The Ball

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The ball was beautiful.
Girls twirled around in beautiful satin gowns, the colours blending together if you looked long enough. The men, were all sharply dressed, tuxedos and suits adorned the hall. And as I stood against the wall, by myself, I watched them all smiling and laughing at each other.
School dances, were supposed to be fun.

I was thinking all of this, as I slipped the gun out of my purse, and fired a shot to the roof. Chaos erupted, the music stopped, and the screaming started whilst the tears started falling down my cheeks.
Kids were scrambling away from me, making a run for the door. "Anyone who moves, I will shoot." I whisper, my voice shaking, I tried again louder.
"ANYONE WHO MOVES ILL SHOOT." The scrambling stopped, and the terrified faces of 200 students and teachers stared back at me.
My own satin gown, was getting hot and itchy. I just wanted to go home and sleep everything away.
"Look, I... I don't want to die like this. I didn't picture my life like this. No one knows what it's like to be me, I pretend that I'm happy so I can smile like I'm normal, laugh like..." I panted, raising the gun to my temple.
"STEPHANIE NO!" Mr Robertson screamed, lunging forward as screams of anguish filled the hall.
But I pulled the trigger.

The ringing was so loud, why was everything ringing?
Where am I?
What am I doing?
The ceiling was brown.
Who are these people?
The feeling was slowly returning to my fingers and my legs, but something was wrong.
Why was I on the ground?
Is that... is that Mr Roberts...
And then it hit me.

It didn't work. I didn't die.

And even though I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, I didn't have the energy to get up or move. The heads that had been coming in and out of my dotty vision, were starting to fade and blur, and I found myself slipping away, so I let myself try and forget, try and let go.
But I couldn't.
Even though it was all getting hazy, my ears started to tune in to the screaming and crying, as a teacher was on the phone talking to someone whilst crying, and some other people were touching my head.
I felt the faint pressure, and that was it.
A scream erupted from my throat, a hoarse sound full of sorrow and pain left my mouth, the full weight of what just happened weighing me down.
And just like that,
It went dark.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The house was quiet, the sound of her voice absent. Even though she'd only been gone a few hours, I missed her.
She insisted that I don't go with her to the ball, she said she had some friends to go with, and she wanted to just forget things for a while.
I sighed, and decided I would go with Dexter and Saracen on a mission they were on, so I got up and walked to my room, passing her room as I went.
My door was open.
That's odd
Walking in, I stopped.
On my bed was a box, my box.
My gun box.
My metaphorical heart stopped beating, my knees felt weak, but I sprinted down stairs, and grabbed the remote, and with fumbling fingers switched the T.V to the News Channel.
"-eaking News just in. A 17 year old girl has fired a gun at her school graduation formal. Two shots were fired-"
This couldn't be her, God please don't be her.
"-one into the roof, and one at herself."
I backed away, all my years of being a detective, all my years of practicing to not let my emotions control my actions, went out the window.
I ran past my car keys, straight out the door and flew towards her school.

The whole street was chaos, ambulances, police, guards, terrified students.
But only one girl mattered.
My legs felt like jelly as I walked towards the doors, my facade activated barley in time before arriving, and tears streaming down my cheeks.
What if she's dead?
"...ere with the sanctuary. Make sure you do not let Skulduggery Pleasant in, under no circumstances." I turned my head to my right, and through the crowd I made out the figure of Ghastly Bespoke and Tanith Low, talking to an undercover sanctuary guard as a police officer.
But as soon as I saw them, they spotted me.
Immediately Ghastly eyes widened in worry, as he and Tanith pushed through the crowd to get to me, yelling my name.
But it was already too late.
Using the air around me to push everyone out of the way, I ran into the building, shouts of the guards who ran after me trailing behind me.
And then I saw the bottom of her satin gown, surrounded by medics and police.
She was quiet, but resisting help.
They were trying to move her, and she was shoving them away with the air.
Arms wrapped around my waist, holding me back as I collapsed into their arms.
The boxers arms were solid, but he held me to his chest as he tried to calm me down.
My breathing felt ragged, I wanted to see her,
I needed to.
"Skulduggery calm down, don't make a scene." Ghastly whispered in my ear, as Tanith stood in front of me, blocking my view of the group on the floor.
"Come on, wait outside, Tanith will go and talk to her, try and calm her down."
I didn't move.
Ghastly sighed gently, taking me outside.

He sat me down on the steps, and we waited. He knew I didn't want to talk.

And we waited.

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