Close Drops

I pleaded him to stop. Stop. The pain racked through me. I was on the ground. He pulled me up by my collar and hit me, on the face. Again and again. The tears streamed down my cheeks, mixing with the blood that spilled from the various cuts covering my skin. Stop, please stop. He hit me one more time and let me drop to the ground. I couldn’t see anymore. The tears and the blood were rushing down my face, making it impossible to clear my eyes. He kicked me in the stomach and I curled up as tight as I could. But he kept coming. It was like he was everywhere.

“Get up, wimp.” I didn’t move, I couldn’t. “GET UP!” He pulled me up again and made me stand.

Please, just stop, I whispered. The cold night air was swirling around me. I tried to wipe my eyes again, but the blood and tears never left. I was finally able to see. I opened my eyes and all I saw was him running toward me.

My blood was on his cloths, my blood was on his fists, my blood was on his face. The anger in his eyes was unbearable. How had he kept it bottled up so long? Now that he let it out I wish he had kept it longer or maybe let it out earlier so we wouldn’t even have to be here, maybe I could have helped him. My knees were weak. My whole body was trembling. I couldn’t feel my arms as they dangled useless at my sides. My heart was beating harder, harder then I ever felt before. Why hadn’t I known he was feeling this way. He was so angry. So cold. It was as if his heart had simply frozen over. I was cold. I could only feel pain and the air around me.

He kept coming and he hit me. Hard. I fell to the ground. I could hardly breath. I felt the air rush in, and out. I tried to keep it coming. I’ve never felt this way before. Like death was so close. I could feel its fingertips, on the tip of my barely beating heart. I almost wanted to die, then and there. To escape this pain. This feeling. I had never felt so alone. As I lay there, so cold so weak, I knew I was worthless.

“Don’t ever mess with me. You hear me? I’ll kill you. I’ll just fucking kill you. Tonight was just a sample.” And he left.

Laying there, I felt everything. My head throbbing. The burning of my chest. The air painfully coming in and out, it was almost to unbearable to keep on going. I tried to get up, but I couldn’t move. The pain was too much. I tried to scream. Someone, someone please help me. But nothing came out. No one came. I closed my eyes and the tears streamed out. Down my cheeks and into my cuts. It only made it worse. Slowly I faded into darkness.

It was the talk of the school. A girl was found outside the school, unconscious, by one of the teachers. I heard she was a mess. Blood and footsteps were everywhere. Some students say the blood was still there. I wouldn’t know. We weren’t allowed to see.

None of the students knew who it was. The teachers were not permitted to tell. Everyone was rushing around. Trying to find their friends to make sure it wasn’t them. I did the same. It seemed like everyone was there, but I had to wait till lunch to really know. All my friends were in my lunch period. The school was set up so that the freshman ate in one cafeteria during 5th period, and the sophomores in the other. Then in 6th, the juniors and seniors had their lunches. I couldn’t wait. I wanted to see everyone, to know that whoever it was, was someone I didn’t know, someone that didn’t effect me. We all did. We wanted to be able to say that was too bad and get on with our lives. But I knew that after lunch every girl who wasn’t there would be accounted for and it wouldn’t take long for the students to figure out who it was. Our school was a large one but someone would be able to find out who it was. And as soon as they did, the whole school would know. That’s just how it worked here at Hudson P. High School. Teachers didn’t tell, someone found out, and within one day, everyone knew. It was inevitable.

But I (I as in Rachel Smith, freshman at Hudson P.) couldn’t shake that nervous feeling, the one you get when it feels like something is wrong. But, how else should I feel? Someone was found half dead outside the place I am in. Creepy. Gives you shivers down your spine.

As the bell rang everyone dispersed in to their class advisory rooms.

They talked about it during advisory. My adviser, Ms. Kacy, told us that it was a girl from our school. She explained that they couldn’t tell what grade she was in or anything about her, so that the students wouldn’t get too freaked out. But we all knew that she knew we’d all find out before about eight hours from now. She sat on her desk and asked us if we had any questions.

“Where was she exactly?”

“Right outside the library, near the back of the school.”

“With the highway in the back?”

“Yes, the police believe that the culprit drove up on the highway, you can see the tire tracks on the grass were they believe he parked his car.”

“Do the police have any leads?”

“No. They worked on getting the girl to safety before checking everything. It’s too windy now to do much.”

In our small town Ventus (Latin word for wind) outside Chicago (The windy city, though that’s not why it’s called the windy city. Whatever) it was usually windy. I wasn’t surprised that it blew away the evidence. You would think they would have some police check out the scene before. ‘Poor girl’ I thought, and went right back to doing the math homework I hadn’t finished the night before

“But then why are there foot prints?”

Ms. Kacy let out a sigh. “You heard that from other people around the school?”

The whole class nodded.

“Well, if you must know, some of the blood splattered on the ground, making some mud, and the culprit apparently stepped in it. So did the victim. Then it dried.”
The whole class started whispering. I saw cell phones being whipped out of pockets and ‘secretly’ students text messaging friends to tell the latest dish. Ms. Kacy pretended not to notice because she knew if she did, she really couldn’t do anything about it. Our school is just a gossip hole.

The next four classes were awkward. The teachers were on edge and the students were constantly whispering. Some videos were played and nothing was accomplished. When it was finally lunch, I hurried to the cafeteria so I could calm my nerves.

I sat down at the table with the rest of my friends; I was a little late on account of having stopped by my locker. It was like everyone was on pens and needles. I looked around. No one met my eyes.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

No one answered me. Everyone was looking at there feet. Either everyone was refusing to tell me something or there was a carnival under the table and I didn’t know about it.
I felt the nervous ping welling up in my chest. I looked around at all the girls at my table (No boys sat with us. No we are not losers, we at our school not many freshman sat boy girl yet) there were about 15 of them, none looking at me.

“Wait,” I said as I thought of everyone at my table. “Where’s Heather?”

Still no one said anything as I mentioned my best friend’s name. Heather Barnum had been friends since preschool. We were practically inseparable and both were heartbroken when we learned we were only in lunch together this year. She usually sat right next to me. I looked around. My heart stared pumping. I felt like a knife had just pierced my chest.

“Well.” Someone finally spoke. It was Claire. She was usually the one constantly talking about what new stuff was going around the school, who’s dating who, and who was dumped by who. Now her mouth seemed glued shut. “Nikki has the flu.”

“Excuse me?” She was avoiding something. And it didn’t make me feel any better.

“Vanessa has a cold, along with Hannah, Georgia, and Jenny.” Annie, the shy but friendly girl who sat with us spoke up. “And Fanny is in Florida.”

“What are you guys talking about? Where’s Heather?”

“Calla fractured her leg and is at home resting.” The other girls started speaking up.

“Elaine is in Mexico.”

“Olivia switched out of the school a week ago.”

“Cary had an allergic reaction to bees and couldn’t come today.”

“WOULD YOU GET TO THE POINT?!?!?!” I stood up. I was suddenly aware that everyone’s eyes were on me. I’m not kidding. There was a hush over the entire cafeteria, no one was eating, no one was whispering, nothing. I looked around the lunchroom and then turned back to my friends.

I whispered through clenched teeth. “Tell me. Please.”

“Well, all those girls have alibis” Claire switched positions nervously.

“They are all the girls missing from school today.” Annie said quietly.

“Except…” Claire looked down again.

My breathing increased. I knew what was coming but I refused to believe it. It couldn’t be true. It was my imagination. It wouldn’t happen. Never. Not in a million years. Still no one spoke. You could have dropped a feather and you would have heard it as it hit the ground. I could feel the drip of sweat as it fell down my face.

“Except, who.” I said a little louder, but still my teeth grinded together.

“Heather.” Annie whispered.