Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Message V
Yay, another post, now you guys can't bug me so much!! Everyone's happy.. Ok, so I got slightly more violent in this chapter.. you all knew it was coming, but if you want me to stop, I can...?
Chapter 6
Marilyn and the group skipped the last two periods of the day. They sat in a park two blocks away and talked. The entire group had unanimously decided to tell her the whole story. As they told her, she fingered the small black disc. On and off she worried, and as the story grew to a close, her fear peaked.
“So what am I going to do? What's going to happen? Am I a target now too?!”
“First, I think we should work out this disc,” Celia suggested, taking it from her. “Has anyone seen one of these before?”
No one answered.
“I think we should get rid of it.” Rebecca said. “Whatever it is, it can't be good. Not if it was bandaged in with that!”
“I guess.” Marilyn didn’t look like she was really listening. She still seemed preoccupied with the tattoo. The rest of the group looked uncertain.
Yasmine voiced her earlier fears. “I think we should, too. What if it is a bug or something?”
“Not likely,” Replied Jo, but all the same she took the disc, put it on the ground, and stepped on it. The seven girls crowded around, each trying to get a look. But it wasn’t that easy to break. Jo stamped several times on the disc till it finally broke.
“What the hell?”
Through a crack in the disk, the girls could see multicoloured wires. For a moment, no-one spoke, but within minutes a buzz was travelling through the group. The girls sat for almost ten minutes trying to figure out what it was, and what to do, before Mia got up to leave.
“It’s freezing out here, and I already have a cold,” she said. “I’m going to find a bus and get home.” Jo agreed and they grabbed their bags.
“Wait!” Marilyn cried, “We never worked out what I should do. Can’t we call the cops?”
“No.” Lucy said forcefully. “We still don’t have any evidence.”
“Well, shouldn’t school be closed?”
“That’s what we think too!” Rebecca agreed. “But it hasn’t been. I hate Mr Corry!” The others nodded.
“You should probably just keep it bandaged, or wear gloves or something,” Celia told Marilyn. “And, we should try to work out what those letters mean. They could be important.”
The group split after that, each girl to make their own way home. Darkness was falling fast.
* * *
Carla sat in the small interview room of their office. Opposite her sat Mrs Hughes, Valerie’s mother. In the next room, she knew Damien was talking to Valerie’s father. It was now mid-afternoon, but the couple had apparently been trying desperately to find the officers all day.
Mrs Hughes was on the verge of tears, her voice strained and her face pale. Carla was shocked at what she was hearing, and feeling stupid for not noticing before.
“… She didn’t come home yesterday…” Mrs Hughes sobbed. “I thought she must have been… at a friends… but she didn’t call… none of their parents have seen her… I didn’t know what to do!” She started sobbing harder, and Carla passed her some tissues before standing.
“Thankyou Mrs Hughes,” she headed towards the door. “I will just be a moment, if you will please stay right here.” In the mirror opposite the table, Carla saw the woman nod. She turned into the corridor, entering a door immediately next to the one she’d just left. She was now in a rather cramped chamber, in between the two interview rooms. On her left and right were two one-way windows, looking in on the interviews taking place on either side.
On her right sat Mrs Hughes, staring into the mirror, her eyes red and puffy. On her left, in an almost identical room were Damien and Mr Hughes. Unlike his wife, he was not crying, and his face was white and tight lipped. He was talking, but Carla had the intercom turned off, so she couldn’t hear what was being said.
Damien nodded, stood up and left the room. A moment later, he was next to Carla in the windowed room.
“He says Valerie didn’t come home yesterday,” Damien recapped the story in a few words. “They called around, none of her friend’s parents had seen her.”
Carla nodded. “The stories match.”
“What do we tell them?”
“File a missing person report, go through the usual routine.” Damien nodded, and headed for the door.
“And Dam?”
“Yeah?”
“Did Leon check the handwriting samples?”
“Damien nodded again. “We only have the kids’ though, and there was no match.”
* * *
Marilyn walked slowly through the school ground. Instead of a bandage, long, black gloves clung to her arms.
Since she had found out about the tattoo, she had begun to feel more and more paranoid. Who could she trust?
As she passed a group of seniors, a few turned round to stare at her. Swallowing, she increased her pace, her heart beat and breathing following. Within seconds, her breathing had increased so much that she was gasping for air.
Suddenly, Rebecca and Celia were beside her, pulling her to a bench and sitting her down.
“You okay?”
“No!” Marilyn huffed, feeling light headed, but now able to breathe. “Anybody here could be trying to kill me!”
“Nobody is trying to kill you,” Rebecca eased, trying to calm her. “That message could say anything.”
“Exactly!” Marilyn began to breathe in short gasps once again. “It could say: ‘I am coming to kill you!’, or ‘I will kill you!’ or something worse!”
“But you can't think like that!” The three girls jumped as Mia appeared behind them. “And keep your voices down. I could hear you from across the quad!” This was a slight overstatement, but the girls did lower their voices after it. Mia sneezed, sniffling and then receding into a coughing fit.
Marilyn stood up. “I'm going to go sit with my group. Calm down, you know?”
The others nodded, and watched her slowly trudge across the quad to her other friends, Ashleigh, Selina and Jacqui.
* * *
Sarah and Emma left their period zero classroom. The bell was due to go in just a few minutes. They walked past the outdoor science room, and as they passed the door they exchanged a look.
“Mr C left the gas tap on again.” Holding their breaths, they crossed the yard, and turned into a stairwell, heading up to their rollcall room. Up ahead, they saw Mia talking to Mr Pullman, the clinic nurse and Deputy Principal. She nodded then walked towards them.
“Hey Mia,” Emma said as they got closer. “Whoa, you look really tired.”
“Hi,” Mia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I have a bad cold. And stupid Mr Pullman wants me to do a job for him. Light a Bunsen or something.”
“Don’t we have office duty people for that?” Sarah asked.
“Yeah, I thought so too. Anyway, I gotta do it now, or I'll be late for rollcall. Bye.”
She hurried off down the corridor, coughing. Sarah and Emma watched for a moment, then turned into their classroom, and put their bags down.
As they sat Sarah realised something. “Wait, did she say light a Bunsen? As in a burner?”
“Yeah,” Emma replied, not catching on.
“But that lab was full of-”
“GAS!” Emma exhaled, jumping from her seat. “We have to stop her!”
The two raced out of the classroom and onto the stairs, almost knocking over two boys from their class.
“Maybe she was going to a different lab!” Sarah yelled ahead to Emma, who was a little in front her. Then they smelled smoke.
Up ahead they could see the lab, door close. Under it, they could see and orange glow, and grey-white smoke. They suddenly slowed their pace, fearing that it was too late.
Emma, closer than Sarah, saw the orange glow recede under the door. Sarah, not knowing why her friend stopped running, overtook her at a jog. Emma called out, to stop her, but it was too late.
All of a sudden, in a burst that shook the school, the door flung open and enormous tendrils of flame roared into the yard, blowing half of the buildings wall away.
* * *
Marilyn, sitting under the trees in the quad, felt the ground shake underneath her. It lasted only a second, people crying out around them.
She heard something falling through the trees above her. Looking up, a large silhouette tumbled down towards her. Hooked on a branch directly above her, Valerie’s dead face stopped inches above her own, wide eyes boring into hers.
Marilyn screamed, blacking out and dropping of her seat.
“So what am I going to do? What's going to happen? Am I a target now too?!”
“First, I think we should work out this disc,” Celia suggested, taking it from her. “Has anyone seen one of these before?”
No one answered.
“I think we should get rid of it.” Rebecca said. “Whatever it is, it can't be good. Not if it was bandaged in with that!”
“I guess.” Marilyn didn’t look like she was really listening. She still seemed preoccupied with the tattoo. The rest of the group looked uncertain.
Yasmine voiced her earlier fears. “I think we should, too. What if it is a bug or something?”
“Not likely,” Replied Jo, but all the same she took the disc, put it on the ground, and stepped on it. The seven girls crowded around, each trying to get a look. But it wasn’t that easy to break. Jo stamped several times on the disc till it finally broke.
“What the hell?”
Through a crack in the disk, the girls could see multicoloured wires. For a moment, no-one spoke, but within minutes a buzz was travelling through the group. The girls sat for almost ten minutes trying to figure out what it was, and what to do, before Mia got up to leave.
“It’s freezing out here, and I already have a cold,” she said. “I’m going to find a bus and get home.” Jo agreed and they grabbed their bags.
“Wait!” Marilyn cried, “We never worked out what I should do. Can’t we call the cops?”
“No.” Lucy said forcefully. “We still don’t have any evidence.”
“Well, shouldn’t school be closed?”
“That’s what we think too!” Rebecca agreed. “But it hasn’t been. I hate Mr Corry!” The others nodded.
“You should probably just keep it bandaged, or wear gloves or something,” Celia told Marilyn. “And, we should try to work out what those letters mean. They could be important.”
The group split after that, each girl to make their own way home. Darkness was falling fast.
* * *
Carla sat in the small interview room of their office. Opposite her sat Mrs Hughes, Valerie’s mother. In the next room, she knew Damien was talking to Valerie’s father. It was now mid-afternoon, but the couple had apparently been trying desperately to find the officers all day.
Mrs Hughes was on the verge of tears, her voice strained and her face pale. Carla was shocked at what she was hearing, and feeling stupid for not noticing before.
“… She didn’t come home yesterday…” Mrs Hughes sobbed. “I thought she must have been… at a friends… but she didn’t call… none of their parents have seen her… I didn’t know what to do!” She started sobbing harder, and Carla passed her some tissues before standing.
“Thankyou Mrs Hughes,” she headed towards the door. “I will just be a moment, if you will please stay right here.” In the mirror opposite the table, Carla saw the woman nod. She turned into the corridor, entering a door immediately next to the one she’d just left. She was now in a rather cramped chamber, in between the two interview rooms. On her left and right were two one-way windows, looking in on the interviews taking place on either side.
On her right sat Mrs Hughes, staring into the mirror, her eyes red and puffy. On her left, in an almost identical room were Damien and Mr Hughes. Unlike his wife, he was not crying, and his face was white and tight lipped. He was talking, but Carla had the intercom turned off, so she couldn’t hear what was being said.
Damien nodded, stood up and left the room. A moment later, he was next to Carla in the windowed room.
“He says Valerie didn’t come home yesterday,” Damien recapped the story in a few words. “They called around, none of her friend’s parents had seen her.”
Carla nodded. “The stories match.”
“What do we tell them?”
“File a missing person report, go through the usual routine.” Damien nodded, and headed for the door.
“And Dam?”
“Yeah?”
“Did Leon check the handwriting samples?”
“Damien nodded again. “We only have the kids’ though, and there was no match.”
* * *
Marilyn walked slowly through the school ground. Instead of a bandage, long, black gloves clung to her arms.
Since she had found out about the tattoo, she had begun to feel more and more paranoid. Who could she trust?
As she passed a group of seniors, a few turned round to stare at her. Swallowing, she increased her pace, her heart beat and breathing following. Within seconds, her breathing had increased so much that she was gasping for air.
Suddenly, Rebecca and Celia were beside her, pulling her to a bench and sitting her down.
“You okay?”
“No!” Marilyn huffed, feeling light headed, but now able to breathe. “Anybody here could be trying to kill me!”
“Nobody is trying to kill you,” Rebecca eased, trying to calm her. “That message could say anything.”
“Exactly!” Marilyn began to breathe in short gasps once again. “It could say: ‘I am coming to kill you!’, or ‘I will kill you!’ or something worse!”
“But you can't think like that!” The three girls jumped as Mia appeared behind them. “And keep your voices down. I could hear you from across the quad!” This was a slight overstatement, but the girls did lower their voices after it. Mia sneezed, sniffling and then receding into a coughing fit.
Marilyn stood up. “I'm going to go sit with my group. Calm down, you know?”
The others nodded, and watched her slowly trudge across the quad to her other friends, Ashleigh, Selina and Jacqui.
* * *
Sarah and Emma left their period zero classroom. The bell was due to go in just a few minutes. They walked past the outdoor science room, and as they passed the door they exchanged a look.
“Mr C left the gas tap on again.” Holding their breaths, they crossed the yard, and turned into a stairwell, heading up to their rollcall room. Up ahead, they saw Mia talking to Mr Pullman, the clinic nurse and Deputy Principal. She nodded then walked towards them.
“Hey Mia,” Emma said as they got closer. “Whoa, you look really tired.”
“Hi,” Mia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I have a bad cold. And stupid Mr Pullman wants me to do a job for him. Light a Bunsen or something.”
“Don’t we have office duty people for that?” Sarah asked.
“Yeah, I thought so too. Anyway, I gotta do it now, or I'll be late for rollcall. Bye.”
She hurried off down the corridor, coughing. Sarah and Emma watched for a moment, then turned into their classroom, and put their bags down.
As they sat Sarah realised something. “Wait, did she say light a Bunsen? As in a burner?”
“Yeah,” Emma replied, not catching on.
“But that lab was full of-”
“GAS!” Emma exhaled, jumping from her seat. “We have to stop her!”
The two raced out of the classroom and onto the stairs, almost knocking over two boys from their class.
“Maybe she was going to a different lab!” Sarah yelled ahead to Emma, who was a little in front her. Then they smelled smoke.
Up ahead they could see the lab, door close. Under it, they could see and orange glow, and grey-white smoke. They suddenly slowed their pace, fearing that it was too late.
Emma, closer than Sarah, saw the orange glow recede under the door. Sarah, not knowing why her friend stopped running, overtook her at a jog. Emma called out, to stop her, but it was too late.
All of a sudden, in a burst that shook the school, the door flung open and enormous tendrils of flame roared into the yard, blowing half of the buildings wall away.
* * *
Marilyn, sitting under the trees in the quad, felt the ground shake underneath her. It lasted only a second, people crying out around them.
She heard something falling through the trees above her. Looking up, a large silhouette tumbled down towards her. Hooked on a branch directly above her, Valerie’s dead face stopped inches above her own, wide eyes boring into hers.
Marilyn screamed, blacking out and dropping of her seat.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Message IV
You are friggin' not gonna believe this!!! I POSTED THE NEXT CHAPTER!!! *bows* I finally decided you'd suffered enough. So, I had a bit of "writer's block" and I decided to fix that by only skimming over what has just happened. Also, if you guys find any continuity problems, or stuff you want cleared up, let me know, and enjoy(hopefully).
Chapter 5
“Why don’t they close the school!?”
“Because they don’t want to cause alarm!”
“Hello, Aleisha was just stabbed and put in a locker, and they don’t want to cause alarm?!” This comment was followed by silence, and Jo immediately felt bad for saying it. It was recess, and the girls were once again together, sitting huddled in a corner of the quad. “Right, I didn’t mean it, it just came out.”
Fear made each of them quiet, none of them knowing what to do. Seeing another one of their friends with that strange mark on their wrist had confirmed all of their worries about the previous night.
Damien and Carla had asked them the same questions from the previous day, to no avail. None of them had given them any further leads, but they had had a chance to acquire a handwriting sample from each of the girls. They had also suggested that they all saw a counsellor.
“Where do you think Valerie is?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t know,” Celia said. “She didn’t come last night. What do you think stopped her?”
“I’m not sure I want to know.” Mia said after a while.
“Hey, she's probably just late!” Jo tried to remain confident. “Maybe we should talk to Marilyn?”
* * *
“I think we should send them home Dam,” Carla said. She stood at a window overlooking the quad, watching the girls in their small group. “This isn’t the sort of thing you recover from overnight.”
“It was their decision,” He argued, though it was clear he agreed with her. “And the principal has decided to keep the school open to avoid a fuss, to keep the other students from worrying.”
“These handwriting samples, is Leon busy? He said he could test them against the killer’s message didn’t he?”
“He’s here, but I think he’s going to be fairly busy for a while. This…” he hesitated. “This one was a lot messier than the last.”
* * *
Mia and Jo couldn’t find Marilyn before the bell rang, so they each went off to their separate classes.
Jo ignored most of what the teacher said during science. She didn’t get called to speak once, and secretly she knew it was because the teachers where all taking pity on her group. Normally this annoyed her, but today she was more anxious about talking to Marilyn.
Under her desk, she clutched the small slip of paper from the night before, crunching and smoothing it out with her fingers, but not daring to look once again. She wished she was in Mia and Marilyn’s class, so that she knew what was going on there.
* * *
“I'm sorry about your arm.”
“That’s okay. You didn’t mean to.” Marilyn and Mia sat at the back of their maths room, whispering. They didn’t actually have to worry, because for the last forty-five minutes the teacher hadn’t arrived, but they still didn’t want to be overheard.
“Can I have a look?” Mia and the rest of the group didn’t want to believe what they had found the night before, but decided they should take a look. But Marilyn wasn’t sure she should take the bandage off.
“The Clinic Doctor said I should leave it on for a few days.
“You mean you haven’t taken it off yet?” Mia had hoped that she had, and that it had been nothing out of the ordinary.
“Um no,” Marilyn cast her a funny look. “Should I have?”
“I guess not.”
“Okay, what am I missing?”
Mia sighed, “Probably nothing. But can I just have a look at your arm?”
“Will you tell me why?”
Mia sighed again. “If you let me see it,” She allowed
* * *
Lunch came around very quickly, and the girls once again huddled in their corner of the quad, this time Marilyn with them. They got a few strange stares, but they were beginning to get used to it. A number of rumours were passing around the school grounds, mostly stupid ideas about teenage pregnancies and arguments between the group that had resulted in murder. Whispering followed the girls wherever they went.
Today, however, theses whispers went completely unnoticed. Marilyn sat between Jo and Mia, and the group watched as she unravelled the bandage from her arm. Jo reached into her pocket, and pulled out the slip of paper, now folded in half. As Marilyn slipped off the last roll of bandage, Jo unfolded the paper, and held it next to her arm. They both said the same thing. A black heart beat, followed by the letters: BLF PMLD GLL NFXS BLF WRV HLLM. Marilyn screamed.
“Shh!” The group looked around, to see the rest of the quad giving them concerned looks. Marilyn looked like she was going to be sick. She jumped up and ran to the bathroom.
“I’ll follow her,” Lucy jumped up and hurried after her.
“What's that?” Celia bent over and picked up a little black, plastic cube that fell out as Marilyn rushed away.
“It looks like a bug,” Yasmine laughed. “You know, like in the movies.”
Silence met her joke. “Let’s get rid of it.”
* * *
Lucy arrived in the bathroom to see Marilyn scrubbing at her arm, wincing every time she passed over the writing. “Is it coming off?”
Marilyn shook her head, tears coming to her eyes. “Look at it!” To Lucy, the black marks seemed to be just as clear as they had been minutes before.
“Marilyn, it is going to be okay-““It’s not going to be okay! I just want to know! What do these marks mean, and why did someone tattoo them to my arm?!”
“Because they don’t want to cause alarm!”
“Hello, Aleisha was just stabbed and put in a locker, and they don’t want to cause alarm?!” This comment was followed by silence, and Jo immediately felt bad for saying it. It was recess, and the girls were once again together, sitting huddled in a corner of the quad. “Right, I didn’t mean it, it just came out.”
Fear made each of them quiet, none of them knowing what to do. Seeing another one of their friends with that strange mark on their wrist had confirmed all of their worries about the previous night.
Damien and Carla had asked them the same questions from the previous day, to no avail. None of them had given them any further leads, but they had had a chance to acquire a handwriting sample from each of the girls. They had also suggested that they all saw a counsellor.
“Where do you think Valerie is?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t know,” Celia said. “She didn’t come last night. What do you think stopped her?”
“I’m not sure I want to know.” Mia said after a while.
“Hey, she's probably just late!” Jo tried to remain confident. “Maybe we should talk to Marilyn?”
* * *
“I think we should send them home Dam,” Carla said. She stood at a window overlooking the quad, watching the girls in their small group. “This isn’t the sort of thing you recover from overnight.”
“It was their decision,” He argued, though it was clear he agreed with her. “And the principal has decided to keep the school open to avoid a fuss, to keep the other students from worrying.”
“These handwriting samples, is Leon busy? He said he could test them against the killer’s message didn’t he?”
“He’s here, but I think he’s going to be fairly busy for a while. This…” he hesitated. “This one was a lot messier than the last.”
* * *
Mia and Jo couldn’t find Marilyn before the bell rang, so they each went off to their separate classes.
Jo ignored most of what the teacher said during science. She didn’t get called to speak once, and secretly she knew it was because the teachers where all taking pity on her group. Normally this annoyed her, but today she was more anxious about talking to Marilyn.
Under her desk, she clutched the small slip of paper from the night before, crunching and smoothing it out with her fingers, but not daring to look once again. She wished she was in Mia and Marilyn’s class, so that she knew what was going on there.
* * *
“I'm sorry about your arm.”
“That’s okay. You didn’t mean to.” Marilyn and Mia sat at the back of their maths room, whispering. They didn’t actually have to worry, because for the last forty-five minutes the teacher hadn’t arrived, but they still didn’t want to be overheard.
“Can I have a look?” Mia and the rest of the group didn’t want to believe what they had found the night before, but decided they should take a look. But Marilyn wasn’t sure she should take the bandage off.
“The Clinic Doctor said I should leave it on for a few days.
“You mean you haven’t taken it off yet?” Mia had hoped that she had, and that it had been nothing out of the ordinary.
“Um no,” Marilyn cast her a funny look. “Should I have?”
“I guess not.”
“Okay, what am I missing?”
Mia sighed, “Probably nothing. But can I just have a look at your arm?”
“Will you tell me why?”
Mia sighed again. “If you let me see it,” She allowed
* * *
Lunch came around very quickly, and the girls once again huddled in their corner of the quad, this time Marilyn with them. They got a few strange stares, but they were beginning to get used to it. A number of rumours were passing around the school grounds, mostly stupid ideas about teenage pregnancies and arguments between the group that had resulted in murder. Whispering followed the girls wherever they went.
Today, however, theses whispers went completely unnoticed. Marilyn sat between Jo and Mia, and the group watched as she unravelled the bandage from her arm. Jo reached into her pocket, and pulled out the slip of paper, now folded in half. As Marilyn slipped off the last roll of bandage, Jo unfolded the paper, and held it next to her arm. They both said the same thing. A black heart beat, followed by the letters: BLF PMLD GLL NFXS BLF WRV HLLM. Marilyn screamed.
“Shh!” The group looked around, to see the rest of the quad giving them concerned looks. Marilyn looked like she was going to be sick. She jumped up and ran to the bathroom.
“I’ll follow her,” Lucy jumped up and hurried after her.
“What's that?” Celia bent over and picked up a little black, plastic cube that fell out as Marilyn rushed away.
“It looks like a bug,” Yasmine laughed. “You know, like in the movies.”
Silence met her joke. “Let’s get rid of it.”
* * *
Lucy arrived in the bathroom to see Marilyn scrubbing at her arm, wincing every time she passed over the writing. “Is it coming off?”
Marilyn shook her head, tears coming to her eyes. “Look at it!” To Lucy, the black marks seemed to be just as clear as they had been minutes before.
“Marilyn, it is going to be okay-““It’s not going to be okay! I just want to know! What do these marks mean, and why did someone tattoo them to my arm?!”
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