Ties In The Torn World

The Night The World Went To Sh*t

I had been preparing for this night for a while, this time, I knew I was getting out. the past eleven attempts were rookie, I didn't even have a plan. 

"twelfth times the charm" I huff quietly as I zip up my back pack and put my hoodie on. it was chilly outside, around fall time. creeping closer to thanksgiving...

I sling my backpack around my shoulder and grabbed a couple of pillows, setting them up to look like me, turned to face the wall and curled up. I analyzed the pillow June through the eyes of Madam Tooley. it passed my expectations.

I quietly opened the squeaky door, tip-toed across the creaky floorboards and crept down the stairs. I walked slowly down the hall, passing by the other girls rooms. I saw the light through the crack under the door. 

a wave of sadness swept over me. I hadn't fit in, at all. I might have if Madam Tooley gave me a bed in one of the shared rooms. she had to have hated me with a burning passion because she gave me an isolated room. 

I put my ear to the door, keeping my feet off to the side so they wouldn't see the shadow under their door. I heard giggles, gossip and shushing. 

I wish I fit in. 

I stepped back and continued down the hall, I would find my father, he would be better, and he could sign the papers to get me back. 

he probably doesn't know where I am, that's why he hasn't gotten me yet.

I wonder if he's still in Atlanta.

my thoughts were interrupted by a loud laugh coming from the girls room. I swore under my breath, that ought to wake up Madam. 

I sped up my pace but before I could reach the backdoor, I heard her footsteps. the click-clack of the black high heels she never took off. I froze, my heart racing. I couldn't get caught. 

the footsteps got nearer, my heart beat got faster. I had to think, fast. 

I quickly slid the backpack off of my shoulders and tried to pry the window open. my small fingers hurt as I pushed up with all my might. sweat dripped from my forehead as I heard her footsteps stepping down from the last step on the staircase. the window finally opened and I frantically pushed my backpack through throwing it down from the window and I try to run to the nearest storage closet.

I shut the door just as I hear Madam turn the corner. I peer through the crack in the hinges and I see her, nightgown on, messy hair, opening the door to the girls room angrily. 

"girls!" she shouts and I hear squeaking of their beds as I imagine they frantically rush to their own beds. Madam gives them a stern lecture as she steps into the room and she comes out with the eldest of the girls, holding a fistful of her hair and I see a shiny tear drop down her cheek as she whimpers. Madam slams the door shut and drags Sophia, the eldest, up the stairs, shouting at her as she goes. 

I don't dare come out of the closet until I hear a door shut, signaling that Madam will punish Sophia now. I hear muffled cries that sound too familiar to my own, knowing I've been in her position more then just a couple of times. 

I slowly come out of the closet, looking at both sides of the hall before stepping out. I come closer to the window, planning to jump out of it now knowing the backdoor is too noisy of an option until I hear a blood curdling scream.

that was a bellow that was straight terror, and it came from Madam's room. that scream was followed by another, this one more deep. why was Madam the ones shrieking in terror? the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I passed the window and carried on to the stairs. 

the curiosity in me bubbling up until I finally step onto the staircase. I look back, the girls room door opened to show the group of girls peering their head out , looking just as spooked as I was.

"HELP!" another scream of pure horror echoed through the halls, I ignored all warnings my body was sending me and I sprinted up the stairs, not stopping until I reached Madam's room. I ripped the door open to be met with the most panicking sight of my life.

something I wasn't even sure could be real. Madam was bleeding profusely from her neck as she attempted to speak but all she could do was cough up blood, Sophie was on the floor, scratching at the hardwood as a human was on top of her, biting the side of her face, ripping the flesh off her bones as he looked up at me with fear-filled and desperate eyes.

 I backed up and tripped over my own foot, the sound made whatever the hell was eating Sophie to look at me, its pale skin and lifeless eyes made me believe it wasn't truly alive. It started to move towards me as it left Sophie's dead body behind.

I couldn't scream as I frantically stood up and ran down the hallway, jumping and skipping the steps on the staircase as I made my way down. I made eye contact with the girls while I was running and all I could do was scream at them to run. 

the low growling of the unalive made its way down the stairs and I looked back once to see the girls, screeching in shock as the unalive fell on top of a girl named Marina and chewed the skin straight off of her arms. 

I turned back a last time before jumping out the window without a second thought. I pulled the hoodie on and slung the backpack over my shoulders. I sprinted across the grass of the play area, squeezing through the gates and running across the street. 

I made no stops, not to help the people who were being eaten, not to fight off any of the unalive, and certainly not to grab anyone off the streets. 

everyone's screams of terror infiltrated my ears and haunted my dreams that night. the unalive were all over the streets, I heard sirens, I heard gunshots, I heard booming noises I didn't know where it was all coming from. 

I ran and ran until I made it to an abandoned post office, I dragged a table to block off the entrance and I locked myself in the bathroom, shaking in a corner, holding a plastic fork I found in the trash so hard my knuckles turned white, knowing it couldn't protect me. 

I didn't leave that post office for a week, until the screams stopped, until the gunshots died down, until the only noises I could hear was the moans and groans of the unalive.