Return to Me

Chapter 16

I know I haven't updated in a long time. But I think this is an okay update, don't you think? Anyway, feedback is appreciated. Thank you for your continuous support, although, don't you think the plot is a bit lame? 

____________________________________________________________________________________________

~Cammie Morgan~

A scream was right next to me. I swiftly took up my defensive stance, ready to fight. The scream seemed to come from the wall, or rather muffled up. 

I knew for a fact that, from the summers and days I wandered the Gallagher Academy, this wall is concrete. There is no room beyond, no electric cables, locked rooms, nothing. 

Footsteps echoed through the corridor. The last time I wandered away from a party, I ended up with Zach talking and disappearing to me. 

I took a deep breath, and tried really hard to suppress the bitter pounding of my chest, the sour and foul taste in my mouth. I slid into the shadows, in the corner, and I disappeared. I hid, just like that. 

I am the Chameleon. No one saw me, no one acknowledged my presence. They were all asking each other, where did the scream come from? Was there anyone here? No one was aware that I had been here when the scream occurred. I liked it that way. 

How did something, or someone, inside the room, scream? 

I was hiding in the shadows, in plain sight, watching people come and go around me, and evacuated back to their dorms. And this is how my party, my coming back party, is ruined. 

I followed the direction where the people were going, up the stairs, up the dormitory, and I tossed myself to my bed. It was too much today, it really was. Seeing Zach and Bex together, talking naturally, even flirting, like Zach and I used to... it cut something in me. 

I once thought that I could endure any torture to keep a secret safe. That nothing could cut me, no physical pain, no torture, no water smothering my nose. That was not true. Zach was the one who could cut me. I had let myself gotten too attached to him. 

That night, when Macey, Liz had set in for the night, I crept up silently. There was something bugging me, tugging and nagging at my heart, unleashing their claws on my own pounding heart. They didn't rig my bed, this time. I walked down the stairs, around the corridors, not pausing to watch my footing there and there - I know the floors inside and out, for I've been here long enough - and eventually, after a few twists and dark turns, I reached the wall where the scream originated. The concrete wall. 

It was midnight, perhaps, or maybe past. I waited in my dorm till Liz, even Liz, fell asleep and her regular soft plain snoring was registered. Around the wall was a dark, pitch black, and with the little light I received I could barely make out the outline of the wall. A chill set in, like all people who crept out at night. The fear, the tension, the chill, the quietness, or faded and mixed into the night, into the concrete wall in front. 

I am a spy, I tell myself, repeat to myself a thousand times. I am a spy. Spies are supposed to be fearless. 

I knew I should probably go back to my room. Dash to it, pretend that I didn't hear the scream from the wall, pretend that I didn't hear the scream from the concrete wall. I couldn't. My foot was stuck to the floor, and my heart won't let me. The feeling clawing at me, nagging me, tugging at me, didn't fade. By all means, it intensified. 

Spies are trained to search for their own answers. I am doing it now. And I couldn't stop doing it. 

The chill is starting to set in on my body. I sat cross-legged on the floor, hugging my body close. I lifted up my nose, and sniffed. Sniffed. And sniffed some more. There was something foul in the air, something amiss. But the night was upon me, and the quietness, the freshness, I wanted to absorb it all. 

Maybe girls have sixth senses. Maybe they don't. But one thing I know, I definitely knew there would be something going on. 

I should have got on my feet and ran. Out of danger, out of the night, into the safety of my own dorm. I should have trusted my sixth sense and let it lead me away from that concrete wall where the strange scream originated. 

But no. I had to sit there, and well, think. 

I was thinking, if being tortured back at the COC, or being here at the Gallagher Academy, is more emotionally scarring. Because for me, being here at the Gallagher Academy, it scarred me more. 

I was sitting there, foolishly thinking about whether the COC or Gallagher Academy is better, when I definitely sensed that something was up. 

I swiftly got on my feet and took up a defensive stance, but it was too late. Something grabbed at me, and before I could scream and wake anyone from the mansion up, a tissue was stuffed into my mouth, and I was pulled through the concrete wall. Or into, depending on how you look at it. 

Because right behind the concrete wall, is a room. And a freshmen, probably just started, was staring right back at me. And screamed. 

It was the same scream I had heard originated from the wall, or rather now, the room. 

"Who is it, girl?" A man appeared opposite me. I was about to dash in and attack him, when I found that he had his fun trained on me. Ready to fire. The freshmen was tired by ropes. 

"You asked me who Cammie Morgan is," the freshmen's voice trembled. I was frozen on my spot, by the gun, but I would have given anything to stop her from blurting out  the next sentence. "This is  her." 

"Well, well, well, look who we got here. My master will be very proud of my little project. I am a good janitor, aren't I?" The man, with a gun still trained on me and hands poised on the trigger, his free hand skimming over the surface of a button. He seemed to be hesitating, or soaking in his emotions, or both. 

He pressed the button. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Readers, 

Please don't kill me. I seemed to love cliffhangers all the time. They are my all time favourites. When I'm writing, of course. And if I get enough feedback, I may upload faster. It's because I saw a comment the other day that I updated. Well, enjoy, and expect the late update... soon? :)