much. She could feel her light blonde hair getting tainted with her own blood, the smell of copper made her want to hurl. Millions of thoughts rushed through her mind. Tears fell down her face, mixing with the blood. Tears of pain-It hurts, oh god it hurts-, tears of anger-how could someone do this, this could have been so easily prevent-, tears of guilt- she never told her family how much she loved them, never told her friends how much she appreciated them-, and tears of self-pitying-she had my whole life in front of her, she were going to graduate high school next year, she could have done so much more. Not fair, not fair, not fair. Every time she try to communicate with her classmates or the SWAT team, blood comes out instead. Hadley could barely make out what one of the SWAT members speaking to her, another probably calling for the medic. The pain was making time feel like eternity and that she was slowly drowning. she lost her ability to taste and to smell. To Hadley this was like a miracle, no longer having the taste the metallic flavor of her own blood and smell its coppery scent. Next was touch, she realized it was she couldn't feel the pain as much. Her sense of sight left soon after touch, before Hadley was never too bother by the dark but now she was beginning to hated the dark more than ever. Last was hearing, and nothing was more heart breaking for Hadley for the last thing she heard was frantic crying, the constant ringing in her head, and a continuous siren, before drifting off into a permanent slumber.
Until she was awaken to a bright light and a baby's cry.
I'm back! Sorry it took so long, just busy. Sorry for any grammatical errors (which is I know there are). I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and winter break! Also, if the formatting is weird, I will try to fix it.
