collarbones

13 ~ tired

Anna felt dizzy.

She'd just had PE after lunch – where she didn't eat again – and her whole body was screaming for some rest after they'd run a lap around the field.

Now, everything was hazy for Anna as she stumbled through the crowded corridor to get her maths books.

She was tired. So tired. All she could think of was lying down on the ground and getting some rest but she trudged through the groups of students and shoved her way through the crowd as much as her weak body would allow her to.

It wasn't much.

She weakly nudged the occasional person out the way as the buzz of conversations surrounded her, each movement causing her steps to become clumsier and more arduous. Anna couldn't hear anything – all she could focus on was the immense fatigue that was slowly devouring her whole – and Katie had German so she'd gone in the other direction, leaving Anna alone and confused.

Finally, Anna's blue locker door came into view, the number '86' shining like a beacon of hope as she used the last reserve of energy she had to propel herself into the door. A loud bang resonated around the corridor as she fell – or jumped – into it, but nobody noticed as they were too immersed in their own conversations.

Anna still couldn't decipher the conversations around her, but she'd noticed that her hearing had changed slightly and now the squeaks of peoples' shoes and the slamming of lockers seemed to heighten for Anna as they resonated around her mind.

It was torture.

Anna let out a shaky breath as she dropped her PE bag, leaning her forehead against the locker as she closed her eyes. The cool metal was comforting against her burning forehead and for the first time Anna noticed that she was beginning to heat up suddenly, her hands getting clammy.

It was when she opened her eyes and her vision was polluted with black dots that Anna knew something was wrong. She swayed on her feet slightly as she was overcome with the sensation that she was weightless, her head feeling heavy as bile seemed to rise up her throat.

"Anna?"

Anna tried to look up to see who it was but the heat was too much, her hair sticking to her forehead and neck as she began to sweat suddenly. All Anna could see was blurs of colours as people began to rush to their next lesson.

She lifted her arm to wipe some of the sweat off her forehead, losing her balance slightly. Anna's legs couldn't hold her weight anymore and they buckled underneath her as she fell towards the ground.

"Annabelle!" a voice yelled frantically.

The last thing Anna felt before she impacted against the ground was a pair of arms around her waist.

I'm just tired, she thought before she embraced the darkness.