School Spirits | I Don't Do Friends

21- Hard Talk

The group was having their annual camp out later that night. Caroline was looking for a sleeping bag in storage.

She pulled down a box from the top shelf, dust filled the air.

"Shit." She coughed and waved the dust out of her face.

When the dust settled, she was somewhere else. Not new, old, and all too familiar.

The walls shrank, she was on the floor nestled into coats and boots. She heard shuffling from outside the door.

She was in the coat closet in her old home.
Caroline reached for the door handle.

"You can come out when you've learned your lesson!" A slurred voice shrieked from the other side.

She recognized that voice, her mother.

"This can't be fucking happening." She mumbled, shrinking further into the floor.

"You think you're so smart. You're a fucking thief!"

Caroline remembered this. Her mother chain smoked all of her cigarettes and forgot about it. Blamed it of Caroline. She was 11.

She covered her ears, but it didn't stop. Her mother's voice bounced around in her head.

The yelling became incoherent, and painful.

"Shut up!" Caroline demanded.

"This isn't fucking real, snap out of it."
Her eyes sealed shut, hoping it would go away.

The door rattled. She couldn't remember what happened after this, she just knew she should be scared.

"Stop!" The banging continued. "Please, just fucking stop!"

Whatever it was, decided to listen. The closet went quiet, and she was back in the school. The box was tipped over next to her.

Her gaze shot to the door when she heard a soft knock.

"Caroline?" Charley's voice sounded distant as he knocked quietly on the metal. "Caroline? Can I come in?"

She didn't know what to do. Someone heard her going crazy. He must think she's lost her mind.

"No! Just- I'm fine." Her shaking hands wiped tears off of her cheeks.

"I'm coming in." The door creaked open.

"Of course you fucking are." She mumbled.

He sat down next to her, his hands folded gingerly on his lap.

Caroline couldn't look at him. He couldn't sugar coat this, she was going insane.

"What happened, babes?" He asked.

He was too calm, it scared her.

He was too sad to be freaked out. Seeing her like that.

She stared at her feet, trying to put the words together in a way that wouldn't sound crazy.

"I remembered something, like it was happening all over again." She tucked in her knees and held herself.

Charley gave a sad sigh and put an arm over her shoulder. "Wanna talk about it?"

"No." She hid her face.

Charley wanted an answer desperately. Caroline sounded like she was screaming for her life. Now the strongest person he knew was rocking herself in a storage closet. It was unsettling.

"Okay." He agreed. There was no point in pushing it. It wouldn't help her.

"I'm not crazy, I'm just all mixed up." She promised.

"I know."