Legends Below (Discontinued!)

Post-trauma

Julie

It's a miracle we're still alive.

---------------------------------------------------------

Itzel's face was burning red and her eyes were oozing salty tear drops.

She hugged me tightly, so tightly, that I couldn't inhale a single molecule of oxygen.

The tent may protect us at this moment, but if that monster finds us, we're screwed. If we leave this tent, not everything we see can be trusted.

Itzel was pouring tears from her eyes while I on the other hand was emotionless.

It happens when I'm shaken to my core, or in utter disbelief. I stared at Itzel's hairline as she dipped her head and cried into my stomach.

In such a world like this, maybe the IT guy was better than this hallucinating monster.

I closed my eyes and rested my chin on Itzel's head. Let's just fall asleep again, shall we?

---------------------------------------------------------

The hint of blood was the first thing that I sensed, before the feeling of sharp jagged bricks pricking my skin. The next thing I sensed was the sound of sirens ringing closer to me.

"They've been found, school parking lot!" yelled one man.

"They're all so bloody, holy shit!" said  another.

I heard multiple footsteps running closer to me.

Suddenly, I couldn't feel the ground and warm hands were grabbing my sore back and I felt someone put my limp body onto something soft.

"She's in bad condition! No pulse!" One man yelled from beside me.

"CPR! Now!" The man hollered again.

I was then dragged away and was lifted into something that stuttered its engine, the smell of gas from the exhaust pipe running up into my nose.

"She's breathing!" I heard from a distance.

I heard wheels drag against the floor along with the sounds of men chattering among themselves.

"They had been missing for 9 hours, and the school had been searched for hours and now they have been found all of a sudden? The body found in the toilet may be a connection to this case." Were the only words I heard from that conversation the men were having.

"How many kids were missing officer?" A high pitched voice squealed from behind me.

"8. Why?"

Then it was followed by silence. Even in my unconscious but conscious state, I could understand why the woman asked that question.

"Search!" The officer screamed.

But I knew searching would be useless.

Footsteps tramped away and the sounds of shoes slapping the floor slowly became softer and softer.

Suddenly my eye lid was pulled open and I saw a woman wearing a mask and nurse cap shining the light from a torch into my eyes. I looked around. I saw white plastic walls of a van with a medkit hanging from a shelf. I looked to my left and saw somebody's bloody legs beside me.

"Oh my! You were awake!" The woman jumped in surprise, "do you feel pain anywhere?"

I shook my head, but I lied. My heart ached. I saw everything. For the first time in forever, I started crying.

"Oh no sweetie, it's okay. You're safe now."

"It's not that. It's cause my friends.. they're.." I choked on my tears and my severe dehydration.

"It's okay, you don't have to say it." Her face was gentle and her smile was warm. She was really pretty too.

"There was a monster."

She looked shocked for a second, her eyebrows high on her forehead, but they quickly fell down and she asked me– "What kind of monster? Murderer? Your abusive mom? Abusive dad? Teacher?"

"No." I said simply.

"Then who?" The nurse asked.

"A traitor."

---------------------------------------------------------

I shot awake. Itzel had fallen asleep in that uncomfortable position. I was in utmost shock. One of our friends is a traitor?

I looked at Itzel's hairline uneasily. Was it all an act? What if her laughing at that bush was real and there never really was a monster? Maybe some bat that had red eyes? It was hard to see in the night.

What if all along, Itzel killed instructor Alicia because she didn't like how instructor Alicia made Saffiyah feel anguished? I began to panic. What if she was the traitor?

Should I ditch Itzel and run away? As I began pulling my torso away from Itzel's grip, Itzel began to stir from her nap and looked at me with droopy eyes.

Itzel rubbed her eyes and sniffed her snot back before curling up into a ball and hugging her knees closer to her chest.

She still is scared. This can't be an act. For all I know, Itzel's never good at hiding something. Her acting isn't a 5-star. I started to chill out, my heart falling back into a regular beat.

How could I ever think of that? That was probably a dream rather than a premonition. How foolish can I be to think of someone as pure and innocent to do such hideous things?

Sudden rumbling caught me off guard and I began to panic again.

Itzel looked around the tent bewildered. I looked up the tent roof. Silhouettes of blocky pieces fell onto the tent roof and rolled off of it, falling and shattering into smithereens from impact against the floor.

Ah, I get it. The school is collapsing. What a fun way to die.

---------------------------------------------------------

two chapters in a day WHATTT