Meet Charlie

(15) Never Ending Nightmare

I lost one my best friends to a stupidly fired bullet. And I hated it.

"Flora," Ashley whimpered.

"Flora," she said again as she shuffled towards me. I didn't look at her though. I couldn't seem to take my eyes off of the lifeless human body.

"Flora, stop looking"

I felt a soft hand gently touch my cheek and help my head turn away. Soon enough, she was holding me as I sobbed willingly into her shoulder. I didn't muffle any words such as "why" like a normal shocked and depressed teenager would. I just continued to dampen Ashley's cardigan with my tears. I could feel his eyes on me. It must have been only a few minutes before my eyes seemed to have enough. I lifted my head, but didn't dare look at the sight in front of me on the other side of the room. Instead I just kicked harshly at the cage bars. I had enough. In a way, I was expecting Ashley or Charlie or anyone to stop me, but it was like they were waiting for me to bash the bars down for all of us.

The worst part of being in a cage is that you're almost free. You can touch the outside, but you can never reach it - you can never truly be outside unless some part of your body is still on the inside. And it sucks.

Being deep in my depressing thoughts, it was only after a few seconds that I realised I stopped attacking the cage. And then it was silent. Of course there were a few whimpers from children, but apart from that it was basically empty. Until a criminal lifted his head.

I heard a few groans coming from the half - consious man with the ridiculous name as he held his bleeding head. 

"Wha-" Spike mumbled, slowly looking around. As his eyes landed on Matt's body, he froze. "The fuck happened?" he asked more to himself. The injury to his head must have knocked some memory out of him. Even so, I don't understand how he could forget the deafening gun shots and piercing screams from terrified children.

For me, they still echo in my head like a never ending nightmare.

"POLICE. FREEZE," was the last thing I heard before I fell into what I was dreading to be a true nightmare.

It was a white light, yet I feared it wasn't as pure as many people would think. It didn't feel like a good place.

A door was kicked down and I was awoken by a loud thump. I heard Adrian's gasp beside me so mum obviously wasn't home still. I felt a shaky hand gently covering my mouth. I heard another door being opened, but this time it was the one into the room Adrian and I were in. The hand once covering my mouth was now gone and the woman was being dragged out of the bed by a dark figure. Before Adrian could scream, the intruder clasped it's hand onto her mouth and covered her jaw - more violently than she had done to me seconds ago. As the room was almost pitch black, I could barely see anything within those moments of pure horror. But the dim streetlight coming from the window created a silohuette of the thrashing woman. 

Before I could process anything, Adrian kicked harshly into the intruder's shin with the back of her foot and it ever so slightly released as much grip on her. She went for another hit before it could react and set herself free. She immediatly grabbed a small chair near mum's makeup desk and collided it with the figure's head as violently as she could before snatching me out of the bed and sprinting out of the room. 

All I saw was black as I squeezed my eyes shut the entire time. Even so, I could feel the chilly air hit me and before I knew it, she clampered me into a car and I heard the acceleration pedal being stomped on as I opened my tear-filled eyes. 

"Quickly put your seatbelt on," Adrian said, eyes on the road. I did as intructed.

"Where are we going?" I finally asked her, but she didn't answer. She kept her emotionless eyes in front of her. I looked at her for what felt like hours until a gun hit the side of the car, creating a metallic sound. Panic struck Adrian hard and she pressed her foot harder onto the pedal until I was convinced that  it was impossible to apply any more pressure. 

Streelights were nothing but blurs as the car raced down the road of an unknown location. I was thrown to the side and my body strained against the seatbelt as she took a sudden turn round a corner and into a car park. A glowing sign offered light in the darkness. "24 hours". The whole building was luminous, but I couldn't see anyone inside through the glass, apart from a few shop assistants at cash registers. 

Adrianna already made her way around and was undoing my seatbelt, before grabbing me once again and hauling me out of the car. She ran with me in her arms through the automatic doors. A few workers gave questioning looks, but Adrian payed no attention. Instead, she placed me behind a counter and pressed her shaking finger against her lips. Her emerald eyes were widened. 

Slowly, she took out a small pistol from behind her. She must have taken it from the car. 

"Everything's gonna be fine"

I woke up to a beeping sound. Gun shots and children's screams still echoing in my head. I looked around and realised I was laying in a hospital bed. The beeping sound was a monitor located to my right. The high-pitched tones remained in a steady rhythm. There wasn't a nurse that walked in telling me how okay I was. I wouldn't need someone telling me anyway. I had the monitor. And I hated it. I hated the monitor.

It reminded me that I'm still alive.

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Sorry this is a super short chapter and 99.9% of it is flashback, but I really wanted to update and the flashback kinda gives it a good back story so yah. (haven't proof read so sorry for any mistakes).