Funny how it's only been a week since I last uploaded this story, but it feels like a lot of time went by. Say... like an entire month? Haha, but I'm not uploading this a month later. If I did that, that would mean that I broke a promise that I made to my supporters, and that sounds like a total jackass move, which I wouldn't do. haha.
Joking aside, and a serious moment - I am absolutely beating myself over the fact that I didn't upload this chapter sooner, but I have a very good excuse. Because I'm in my first year of uni, and I'm still kind of adjusting to the workload. I also hit a huge writer's block after finishing a bunch of term papers + essays, so it took me a little longer to get around to fixing this up so that I could publish it. Anyways, excuses aside: I just wanted to apologize to those who were expecting a chapter sooner. From now on, since I have a tighter schedule coming up, I'll try to upload once a month at the very least. Also, I really like to interact with the awesome people who are reviewing and encouraging me to keep writing, so I'll respond to my anonymous reviewers in my intro author notes :).
kailey: I love it so far! I like the detail in your writing. I can't wait to find out what happens next! Please keep updating! I hate it when I find a really good fanfic and the author stops writing right at a cliffhanger :(
DW KAILEY I WON'T LET YOU DOWN I'M GONNA FINISH THIS EVEN IF IT MEANS DYING
And now, without farther adieu, let's get started on this episod- ur, chapter - of FE.
Chloe spent half an hour more with Dr. Spurling as the latter explained the project in depth to her. It involved "research, not experimentation", as Dr. Spurling emphasized to her more than once. Tori and Chloe's other partner had already picked a topic for their group, and she would have to contact them to get updated on their progress.
By the time that she stepped out of the classroom, the hallways were empty. Chloe was able to find her locker easily without the shoving and pushing from students, and when she reached it, Chloe took a moment to rest her forehead against the cold metal.
She would be busy tonight. She needed to finish an essay by Friday, another by Thursday, and there was an anatomy test that she had on Wednesday. Chloe could feel herself grow more and more tired as they day dragged on.
She shoved her books into her bag. Milos was probably waiting outside, and that was the only thing that somewhat comforted Chloe. She would be home within a half hour or so, where she could get food, go to bed if she wanted, watch a movie – anything that would not be school related. She zipped her bag up and sighed, comforted by the idea of home.
Her bag was on her shoulders when Chloe felt it – the chill that ran quickly through her veins. There was a tingling at the back of her neck, but the shooting pains were not present. Chloe shrugged it off, walking forward towards the exit.
The needles started pricking a few steps later, and Chloe flinched. She stopped in her path. Behind her, she could hear the loud voices that she only faintly remembered. She didn't pay too much attention to it, trying to rub away the pain at the back of her head and neck. When the pain didn't subside, Chloe started to walk forward again. She would have to talk to Aunt Lauren –
"Chloe!" She stopped in her path and looked back. When she saw Tori and another girl walking towards her, Chloe wanted to run as far from them as possible. What did they want? Why were they talking to her? Her entire body had succumbed to the cold, and she was frozen at her spot.
"Do you know how long we've been looking for you?" Tori rolled her eyes at Chloe. "Gosh, why didn't you wait for us after class?"
"I –"
"Nevermind," Tori cut her off, "let's go,"
"G-go whe-r-r-e?"
Tori narrowed her eyes at Chloe. "Do you do that on purpose?"
"D-do what?" Chloe felt herself grow colder than before. She knew exactly what Tori was referring to.
"Whatever, it doesn't matter," Tori said. "We're going to my house. You know, to work on the project?"
Of course; that's what they wanted from her. Chloe tried to regulate her breathing, just growing conscious of the fact that she'd been holding in her breath. She muttered something about letting her driver know that she was leaving. Tori was about to comment, but the girl beside her interjected.
"Yeah, go ahead, we'll be waiting in the parking lot,"
Chloe thanked her, and left the school to go find Milos.
SCENE FOUR, ACT ONE: HEROINE captured by UNDEADS.
(TFE)
The red bricks of Tori's house looked perfectly at harmony with the yellow, red, and orange of the falling leaves that framed it. Tori led the three up a flight of wet, concrete stairs, complaining loudly about their groundskeeper not keeping the house in proper condition and getting rid of the leaves. Chloe looked on at the house – a medium sized family residence with a small front yard. It was a mystery as to why they would have a groundskeeper for such a small area.
She didn't bother to ask Tori. For now, she thought it best to not anger her and keep her head on her neck.
Tori opened the heavy wooden doors to a sparkling house. The white marble floors and stairs were polished to the point of reflection. The walls – white – were decorated with large paintings and smaller family portraits here and there. The foyer where they stood led directly to a set of stairs, and provided left and right halls for other accesses to the house.
Tori and the other girl started to take off their shoes, and Chloe followed. Her hands were shaking. Something in her stomach was churning, and she wanted to vomit. She couldn't put her finger on a specific culprit, and put the blame on a possible bug; maybe even her concussion.
She followed her two partners up the stairs quietly, the other two too engrossed in their own conversation to pay attention to her reserved attitude. Chloe was grateful for that. She worked on deep breaths in hopes that they would ease her queasy stomach.
However, Chloe's head began to spin as soon as she stepped onto the upper floor. She blinked a few times in an attempt to fix her blurry vision. She caught a glimpse of the many forks in the hallway that led to other locations before she closed her eyes and leaned against the railing. Her head felt light, and the nausea began to intensify.
"Are you OK, Chloe?" Her blonde partner asked. Chloe glimpsed at her through slit eyes. She realized than that she didn't even know the girl's name.
"Yeah, I'm just…" Chloe tried to grasp at the right word, but it slipped her mind. Instead, she put all her weight onto the railing and tried to breathe through her mouth. She grew more lightheaded.
"Let's get her to your room," She felt the blonde girl's bony shoulders under her arms and she leaned onto them. Chloe tried to help the other girl drag her to Tori's room. She was able to walk, but very weakly. Tori's annoyed ranting didn't help the situation.
"I swear if you pass out at my house," she said, "I am throwing you out."
Chloe tried to ignore it, but Tori was loud and persistent. Every word hit like a nail being dug into her brain.
Finally, Chloe felt the softness of something under her. Everything in the next few minutes were a blur – someone passing her water that tasted burned her tongue; Tori was muttering under her breath the entire time. She shut her eyes for a few seconds, and then woke up to a heavier head. A metallic taste stung at the back of her throat, but she didn't feel as dizzy as she had done before. She started to feel herself coming to her senses.
"OK, you're better. Now get off of my bed,"
Chloe rolled over and slipped off of the bed. As she stood up, she felt disoriented for a second, but regained her footing soon enough to avoid falling over. Her blonde partner was there, holding out a protective hand just in case she did fall over.
Chloe's eyes adjusted to the room slowly. Violet walls and picture frames. A table with three computer screens on it. A few chairs. A bed. Her own feet. She walked carefully over to a chair and plopped down, focusing on her sweaty, sock clad feet in an effort to calm herself down.
She was fine after a while. Tori had wasted no time in waiting for her to recover before jumping into the project, but the blonde girl objected.
"Oh my gosh Liz," Tori replied, "she'll be fine. Chloe's a big girl, right Chloe?"
Chloe managed to nod in response.
Her blonde partner – Liz, Chloe assumed – leaned over and explained their topic to her. They were doing a research project on ethical practices in psychology, and were focusing particularly in the treatment of asylum patients in the nineteenth century.
Liz and Tori did most of the talking. Chloe sat there staring at them, trying to keep up with their lingos and their references. Eventually, she just brought out her notebook and started to write down things that they had mentioned in hopes that she would have time to look up the information once she was home that evening. Liz did her best to lean over to Chloe and explain the topics, but Chloe was still lost beyond belief.
She sighed when the two finally stopped talking and a hush fell over the room. Tori started to talk about the next meetup date – Thursday at her house after school, again. Chloe took this as a hint to start packing up and shoved her notebook into her bag.
"You're not leaving already, are you?" Liz asked Chloe, and Tori quickly cut in.
"Yes she is," Tori said, "I don't want her to puke in my room,"
Chloe stared at Tori, and she felt the soft bubbling of blood under her skin. How could a person dislike another so much that they would keep poking at them over and over again? Why would Tori even invite Chloe to be a partner in the project if she didn't like her? Were they in such a dire need for a punching bag?
Chloe opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it. She called Milos and gave him the address to Tori's house. It would take him fifteen minutes to get to the location, and Chloe was forced to sit with Liz and Tori for that remaining time.
Halfway through the conversation that Tori was having with Liz, she fixed her gaze on Chloe. The girl felt her blood boiling again, and the prickling at the back of her neck started again.
"You know, since we're talking about mental asylums," Tori said, "it's only suiting that we have an asylum patient in our group."
Chloe felt her heart drop to her stomach. Tori… she couldn't have known, could she? Perhaps Liz, or Tori herself, was a part of a mental institution, and that was the reference? Or, hopefully, this was just another means by which Tori was trying to degrade Chloe.
"Tori, what the hell is this about?" Liz's eyes were wide, but Chloe barely had a chance to look at her. She was glaring down at the carpet underneath her foot, which had suddenly began shift in front of her. She stood up slowly, bringing her bag up with her.
Tori wouldn't know. Not unless she went digging thorough Chloe's records, which seemed like something Tori would not be too concerned with. The mention of asylums was probably nothing more than Tori being Tori – a cold hearted bitch that Chloe didn't like, she decided.
Chloe shook her head slightly when she began to feel a churning in her stomach. It was not a coordinated move, and it did little to ease her bowels. She held onto the handle of the chair to steady herself as blood rushed to her head swiftly.
She was feeling so dizzy that she almost missed Tori's comment. Almost.
"Chloe," Tori emphasized the last portion of Chloe's name. Her voice vibrated against the Chloe's cranium and knocked on her skull, making her nausea resurface. She could taste the acidic-metallic taste at the back of her tongue, and she wanted to storm out of the house.
"Tell me – when you go to an asylum, do they tie you up right away, or do they wait until you start talking about ghosts?"
Chloe slowly lifted her head to look at Tori, who was gazing over her nails in a nonchalant manner. A chill thrill was running slowly through her veins; her cheeks were burning. She continued to stare at Tori, trying to formulate an answer.
They never tied Chloe up, and there were no speaks of ever tying anyone up. That portion Tori drew up by herself, but the ghost was relevant. How did she -?
Tori looked up at Chloe with an unbothered lift of her eyebrow. Chloe felt her body shift back and forth, shaking slightly. A pain was starting to bloom at her temple.
"Or, wait, do you not remember because they drugged you up too – "
"Tori, stop," Liz sounded livid and Chloe was already out the room. How did she know? How did she find out? She never wanted to see Tori again. She never wanted to talk to her again. Her stomach was twisting and turning; her tears were running free on her face.
She was looking down, and didn't notice the person who was standing directly in front of her. Simon grabbed her by the shoulder and prevented the two of them colliding. Chloe jumped in surprise.
"Whoa, Chloe?" Simon stepped up from the stair, putting the two on eye level. Chloe felt the stinging at the back of her neck grow more painful. "What are you doing here– "
Chloe bent down and emptied her bowel on the shiny material of the stairs, and a little over Simon's shoes. In the background, she heard Tori complaining about how that could've been her room.
(TFE)
Chloe flunked the anatomy test. She stayed up all night to finish a mediocre essay for Thursday. She couldn't finish her Friday essay on time, so she handed it in late for a deduced mark on Monday.
Tori and Liz were still at large in her mind, but they were no longer an issue. She had spoken to Dr. Spurling, who was kind enough to let Chloe change groups without excruciating questioning. She was now put in with two other girls finishing up their project on the stigma of mental disorder. Chloe only had to chip in one word during their after school library session one day, and that word was "the".
Chloe hadn't seen Simon around, but she wouldn't be shocked if he never wanted to speak to her again. The look of horror in his eyes when Chloe looked up from the floor was more than enough for her to know that she was no longer welcome in the house. At least they were kind enough not to kick her out as soon as possible, and let her wait before Milos picked her up.
She avoided eye contact with Tori and Liz the entire duration of Psychology. She could feel Tori occasionally looking back and glaring at her, but she refused to acknowledge the gaze. She felt her cheeks burning as her face flushed.
One more day to go, Chloe thought, shoving the remainder of her notebooks into her bag. It would be Friday tomorrow, and then it would be the weekend. Chloe wouldn't have to think about Andrew Cotton Academy and its hellish residents for an entire two days – a thought that made her stomach quiver with joy. She just needed to go the one remaining day undetected by Tori and her group.
Chloe slammed the locker door shut and moved towards the foyer to wait for Milos. Her shoulders were burning from her the burden of her fat bag (her teachers all insisted that the thousand page textbooks would be great help to Chloe, and that she should read all of them as soon as possible). She trudged on.
She always passed a door that had a STAFF ONLY sign nailed to the façade of it. It wasn't something that caught her attention, with a boring exterior of dark wood. It blended into the background when students stormed past each other, and Chloe never noticed it in heavy crowds. She thought for sure that it was a staff room or something of that sort before she saw a boy, dressed in a school uniform, slip through the door.
Chloe stopped shortly. The door was unopened, and the boy never reached for the handle. A chill went down her spine. No, no – she imagined it. There was nothing there. It was just school wearing her out. She just needed to go home, and –
The boy's head peaked out of the door so that only his head was visible, his body on the other side. Chloe stepped back with a squeal, almost screaming.
You will be here until you get better.
The voice rang in her head, and she clamped her mouth shut. She thought she was getting better, she thought that she wouldn't need to increase her dosage, but she was obviously wrong. Chloe felt the metallic taste in her mouth, and she wanted to vomit.
"Wait, can you see me?" The boy asked. His blue eyes burrowed into her face, and it woke her up suddenly. She shook her head, and moved towards the opposite direction towards the school entryway to leave.
"Wait, no," The boy continued, "Wait!"
Chloe felt something cold brush against her arm, and she jumped back. The boy stood behind her now, and she had to look up to make eye contact with him. He had black hair that was slicked back. His jawline was sharp, his nose was straight and narrow. He had wide shoulders, large biceps, and large hands.
She stood back, staring at him in awe. It was Brady – one of the other residents of the Lyle House. They let him leave on the premise that his behavior was improving, and that he would be better able to handle his anger in public from now on.
"Wha –"
"Chloe?" Brady said, "Oh, God, they put you in here too?"
"T-t-t-his i-isn't r-r-real," Chloe whispered, "You aren't r-r-eal,"
"I would love to stand around and discuss that, but I think I need to show you something," Brady reached to grab Chloe's arm, but his fingers slipped through her flesh.
"N-n-n-no," Chloe whispered again, "I'm le-a-aving,"
"Chloe I know you're freaked out," Brady continued, "but just give me a sec, OK? I really think you're in dang-"
"I'm l-l-leaving," Chloe turned around and walked towards the door.
"They might kill you," She heard his voice from behind her. What he said made her turn around, and fix him with a gaze.
"Just let me show you something, OK?"
Chloe didn't know why, but she followed Brady – or her hallucination – towards the door. Brady slipped through easily. Chloe turned the door knob a few times, but she couldn't get it to open.
"B-B-Brady," she called, "it's l-l-locked,"
She didn't get a response. She waited a few more seconds, and then the heat rose to her face. He wasn't real, and he wasn't there. And she had spent the last five minutes talking to herself and to thin air.
Chloe let go of the knob and stepped back, bumping into someone. The back of her neck started to throb instantly, and she didn't need to look back to know who it was.
"Who's Brady?" Tori asked.
Leave a review with all the typos and grammar mistakes that you've found, and I'll cry for you.
Kidding. Let me know if you like it, if you hate it, things you'd like for me to change - anything. Hope y'all had a good Christmas, and an early Happy New Year to everyone!
~ GoA