Possessed High

Chapter 16: Warmth

Elly

 After what happened at the school, the school district officials let us off school for a week before going back because they were going to fix the school and clean up all the mess from the horror. I learned lots during the aftermath of it. I realized Sam and I lacked the trust and honesty in our relationship. He didn't tell me the struggles he went through because he was worried that I would be ashamed of him or just angry at him for being a coward at handling things.

    The very next day after the catastrophe, Sam came to my house knocking on my door at 12:00 P.M.. I opened the door, and he was standing there with his bike and smiling. His smile outshined the scratches and cuts on his face. He recovered from it quicker than I thought, quicker than me. His biggest strength was resilience. I smiled back at him.

    "Let's go for a walk," he said.

    It was May, springtime, weather was getting warmer and reaching near the 60 degrees. Perfect weather for a walk.

    "Go get ready. Take your bike out, too. I'll be waiting."

    I went to my room and changed into comfortable and casual clothes. Sweatpants and sweatshirt. Sam doesn't like it when I overdressed myself, and I didn't have to try hard to impress him because he has already seen the worst of me. I sprang out of my room after I finished changing. My mom was sitting on the couch, reading a newspaper with her cup of coffee on the table. The story of horror was on the front page, Vinny, Dream, Iris, Kuki, and I were on the picture. She heard my footsteps and took her eyes off the paper.

    "Are you going somewhere with that boy?" She asked.

    "Yeah. Just gonna take a stroll," I replied.

    "Be careful out there," she said.

    "Don't worry, I survived out of school in one piece, remember?" I teased her.

    She smiled, shook her head at me, and went back to reading her newspaper. I put on my shoes and opened my garage, and took my bike out. We started biking side by side to a park that we used to hang out at often. There was a basketball court where we often played basketball together, which I always lost against Sam.. We stopped at the basketball court and left our bike outside of the court. We sat on a bench inside the court and breathed in the air. It felt fresh and cool, I liked it.

    "So, why are you calling me out here?" I asked.

    "Because," he replied simply. "I miss you."

    "Why?"

    "Because I do."

    "Sam, you know I don't like beating around the bush."

    "I don't either."

    "Then tell me. Whether you really miss me or not, whether you really love me or not, whether you--"

    He gave me a peck on my cheek. "Is that enough of a prove?" He smiled.

    I said nothing, but I found myself smiling. He grabbed my hand and held it. We both sat there and enjoyed the air. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you everything," he said. "I really am. I should've told you, but I didn't and it was cowardly."

    I realized we lacked a lot of things in our relationship, and there were things about him and us that I didn't know. Sam was getting bullied at school after he stopped Victor from harassing a new girl at our school, Maggie, in his Language Arts class. He broke up with me because he was worried that Victor would come after me, too, if he finds out Sam is in a relationship with me. I felt bad for not knowing this whole thing. I also felt angry at Victor, I was about to come up to Victor after I heard the story to throw a punch at him, but Sam stopped me. Turned out, Victor also got bullied and he was possessed also. Apparently there's also a cycle when it comes to bullying like the animal chain.

    I was glad Sam didn't get hurt much. He told me what he could remember from being possessed. He got a pass to go to the gym after 5th period from his first hour teacher, along with other kids who are known for being bullied, they also got passes from their first hour teacher. There was no gym class in sixth hour. None of them really knew what happened and why they were being summoned the gym, and they were pretty much stuck in the gym, clueless of what was going to happen. They all were possessed by the spirits of the dead from the graves deep under the school ground. The school was built on an old cemetery, and I guess, that angered the dead a lot. The spirits gathered the guns from police stations before possessing the students that they had gathered. So once they had possessed the students, they grabbed the guns that they had hidden in the school's warehouse. Sam was semiconscious because his spirit was "kinda weak," he said. He tried not to kill anyone after seeing me, especially me, after he and his spirit saw me, and he was fighting with the spirit in him the whole time. He felt relieved when he saw me by the main office, trying to get everyone out of the school. He was scared the whole time, and his spirit was bullying him internally. "He was an old grandpa, the type that lived alone with no one to nag at," Sam described.

    He was a bit traumatized because he saw the possessed Victor shot Mr. Krumpton. He was horrified, but he couldn't do anything. That was why he was crying in the corner. He felt proud when I got everyone out, though he was ashamed to come up to me after everything was over. He felt more embarrassed after being found by me. I told him it was okay, and we've seen worse of each other, so there was no point in feeling embarrassed.

    We sat on the bench long enough that we started to get bored, Sam grabbed the basketball sitting at the middle of the court then called me over. We were playing basketball with each other like before. I lost the ball, he stole the ball from me, I ran after him,  he made a shot, I laughed and teased him whenever he didn't make it in. We had a fun time, laughing and smiling under the warm sun beating down on us.

    In the end, I lost as always. Sam made a bet, the loser had to kiss the winner. I laughed when I heard it. He came closer, he smiled his attractive smile, he leaned in, peck me on the lips. I returned him a peck, then we smiled at each other, held each other for a long time, in the warmth of spring.

_______

Vinny, Dream, Iris, Kuki, and I agreed to go to a bowling alley that afternoon. We all played in one lane, and I was winning round after round. Afterwards, we went out for pizza and ordered four boxes for ourselves because we were big eaters. We drove around, blasting the music on the radio loudly, and being goofballs in the car. We drove to a wide open field and stopped there.

The sun was setting, the sky was red and orange. I got off the car, and gazed at the sky. Everyone got out of the car also, and stood there, looking at the bright red view of the setting sun. We leaned against the car, the wind blew a nice breeze, made our hair flying free.

We stood there, with our own thoughts in our own minds. Enjoying the view and the nice cool breeze. Among us, we might have gotten over what happened, we might not have. However, what happened has happened, and it would stick in our brain. Whatever else is coming, it's all unexpected, and it would all seep into our minds, and how we would handle it is all up to us. Though, don't think everything is impossible when tackling the unexpected because nothing is impossible. We've done it, we've survived, so we're the proof of possibleness.