Treachery, Royalty, and Annoying Girls

Chapter 3, Part 3

I was a little taken aback to find Marilynna outside my door with a little bit of a distressed look on her face. It quickly changed to sas.

"Wait, it's you." she grumbled.

"Well duh, it's my room." She started to walk away. "Wait, what do you need?" I asked, trying to be friendly. I knew that it wasn't going to work but I was gonna try at least.

"Ugh, why do you care?" she sighed. "It's not like you could do anything anyway. I lost my knife and can't find it anywhere." My jaw hung open when she told me about a knife. "I know I wasn't supposed to have it, but it was good to have in the lockdown, you know, in case something happened and I needed to defend myself. I was just going to ask if you've seen it but it went missing yesterday while you were unconscious. So, there would be no way you would know, but it was worth the ask."

"I can help you find it, just why are you being so nice about it?" I asked, I had a feeling she was going to try and use me to get closer to Andrew. "By the way," she snipped, shifting her weight from her left foot to her right. "Now is probably the best time to tell you that trying to make an ally of me won't work, I'm not asking for a friend, and I don't need your help. I'm looking for people who have more of a chance."

"Why?" I asked. "Won't that just make it harder for you?"

"No, they'll be more crushed when I beat them." she sniffed, turning and walking away from my room.

I was absolutely stunned in confusion. Her mood bounced fast. The thing that concerned me most though was the fact that she was carrying a knife with her. I needed to find it before something happened to one of the other girls.

I went back to my book and was almost finished before my eyes got too heavy to keep open. I yawned and shut my eyes.

Around 3 in the morning, I heard a scream from someone across the hall, it was Jenni. I ran quickly to her room and saw a rip in her sheets near her chest. I looked around for someone else and saw a shadow run around the corner. "Hey!" I started to run to the other end but didn't find anyone. I sprinted back to Jenni's room to find her coughing. "Callix?" She croaked. I peeled the sheets from her body to see a bloodied hole in her gown and a hole in her skin.

"Jenni, hush, save your breath. And brace yourself for what I'm about to do."

I took a deep breath and started yelling as loud as I could. "HELP! SOMEBODY HELP! JENNI'S BEEN STABBED!" I heard lots of footsteps coming and held Jenni's hand. Tears started to stream down her face.

"Jenni, it's going to be okay, just hang in there."

"I'm not going to make it, it's no use." She hoarsely whispered.

"Do not say that." I knew she was right but I needed her to think positive.

"Callix, please. J-" she took a shaky breath, "please tell Marilyna that she was a jerk, and tell Andrew I loved him. Please?"

"You'll get to tell them that just wait for the nurses to come help you." The life started to fade from her eyes as more blood pooled around her.

"No, Jenni, please stay with me." Tears started dripping down my face. Jenni leaned up and whispered, "Stay strong, Callix. I believe in you."

She gave my hand one final squeeze before it went limp. "No, Jenni. Jenni, you do not get to do this. Dammit Jenni, no." I was crying over her dead body. Guards and nurses came in and tried to get me away from her. I held on tightly to my friend until I felt a familiar pair of strong arms pull me away from the body. "No! Put me down!" I sobbed. My voice breaks on every word. "Please,"

"No."

"JENNI!" I screamed one last time before I was dragged into the hallway and the doors were shut. I was finally put down and Andrew sat beside me. He pulled me close to him and shushed me telling me that everything was going to be okay. I cried into his chest for what seemed like an eternity before falling asleep in his arms.