Chapter 18
Consumed
Tailynn Greene
The next morning I went to go speak to Langden again, he seemed to be just as nervous as me. We spoke about that first night when I saw that thing in the mirror and then about what happened with Diago last night. Like me he didn’t believe that it was just some bug he had picked up, he thought it had something to do with the thing I saw in the mirror.
We sat like that in his room for a long time, both of us unsure of what to do. We could tell that some of the other kids were a bit on edge too but we had no idea if they would actually believe us. This was definitely not some prank that the people running the show were playing on us. Maybe they could let things appear in the mirror but they couldn’t create the feelings I felt or the way that Diago acted last night.
Sage Johnson
When the alarm woke us the next morning it didn’t come with any message over the microphone so we all just went about our day doing our own thing. Nobody made breakfast so we all just ate whatever we could find. At around mid day the voice came on over the microphone again. It told us to go to the dining room and stay there until we were told we could come out.
Everybody gathered in the dining room, creating a tense atmosphere. Little groups were forming and I didn’t feel like I really belonged anywhere. Shiloh and Bladen sat together at the table looking very much in love. I’m not sure if anybody else noticed it but it was obvious to me. Noriko and Brady were together like always except that this time they were openly holding hands. Langden and Tailynn were sitting at the table whispering under their breath and looking at all of us suspiciously. Storm and Diago sat across from each other, throwing a plastic cup back and forth, leaving me, Gemma and Lainey scattered across the room. I don’t know about them but I felt alone and scared for some unknown reason.
After a few minutes the voice over the microphone came on again and asked Diago to go to his room so that the doctors can see him again. He left the dining room with a string of profanities, obviously not happy about the idea. He returned about twenty minutes later without saying a word. Once we were all in the dining room again the voice announced that we could go to the storeroom to get our grocery list.
Unlike the first time nobody ran for the room so I got up from where I was sitting, got the key out of the drawer and went to go fetch the list. We had a few extra points from tasks that we did throughout last week but since Rafeal was gone we had lost his points. We ordered the food and basics that we needed using up all of our points and then went on to writing our special requests at the bottom. I was the first to write mine down so I had no idea what the others asked for. I had simply asked for a book I’ve been wanting to read, figuring it will give me something to keep myself busy with.
When the list reached Langden and Tailynn everybody else had already filled it in so they held on to it until the voice told us to put the list back in the storeroom and then gather in the dining room until we were told we could leave. Langden went to go put it in the storeroom and then joined the rest of us again.
We must have been sitting around for at least an hour when Diago lost his temper again.
“What the fuck is taking them so long?” he yelled, jumping up from his chair and taking us all by surprise. Shiloh started answering but he didn’t wait to hear, he threw over his chair, kicking it so that it skidded across the floor and then literally stormed out of the dining room. Nobody said anything, what was there to say really? It wasn’t long after that when the voice came on and told as that we could go on with our day. Everybody took off in different directions leaving me there staring at the crack in the glass of one of the china cabinets where the chair had hit it.
Diago Shaw
The doctors gave me some more antibiotic injections but instead of making me feel better they just made me feel worse. My whole body was aching and after about an hour of just sitting there in the dining room I just couldn’t take it anymore. I flipped my lid and made my way to my room, locking the door behind me and falling onto my bed.
Shiloh and Gemma had cleaned up the mess I made with the broken mirror so now only the frame hung on my wall. After I broke the mirror in the bathroom last night I could feel the evil radiating from it and clinging to me and I have to admit that I was scared for the first time in my life. I came to my room and when I looked into the mirror that thing was there, staring back at me. I don’t know what it was but it wasn’t human. The big black eyes on the pale white face were almost hypnotic and I couldn’t get myself to look away. At first the thing didn’t have a mouth but then it slowly started appearing on its misshapen face and the edges turned into an evil smile. It was at that moment that I was able to break the lock it had on me and I did the first thing that I thought of.
I grabbed the heavy mirror from the wall and threw it across the room, causing it to shatter and break. For a second it felt as if the evil had left the room but then it just got worse and worse until it consumed me. I don’t know what happened next but I remember the feeling of something entering me through every pore on my body. The pain was excruciating and it felt like my whole body was on fire. I was shaking so violently I thought I was going to tear myself apart, limb for limb.
The doctors said that it was some sort of anger attack and that I would feel better in the morning but I didn’t, sure the pain was gone but the evil feeling clung to me like it was radiating from inside of me. As the day went by I could feel the pain starting up again, the fever or whatever the hell it was were burning me up again and my insides twitched and spasmed with pain. I knew this wasn’t a sickness or a reaction from my temper, this was that thing’s doing and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Sometime during the day the voice announced that we should all go to the dining room again but I ignored it, after a while when they realized I wasn’t going to do as they said they just told me to stay in my room. A few minutes after that the voice announced that we could go fetch our groceries from the storeroom. Storm brought me the bottle of Whiskey I had asked for but I told him to just leave it outside of my door. When I was sure that he was gone I quickly fetched it and locked the door again.
At first I wasn’t planning on drinking it but then I figured why the fuck not. I was in pain and the medicine the doctors gave me wasn’t helping.
The sun had set a long time ago, the only light streaming into my room was from the moon. I had finished the whole bottle of Whiskey but wasn’t even feeling tipsy. As I drunk the alcohol my body just sweated it out. The shaking had started up again and I was using the little dustbin that was next to my desk to throw up in.
Sometime during all of this the world around me started turning fuzzy and I was having a hard time holding on to reality. I was shaking so violently that I had fallen off of my bed and puked all over myself. My body was moving into impossible positions as the pain consumed me.
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Teen Life
HorrorTwelve teenagers from across the country are chosen to take part in the world's first Teen Life competition. Six boys and six girls with completely different backgrounds and personalities are thrown into a house with no adult supervision except for...