“I will.”
50
Ollie
ThereliefMirandagiftedme was short-lived.
My skin was disgusting. Touch was sandpaper. Everything smelled like chlorine and sweat. Everything tasted like beer and bile. I couldn’t be alone, but I couldn’t stand the pity in their eyes.
All of them wanted me to skip class- to hide in my room and try to piece myself back together, but I was a wounded beast, pacing restlessly and lashing out more with every passing minute in captivity.
I needed out.
My fingers barely kept up with the words pouring out of my head into the document. The prompt for my Creative Writing class was, “A walk alone,” in third person. The natural inclination to purge my crowded mind had me typing pages on pages, but when I reread the mess I’d made, my hands started trembling.
A story of a rare white tiger walking through the jungle- a predator in its own right- cautiously creeping through the underbrush, stopping to listen intently to every sound. He’d evaded them as long as he could, keeping to the shadows, using his stripes to blend into long grasses. He usually stayed in the center of his jungle, but one day, the distant voices drew him to the edge of a clearing. They were there, in their strange fur and standing on two legs and communicating with sounds he couldn’t translate. They noticed him and showed their teeth, eyes lit up like his own did when spotting prey. He rolled his gums, leaping to attack-
To hit an invisible wall.
Caged.
He’d been caged the whole time.
“Um, you ok?” the girl beside me asked.
I was shaking so hard my desk had begun rattling. I slammed my laptop closed, forcing a deep breath through my nose, my hand sneaking into my pocket. The three Percocet I’d stolen ages ago whispered, “Oblivion.”
“I’m not feeling well,” I muttered, scooping up my laptop and rushing from the room. Jack waited at the end of the hall, snacking on something and occasionally feeding Buddy a piece.
I hesitated.
I was supposed to be in class for another twenty minutes.
We didn’t go anywhere alone now. Not after so many attempts to take us. But the idea of explaining why the fuck I couldn’t sit through a class sent my heartrate racing. I hadn’t talked about it. They knew. Of course, they knew.
But I couldn’t say it.
I was already moving in the opposite direction of my best friend and turned down the next hall. Empty save for a lone figure sitting on the floor, back to the wall.
My blood ran cold.
I shouldn't have been shocked Tyler was following me.
The sound of my footsteps jerked his head up. Angry swollen and scabbing gouges disfigured his features, black eyes widening.
This is your chance.
War broke out between the instinct to run and the urge to explode into his brain while my fists crushed his head like a watermelon.
But I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
Scrambling to his feet, Tyler ducked his head to avoid my glare.
“You’re out early,” he stammered, reaching into his pocket.
Now. An internal voice screamed.End this.
Needles across my irises, fire and ice blending into power. I locked on his head, yanking it up to bore into his soulless eyes. The tunnel ripped open, his thoughts thrown at me unintentionally-
