Hey, guys! I'm glad you liked the last chapter! I've been trying to reply to reviews, but sometimes my email screws up and I don't get them. So if I haven't replied to you, it's not because I'm ignoring you and I love you lots. Same to all of those silent people who follow or favorite~ thank you!
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A poem by T.S. Eliot is quoted again. I don't own it.
Summary: McKinley High goes on lockdown with Marley and Kitty stuck in the choir room together. Karley.
Characters: Marley R. and Kitty
Rating: T
THE DAY AFTER, 3:45 A.M.
The door closed quietly behind Marley with a small thud that left her heart pounding and her mouth dry.
The hallway was silent as ever, and Marley closed her eyes shut as she stepped out, hoping to avoid whatever gruesome sight that might await her. Carefully averting her eyes from the ground, she stepped away from the choir, keeping her eyes carefully trained on following Kitty.
There was no one in the halls, and Marley couldn't help but wonder if their nightmare was over. Somehow, she doubted it, and that shade of doubt soon grew into a strange apprehension that sharpened her features and left her wary of everything. She passed a classroom window that had been obviously shot, the glass shards lying on the ground and sparkling serenely in the moonlight. Marley swallowed. They looked like diamonds.
There was a quiet, unnatural calm in the halls, and Marley herself could barely register her own footsteps and the sound of her own breathing. Occasionally, they would pass an empty classroom with the door wide open, and Marley would briefly consider giving up and ducking into it, hiding in a closet until someone else found her and helped her out.
Other times, they would come by a classroom door that was quietly shut. Marley imagined that there were people behind those doors, people like herself and Kitty who turned to each other, terrified and curled up behind or in front of whatever they were hiding behind, only to relax when the footsteps were gone and the uneasy silence back again.
There was a giant pile of glass in front of the cafeteria and Marley shut her eyes tight and stood still. A single tear leaked out of her eye, and she choked slightly, bowing her head and trying to avoid reality. "Marley?" Kitty asked and obviously stepped towards her, the crunch of glass below her feet making Marley wince.
"I can't," Marley forced out, gritting her teeth and trying not to lose it.
"Marley, we can't just stand here," Kitty said and Marley felt a hand on her shoulder. She opened her eyes and stared at the ground, trying not to cry.
"I can't," she repeated, sounding like a broken record. "Really." She shook her head lightly and tried to move, but her feet felt like they were stuck to the ground.
"Marley," Kitty said softly but looked around like she was worried. "We're going to get out of here."
Marley nodded quickly, her throat tight and miserable. She tried to speak, but she couldn't. Her chest was constricting violently around her ribcage and her breath was beginning to falter. "Marley," Kitty repeated, and reached up with her hand and brushed a stray strand of hair from Marley's face, tucking it behind her ear. Marley's heart flipped and she swallowed. "Listen. We're going to get out of here, and it's going to be okay." She brought her hand down from Marley's face and put it on her shoulder.
Leaning forward slightly, Kitty hesitated, almost as if she were nervous. Closing her eyes, she leaned forward even more, pressing a soft and gentle kiss to Marley's lips.
Shockwaves seemed to go through Marley and she closed her eyes. The first one could've been a fluke. It could've just been the release of pent-up emotions, fright, and anger that had somehow culminated into a kiss. But this couldn't have been some random act. This was real, and if the beating of Marley's heart was any indication, she was enjoying it.
Marley's throat constricted and then released when the blonde stepped back, and she breathed in a shuddering breath before squaring her shoulders and nodding. She eased her foot out of the glass and walked on, ignoring the ominous crunch beneath her feet every time she pressed her foot against the ground. The crackling seemed like a fire and the breaking of bones at the same time, and Marley shuddered subconsciously, her shoulders sagging in relief as she finally stepped over the last of the glass.
The cafeteria behind it was seemingly empty, but Marley didn't want to look.
They reached the door to the courtyard and Kitty pushed it open. It creaked slightly, and Marley stiffened. They stepped outside and the door fell shut behind them, locking. Marley turned around in horror, rattling at the door, but it wouldn't yield. She sighed. They were stuck.
The night air was cold against her skin, and Marley shivered. The moon was a bright orb, hanging ominously in the sky. There were no clouds. It was clear, and the starlight was comforting above them.
There was a gunshot, and Marley's hands flew up to her mouth and she stared at Kitty in horror. "What do we do now?" She whispered, and Kitty shook her head desperately.
"I don't know," she hissed, but the worry in her eyes prevailed over the shield she had carefully constructed. "I really don't know."
They began to cross the courtyard, keeping their heads down. They reached the stairs and began to climb towards the top when another gunshot echoed in the night. Marley shrank back, her eyes wide in panic, and she tripped and fell onto concrete where she gripped the stair rail for support.
This is the way the world ends.
She could only watch in horror as a hooded figure emerged from the school brandishing a gun. He—for it was undoubtedly a man, simply the way he carried himself and walked gave that fact away—was tall and obviously muscular. Marley swallowed in complete horror and watched him pause and turn around as if he sensed that someone was there.
That someone was, unfortunately, Kitty.
Marley's hands flew to her mouth again as she desperately choked back a scream. Kitty was standing in the middle of the staircase, turning around in complete horror, her perfect blonde hair fluttering slightly in the breeze.
This is the way the world ends.
Kitty's hands dropped to her sides in feeble protest as the guy with the gun turned to her, his gun raised and his face that surely had a devastating half-smirk etched into it covered by the hood. He was like Death. He looked like Death. Hell, he was death. Kitty's features were horrified, and she opened her mouth and shook her head vigorously in silent protest.
"Don't," Marley heard Kitty call out, and the blonde lowered her head and began to cry, the wind whipping around her face and her hair flying out like some sort of a halo. Marley was paralyzed, stuck hiding behind a wall of her own fears. She was stuck and a coward, and now Kitty was going to pay.
Marley closed her eyes and began to pray, tears trickling down her face as she desperately tried not to make any noise. Nothing could happen to Kitty. It couldn't happen. It wouldn't. It was like one of those things in movies where even though it seemed like everything was going to go wrong, it wouldn't. It couldn't. It'd be a dream, or a flashback, or a premonition, or someone would swoop in and save the day.
This is the way the world ends.
The man lowered his gun and for a moment, Marley began to breathe normally again, the tears stopping for a split second as she leaned over the railing a bit to see better. Giving up, she slumped back onto the cold concrete, ignoring the pain. Maybe it would all be okay. Kitty promised. It had to be okay. She didn't know what she would do with herself if it wasn't okay.
After a few seconds, he raised the gun again, a low, hacking, dark chuckle rising in his throat, the kind that threatened to turn into a snarl at any given second. Marley's stomach churned. What kind of a monster was he?
A single gunshot echoed in the silent night sky, stretching across seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, years, millennia even, and yet still existed in that moment. Kitty flung herself down the stairs, her body flopping down the stairs like some kind of a fish and then finally hitting the concrete with a sickening thud.
Marley curled into a ball, biting her wrist in hopes of restraining the loud, desperate cry that was trapped inside of her. When she couldn't bear it anymore, she looked back up, and Kitty was lying at the base of the stairs. She wasn't moving. There was no blood. She hadn't been shot.
She can't be dead, Marley thought desperately, her stomach flipping and turning and churning wildly. She looked for any signs of life in the girl, and her horror and fears were mildly assuaged when she saw her hand and her lips moving in some sort of a desperate plea for help.
The man laughed again, growling, "Do what you want." He strode over to the still body of the girl and kicked her violently in the ribs. Marley averted her eyes and looked back again just in time to see the man striding towards the door, pulling out a key and screwing around with it, but he obviously lacked the patience to even try and get the lock to work. He looked around as if he were bored and fumbled with the key, finally getting it to open and stepping inside. He threw the gun on the ground, where it lay, presumably empty and terrifying. He let the door crash behind him.
Not with a bang, but with a whimper.