"M'Gramma bought me a real backpack- It's perfect fer back t'school!" A blonde girl with an undercut bob smiled while slamming her locker shut and then shouldering her prized new bag before skipping past math class.
"These colorful binders help me keep organized!" A girl with big, frizzy eighties hair, wide eyes and a cow-spotted headband said, displaying her new folders, each labelled with a new subject in calligraphy, as she pulled on a matching cow-spotted vest.
Behind her, a tall, skinny girl with a thin face, short, choppy hair, and too many piercings tugged at a pair of headphones around her neck, "These headphones are just what I need fer studyin'!" before clapping them over her ears with an evil grin, icy, overlined blue eyes crinkling.
A very short, curvy girl with a long, dark blonde braid in a cheer uniform shot past, smiling widely, gold hoops bouncing as she stopped to show off her new shoes: "These sneakers r'just what I needed fer th'new —!"
A loud scream unfurled behind her.
Nervously, the girl looked behind her, happy façade dropped, revealing stark terror. She blinked, and then smiled nervously before speed-walking around a corner.
A girl with a blue-black spiral perm was tying a red jacket around a doorknob, wobbling in dark blue stilettos. She looked up and smiled and said in a British accent that was out of place among the rising shouts in heavy Southern accents, "Wow, this jacket. Wot a lifesaver!"
The punk appeared again with an ornately decorated skateboard. She hurried to the door with a short blonde in a poofy dress and pink lace socks clung whimpering to her back. The punk smiled cockily, and said, "M'parents got me the skateboard I wanted, it's purty cool. Right Marnie?"
Nodding, the girl buried her face in the punk's neck. The Punk slammed it two-handedly through the widow, before leaping out the window in a trail of broken glass, the rest of the class following her.
In the next classroom over, a girl with blue pigtails, pink glasses and a paper crown jammed a chair under the doorknob and turnd out the lights as outside the window to the hall, screaming kids stampeded past. Gripping her new red-handled scissors in one hand at the ready, she whispered to the girl whose hand she gripped, "These here scissors really came in handy for art class, right babe?"
Her girlfriend whispered through bared teeth, "These colored pencils do too – good thing I got a new pencil sharpener – if one of those shitheads tries to come in here, I'll put his eyes out!"
Just across the hall, a lanky girl with silver hair and long, long legs lay on the floor screaming as she bled out.
A girl, equally as tall with a cloud of long black hair pulled off a brightly colored rainbow knee-high sock. She tucked a lock behind her ear and started wrapping the sock around the other girl's leg, saying with confidence, "My new socks? Lifesavers!"
And hiding in a nearby bathroom on a toilet inside the last stall, the first girl bit her lip, undercut bob matted and legs bare as she balanced herself on the toilet tank as the school alarm system almost drowned out the shots and screams.
So many screams… so, so many screams… she began choking only to cough up a large ball of colored sugar, which fell from her mouth unnoticed.
The inappropriate candy bounced off the seat and onto the checkered tile floor, and fell apart with a sharp "Crack!"
Followed by silence.
The building went dark as the lights shut off.
The screams were gone.
Sweat dripped down the girl's face as the last of the ventilation fans shut off.
"I wish I could get t'th'office phone so I kin stay in touch wit' m'Grampa and Gramma." Her whisper came out shaky in the deafening silence.
There was a loud "BANG!" and she shoved both hands into her mouth and bit down, stifling a scream.
Silence.
No more sleeping restaurant.
Silence.
No more children.
Silence.
No more friends.
Silence.
In that silence, she sucked in a shaky breath, hoping she was invisible despite being covered in body glitter while wearing a too-short skirt. She couched, barefoot on the cold pipes, waiting.
Would she be able to escape?
Slow, heavy footsteps… somewhere outside… they grew louder… she nearly screamed as they paused at the door… and then relaxed as somehow, they , she lowered her hands a deep, inhuman laugh rattling around in her chest to trail away as a whimper that echoed around the women's room…
The footsteps returned.
Reeking of cheap hair spray and pizza grease with a perfume chaser, she stifled a scream with both hands against her mouth.
The footsteps…
…paused
Square face scrunched, biting down on her fingers, she almost passed out as a door creaked and the same heavy footsteps entered.
She jerked in time to every slow, heavy step and the slamming of stall doors, thighs a smelly, fishy bloody mess as was every place she'd been that night.
Five stalls.
It would be mere seconds before she would be found.
Four stalls.
She was so tired. So, so very, tired. The last few hours after sparkling on a stage for hundreds had become defined by that. People were cheering her name, not her real name, but the one given to her.
Three.
No, the entire summer had quickly been consumed by this creeping tiredness until she was practically begging for fall, for normal again. She started counting in English, then German, trying not to breathe as tears streamed down her face, hot and stingy.
Two.
She'd give anything to work at Daisy's again, to hear Grampa's old truck rattle up the gravel driveway, to hear Gramma one more time, just to eat cheap pizza and play video games and for an explanation to this new pain in her stomach.
There was a long pause.
Two and a half…
She wanted her friends, her family, her life back.
The pause grew so long she wanted to scream, she readied herself to run, to hide again, to be caught and began silently reciting the Lord's Prayer as she braced for impact, for escape.
The shifting of a step against the tiled floor
She was ready to-
…one.
There was a long, low, guttural laugh in the darkness as the door of the stall she hid in was ripped from its frame, bolts snapping like firecra—
Morning alarm going off, Josie opened her eyes and sniffed. Her mouth tasted like pennies, and once she sat up, she learned the reason.
A nosebleed had caused her pillow to be soaked with dark, fishy red liquid.
Guess she'd have to take it downstairs and soak it in cold water so it didn't stain, ruining the pillowcase Josie'd spent all last week embroidering after school with cute little fish she'd designed herself.
Damn!
Josie'd been designed to be perfect, but she still had stupid little flaws such as nosebleeds to remind her that yes, she was still very much human.
Thanks a LOT Stein family!
But self-pity didn't get blood stains out of needlework alone, so Josie dressed and with the rolled up pillowcase under one arm, climbed down the attic ladder, letting it retract on its own with the springs that Uncle Mike had installed for her so she could do it herself.
After filling a dishpan with cold water and dropping the bloody mess into it to soak in their tiny kitchen, she groggily sipped at the coffee left by Aunt Raina, who had to go to work early today, and gagged.
Too sweet.
Nope.
Setting aside her disgusting drink, Josie decided to just eat unbuttered toast that had been sitting around long enough for it to get disappointingly cold and hard.
She'd eat breakfast at school with the others once her stomach settled.
And outside, the black bird she'd seen a lot of around town, made chuckling noises to itself, before flying away.
It didn't pay to be late for class.