ReRun!FPE

November 12th ~ "Have I been here before?" | Part 1/4

🎀~Claire~⭐️

Heart throbbing with each pump... muscles screaming with each stretch... legs wailing with each step. She had been running for god knows how long, ignoring the hundreds of pleads searing into her flesh by the second.

They followed close behind. Relentless. Unforgiving. Not a moment of clarity went by where her throat wasn't torn by her jagged breathes.

All of this... because she couldn't pass their test with flying colors? That thought alone pushed her to where she is now—fueled by the spite of it all—clenching every fiber in her body until the corner of her eye caught something she wasn't supposed to see.

Abbie and Lana, her best friends since elementary, had their corpses savagely ripped and torn apart until they were left rotting in their secluded grave. Claire stood paralyzed, the years of time and understanding spent together shot through her like a bullet, until the moment settled in and... wait.

'Have I been here before?'

"I see yu hafe an eye fo arto." Claire immediately reels back, hearing her pursuer take pride in this kind of hell only makes her skin crawl. "Mado bya youars truly... crafetedo from the two mosto worthlessu idiotso I ever hada to work with. Poeticu, wouldan't you-"

Claire blinked... and she was gone. Vanished without a trace. 'W-what?! W-where did she-' her gaze fell back onto the same room—now empty—the bodies of her two dearest friends had disappeared along with her teacher. Even the broken door, from which hanged by a thread, had been fixed completely, as if everything just moments before was merely a hallucination.

'What... what's going on? Is this... am I dreaming?' She steps back, holding what should be her damaged eye, noticing her vision has returned back to normal. 'No, something about this... it feels too real. But... why here? Why does this all feel familiar?'

Her thoughts were shot down, finding her surroundings swallowed by pitch black darkness, giving rise to a buried fear dug up from its grave.

"A visitor, yet I don't recall seeing you among the crowd." Her serenity. Her sharpness. It all remained the same. "What is your name little rabbit? And do tell me why do you think it's appropriate to barge into someone's home uninvited?"

Claire opens her mouth, attempting to figure her way out of this mess... but all that would follow is silence; feeling her words choke from the unseen grip around her neck. 'What is this?! Why can't I-'

"A nameless rabbit I see? How pitiful." Her act was dropping—torn from the smile severing her skin apart. Her body begged to run, but her exhaustion, her fatigue... it felt different, it felt heavier... why does she recognizes those words? "Uniqueness is a gift, you know...? one you should've cherished before stepping foot into your grave."

∆lice stomped the ground, unearthing rows of black spikes that hurled towards her direction. Having seen this before, Claire attempts to dodge... but not a muscle in her body listens; sustaining the same blinding injuries imprinted on that day.

Her actions felt locked—predetermined by some unknown force keeping her in check. No matter how loud she screamed, no matter how hard she struggled, each event played as it was told. Eventually leading her back against the school doors, watching with widened eyes as the princess raises her claw above her head.

Fear came as an old visitor, but she quickly swept it aside. If this dream was replaying her past memories, then she knows how this ends. It's all just a matter of when ∆lice gets what she deserves, or in this case, a good smack to the back of her head.

She would've chuckled right there if this dream allowed her, but instincts drove her lids shut, watching as her claw swiftly descends straight for her skull.