Author's Note: It gets crazy. Just wanted to warn you. This wasn't what I was expecting, so just go with it. This just popped out of my head and I think it works. If not, tell me.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. WAAAAAA!!!!!!!
Chapter 3
The dirt was red, the color of fire, roses, blood. It was stinging every part of her like a thousand knives, like a million needlepoints all over her body. The dirt splattered on her face, in her eyes, on her soft lips, blistering and bruising, slicing and cutting, but she had to keep going. The sun was setting, usually it would illuminate radiant oranges, bold purples, and soft pinks, but now it only shown a dull, stagnant blood red. Everything was the color of blood, tinted so by the sky. The sea, the water, the rain, the ground, the green grass was the color of blood; even her brown skin was tinted that color, but she had to keep moving the sun was setting. And then there was her belly; it was swollen wide with that of a child. Her stomach so full with a baby that it was about to burst open, she could feel bile rise in her throat and she swallowed the bitter taste back along with a mouthful of red dust. She felt her stomach cramp, the pain so intense so breaking that she fell to the ground grabbing her belly. The dampness between her legs signaled what she feared; she would not make her goal this night, the sun was setting and she'd not yet made it to the temple. She had to keep going. She forced herself to stand, her knees knocking, trembling, thick liquid dripping wetly down her legs, pain wracking her whole body, the sand still whipping in her face. She fell again, another contraction wracking her body. She looked up from her back at the blood red sky and screamed to the heavens for someone to help her, to save her, to deliver her child. No one answered she was alone. Her body had no choice, it was ripping itself apart, blood now joining that previously clear liquid running and mingling with the dirt, making the ground beneath her muddy. She stood again, her eyes blurring, her body still trembling, blood flowing from her nether regions and stalked slowly towards the stairs of the temple; it was all she knew, she couldn't fail or the world would suffer.
Roddy walked into the school the next morning, the outside sky and hallways just as dark as when she'd left the night before. She had always been an early riser, a morning person, someone that loved getting worked done early. Luckily for her, every teacher at OLIC was given a key to the front door so that they could get in and do what they needed to do.
Upon entering the doors, she realized that maybe that wasn't such a good idea. The school, though she knew that it was much safer than her previous teaching assignment, held an ominous tension around it. The strange feelings carried beyond the pristine hallways and classrooms, the kind people, the Catholic relics hanging everywhere; there was just something about the school that just didn't fit together right. Roddy walked down the shadowy hallways, the sounds of her pumps echoing on the honey-colored linoleum throughout the hallway. She worked her way up the stairs and followed the path that she had the day before to get to her room; she didn't want to get lost in the dark, the place was spooky as it was. She felt a bit silly for thinking that the place was haunted; it was just her overactive gothic imagination that was playing tricks on her. She'd had a strange dream the other night and figured that it was probably influencing her thoughts as well. Laughing inwardly at herself she walked down the hallway at a more comfortable pace than that of the nervous one she'd been using previously.
She finally reached her room, and though she'd laughed off her ghost paranoia, she still felt as if the school was a bit eerie, especially her room. Maybe it was because the previous teacher that used the room had recently passed and her spirit lived someone in its crevices. Roddy stuck the key into the door and opened the squeaking wood quickly.
Blood, that's all she saw, blood and a small, older woman hanging from the rafters of the room. The woman was pale, blood seeping from the wounds that were made all over her body. Her mouth was moving; maybe crying for breaths that she knew wouldn't come. There was no look of panic on her face as her head rolled about her neck and she suffocated, the air slowly leaving her pushed out lungs and her eyes landing stagnantly on Roddy's. With quick reaction, Roddy stepped away from the door, backing away her hands to her mouth in utter shock. She stepped back quickly, her eyes never leaving the scene in her room; she stepped back, right into another body. A yell so shrill and toe-curling left her lips that she put Jamie Lee Curtis to shame.
"It's alright. I'm sorry to have frightened you," it was Heero Yuy. Why was he on the second floor? Roddy blinked her eyes at the blue-eyed man in shock and gripped her chest to stop the heaving.
"I'm sorry, the school is just a bit frightening in the dark." She smiled.
"It's strange coming to a new place, I know." He said kindly, letting go of her and helping her stand on her shaky knees.
"What are you doing here so early?" she asked, a smiled plastered on her face.
"I like to get here early, work on my plans for the day," Heero said, a smirk aligning his face. A bit confused but certainly relieved, she turned and faced her room with apprehension. There was nothing. The blood that was splattered across the walls was gone, the woman that was hanging from the board vanished. The room was exactly the way she'd left it the night before, desk straightened, walls lily-white, and definitely no dead corpse hanging from the board. She shook her hand and walked into the room not noticing that Heero had followed behind her. She quickly turned on the room lights and sat her things on the desk, trying to set up for the day.
"Why do you get here early?" his voice was soft, almost seductive and she turned from her desk with a start. He was standing close behind her, not so close where he'd frighten her, but close enough that she could feel his presence pressing upon her. She backed up instinctively into the desk and stared for a bit. He was handsome; not her type with his intense blue eyes and tight pink lips, but his beauty was not lost on her. It was his aura; he emanated an ominous presence that both frightened and aroused her innermost being. She was drawn to him, like she was to Jina, Trowa, and the school. There was an element of mystery, danger, and sensuality that she only read about in gothic novels.
"I'm a morning person, the earlier I rise and get ready the better. I get excited teaching." She wanted to ramble on, but something in his countenance told her to hold her tongue. His eyes were focusing on her intensely; the way Trowa's had the other night. Ice blue orbs seemed to blaze like sapphires in the shadowy hallway. Roddy arched her neck back, intrigued and also frightened by this man's gaze on her. She stared back at him, her confidence waning a bit and her knees giving out on her; it was as if Heero had some kind of magical power. She swooned; her knees finally giving up and he caught her quickly, his hands going around her waist and her hands gripping his strong chest.
"Are you alright?" he asked delightfully as he helped her stand for the second time that morning.
" I'm sorry, I've just been a bit woozy lately."
"You better sit down," he said, helping her to her desk chair. She smiled gratefully at him and rested her arm slightly on her desk. There was a short pause as they stared at each other transfixed.
"I think I'll be fine. I need to get started on school stuff." She said, shuffling her papers that she'd previously sat on the desk. He looked at her with caution and shrugged and started for the door.
"If you have anymore problems, don't hesitate to ask for some assistance. I hope you have a good second day, Ms. Adelphia." He said almost in a whisper as he walked from the room. Roddy stared after him in a daze and shrugged; everyone here was rather strange it seemed.
****
She stayed late once again, this time till seven that night. It seemed as if the students were starting to respond a bit better. She was going over the quizzes that her honors class had taken and they were all in the A-B range, which was good. The class discussion that day started out slowly but Bethany, the obvious loud-mouth of the group, started a rather interesting conversation about the differing in the honor system of Beowulf and today's theories on honor and glory. The class was off to a good start, which made Roddy smile inwardly as she graded the quizzes.
She paused for a second, staring at the clock and realizing that she'd not finished yet. She sighed and stretched her arms high over her head; first she'd go the bathroom then she'd come back and pack. She stood from the desk and exited the room walking the direction towards the bathroom. The hallway held its usual darkness, but after this morning's cowardly display in front of Heero she'd grown sensitized to the general spookiness. She stomped down the darkened hallway haphazardly, not even caring to look over into Trowa's room and see if he was there; she knew he was, his light was on. She stumbled towards the door that had the crack of light coming from the bottom seam and opened it, instantly illuminating her face and a large rectangular patch of light on the honey wall behind her.
Blinking rapidly because of the contrast of light and dark and allowing her eyes the time to adjust, she stumbled even more into the squeaky clean bathroom. The bathroom wall was cut in half horizontally by two types of tiling. The top half being that of a regular, puce-hued sheetrock and drywall and the bottom half being shiny, multi-colored four inch square tiles. The floors were the customary puce terrazzo, though it was speckled with bits of brown and dark blue.
Walking over to the white, porcelain sink that jutted out of the wall, she gingerly turned on the hot water, tested it, and then just as gingerly turned on the cold water. She looked at herself in the spot-free window and grimaced. Her hair was awry with the smaller hair from her semi-grown out bangs sticking out at the top, her bun had stray hairs popping out on all sides, and the bit of bangs that she did have was sticking almost straight up. Licking her fingers, she ran them carefully through her hair in the makeshift trial of slicking her hair back. Of course, it failed. Resigning to failure and wondering if she'd looked like a fairytale monster all day, she cupped her hands under the faucet collecting the lukewarm, clear water like a puddle in her hands and lowered her face, splashing away some of the day. She did this a few times, lowering her head and splashing the water until she felt a bit refreshed. Lifting her head back up to window-viewing length, she reached blindly for the paper-towel dispenser, retrieving a coarse, paper bag brown, paper towel to wipe her face. She did so quickly, adding extra attention to her eyes and slowly opened her amber orbs.
At first it didn't register, as her vision cleared from the blurred mess of pupil dilation to that of a brightly lit bathroom, but the blurriness cleared leaving her to realize that her reflection was not alone and there was indeed someone standing behind her. She jumped back at the sight; the vision was the woman from her room. The woman was bloodied from head to toe, her eyes bugged out from asphyxiation, Roddy suspected. She mouthed something once again that Roddy could neither read nor hear. In moments of fear, Roddy considered herself a person of flight; in this case, her body couldn't move. Her feet stood steadfast in that spot, her knees trembled as if she were about to fall apart, and her palms started to sweat; not even a scream escaped her lips. She just stood there, paralyzed from fear and stared at the ghoul as it reenacted what had occurred earlier. Finding strength, Roddy turned from the mirror, still holding her hand to her mouth. The bathroom was covered in walls of thick, flowing blood. She felt her breaths quicken and her heart start to race.
Finding courage and speed she'd never had, Roddy ran from the bloody restroom out into the darkened, solitary hallway. The general stillness of the hallway was broken by the staccato thump of her pumps and her heavy breathing as she fled in terror. Her eyes reverted behind her from time to time, trying to catch a glimpse of the ghoul she'd seen for the second time that day. All the while, her mind was reeling, her soul was yelling; it wasn't a dream, or some silly vision or shadow playing humorous tricks on her mind, it was an unhappy phantasm that wanted to haunt her, scare her away. She couldn't stop running, lest the ghost catch her. Turning around and finally looking forward, Roddy ran directly into the ghostly figure and fell backwards onto her butt. She recognized the spot from the day before; it was the direct spot that she'd met Trowa in their unsightly tumble.
Roddy looked at the woman in wide-eyed shock as the scene from earlier played out in front of her. She could do nothing but watch in wonderment. The woman didn't want to hurt her; she wanted to tell her something.
The scene was the familiar classroom, though set up differently. There sat the woman, the ghoul and she was unscathed, her face homely and caring. She stood from her desk chair, seeing someone at the door, obviously a kind, familiar face. She was dressed in all black, even down to the shoes. The large black top and modest black skirt customary of nuns. There was no habit, for this particular order it wasn't required. Just as quickly as the smile arrived on the woman's face, the mood changed, things became jarred in the vision. The apparition was blurred, blood splattered, almost gray. There were flashes of white lights and black shadows reeling in the background, but mostly the perpetrator was blurred. Then the familiar scene began to play, the nun hanging from the room's board, her bloodied form reeling from asphyxiation and the struggle for her last words.
Roddy sat in a darkened hallway, staring blankly at the apparition, shaking profusely, crippled from horror. She didn't hear a sound, not even a squeak as a soft hand crept up and tapped her on the shoulder. She only screamed and swooned into the waiting arms, darkness fading into more utter darkness as she succumbed to her faint.