Fandomonium

Drenched In Old Blood

Week 3, Day 2:

Hunter is walking to class with us today. We walked Phoe to the Drama Hut and Jakob to the music room so it's only me, Amy, and Hunter left to walk around campus. Our class starts in twenty minutes and we have time to kill. I already bought coffee for everyone and we've explored most of the campus that there is to explore. We're sitting in front of the Writing House when Amy claims she forgot to do an assignment and needs to go print it, even though I know for a fact she did that last night. I make a mental note to thank her then murder her and then soak up the awkward silence that I am left with.

"Did the ink from yesterday ever wash off?" I ask.

"Hm, what ink? Oh! Right, no it hasn't washed off yet, maybe tomorrow." He smiles weakly and tugs at his sleeves. He has too many nervous habits to keep track of.

"Have you been working on any new writing projects?" I try.

"What?" His mind is obviously somewhere else, "I've been working on a short story about a trans girl who everyone sees as a boy. It's pretty lame and I'll probably trash it."

"Don't trash it, it seems cool! Maybe ask Phoe, they could probably help you."

"Phoe is genderfluid, hun, not trans. But that's not a bad idea, thanks." He's staring out into the distance as if there's something more interesting than my face (only joking, I'm no egotist).

I turn around to face the door of the Writing House and see Amy's face pressed up against the glass, making her look like Flat Stanley™. When she sees me staring, she fall to the ground dramatically and runs away. I roll my eyes and with a quick goodbye to Hunter (which either he doesn't hear or pretends not to) I run after her.

I find her laughing her ass off in the stairway. "What the hell, dude, you're such a stalker!" I do my best to look menacing but her laugh is contagious. Eventually, we're both laughing our heads off in an abandoned staircase.

"Dude, we have class in five minutes, we better go," Amy says.

"Fine, help me up," I hold out my arm and she grabs it. I consider yanking her back down but after our conversation a few days ago, I decide it's best that I play Mr. Nice Guy to her.

"C'mon, we don't want to be late to Mr. Lewis' class again. I have a feeling he was just in a good mood last time,"

I nod my head and we walk over to our tiny classroom. Inside we find our teacher and classmates in a large circle with their eyes closed and legs crossed. All the desks are gone and the only light source is the window on the right side of the room. The usual yellow paint looks beige and the peaceful grey carpet looks stormy and unsettled. Nobody seems to notice us come in, their ghostly faces at peace. Mr. Lewis has a slight smile on his young face, his glasses pushed somewhere to the side of the room. "Sit down," Amy hisses at me. Coming back to my senses, I fall to the ground and close my eyes like everyone else.

"Welcome, everyone. Today, we are going to do a bit of meditation because it appears you all are a little bit stressed. So I just want you to sit here and focus on your breaths until all of your worries can disappear." Mr. Lewis takes off his forest green jacket to reveal an oversized rainbow tie-dye shirt. I look over at Amy to see if she notices how ridiculous this is but she's deep into meditation.

"Alrighty then," I whisper to myself as I, too, fall deep into the trance of my deafening thoughts.

Screaming. I hear screaming. It's the high pitched scream of a slender blonde haired woman, my mother, as she sees the limp body. "His name would have been Hunter! He was supposed to live!" My father screamed. Sweat is dripping from every inch of his tomato face and seeping into his raven hair. "Why couldn't it be the girl?"