RAINDROPS

Chapter 4

'Excuse me miss?' A voice calls out.

My mind barely registers it, but it's there I can hear it. I strain myself and try to turn my head.

'Can I help you?' The voice says again. This time completely snapping me back into reality. 

My eyelids flutter to the sudden brightness of the room. It's day again and the woman who called out to me is staring at me as if I'm crazy.

As I look at her I slowly begin to recognise her. She's the woman I saw dead on the ground. Her red hair has the exact same grey strands and her eyes are staring at me again, but this time they're not lifeless.

I can still feel something pressing on my chest. The fear I felt only a couple of seconds ago was still a fresh memory. So without answering her I run out of the room as I can faintly hear her call after me.

Outside in the hall I try to catch my breath, but it's no use. I have to get away. My feet start to walk again, going faster and faster. Until I'm running at full speed through the halls of an unrecognisable school. It seems as if the halls are endless, I keep running through the halls, down the stairs, through the town square, which is what we call the main hall, until I finally reach the door that leads outside.

There I let myself fall onto the ground. Once I can smell the fresh air and feel the grass beneath my hands I'm able to calm my breathing.

What just happened!?

Am I going crazy?

Is everyone around me dying?

Am I just going to be hallucinating from now on?

Was it even a hallucination?

What the hell is going on?!

The clear blue sky and bright sun are slowly making place for a soft rain. The raindrops fall onto my face, they relax me and seem to clear my mind. As I turn my face up to catch as many of them as I can, my tears slowly fade away and I find myself lost in my own little bubble. It's peaceful.

Suddenly I feel a hand on my shoulder, I'm about to scream when I see who it is. Jack. Did he hear me? No, that can't be. It was just in my mind.

'Hey, I saw you running through the halls. Are you alright?' He asks.

His eyes are filled with worry and I admire him for a second. He looks good, I on the other hand probably look like a mess.

'I'm okay now.' I nod. But I am pretty sure I just had a panic attack, because I saw the dead body of a person who's still alive. And oh yeah, my parents died less than a week ago and I saw someone die at their funeral. So yup, totally fine. I want to add, but I don't. He'll just worry more and I don't want that. Besides I'm sure whatever this is, it'll go away. It's probably just hallucinations because of what I saw yesterday.

He eyes me for a second, to try and figure out if I'm lying. Eventually he just steps forward and hugs me, which is truly the last thing I expected. But after a second I embrace him back. It is something I didn't know I needed so much.

We probably stood there like that for a couple of minutes, looking like complete idiots. But I don't care, it felt good. I felt safe. The rain stops and a watery sun comes back from behind the clouds. 

Jack walks back to the administrative office with me. After a couple of weird looks from the woman, who's apparently called mrs. Leffe, she helps me get all the paperwork in order.

It's weird to see her alive, but I am glad she's not dead.

My first class is math, the rest of the day exists of english literature, spanish, world history and biology. Math is boring as usual, but I find myself able to finish the exercises pretty fast.