Faceless

Period 4: School Work

I checked my emails that day like I had been instructed, as I did not want to get a fork slowly, slowly punctured into my arm as salt and vinegar is poured in. It told me that from 8am to 10am I would be mopping the bathroom floor unless a Divine asked me to do something for them. This was when I noticed the uniform. For the rest of the day I would be making powerpoints for Maths lessons. Hell couldn't be worse than that. Hell was probably better than detention here, where your least favourite words could be carved into your back.

On the way to the bathrooms, I walked past the staff room, there were only a few teachers in there. From what I'd seen on the staff board, there was a guy in the canteen called Dave, a janitor named Julie, Mr G, Mr S, Mrs M, Mrs P, Mr D, Dr P and Mr N. That was not a lot for a whole school, a school can't function without staff! What's the issue? Pay? No, probably not. That was probably A factor, but I was certain the main factor would be working conditions. Either way, they had a serious understaffed problem. I guess that was one of the many reasons us kids were doing so much work. It's not fair, I'm a kid, I shouldn't be working, I should be enjoying my childhood. I only have one.

When I entered the bathroom I was absolutely disgusted. Normally what would disgust me was the graffiti and vandalism, but here it was even worse! The stalls didn't have locks! I knew this place was cheap and micro-managed but... That's just gross! Thank God the bathroom was one of the few places that didn't have cameras or else I'd have shit myself, and despite being in the bathroom this didn't feel like a good place to do that. It was too... Public. A couple of people walked in a stall occasionally and asked a friend or a slave to hold the door closed. Sometimes though, they'd just wander in and pretend to be busy while chatting with some friends loudly. I swear I saw someone vaping, too. We're kids, for crying out loud! Was there really no system in place to prevent this? Was this place really so stressful that kids aged 13 needed nicotine to cope? Yes, seemingly.

"Hey, you slave! Look over here!". A divine was bullying me after washing her hands without soap due to the empty containers. I couldn't blame them, they were instructed to. I did as I was told. The divine looked like a year 9 maybe, and the first thing I noticed was that she had a yellow badge. I considered ushering her somewhere to ask her about the chemicals, but ultimately decided against it after remembering what 006 said about suck-ups. Sucking up definitely seemed like a way of coping here, a way of feeling safe.

I bet she didn't know what it was like to struggle to eat due to expensive school meals. I bet she didn't know what it was like to struggle to eat in general. I bet she didn't know what it was like to study every day to get into your dream school without any programs to help. I bet she didn't know what it was like to need to skip the shower so the water bill would be lower. I bet she didn't know what it was like to get your face ripped off. I bet she didn't know what it was like to be enslaved and have all hope ripped directly from your heart.

Damn it, I'm being jealous again. This always happens when I'm being bullied.

The girl got really close to me and looked intently at what would have been my eyes. She grabbed my hair and started pulling it. I yelped in pain. Funny, I had been through torture before without a single noise, but now simple hair pulling was making me yelp.

"Work harder! Do you want to get your bones snapped like a kitkat? I can very easily get that arranged for you on the 4th floor! I'm one of the few people allowed up there!". So that was one of the privileges she gets, I suppose. She shoved me onto the floor and I hit the ground with a thud.

"Softie!". At this point I felt enraged. Back at Primary school, some idiot called Charlie had done something very similar because he thought I was 'strange for wanting to go to Lilith school'. As it turns out, he was right. I felt like I was going to snap and do something that would get my blood drained out of me. The girl could sense this, and knew that she had done enough and had better stop. She left the bathroom after mouthing "Sorry". I really couldn't be angry, she had justification. I just had to suck it up, not like the school would do anything about it.

I worked the rest of the day as hard as I could. Not out of dedication, out of fear. It was so difficult, writing equations, intense research on the things for the powerpoint, thank God I didn't make any mistakes, that would have ended badly. I was so tired and exhausted, and so pressured that I could die if I made a mistake the whole time. Somehow, I didn't make any mistakes despite all the hours of intense and stressful work, and I survived the day, no closer to discovering a way out of here. I had planned to do more brainstorming after work, but I was so fatigued that all I wanted to do was sleep for 3 days straight, I'd never get a break long enough to do that though. This was my job, every day, the rest of my life. No breaks, no fun. Just school. Hopefully, there would be a day soon where I had just enough energy to devise a good plan.

If I stayed here too long, it would shatter my mental health as it deteriorated. I would become a shell of a human being if I lost hope, a robot if I worked too much. It was already getting bad enough to see blood everywhere, while mopping I kept getting confused why it wouldn't clean until I noticed it was just me. I had to get out of here before I became hollow. Before my insides were scooped out.

I had to hurry, as I was thinking there were kids as young as me dying, being tortured and treated like slaves. Not just being treated like them, being made slaves! I had to free them before their mental state had broken beyond repair.