Snow Day

Shots Fired POV: Anna written by Leah

I coughed once. Dust was falling from the ceiling of the closet I'd been in. I coughed again. This time, the plaster was coming down in a rough powder, making me realize just how hard the house (and my hands) were shaking.
I breathed in slowly, counting the seconds that were ticking on my watch. 3:21:36. It was 3 AM. It had been exactly an hour, 26 minutes, and two seconds since my watch had flicked back on and I'd heard a muffled scream and something that sounded like humming. It was just me and Courtney in the closet- Mary Brannen and Claire had fled long ago, but I wasn't taking chances.
Courtney was in a glassy state, tracing the lines on the board game boxes with her finger. She was broken. After five minutes of shaking and coughing, she drifted off to sleep with a sad expression lingering on her face.
I grabbed a crappy pencil and sheet of paper from some game, and scribbled a note.
"Courtney- I've gone looking for them. I saw your face- I know you say you're fine, but I also know that Mitta B isn't. I'm bringing her back to you- don't come searching. See you in the daylight, Polariza!
-Anna Banana"
I crept quietly out of the closet, bolting the door with furniture so Courtney couldn't get herself in trouble. I started running towards the top floor, slipping and falling on the hard hallway floor because of some dark liquid that I'd slid on. I rubbed my head, blinked a couple times, and got up. I really hoped it wasn't blood- but there's only one person as pale as the white face I was seeing, and it was Mary brannen- all color gone from her flushed cheeks, her pink headphones laying on the floor, still warm.
I sat down to pick her up. As I removed her hoodie wordlessly to check for wounds, a note fell out. It hit the floor with a soft thud, but my tears were falling faster than my morale. I couldn't bring this back to Courtney. This couldn't be MB. Whatever this thing is that sat cold and dead in front of me was nothing compared to the bright, laughing Mary Brannen I'd known-
But my sobs were cut short by the cocking of a pistol. I heard a soft voice.
"Drop the note."
Of course, being the idiot I am, I silently folded the note under a loose floorboard in the hallway.
"Hand it over."
I couldn't see the figure, but a sinking feeling told me that a gun was aimed and ready. The figure shifted a worn axe on their other shoulder, the handle covered in some sort of powder.
I stayed silent, staring at them in the half moonlight, then I leapt to the window. I heard a shot- I was opening the window, fingers moving on their own, when suddenly the bullet hit the glass. It shattered with the sound of a 21 gun salute. The pressure of an axe handle on my leg sent me careening out the window, and I fell into a bush.
Heroic, I know.
Glass fell from the broken window, cutting my legs and making me dizzy with blood loss.
I sat silently on the ground, shivering with cold but mostly with dread and sadness. I couldn't stand the pain. I was shaking and crying.
A large piece of glass fell. I felt my stomach grow warm and sticky- I cried. I grasped the large shard and pulled it out. I screamed one last plea for anyone, Jenna, Kelly, anyone who might be alive- but then silence fell. My eternal silence.