Lost in the Depth

Brick

Rayna

My breaths are coming in pants. My hair is sticking to my temples from cold sweat. My knuckles are definitely cracked by now. But I can't stop. Even as a numb ringing sound vibrates through my ears, blocking out Riley's screaming, signaling my boiling rage.

I just can't stop.

"Please," Sara begs, her voice now coming in a whimper instead of the shrieks she was releasing before.

I throw another punch.

Her face is painted with blood past the point of recognition.

Another punch.

Her lips are trembling as she loses the energy to utter even a single word.

Another.

Her eyes aren't opening anymore. She's stopped breathing.

But I still can't stop.

"Let go of her you crazy bitch!" Riley cries out. Before I can react, a hard, cold something bashes into the side of my head.

And with that, I'm out cold.

But the high-pitched ringing is still vibrating through me.

---

Will

"What kinda dribblin's that mate?" Ryan mocks as I make my way towards the hoop.

"The kind that'll score a 3-pointer, mate," I shoot back, grinning as I make fun of his Australian accent.

The boys and I decided to come to the school gym for a basketball game before leaving. School ended around half an hour ago so everyone's already left and the place is now a ghost town. 

I saved Rayna and me two cupcakes from my food tech class and I'm gonna take them over to her place to share after this game. My stomach grumbles loudly when I think about the cupcakes, and while I'm distracted, Ryan sneaks up behind me and hits the ball out of my hand.

It bounces into the open door of the girls' bathroom which is connected to the brick wall behind the basket. "So close, yet so far," Ryan smirks and I lightly punch him in the shoulder. 

"Says the one who can't even play defense properly," I say, making a gesture towards the bathroom door to make my point. Shaking my head, I make my way over to the bathrooms. No ones even here, so what does it matter if I go in there.

I reluctantly enter the toilets. The hallway leading to the stalls is dark, since the teachers turned the lights off before leaving. Which is weird, since they never bother. The ball's made its way all the way into the actual bathroom, in front of the sink. Squinting in the darkness, I bend over to pick it up. 

And my body freezes, as if ice is running through my veins.

Even in this dim lighting I can make out the red colour of blood, a colour I know too well. Leave. Turn around and leave. My body begs me to get the hell away from it.

But that wouldn't be the right thing to do.

A shiver crawls down my spine as my eyes follow the trail of blood to the source. It's too dark to make out the face of the body sprawled across the marble tiles but I figure out that it's a girl from the long hair- and, well, the fact that this is the girls' toilets. A pool of blood surrounds her head and a rectangular shape is lying on the ground next to it. 

A brick. With her blood sticking to one side of it. No. No, not her  blood. 

As my eyes adjust to the darkness of the toilets, I begin to see the face of the girl more clearly. And I almost wish I hadn't.

Rayna's limp, lifeless body lays in front of me.

I drop to my knees and bring my hands over her body as if to do something, but instead they just hover there. Simply because I don't know what to do. I have witnessed a sight like this once before, with someone else that I loved, but that doesn't make it any easier now. 

Rayna is someone I have always stupidly looked up to, purely because she is so strong and confident. But now, watching her body draped in a pool of her own blood, she looks fragile and...dead.

As that word flashes into my brain, I'm snapped out of my haze. My eyes widen, my body suddenly alert. I only feel a single tear roll down my cheek as I yell, on the top of my lungs- as if my life depends on it, because it really does- I scream "HELP!".