𝓡𝓸𝔂𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓢𝓱𝓮𝓵𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓭 (𝓡𝓸𝔂𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓢𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓼 𝓑𝓸𝓸𝓴 𝓞𝓷𝓮)

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓢𝓲𝔁𝓽𝔂-𝓢𝓲𝔁

My jaw drops.

Excuse me what?

Arty grabs my hand and clenches his eyebrows at him, "What are you talking about? And do not give me a long rambling explanation of nonsense. Tell me exactly what happened right now."

Ninny takes a deep breath and looks down, "Basically, Walter spilled a detail about our protest to Roger on the last history test. Apparently, he claimed that Roger jumped around and didn't fully teach the textbook because he left stuff out."

Tears well up in my eyes.

Of course it was Walter. Out of everyone else in this dormitory, it makes the most sense for it to be Walter.

Arty squeezes my hand and sighs, "And what happened next?"

"That's not all," Ninny straightens up, "He also mentioned replacing part of the monarchy. This basically prompted Roger to scream at both of us, and he got the Headmistress involved. Apparently, there's an investigation being held on Thursday morning."

Why would he even think to say that? Has he lost his mind?

"Doesn't he-" I pause and take a few deep breaths to stop my throat from tightening, "Doesn't he know that we can all get hung for that? Did he not think about anything?"

Ninny holds out his arms and looks down, "Apparently he says it was an accident, but I don't know if that's true."

My shaky hands clench against the hem of my dress as my lips quiver.

We're gonna die. We're actually gonna die. That nightmare is gonna become a reality.

Arty puts his arm around my shoulders and nods to Ninny, "Give us a moment alone please."

Ninny nods and steps out of the door. 

After he leaves, I sink down to the floor. I clench my knees over my chest, and start sobbing right into them. I start uncontrollably shaking, the tips of my shoes cause a thumping sound on the floor.

I knew I should've done something, anything to stop this. I shouldn't have split us into two groups, or better yet, I shouldn't have started this in the first place. Now because of this entire thing, we're all gonna die.

Just when I was about to have my first kiss. Just when I finally made friends. Just when I finally got a grip on myself, we're gonna die. What was the point of the progress then? All it did was set me backwards, and into the ground.

Oh no no no no no. 

I'm doing it again. I need to stop, I can't do this. I'm gonna die. This is one of my last days alive and I'm doing this.

This is all my fault.

Everyone in the group is gonna die. I'm the one who caused their untimely deaths because I wanted to pretend that I was brave.

Two hands clamp down on my shoulders, and I'm forced to look up. Arty is there with a gentle look in his pale eyes. He gently rubs the pieces of my hair that are drenched with tears, and grabs my hand. 

More tears escape my eyes, but his hand catches them. He rubs his thumb over the apple of my cheek. With his right hand, he grabs my hand.

"Remember what we did previously? Squeeze my hand."

I don't even fight, I gently squeeze his hand. The deep breaths come automatically as I hiccup a little from the tears. 

"You are doing amazing," he coos, "A few more deep breaths."

I nod and do exactly what he says. After the third deep breath, part of my throat loosens. My shaking starts to become a lot more manageable while the sobs slow down a little bit.