Pretty In Scarlet

February 15th, 2009: Twelve Hours and Eight Minutes Left To Live

She tried to wait. Tried to be patient. Tried to remain calm.

Her brother's tournament had been scheduled for months and her parents had dictated their schedule around it. We'll be in Ohio until Monday morning, her father had told her. We'll head back across the border and come straight to you, then make the drive to Thorold. Her parents would take turns driving to minimize fatigue. They'd even joked about letting Nikki take a turn, despite her lack of license.

She'd managed to hang on until early morning, resisting the urge to call her mother and beg to go home. Hell, she would take the Greyhound to Ohio and join them. She just needed to get away from the dead girls surrounding her.

Nikki dialed her mother's number, hugging her knees to her chest and crossing her fingers for luck as she'd often done as a child. Pick up, Mommy. Pick up, please. Please...

"Hello?"

Tears streamed down her cheeks as her mother's groggy voice answered the phone. The connection was crackling-poor reception, she assumed-but she was there. She'd answered.

"Mom? Mom, it's me."

"Nikki? You okay, baby?"

In her mind, Nikki could see the Ghost Girl in her bathroom, fixing her make-up and sneering. She shuddered and drew the covers over her head. "N-no. No, Mom. I want to go home. Now."

A shuffling noise and a murmuring in the background cut through the static. "One sec..." More shuffling and the squeaking of a door carried across the miles before at last, her mother spoke. "I don't want to wake your brother. His final match is at noon."

"Is he doing okay?"

"He's competing for the bronze, but you didn't call to ask. Why do you want to go home, Nicole?"

Nikki winced at the subtle, though likely unintentional, jab. "I... I can't explain it on the phone. I need you to trust me. It's not good for me here."

"Why isn't it good there?"

"Mommy, please! I promise I'll explain it in person. I just... I'm scared to be alone here. I don't want to be here anymore."

"Nikki-"

"I can take the bus! I can take a bus home!"

"Nikki, honey, we've talked about this before-"

"Or take a bus to Ohio," Nikki continued frantically. "I don't even care, as long as it's not here. I'd take a bus to the moon if that was an option, frankly, but-"

"Nikki!" Her mother was louder now. "Baby, you need to calm down. You're going to work yourself into a panic attack. I'm trying to discuss this with you, but if you don't let me get a word in edgewise, that's hard."

Biting her lip, she cowered beneath her covers. She was pulling out the Intervention-Speak. That really, really didn't bode well.

"Nikki, you sound very upset. You're scaring me, to be honest." Her mother's voice softened as she continued to speak over a faint, rhythmic thud that suggested she might be pacing the hotel halls. "We're coming to get you tomorrow afternoon. If Braeden hadn't made the finals, we'd leave today, but he did make it."

Nikki kicked her legs angrily. "I didn't ask you to leave the tournament, Mom."

"I know you didn't. But we discussed this at Christmas, Nikki. You told us you wanted to stay on campus and finish your work."