ANATOMY OF A GIRL

part sixteen

There was something tugging at her insides. Flair woke and felt it even then, a force in her gut. She pulled on a pair of shoes and let it pull her toward the door. She didn't question it, not at all. Maybe she should've.

She looked back, watching the rise and fall of Sapphire's chest. Slowly opening the door, Flair tried to avoid waking Sapphire up. How could she explain what she felt? She couldn't. At least not without sounding crazy.

The hallways were silent, the only sound the light creaking of the wood beneath her feet. The pull was something she couldn't refuse, and so she let it take her. Down hallways and staircases, until she was at the entrance to the building, overlooking the rolling green lawn of the campus.

She hadn't realised how cold it was, but now, in the frosty morning air, she tried to rub some warmth back into her arms.

At one point, she passed the main office building and was nearing the library. It was all so quiet, soothing. The scene changed when she moved her eyes up into the wall. Now, it was crashes of thunder, shattering glass, hurricane winds. First: the blood on the wall. Broken glass crunched beneath her feet, and all around her, pools of dark, dark blood. Second: worst of all, the body on the floor.

*

Waking to the sound of screams and the blaring of a siren, Sapphire couldn't help but think she was still dreaming. That she was still in a nightmare. But unfortunately, as it turned out, this was real life, and she wasn't lucky enough to be able to wake up.

She threw her blanket off her legs and let it fall to the wooden floor in a heap. She looked out of the glass window behind her bed, and through the glass, she saw blurred lights flashing blue and red.

"Flair—" She started, looking over to Flair's side of the room. But she wasn't in the room.

Much like Sapphire's, Flair sheets were thrown carelessly on the floor. And that was what worried Sapphire. In all the years they'd been best friends, Flair hadn't ever left the room without making her bed. She felt her palms grow sweaty as her panic grew. Her breaths clipped, she felt like she couldn't breathe. Flair was gone. It was the night Arlo went missing all over again. She was gone.

In a loose t-shirt and leggings, she ran out of her dorm and toward the sirens — her limbs heavy and tingling. Her bare feet smacked against the gelid floor, the floor hard against the soles of her feet, but she barely registered the shooting pain. Her fingers were numb. She could feel the thrum of blood in her ears and the pounding in her chest. She yelled Flair's name, with the foolish hope that Flair would step out of the bathroom and ask Sapphire why the police and an ambulance were here. That wasn't the case. Flair didn't step out of the bathroom. Actually, Sapphire looked around, there wasn't anyone around — not Flair and not anyone else. Everyone had disappeared. She couldn't help but think she'd slept though the apocalypse. Her mom always told her she would.

Her heart thumped louder in her chest as she got closer to the front lawn and the sirens got louder. She could feel the fear within her with every thump of her thunderous heart.

When she reached the exit, the sharp tang of copper and salt replaced the fresh morning air. She almost gagged.

She was relieved to see that there were people around when she reached the front lawn. The dewy grass tickled the bottom of her feet as she shuffled through the crowd and toward the ambulance.

The sirens filled her ears and she couldn't think passed the flashing lights reflected on the window's glass and the walls. Redblueredblueredblue. Crimson and pale skin and hushed words and police lights and rain hitting flesh and carvings on skin. It was all too much. Toomuchtoomuchtoomuch. When would it cease?