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ALAINA AND JACK left the room when they heard a scream. It had grown so common to hear the shattering crack of a voice that they only expected a scared girl to be shaking against a wall. However, when they ran down the hall of the second floor and leant over the banister of the staircase, the last thing they expected to see was a horrified Linda staring over an unconscious Janice. The young blonde was knocked out cold.
"Janice!" Alaina shouted as she pulled away from the railing, running down the stairs in leaps and bounds. Jack was quick to follow her, banging on the doors he passed with his fists before almost tumbling down the steps. Mr Mullins and Sister Charlotte ran out of their rooms not long after.
The girl on the floor was clearly in pain, even in her unconscious state. Alaina fell down to her knees beside the girl, grabbing onto her hand as she worriedly examined her fragile state. She could feel the tears stabbing at her eyes, pricking at her waterline in an attempt to spill over. She didn't let them - she held them back.
She looked up at Jack, who was standing behind her with concern. His tense face softened, watching her eyes glisten in the early morning sunlight shining through the window. Too late, she mouthed sadly, we were too late.
Mr Mullins stayed home while Linda and Sister Charlotte travelled to the hospital with the severely injured girl. Alaina was nervous, extremely nervous, and yet, to her surprise and even disgust, Jack seemed to be nothing but calm. He wasn't bouncing his leg as the other orphans slowly dispersed from the room, or clutching his own hands in fear - no, he was standing completely still, until all who was left in the room were Alaina and Samuel.
The girl could see his tranquility shattering within the blink of an eye, his calmness swiftly shifting into a swirling pit of rage.
The boy quickly moved forward, shoving Mr Mullins back by the shoulders. Alaina got up and stopped him with a gasp, pushing herself between them as she flattened her hands on the boy's chest.
"Jack-" she tried, but he wasn't looking at her. He was glaring over her shoulder at the man he needed to blame.
"You know what this is about-" Jack shouted, raising a finger shaking with anger at the startled man in front of him. "-you could have prevented all of this!"
"I couldn't have done anything!" The older man retorted, pushing the boys finger back down by his side. Alaina whipped her head around, sending the older - typically more mature person - a stern glance like he should've been doing in the first place. However, her head quickly moved back to stare at Jack when the boy tried to move forward with another overwhelming surge of rage, only to get stopped by the slight nudge Alaina's hand sent his chest.
"How do you know? You didn't even try!" The boy shouted, angered, as he glared at the man. His chest was pressed hard against Alaina's palm, the shorter girl glancing worriedly between the two males. He couldn't get any closer if he tried, and he didn't want to accidently hurt the girl - he never wanted to do that. So, with narrowed eyes and a clenched jaw, he held himself back from advancing.
"I've tried before, with Esther. Did you not listen to me yesterday?" Samuel shouted, face strained and tense through his irritation. Jack bit his lip, his torturous stare not faltering, as Alaina's parted in disbelief.
She looked between the two. "Will you quit arguing for just a minute!"
"No, this must be done," the man said without even sparing her a glance, causing Jack's eyes to narrow even further.
"Leave her out of this," he seethed, voice quiet but low. Alaina rolled her eyes, not at the other teen behind her, body touching the palm of her hand, but at the man before her who wouldn't even spare her a glance.
"No, no, Jack," she dismissed with a shake of her head, this time, it being her not to spare him a glance. She was sick of it all, the supernatural, the fear of sleep, the anger these two boys always held for each other. She needed them to shut up. "The girls can hear you, everyone in this house can hear you-" she stabbed a finger towards the older man's chest. "-including your daughter, who's supposed to be dead."
He blinked, face falling for a moment, before returning to his neutral mixture of anger and annoyance. "Don't say-"
"Well, it's true, isn't it?" She said with a tilt of her head, eyes squinted. "She's not meant to be here right now unless it's in your head, but she's here. Here. That's the issue, okay? Not, who's made mistakes in the past, or who the toughest boy is," she argued, watching Jack's face falter with recognition of the subtle jab. He looked down at her with parted lips of confusion. "It's how the heck to get her out of here.
"Jack's right, you and your wife are the only ones who know what to do. This has happened before, hasn't it?" She retorted smartly, crossing her arms with furrowed brows. "It stopped twelve years ago, so tell me how it's started again, and why it's chasing us. All of us. None of us are safe here anymore . . . Janice got pushed a floor down for goodness sake! She could've died!"
Jack slowly raised his hand to cover her own, lacing their fingers together as he carefully lowered it from his chest. Mr Mullins let his sight drift down to the floor in thought, an even bigger frown forming on his lips than what was there before.
"I'm afraid there isn't much I know anymore," the man whispered, eyes flicking up to meet both the teens' sights. "Because everything I thought I knew doesn't seem to work anymore."
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