When The Darkness Arrives

Chapter 7

Bang! Bang! Bang!   My eyes flew open, and my body jerked upwards into a sitting motion on my bed. I grabbed for my alarm clock, when I realized that I wasn't home. No, the suicide attempt defenitely wasnt a dream. Realization filled my whole body, as I slouched on my bed, pulling my legs to my stomach. That banging still was ringing in my ears, and I looked around trying to find the source of it, when I realized a short girl, standing by the wall opposite of me, banging her head off of the wall.

"Hello?" I asked, while shifting my weight on the bed, wondering whether or not to go over and find out what was wrong. Her body swung around, as if she never saw me sleeping as she walked in. Her hair was black and fell down to her waist, and I couldnt see her eyes past her overly long fringe. It looked like she was about to bolt at any moment, and I raised my arms as if to stop her.

"No, its okay," I said in a soothing voice, and pulling myself to my feet slowly, hoping I wouldn't cause her to run. As soon as I was on my feet, she started moving slowly to the door, keeping her eyes locked on me the entire time. I gave her a kind smile, and brushed a lock of hair away from my face.A quiet whisper came from her lips, but I couldn't quite make out what she was saying. I stopped in my tracks and kindly asked her to repeat herself. She stayed quiet, until she heard footsteps coming to the direction of my room.

"Don't tell," she stated sharply and hopped ever so quickly into the cabinet, closing the door behind her just as a tall boy with red hair came in. I think he could tell I was hiding something, because he looked at me for an awfully long time. Awkward. I smiled and moved to sit back on my bed.

"It's dinner," he said quietly, while still staring at me. I assured him I just needed to change then I would be right there, and with that, he was gone. After two minutes had passed I tiptoed over to the door, and peered out,just to be sure no one would walk in. This stupid place didnt even have doors, just sheets hanging up, acting as doors. I guess they didnt trust us in here with doors. Odd.

I calmly walked over to the cabinet and lightly knocked my knuckles against the door, hoping she wouldn't hop out and land on me. I stood there for a moment, just waiting for her to open the doors and tell me she just didnt want dinner, I mean why else would she be hiding.

"Who is it?" said a small voice from the closet.

"Alice, I'm the girl you talked to before. Can you please come out?" I said, trying to sound calm, but firm. I would like to know why I had a young girl in my closet, there must be some reasoning.

The cabinet door slowly opened and I saw her push her fringe out of her eyes to see if I was the only one here, when she saw that the room was clear, she slowly climbed out of the closet, shoving out an old pair of shoes with her.

They landed at my feet, and as I bent to pick them up for her, I could see her leaving from my room.

"Wait!" I said, a little loud for both of our liking, and it caused her to stop in her tracks in fear that I would yell for one of the doctors. She turned on her heels to look at me, and when she did, I noticed a large scar covering from the left corner of her mouth to the right eyebrow. I think she noticed me looking at her scar, and she attempted to cover it with her hair. "Are you okay?" I made out quietly. She appeared to be only a year or two younger than me, she was short, but she looked awfully mature.

"I'm sorry for invading your room, I just can't be alone when they come to hurt me. It gets too scary, and I knew the boy who used to sleep in this room, he would always let me come in here when I needed to get away from the screaming, the crying, the pain-" the young girl blubbered on and on, looking at the ground the whole time, looking ashamed for what she had done. What did she mean by "them"? The doctors? No, the doctors were there to help her. Weren't they?

"Them?" I croacked out, scared for her answer. Maybe she saw dead people too, maybe I wasn't alone.

"I just- I have to go, its dinnertime," she said before she began to quickly walk to the door, but before she reached the door, I raced over to her and grabbed her arm. She winced as I grabbed for her arm, and as I looked down to see what she had winced from, I saw a long scar across the outside of her forearm. I've seen that scar, I know I have because- "oh my god" I heard her gasp as I pulled up my sleeve, to reveal an identical scar on the outside of my forearm. I got cut by 'them' last year, and I had to tell all of the two people who noticed, that I had fallen and landed on a stick.

I stared from her scar to mine, trying to find something, anything, that was different, but I didn't find a thing. When I looked up at her face, she was glancing from my forearm to hers, just as I was moments ago. "This can't be happening," I muttered and let out a big breath, I didnt know I was holding in. "Do you see-" I lowered my voice, "-dead people," I said, trying not to sound as scared as I felt.

"I, uh, I think," she stated, staring into my eyes. I nodded and quietly said that I did too. We both stood there for a few more minutes staring at each others scars, when the red haired boy came back into my room, looking impatient and pissed off that he had to make two trips for just one person. My sleeve flew down when I first spotted his angry face.

"I said, it's dinner," he said boldly while walking in, and I felt like I had already had made an enemy. I apologized and nodded, telling him I would really be down to eat in a minute or two. He sighed and rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like "whatever" but I wasn't sure.

"Do you want to eat dinner with me-" I paused, realizing didn't even know her name, I could feel my face go red and I looked at the ground, taking a step back, feeling idiotic.

"I would love to," she stated while a smile spread across her face, and she grabbed my arm and began pulling me out of the room. Her tan skin made my skin look ghostly white. "Nova, by the way. My name is Nova." she said giggling, before she took off down the hallway, and left me standing in shock. Nova was the name Seth said to me, before I got onto the ambulance to head to this place. How di- "Come on Alice, you won't get any of the good food," I heard Nova yell, and I took off down the hall, pushing the thought of my brother far from my mind.