Soul Trap

Chapter Four: Caution

12:15pm Sunday, June 19th

Scarlett woke up in her bed.
What the fuck? What kind of drugs have I been on?

Checking her phone she saw that a day had passed. It was just past noon. How the hell had she gotten home yesterday. Her stomach growled.

Better get some food...

Getting out of bed, she saw that she was still wearing the clothes she had on yesterday. The stone was still in her pocket. She walked up to her dresser to change and that's when she saw a little sticky note with writing on it.
     She bolted out of the house, ignoring her mothers greeting.

The note read:

'You have 30 days'

***
12:20pm

Scarlett was out of breath by the time she got to the end of her road. There was no way that dream could have actually happened. Someone is bullshitting her. It's just a trick someone played. Just something from the day before that she didn't remember.  Or maybe she was on a hidden camera show!

She stopped at the ice cream parlour. Ice cream was her favourite. Maybe she could still get down to a size one if she only had one cone. She ordered an extra large.

***
6:01pm

The rest of the day went by as normal. It really was just a dream! She smiled to herself in relief. What was I even worried about!

Before she headed home, she hurled the stone into the woods.

***
3:28pm Wednesday, June 22

Scarlett went out with Naomi and Piper to hang out at the mall.

They hung out in the food court, talking about stupid shit, and judging whoever walked by.

"Why would he stare at me like that if he's not even going to talk to me?" Piper had just finished saying. She had been flapping her less perfect lips for the past fifteen minutes.

She just goes on and on Scarlett sighed, drifting into her own thoughts.

She saw a dark figure staring at her from the corner of her eye. Looking to see who it was, she was greeted with nothing but strangers walking by.

It was just her imagination playing tricks on her.

***
4:34pm

It happened several more times over the next hour.

By the end she whipped around only to be faced by an empty corner several times. Scarlett was breaking into an uneasy sweat.

Eventually Naomi and Piper began to noticed that something was off.

I can't let them think I'm insane She told herself, squeezing her hand into a tight fist.

"I'm not feeling the best today. I'm gonna head home." They both nodded.

"Don't get hypothermia in this heat!" Piper blurted out.

"I think she means don't get dehydrated." Sighs Naomi. But neither Piper nor Scarlett are listening.

I have such great friends!

They all did that weird giggly hug thing that no normal girls actually do. At least that made her feel a bit better.

A bit...

***
4:40pm

Scarlett swore as her phone died. Looks like getting a drive home wasn't an option anymore. Just fucking great...

It was a two hour walk in the deathly heat. She'd be lucky to get home without sunburns.

To pass the time she played the 'don't step on the cracks' game, that everyone played, but no one talked about. Then she saw people giving her weird looks as she passed them on the sidewalk.

She blushed to herself and stopped.

***
4:51pm

I don't think it's ever been this hot out Scarlett said to herself. Her stomach turned in the heat. The heat made her sick on normals days, and this was twice as bad.

Then she noticed a small puddle on the heated pavement just ahead of her.

What? It's been dry as hell for the past two weeks.

Thinking nothing of it, she leaped over it, but misjudged the distance.

Instantly, she was swallowed up by freezing cold water. Her body was in shock, and she was unable to move. When she could, she quickly swam upwards to get out, and hit her head on something hard. The sidewalk had closed itself off with ice. She was trapped.

She tapped on the ice, hoping that someone would hear. She was running out of air. When no one noticed the tapping, she tapped harder, which gave in to hurried smashing as she tried desperately to catch someone's attention.

She tried to cry out, but water filled her mouth. And no one noticed her. No matter how hard she hit the ice, it was as if she didn't exist.

Her lungs were screeching for air. She had to get out! She wasn't going to go out without a fight!

She gave in to panic and suddenly she was scratching at the ice. She began to scream, not caring how much water filled her lungs. But no one could hear her.

She began to see red as her fingers bled from clawing without any results. But she didn't stop.

One by one, her nails came off. Then her skin on her fingers came off. She only stopped struggling when she saw bone.

I'm going to die down here... She realized.

She closed her eyes, only to open them again when air filled her lungs. She gasped in relief, drinking in the air with giant gulps. She was on the sidewalk, kneeling down . She was completely dry. Her fingers were intact. It was just a hallucination. Except one thing was off. On her right arm, there were words cut into the skin on her wrist.

'27 days left'