Tweetie

58

Soon, she ended up indoors, roaming the empty halls as instead, everyone gathered outside in the clear weather of the shifting sky, growing later and later as the game went on and she continued her search.

It seemed impossible, finding one particular student amongst hundreds of them, but when else was she going to be able to do it? The holidays began after today and she had no idea what his schedule was like during the holidays, she didn't know where he lived, Hell, she only knew where Oscar and Leo lived, and right now, they were not the ones she was after.

She glanced around, opening the doors to the classrooms she passed in hopes of finding him hidden away. It could take hours to check every room of the school, especially considering its size. But, she refused to give up, wanting nothing more than to put an end to everything even if it meant walking around for so long her knees ached and her feet blistered from heel to toe.

The empty and dark school was eerie, there was no need for anyone to be inside, so the lights had been switched off, saving energy she wished she could have. It was just that little bit harder to see under the dusted windows that allowed the beams of a moon soaked sky to seep in, filtering them and making them nothing but a taint on the hard ground that the heels of her old shoes clicked against while she darted from room to room, desperate to end everything.

She stormed under the moonlight, acting like the bad weather that didn't show up in the sky but took form as a figure instead, rageful and filled with an underlying sorrow as she soon reached the gym department, walking around the different halls that lead to storage cupboards, classrooms dedicated to the p.e courses and the doors to swimming pool she turned away from and the gymnasium.

"You better keep your word or I'm giving you up too."

She stepped into the gym, her footsteps louder there as the hard floor echoed into the emptiness of the wide room and like a moth drawn to a flame, her eyes darted towards the moving figure, turning to see her in the dark as he held a phone to his ear, finishing a conversation she almost missed the end of.

Ricky wasn't a surprise. He wasn't a sight she simply stumbled across and it wasn't a secret that he was a suspect. Sometimes the obvious felt too obvious, but when something felt too much, it was stronger than any other. Her suspicions of him were too strong. Too obvious. Too heavy of a reminder that she was an idiot for not acting sooner.

"Tweetie?" The boy turned, his eyes widened, "what-"

"You don't get to call me that." She spoke, her tone icy as she approached the boy. She felt her mind bubble with growing rage in her state of need. Need to sleep, need to have a break, need to end all of this. She felt the phone in her back pocket, reminding her of what she had to do, and for once, she was going to try her damn best to follow a plan.

She wanted to live through this, she wanted to see it come to an end.

"Ricky, you're making a mistake." She sighed, truthfully, less annoyed and more sorry for the boy. "The things you're involved in are too much, even for you."

"I- what? I don't know what you're talking about..."

"Ricky," she stopped in front of him, frowning like a disappointed mother would. "You're not stupid, I know you're not. No idiot could do all of this. I just need to know who you're working for."

"I didn't-" He shook his head, his eyes latching to her. Then, his face distorted, laughing but with eyes that were far too fearful. "It's you? Seriously?" He laughed again. "How did I not guess that? It was so obvious I didn't even think-"

She shook her head, furrowing her eyebrows as she saw him panic.

"You've been shoving threats into my locker all month. Obviously it was me."