Bringer of Bad Luck

Chapter 2

She fell and didn't get back up.

She lay on the floor gasping for air, her eyes screwed closed as tears threatened to leak out of them.

It happened when Naomi and her associates were a few feet away from the swings. They had paused on their journey for a moment to allow Naomi to share and laugh at her own joke, when, without warning, Naomi slumped to the ground. Her face had immediately turned a ghostly pale. One hand clung to her chest, scrunching the clothes over her heart, while she attempted to blindly claw at one of her friend's shoes, hoping that another four year old could provide some assistance.

While on the ground, Naomi felt eyes boring into her, but these eyes were different from the ones that were above her, the ones showing concern, the ones belonging to her new friends. No, these eyes were cold, unfeeling and unpleasant. Naomi felt so uncomfortable under this person's gaze that despite the excruciating pain in her chest, she was determined to open her eyes, even if it was just a fraction, she had to know who was staring with such unpleasant eyes.

She willed her eyes to open, and finally, they cracked open, but it was such a small space between her eyelids that someone would have problems deciphering if her eyes were open or not.

She looked past the salty water that tried to deter her from her quest, and further, past her eyelashes that had stuck together due to the salty water from her tear glands.

They were like obstacles trying to prevent her from reaching her goal, from seeing the person the pair of unpleasant eyes belonged to. As though they were trying to make her close back her eyes, to keep them shut. In her case though, it would've been better to listen to the silent qualms of her tears.

She was lying on her side with one cheek pressed to the floor, water congregating in her eyes and the feet of those around her partially blocking her view, so her vision was considerably distorted, even so, Naomi was sure of whom she had seen.

The same girl with eyes that could only belong to the devil was boring holes into her skull. Right away, she knew that the cold, unfeeling eyes that she had previously felt on her had belonged to this unsightly girl. Along with this knowledge came a gut feeling, a feeling that Naomi didn't know how to describe, but what she knew was that she was scared for her life, and afraid of the unintelligible girl with crimson red eyes.

Almost immediately, she slammed her eyes shut again. She couldn't shift positions, she wanted to, but couldn't, so hiding behind her shut eyelids until she received some much needed help was her best option.

Silently, Naomi prayed to be saved, her life had barely begun. She'd wanted to become a world renowned inspirational speaker, it was either that or become President. But now, she felt as though she would never be able to fulfill her dream, as though her life was kept together by a thread that  was being pulled on both sides and was about to burst.

After Naomi had dropped to the floor, all of her friends crowded around her. Almost all of them were dumbfounded, after all, all of them were either three, four or five years of age. On the other hand, a few others asked questions like, 'Are you okay?' or 'Is your chest hurting?' when they saw her clutching onto the clothes over her chest. These were all daft questions, but to children who were barely above the age of being toddlers, they seemed to be the perfect questions to ask another child who was actually in such overwhelming pain that they couldn't utter a word.

Eventually, the children surrounding Naomi became vociferous and restless, thus drawing attention to themselves. Other children around the yard who were not involved in the incident, noticed the worrisome faces of those who attempted to get Naomi back on her feet, and so a crowd drew around Naomi until the entire courtyard was deserted but by the tangerine tree and the swings.

The children enclosed Naomi, giving her no fresh air until a boy who had rushed to get an adult had returned with a teacher in tow. The crowd parted like the red sea and the space was filled back just as easily as it had parted when the teacher had passed through. When the teacher saw Naomi, horror consumed her, Naomi seemed to be dead. Her lifeless body lay pale and unmoving, her chest didn't even shift due to breathing. The teacher scrambled to Naomi's side and put an ear to her chest. As she intently listened, all color drained from her face, Naomi's heartbeat was extremely faint.

Quickly, she instructed students to fetch other teachers while she cradled Naomi in her arms as she sat on the ground.

After a couple minutes, several teachers were sprinting or 'fast-walking' onto the courtyard to where Naomi and the first teacher were caged by the wall of children.

When one of the teachers saw Naomi's condition, they immediately called an ambulance. Waiting for the ambulance was quite nerve-wracking for all of the teachers, but during that time, students also explained in detail, what they had witnessed.

Most of the children that were there actually did not understand what had transpired, while the few that did understand were nervous because someone's life was at stake, then, there were the curious ones.

On the other hand, the teachers couldn't deal with seeing a child die, in addition, if Naomi died, there may have been a decrease in enrollment into the preschool.

Sure they were all nervous and tension was high, but no one shed an overwhelming tear. In reality, Naomi was among strangers, she was new at the school, none of the children whom she already believed to be her friends were actually her friends. Yet, if she did die, before her death, she may convince herself that she had died among people she had cared for and those who genuinely cared for her in return. But in reality, she would've died in the company of selfish strangers who showed some humanity and compassion to a dying child.

After about fifteen minutes, the ambulance arrived, taking Naomi in a stretcher and two teachers who chose to accompany Naomi to the hospital. Afterward, Naomi's father was contacted and the situation was explained to him. Panicked, he rushed to the hospital to an unconscious daughter, and doctors that didn't know the cause of what had taken place. They were sure that it wasn't a heart attack or anything related to a heart attack, but they couldn't say what illness or disease Naomi may have been suffering from, all of her stats had shown that she was perfectly healthy.

Finally though, two days later, Naomi woke up, however, she wasn't even a fraction of who she once was.

After the incident, Naomi never returned to school, but for weeks, her name rang out in every conversation. And due to students overhearing a discussion that several teachers were having, rumor was that Naomi had gone mad. She would say that 'it' was watching her, 'it' was going to hurt her. She would also have terrible nightmares that made her unable to sleep. She became afraid of the dark and of strangers and would ramble on about something that wasn't even there. Rumor was that she was sent to a psychiatric hospital in another town. All of the children in the preschool heard the rumor, they didn't know if it was true or not, but what they did know was that Naomi was alive, but they would never know if she was doing well.

It was  funny though, that such careless words from adults could be spread by young children, where some of the children interpreted the rumor as Naomi referring to an imaginary friend, and half of whom didn't understand the meaning of psychiatric.