Chapter 4
Abby sat down in class, her goggles perched on her head as everyone else took their seats around her. Since the previous night, the pain had completely faded. Her vision had been slightly fuzzy, but she'd checked in at Student Services and been checked out again before class. They assured her that it should return to normal in time, but to put as little pressure on it as possible over the course of the day and head to the girls' bathroom to apply more cold paper towels to it between classes. She had three classes for the day and two of them were English, so they'd e-mailed her English teacher to put her down as authorised absence for the second lesson so she could use the first one to get set up and then head back to the dorm to rest. That worked perfectly well for her.
"Good morning, class." An African-American woman walked in and sat down behind the front desk, arranging some papers in front of her as Abby double-checked she'd got everything. "My name is Miss Grant. I will be your instructor for science class for the duration of this course. Now, I'm going to take attendance and I want you to raise your hand when you say you're here so I can better place who's who." Abby tuned out for the most part. She put her hand up when she was called and went through the motions of paying attention and joining in. She was put in a group of three with two others named Warren and Brooke. Brooke seemed like she was as into science as Abby was, but spent most of it more distracted with making subtle moves on Warren and flirting every chance she got. Warren, on the other hand, was totally oblivious and focused entirely on the work. Since neither Brooke or Abby was in a position to get much done, Warren ended up being the reason they got finished at all. That said, they were the only group who did finish. Everyone else had managed to make a mess of a simple miniature dye test practical to such an extent that some of the girls had been left running from the room to change clothes. The whole thing was chaos and Abby would probably have been laughing if she hadn't had such an atrocious night.
Eventually, the class was dismissed. Brooke and Warren left the room, barely paying any attention to Abby at all. That suited her just fine. She was about to leave when a mass of dark hair at the front desk caught her eye. She looked over to see Miss Grant muffling her sobs against the surface of the desk as her head thumped into it repeatedly.
"Uh, are you okay, Miss Grant?" she asked as she approached cautiously.
"Why do we take half these kids?" Miss Grant's voice was strained and Abby could tell she wasn't just trying to be melodramatic. "They got rich family or something? Do they have a cousin who went here? Damn, why do they keep sending me these people?"
"Well, my two lab partners were great." Abby shrugged. "I feel like I could have been more help if it wasn't for last night."
"I heard about that." Miss Grant nodded. "You're off the hook. I'll reserve my judgement of you for another day. Brooke and Warren certainly know what they're doing. But the rest of them? Come on! They were struggling with grade-school level science!"
"Have you considered they may just be finding their feet?" Abby suggested. It was a stab in the dark at first, but as soon as she said it she found her brain slipping effortlessly into the argument. "Look at it this way: they've just come from school. We were all there because we had to be, not because we wanted to be. Now here we are, voluntarily signed up for even longer in a learning environment now regarded as adults. They probably think that means that no one's going to hold their hands through things anymore and they're scared. They just need to learn that this is actually the last chance for them to have their hands held in any capacity before they get thrown out into a world that will expect them to know this stuff." Miss Grant lifted her head off the desk slowly and looked up at her as she spoke. Once she'd finished, Abby noticed that she was looking at her with a look of... Was it admiration?
"How do you sound so wise beyond your years?" she asked. "I mean, I have to acknowledge the fact that the class I've just sat through has to be the worst opening session I think I've ever had in all my years of teaching, but I think you make a lot of sense."
"Yeah, turns out I get wise when I get tired." Abby replied, forcing a smile. Miss Grant laughed at that, visibly relaxing as she did. Abby felt herself relaxing with her. It was good to know that even when she was in critical survival mode she was still good for something.
"Never sleep again, young lady." At that, it was Abby's turn to burst out laughing. For the first time that day, her laughter felt genuine. It felt good. For a few brief seconds, it was even enough to forget the discomfort in her eye.
"Only if you're okay with me being too loopy and lethargic to do homework." She tried to smile again but felt it come out more of a sickly grimace. She knew she had to get something cold on her eye and maybe splash some water on her face to wake herself up a bit more. "See you around, Miss Grant."
"See you soon, Abby. It was nice talking to you." Abby nodded in acknowledgement and went to leave before quickly backpedalling to avoid walking into the edge of the open door. She moved around it and headed out into the hall, the footfalls of the other students sounding like gunshots in her head and making her feel almost like she was in a firefight. Wasting no time, she headed for the girls' bathroom. Behind her, she was faintly aware of a rather distinctive set of footsteps and an even more familiar voice.
"Abby!" Abby looked up just as Lynn caught up with her. As they caught sight of each other properly, she noticed her girlfriend's expression shift to one of concern. "Jesus, girl! You look like shit!"
"I need to splash some water on my face." As soon as she spoke, Lynn wasted no time in grabbing Abby's arm and supporting her to the bathroom. Once in there, Abby ran to the basins and turned on the cold tap, cupping her hands together and filling them with water before burying her face in it. She instantly felt the throbbing sensation that had started in her eye and her temples settle down and kept the water on her face.
She didn't know how long she held it there for, but by the time she took it away it had gone warm. As soon as she took a breath, the fog that had infiltrated her head without her knowledge cleared a bit and only then did she realise just how desperate for oxygen she'd been getting. She paused for a minute to just focus on her breathing, dimly aware of Lynn's presence behind her. The graffiti on the mirror was distracting. It was a crown, a set of glasses and a walrus-like moustache drawn in permanent marker. It was perfectly positioned and made Abby want to smash it. She found herself mentally weighing up the pros and cons of the satisfaction of doing it verses the seven years of bad luck it would apparently bring and decided it just wasn't worth it in the end. It was unfortunate, but there would be another time. She remembered something about Blackwell having a groundskeeper. Maybe they could ask him to have a go at it with a scraper or some fridge cleaner.
"What's that worth, Abby?"
"Huh?" Abby looked over at where Lynn was leaning against the neighbouring basin. Upon realising she was looking, Lynn met her gaze with a questioning expression. "What was that?" Abby asked.
"I didn't say anything." Lynn shrugged.
"Oh. My bad." Abby returned her shrug as she went to turn back to the basin and ran some more water. "Guess I'm still not quite right. So how was your first photography class?"
"Oh, it's great!" Lynn beamed. Abby instantly knew she'd asked the right question. Perfect. Now Lynn could gush about that and be less worried about how she was doing. That suited her for now. "Mark Jefferson is so cool! He's got his own book of photography tips and even signed my copy! The other students are great, too. Kate's there and I really feel like she's a lot more comfortable now that we're able to talk like we have a common interest and less like she just walked in on us. That Victoria Chase is such a suck-up, though. But seriously, you're so lucky that Jefferson is a friend of the family! Hey, when we get married do you think you could invite him to the wedding? Maybe as the photographer?"
Abby had already tuned out. She looked up at the mirror again and narrowly stifled a shriek. The graffiti and her reflection were gone. It was like she was looking through a window or watching TV. While she knew that the weather outside was idyllic, the image in the mirror was like a portal to another world. She could see a zoomed-out version of the Arcadia Bay lighthouse, the rain lashing down horizontally and the sky overhead as black as night while the wind howled and thunder bellowed in agony as lightning forked through the air.
"I want you to swear to me that you'll take no revenge." The voice was faint over the noise, but Abby was just able to recognise it as her own. "Do not contact the police. This is personal. This is my problem. You're no longer a part of that."
"Can you really justify making this sacrifice?" Lynn's phantom voice asked.
"I would do it a thousand times over for you." Abby heard herself reply.
"You're a piece of shit, Abby! I'm done with you!" Abby felt the raw panic bubbling up in her gut. She also felt acid rising in her throat.
"Hey, are you alright?" she heard Lynn ask. This time, she knew it was the real Lynn. "You've gone white as a sheet!" Abby looked over at Lynn, well aware that she was about to start hyperventilating. The instant she looked back at the mirror, it was entirely normal. The graffiti was back and so was her utterly traumatised-looking reflection. The instant she saw it, she felt like reality itself had hit her with all the force of a runaway train. She instantly lurched forward, her breakfast reappearing in the sink as Lynn desperately grabbed hold of her and held on. In the end, she was basically the only thing holding Abby on her feet. The strength seemed to have gone from her arms and they were shaking too badly to offer any real support. But it wasn't just weakness from the vomiting. There was something else there, too: fear. She had no idea what was happening to her. And it terrified her.
Author's Note: Just felt like posting a quick update today. I will be continuing to update as frequently as possible. As to what's going on with Abby, feel free to have a guess either in a review or via PM. If anyone manages to get it right, I'll give you a shout-out when it's actually revealed. Hope everyone's staying safe out there and I'll see you in the next chapter.
