The Encounter

It started to rain again, just as she stood by the bus stop waiting for her ride home. This time it definitely wasn't my fault! She screamed in her mind. They deserved it! By the time she got to the little shed, she'd just missed the bus and there wasn't going to be another one for another half hour. To make matters worse, it started to pour and now she'd been waiting for over an hour. The girl by the bus-shed clutched her blue blazer tightly around her tiny body hoping to get as much warmth as possible as the temperature began to drop. The rain wasn't showing any mercy as the large droplets beat upon the shed threatening to tear it apart. It was like a full on assault on the one person hiding innocently from the rain with nothing other than her schoolbag and no umbrella.

The streets were already deserted, only a few cars speedily passed by without so much as a blink to the girl. She was starting to freeze as the humid air slowly moistened her uniform. She tucked herself in the corner by the bench trying to escape the water that was now creeping under the shed. She was now shivering from the cold and she couldn't feel her toes anymore. Later on her eyelids were starting to feel heavy and she was struggling to keep them open. With her eyes barely half open she started to make out a figure across the street in the pouring rain. It was the figure of a person in a long trench coat with a hat, whose facial features she couldn't make out. A passing car blurred the image for a moment which returned just after.

The figure seemed to be slowly moving towards her. She was feeling even drowsier and her eyelids slowly met for what seemed like a spilt second then she woke up with a start. The figure across the street was nowhere to be seen. Her eyelids were feeling heavy once more and the figure she saw reappeared but it was in the middle of the street now, slowly moving in her direction. Her eyelids met once more and her vision went blank.

The bell for the end of fifth period rang and the room became livelier as the students clustered into groups in joyous conversations. All except one, a petit girl, sat by her desk, staring through the window while munching on a homemade sandwich, face as expressionless as ever like she couldn't care less about her surroundings. She kept her vision focused outside on nothing in particular but her ears couldn't do the same. The conversations in hushed voices, coming from behind her. She had gotten so used to it, it was now easy to identify the owners of the voices with a blindfold on. With one hand on her sandwich the other crept under the desk and clutched tightly onto the hem of her skirt. The girl tried so hard to ignore and focus on her sandwich but each bite became more bland until she could taste absolutely nothing. Each word felt like a sharp blade piercing deep into her soul, but all she could do was sit there and handle. The conversation became more venomous and the sharp giggles made the girl's stomach feel bitter. Why couldn't they just leave her alone? Why torment her day and night as if all their slander would erase her from the face of the earth? The girl swallowed her tears with the last bite of her sandwich and stood up from the chair abruptly. As if on cue, the 4 girls behind her went quiet then started giggling as they watched the girl storm out of the classroom.

That was the last straw! The girl ran into the restroom and banged the door behind one of the cubicles. She wanted to scream her lungs out but instead took a couple of deep breaths and observed a momentary silence until she calmed down. Hoping to just wash her face, she walked out of the cubicle and there it was! Again? In bright red, she was openly insulted and it was right across the entire 4 paned mirror! She cleaned the toilets for an entire week for this very same reason a while back. Right now there was no way the girl could just leave and it was almost time for her next lesson. Guess she'd just have to miss 6th period today, and better come up with a good excuse.

The day ended as predicted and the girl just sat by her desk with a creased paper in hand while staring out the window with dead fish eyes. Just after she had cleaned the markings of the mirror, she went straight for the locker rooms and opened one of the lockers, but it wasn't hers. She took out a pair of sports sneakers, placed a handful of tiny glass shards in both shoes and carefully aligned them back as she'd found them. The class went for their sporting activities as scheduled there was a huge scene. The owner of the shoes that had been sabotaged was none other than one of the girls who had been insulting her earlier. Her shoes were drenched with blood, she had to be carried to the infirmary while the culprit just stood in the crowd with a hint of satisfaction on her face. Mission accomplished!

The girl by the shed opened her eyes once more probably due to the sound of the rumbling thunder and her vision was obstructed by a tall dark figure in a long black coat. Her body shivered violently, not sure if it was out of terror or the cold. She slowly raised her head with her eyes scanning the figure upwards and landed on the faceless head under the cover of the wide brimmed hat. A feeling of dread, one that she was so familiar with, except, this time she was wide awake. A white line appeared across the middle of the head from left to right and the head began to separate itself while pivoted at the back like a mouth revealing several rows of knife edged teeth. The girl's body went numb, she felt like a rock sinking to the bottom of the ocean. The light from her eyes faded and her vision went blank all the while screaming, "They deserved it!"

THE END!