Quarantine

Hold on

To put it into the words of Chord Overstreet, "Hold on, I still need you." But I need you in a different way. I need you to be alive. I need you to be here. I need my little sister.

I sat in the bathroom, holding her cold body. Mr. Beatty approached me slowly, trying not to alarm me, "Mr. West, I need to take her." I glared at him, staying completely still. Not even blinking. I wasn't giving her up. He stopped moving, "Please. I don't want to hurt her. I just want to place her in a location where her body can rest. I'll even give her own room and we'll give her a service." I look down at her and cry, rocking back and forth. He moves closer and manages to pull her from my arms, taking her to the nurses office quickly. I lay there and end up crying myself to sleep. When I wake up, I'm in Mr. Beatty's office. I sat up and look around frantically. Everything was a haze. I couldn't help myself and blurted out, "Where is she?!" Mr. Beatty sighs and looks at me. He closes his laptop slowly and walks over to where I was sitting and sits beside me. He tries to be as comforting as possible,  "We did all we could to try and save her Mr. West. But she was too far gone. I'm sorry. We contacted your parents and let them know. They told me to let you calm down in my office. To be someone you can talk to. She was your best friend huh?" I shift in my seat. I don't want to look at him. My eyes stare so intently at the floor, they could burn a whole in the floor.

After a long while of silence, a voice comes over Beatty's radio. "Mr. Beatty. The issue has arisen again." It was Mrs. Lipscomb, one of the three assistant principals. I sigh and look at Mr. Beatty, "I'll be ok. Don't worry about me." He pats me on the back and leaves the room. As soon as he leaves the room, I shoot up, lock the door, and start searching his room. I didn't find much. A bunch of papers, files, football stuff, but I did find something interesting. A compiled list of every student and diseases they have. I guess this disease is affected by other diseases. I hear the keys jingle behind the door and put the file down. I scurry back to my seat and look down to the floor. Officer Thompson walks in, "Oh. I didn't know there was a student in here. Mr. Beatty and I are going to have to discuss some things. Do you mind waiting outside the office?" I get up and sit outside. Mr. Beatty pats my back and walks into his office. I cup my ear to the door and listen in. I can hear Mr. Beatty talking, "No, we are not killing this student. I don't care if he brought the disease into the school, we're not killing him!" Officer Thompson sighs, "That THING is not a student! I looked at the cameras. This thing killed that kid's sister. Pretty soon, he's gonna start looking for the culprit." I stand up straight and stare at the wall. I bolt out of the door and run to find Taylor.

When I find Taylor, she's staring out of the cafeteria doors. She looks at me, tears rolling down her face. I pull her away from the doors, already knowing what she's thinking. "No. Don't you dare. I already lost one sister today." She hugs me tight. I can feel the tears on her face soak into my shirt. I hug her back, making sure she is feeling safe. "I found out something interesting," I tell her, "would you like to hear what it is?" She lets go of me and nods, wiping her tears. "A monster brought the disease here. Meaning, they aren't affected by the open air. The only thing keeping them here are the guards. And they look like a student. So it could be anyone here. But turns out, they're also the one that killed Cassie. I think they don't know they're the monster and they're killing people to try and figure out who brought this disease upon us. The adults know more than they're letting on. I'm gonna snoop around some more. You and Andi stay safe."