Chasing Cars

Chapter Three

I didn't have time to retaliate when Charleston swung the bat. It hit me square in the ribs, and I was surprised at the amount of force she'd used. But that didn't last long. I gasped as she swung at me again, my ribs already hurt like crazy, this time I was hit in the stomach.

The wind knocked out of me, I fell out of the nasty chair I'd been sitting in, which was almost a good thing. Who knew what had been in that thing before me. I stared at Charleston, trying my hardest not to let tears fall. There was no way I was letting her get the victory of seeing me cry. I almost gave in, though, when even breathing was a painful challenge. I made not a single move, only watched Charleston, who still stood with her bat.

The look in her eyes was similar to the look of that in Carl Teller, who was serial killer that had been arrested a month earlier.

That wandering eye was drifting toward a cheeseburger that sad out in the open on Charleston's desk, but the other eye was focused on me as if she was waiting for me to fight back. I quickly scanned the room for some sort of a weapon. There was no way a cheeseburger would get me anywhere, or the clump of squished fries on her chair. No windows...the door was locked...this lady was INSANE.

Still on the ground, I saw what looked like the handle of a knife sticking out from under the large metal desk. I had no time to be surprised about anything in this room anymore, so I lunged for the knife at the exact moment Charleston swung the bat once more, this time hitting me in the back. Hard.

Pain shot throughout my entire body at that moment and I crumpled to the floor with a scream of even more pain as the impact of the floor against my body shook me. Charleston's eyes looked like we were glowing and she began to laugh psychotically. "Now Miss Grey. What was in the box?"

The excruciating pain was killing me from the waist up. The waist down... I couldn't feel anything. Nothing at all. I tried moving my feet, but as if they had been cut off, they didn't move an inch. "I....I....," I started to say, but by this point I was beyond speaking or even thinking clearly. Charleston frowned. "Again Miss Grey you can tell me what was in the box or we can do things the hard way."

There was no way that I hadn't already been through the "hard way" of this. My head started to spin and my vision started to blur as Charleston went behind her desk for a few moments. I willed myself to stay awake, I was not going to pass out in here. Waiting for what seemed like hours to my injured brain, I anticipated what Charleston was doing. When she did come back, she had a handful of squished fries in her right hand.

What woke me up a bit more was the smell - again that cold french fry, but now it smelled more stale. Probably from really old fries. Charleston shoved the handful into her mouth, making me quite ready to vomit on the spot. I had absolutely no idea how disgusting she was until today. Scooping another handful of fry slop, Charleston looked at me. "Want some?" She asked, holding out her hand, even more fries on it now.

I still couldn't speak, my mind was confused and slow, like that time when I was five and was given injections for breathing the meth fumes. Only now it was trying to handle the pain that wouldn't go away for anything.

I shook my head wildly like a terrified animal. Why on earth would I ever want her squished fries!? Shrugging, Charleston threw the fries at me and reached into her bulging suit pocket and pulled out a cheeseburger. Only it wasn't just any cheeseburger, gosh no, it was greenish and moldy, the cheese nearly a liquid it was so old. The bun had fuzz coating most of the top and the meat was green and gray.

If I hadn't already known that Charleston's office looked like a bomb had gone off in a really run down McDonalds, I would've been more surprised.

"You see this, Miss Karev?" Charleston asked, showing me the nasty burger. "Uh...yeah I see it...," I replied, wishing I didn't see it. "Good," Charleston said, heaving her fat self toward me, the cheeseburger losing a piece of whatever filth was growing in it. I was so focused on Charleston's cheeseburger (Andrew xD) that I didn't notice when she was right next to me. However I did notice when she kicked me. And it wasn't a light either, no, it was right on my bruised ribs. "Why...what did I...do!?" I gasped, writhing in pain on the floor, struggling to breathe.

"Miss Grey. What have your classmates said about my office?" Charleston asked, her voice giving me shivers. That's when the realization struck. The past kids who had gotten called to Charleston's office...they hadn't been seen since.