The Garden of What Once Was

CHAPTER FORTY

 While Ember's classmates frantically ran around campus, she lounged in a white bed, blankly staring up at the ceiling, bored out of her mind. Though she could try to strike up a conversation with the person on the other side of the privacy curtain, she decided to stay quiet.

But, that very person was the one who decided to speak up first, surprisingly enough. "I can tell by your loud sighing that you're quite bored." Their voice was a deep rumble with a familiar tone to it.

"Oh, uh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to disturb you," Ember quickly apologized, obviously embarrassed. "I'll try to be quieter."

"No need to apologize. I wasn't calling you out for that petty reason. I actually wanted to know if you wanted to hear a story. It might entertain you for a little bit," He offered.

The last time somebody asked if she wanted to hear a story was when her dad was trying to put her energetic seven-year-old self to bed. It felt a little odd that this guy was asking her, a high schooler, this when they were way past the age of storytime. Then again, she didn't have anything better to do. A harmless story couldn't hurt to listen to. Besides, it might even help her fall asleep.

"What is the story called?" Ember asked.

"The Four Foxes & The Rabbit. It's a simple title, easy to remember. Anyway, the story begins with a little bunny who makes friends with its predators, the four foxes. They spend their days playing in the meadow together, chasing each other around the forest and whatnot. Every day was filled with happiness and fun for the bunny. The bunny never thought it would end, but one day, it foolishly hopped into the fox den. It thought: 'Since I'm friends with the four foxes, I can be friends with all of them'. But, the poor bunny thought wrong. For, as soon as it went into the den, it was eaten, every last bit of it. Now you may think the four foxes were the ones at fault, but it was actually the fifth fox that had been watching the bunny since it first laid eyes on it. That fifth fox was just like the bunny with its white hair. The only difference was it had intelligence and fangs, sharp fangs."

By the time the story ended, an unsettling chill had blanketed Ember's body. The chill sunk into her heart, making it beat ten times faster. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as her mind made a quick connection with the bunny. She was surrounded by four foxes, the High-tiers, every day, and she befriended her predators, just like that bunny. I am the bunny, she realized, immediately tensing up as she gripped the scratchy sheet beneath her. Now the question was who was the white fox? There was no one that came to Ember's mind. Who the hell could it be? Her eyes shifted to the right, landing on the shadow of the person behind the curtain. Instantly after she locked onto his shadow, he moved, almost like he was turning to face her. She couldn't see his eyes, but she knew he was looking at her with a gaze that she could feel right through those curtains. It was a look that a predator would give to its prey.

"You," She whispered, her voice hollow and full of disbelief. It made no sense as to why this person would want to hurt her. Hell, she hadn't even met them before. Or have I? "It's you, isn't it?"

"If you have figured it out, then why are you still sitting here, Ember?"

Now his voice was beyond the definition of terrifying. It was pure satanic. Ember wouldn't have been surprised if it turned out that she was talking to the devil himself. She wasn't curious enough to find out though. Her feet met the floor and were soon running across the room and toward the door.

As she pushed open the door, the sound of his eerie voice clung to her ears. "Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run."

His voice filled her head as she ran down the short hall toward the front desk. If she told the nurse what was happening, then the nurse would surely call down security to take care of the creep. Unfortunately, her hopes of talking to anyone, let alone the nurse, were shot out the window. Laying face down with two deep fang wounds in her neck was the nurse. A trail of red twisted down her light skin, flowing into a small pool on the floor. She bit down on her lip, suppressing the urge to let her fear get the best of her as she stepped over the unconscious nurse. Although she wanted to get help for the nurse, she decided it would be better for her to worry about getting out of the infirmary first.