Amid the Roar - Sequel to M.A.L.

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

“Poetry,” Mr. Grant exclaimed passionately. The English teacher handed a stack of packets to the first student in each row to pass along. “Starting next week we’ll be focusing on these famous writers. Seeing as Halloween is tomorrow, I chose Mr. Edgar Allan Poe to start us off. I’ve always love a good horror rhyme, don’t you?”

Gabrielle’s eyes shot up. Her lungs felt constricted as she took the last three packets, keeping hers and passing the others back. EAP; otherwise known as author of her least favorite poem. Not that she had anything against Poe but she knew there was one work of his that would never sit well in her mind again.

Mr. Grant rambled on about the homework which was already written on the packets but Gabrielle tuned him out. She was still trying to catch her breath. With trembling hands, she flipped the front page open and read the first poem.

A Dream Within A Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow-

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

The girl ran her eyes over the rest of the lines, imagining herself back on the shore. She pictured the lapping waves, the itchy sweater he made her wear, the sand under her feet from lack of shoes, the metal handcuff around her wrist. She shuddered. On the other end of the chain was her tormenter.

Charlie, she dared to whisper in her mind. Her heart barely felt it was beating. He was a handsome, unforgiving but charming man. He took her from her home yet he kept her safe. The memories she was trying to suppress felt like a hurricane through her thoughts. His anger, his affection. The way he said her name was a sigh of desire. But he wanted her dead. He wanted them both dead. Still, she found herself feeling the desire to stay in her nightmarish daydream.

“Make sure you look over his works carefully,” Mr. Grant said in the last five minutes of class. “Look past his gruesome reputation. Some of Poe’s poems are actually quite romantic.”

Gabrielle’s stomach churned. She hadn’t stopped shaking since she read the title on the last page. She could recite that one in her sleep. It was the core of everything that happened to her: the kidnapping, the faked emotions, the real feelings that emerged, the murder she almost committed. It was all stemmed from the words printed before her on the sheet of white paper. But it didn’t fill her with fear. No, the Gabrielle that returned from the ‘Kingdom’ could only feel anger and pain bubble from the depths of her heart.

“Hey,” her classmate, Felix whispered. He had seen her shaking from the moment the homework was handed out, barely blinking the tears she didn’t realize she was shedding. “You okay?”

Gabrielle barely shook her head but didn’t respond further. The buzzer telling students class was over sounded and the girl was off, hurrying to her locker and pulling her hood over her head.

At her locker, Gabrielle found no escape. As she was exchanging her back-breaking literature book for her equally heavy Algebra 2 textbook, she began listening to the conversations around her. One sentence in particular caught her attention.

“Apparently, he killed his stepfather,” the girl, Stacy, gossiped. She was a grade below Gabrielle but still had the biggest reputation as the know-all girl.

Her friend, Keira, scoffed. “That’s only a rumor. Jason seems too shy to do that.”

“It’s always the quiet ones. And, I mean,” Stacy began again, tossing her dull brown hair behind her bony shoulder. “If I were raped by the same guy that was doing my mom, I might have killed him too.”

As the two girls giggled at their cruel words, Gabrielle snapped.

Dull brown hair flew from the force of being rammed into the lockers. Stacy cried out in complete shock but that didn’t stop Gabrielle. The hall turned silent and watched the fight break out. No one besides Keira did anything. The girl shouted for a teacher as she tried prying Gabrielle off her best friend. Her unsuccessful attempts failed to save Stacy from the chipped black nails dragging across her face.

Finally Mr. Lyrell, the security guard who delivered the news of Mrs. Majors’ situation, raced to the rescue. Mr. Grant from down the hall helped too. Gabrielle shrieked in protest, snapping finally with the rage that was always simmering under her skin.

There was her power. In changing from emotional mess to aggressive challenger, Gabrielle found the feeling of euphoria. She had the upper hand. She had the control. What she wanted to do, she could because that’s what she wanted. Nothing could stop her but the men barely having the strength to carry her kicking body away.

Gabrielle wanted to laugh, to cry out that she had found her calling. Though there was blood under her fingernails and possibly a broken finger, she felt like she could take on the world. Anger was her weapon and her twisted sense of justice, her life.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Short and sweet. I had more planned for this chapter but I decided to cut it. It works better this way. Next chapter will have Charlie returning >:) Muahahhahaa. All sorts of fun memories there. <3