WTMR: Part 10

Chapter 5, Part 3: Almost Dead

Without hesitation, Evelynn wrenched the door open, bolting down the hallways she’d thought she’d known her whole life, now turned red, filtered, and unbearably hot.

Sweat beaded on her brow, not looking behind her out of fear that she might see something there that she didn't want to be. The panic fueled her burning leg muscles to move faster, faster, faster, and faster until the sounds of the monster wouldn’t make her ears ring, faster until the concrete didn’t crack like spider webs above her or below her, faster until she could live.

She reached a girls' bathroom that she recognised from the third floor, and she took the opportunity to get away, to hide.

As soon as she felt the ability to stop and try to catch her breath, her heart started trying to claw out of her chest painfully. Her hand flew to hold it as her breathing sharpened unbearably. Stumbling into the last and largest stall, she slid to the tile floor, tears brimming until her vision blurred beyond recognition. Each time she tried to catch her breath, she couldn’t; she just choked it back. She was absolutely terrified.

It wasn’t long until she could see the water ripple in the sterile toilet next to her. Soon enough, the loud stomps etched into her memory followed it.

Evelynn quickly covered her mouth, wanting to sob and scream, but horrified to see them stop outside her stall.

This was it.

This was her end.

She wasn’t going to make it home. She wasn’t going to make friends.

The truth hurt, worse than the pain in her chest or the extreme heat causing sweat to drop down her face. What had she really ever done in her life?

~Written by Ashlynn Blue, do not try to copy~

Just as shadows clawed down the stall door to reach her, the faint lights fizzled, flickering on and off faster and faster as the monster wormed its way closer.

Until suddenly it wasn’t. The lights had broken, leaving her in the darkness that wasn’t hot this time. It wasn’t red.

She was home. She didn’t perceive how this all happened, but she didn't care.

Relief washed over her like ocean waves, slowly loosening up her muscles and heart pain until she slumped there, catching her breath with silent tears falling down her cheeks.

She survived this time. 

Time was slowly passing in that stall, and she stayed there even after the lights turned back on. The proof of her safety was in the way that the air was clear, the lights were bright, and the room seemed normal, pristine. Not murky or overheated. It was actually a bit cool here.

Most of all, Evelynn was thankful deep down that the bathroom was cleaned so heavily in her school, but she only really thought of that after she had begun to actually calm down.

She would have stayed there for years if the voices hadn’t found her. Not her parents this time, but her friends.

“Guys, let’s check in here!” She heard Astrid call out.

“But that’s a girls’ bathroom,” cut in Luke awkwardly.

“That’s because she’s a girl, Sherlock.” Evelynn could almost see Astrid’s probable eyeroll to follow the thick air of annoyance in her voice.

The bathroom door creaked open, shoes shuffling aside into her room. Evelynn shifted, sitting up better against the wall and straining to see their shoes.

“Do we go in there, or….” Luke’s voice said awkwardly, probably the white sneakers near the doorway. All their voices seemed slightly strained, almost with a deep fear they were trying to keep at bay.

“I mean, we don’t care, it’s just an empty bathroom,” Lily’s voice exclaimed next, softened to the point some of the words almost weren’t in Evelynn’s earshot.

“Then let’s just check the dang thing,” Jack said, as black and grey sneakers pushed their way inside and down the opened stalls to where hers is. He tried to push it, finding it locked from her earlier panic. “Stupid thing is locked,” he said gruffly next, pausing his efforts. His voice was strained with something she couldn’t tell was frustration, hope, or terror.

Evelynn’s mouth opened to call out, but her voice had escaped her. Her fingers trembled as she reached towards the latch.

“Is she in there?” Alex’s voice called out, loud and cracking with emotions she couldn’t explicitly place. His white sneakers with orange laces that she would recognise anywhere suddenly appeared next to Jack’s.

“Evelynn?” Alex called out. “Are you in there? Can you hear us?”

It was seconds before all of the figures stood at the door. Her fingers found the latch, slowly tugging it free, just now remembering her face probably looked rubbed raw from her endeavours.

“Oh my gosh,” Lily whispered first, stooping down to hug her as the others stood in shock. “We…we didn’t know where you went…we thought you..”

Died, Evelynn’s thoughts finished.

~Written by Ashlynn Blue, do not try to copy~

“You disappeared. Scared the heck out of us,” Jack said, shuffling uncomfortably.

“Are you okay?” Alex asked almost too fast.

Evelynn felt Lily suddenly grab her forearm, tugging it up for all of them to see a large gash with drying blood surrounding it. “What happened?”

“I…I don’t know what happened,” comes out of her throat, parched. She could hear the tremor in her voice, how it sounded so unlike her. Almost traumatised.

There were quick footsteps down the hall, heavy enough to make Evelynn’s body tense up. The man appeared fast, brushing the kids aside to examine her state.

He tsked, flipping her forearm back and forth to check for more injuries, then turning to the other kids, said, “That thing got ‘er. Common.” He pulled her up with strong support, his axe mysteriously missing from his usual grip.

He pushed them all aside to bring her to the sink, washing his hands well. “You, kid,” he nodded to Lily, “get some paper towels. The rest of you, go back to my closet and get the medical kit, now. Keep flashlights close.”

Lily moved speedily to the paper towel dispensers while the rest of the kids left, faces serious and scared at the same time, gripping their flashlights with tight knuckles.

The man took the towels and pressed them against her wound carefully to stop the lingering bleeding. “Are you alright everywhere else?” he asked her, looking up to her tear-stained face.

Evelynn nodded, looking back down at her arm. It was a little painful in his fixed grip, but it didn’t really matter to her because she was safe now.

“It was scary, wasn’t it?” the man said quietly, voice changed with something she tried to place as care, eyes darkening a little. “Hot? Red?”

It was hard for him to meet his intense gaze, so she didn’t, just nodded, swallowing the lump forming in her throat.

“Well, you were brave out there. And you got back safe, which is hard for me to do sometimes, kid, so good job.”

The words made her heart throb painfully, but not the way it had earlier, in just an unbearable sadness that nobody had ever really said something like that to her before. It felt so nice that she wished she could hear it all the time. She clawed onto it to keep the memory of those words deep in her all her life. That someone was proud of her.

It almost made it all easier to handle. Just a little better than before. But it felt significant to her.

~Created by Ashlynn Blue, do not try to copy. Thanks for reading! <3~