envenoMATE

12. Collapsed Into Darkness

 Twelve.

Caroline jumped up in her bed as she was forcibly awaken. Squinting at the clock next to her bed, the red numbers shown too brightly for her tired eyes in the pitch black room. The time read four in the morning, yet there was a group of girls screaming and laughing in the hall. Growling, Caroline threw her soft blankets away from her body and stood from the bed. Patting her hair down with one hand and reaching for her lilac robe with the other, she tried to look presentable. 

As soon as she entered the hall, she saw the culprits: Sadie and two other girls laughing and stumbling down the hallway. Caroline tried not to scream her frustration. Dealing with loud girls at this hour was one thing; dealing with drunken loud girls at this hour was something else. Caroline had zero patience for either.

“SADIE!” she shouted. 

“That’s meeeeeee!” Sadie responded, throwing her arms wide in the air and spinning until she quickly fell over. She and her friends erupted into more furious fits of laughter. 

Caroline’s hands fisted tightly as she again tried not to scream. Was she picking up Tiger’s short temper? She stared at the three girls in disgust, trying to find a way to manage her emotions when her attention turned to the hand she felt placed upon her shoulder. Caroline turned to see Tabitha standing weakly beside her. 

“Go on back to bed. I’ll handle this,” Tabitha stated  tiredly with a few friendly pats. 

Caroline’s eyebrow rose skeptically. Tabitha barely looked awake. How was she going to take care of this mess?

As if reading Caroline’s mind, Tabitha looked over and smiled with a look in her soft green eyes saying, “Trust me.”

Caroline shook her head in disbelief but turned aside to walk back to her room. On her way, she was able to overhear some of the conversation as the others continued on their slow journey down the hall.

“We can’t be quiet, Tabby! We’re at a partayyyy!” Sadie crowed, her voice clanging off the concrete hallway walls. One of her friends chimed in while the other appeared to have passed out.

“Wait a minute,” Tabitha cut them off, her voice no longer tender or motherly. “Where’s Adina?” Her voice had turned cool with authoritative concern.

Caroline paused at her door, confusion littering her mind. What did Tabitha mean, “Where’s Adina?” Where else would Adina be but in her room, especially at this time?  And if, for some reason, Adina was not in her room, why would Sadie know the young girl’s whereabouts? 

Sadie blew a loud, disrespectful raspberry. “How would I know?” Sadie threw her hands in the air. “She’s probably in church, or at a convent, or in a playground for prudes and anti-social rejects. Wherever she is, I don’t know and I don’t want to know. I have more important things to do and better places to be than with that . . . that . . . oh,” Sadie paused as she tried to calm her stomach. She really did not want to throw up, especially not in the hall in her new red dress.

Meanwhile, Tabitha’s emotions flew from concerned to alarmed. “What do you mean you don’t know? I caught Adina in the hall earlier. She said she was going to a party with you at Devil’s Den.”

“Nope, not this Adina. I invited her, but she didn’t want to come. She said no!” Sadie shouted vehemently.

Tabitha shot a worried look at Caroline before racing to Adina’s room. She knocked gently at first, but after receiving no reply, she knocked louder. Eventually, she used the key entrusted to her as a dorm assistant to open Adina’s door. The bed was made and empty. A few clothes were strewn about, but the rest of the room looked orderly and tidy, as Adina liked to have it. Tabitha felt fully awake as she reentered the hall.

“Well?” Caroline asked impatiently as Tabitha relocked the door.

“She’s not in there.”

The two girls looked down the hall to see Sadie slipping into unconsciousness. They rushed back to her side, helping her up and into her room. Caroline grunted beneath the weight of the two friends as she dragged them into Sadie’s room as well. Why did she get stuck doing this?

“Sadie, talk to me,” Tabitha commanded, gently shaking Sadie to keep her awake. “What do you mean Adina didn’t go with you?”

“She. Did. Not. Come. With. Me. She said no. Can I go to sleep now?” Sadie growled in an exhausted whisper.

Tabitha’s next words stilled on the edge of her lips as Sadie visibly passed out. With a sigh, she ran a hand through her hair and exited the room with Caroline following behind.

“I don’t understand. What’s going on?” Caroline quipped, suddenly feeling awakened herself. 

Tabitha shrugged with her hands out wide. 

“I don’t know,” she sighed in defeat. “Earlier, Adina was rushing down the hall while I was coming back from dinner. I quickly asked if she was going to meet Daniel. Just small talk, trying to stay in touch with her life. And she said no. Said she was running down to the parking lot to catch a ride with Sadie. Naturally, curiosity got the better of me. I mean, where could Adina possibly want to go with Sadie?”

Caroline nodded her head. Where indeed. What could those polar opposites have in common?

Tabitha again shrugged as she braced herself. “Adina said she was going to a party.”

Caroline’s face fell. That was a bad joke if she ever heard one. “A party?” she repeated, full disbelief lining her words. 

“A party. Before I could even ask about it, Adina slipped down the staircase and out the door. Judging by Sadie’s state of being, she had spent quite a few hours at some party. But I can’t comprehend why Adina would want to go. I just, there’s a big hole missing in this picture, and I am so confused.”

Caroline nodded before turning and running to her room. “I’m going to get my cell and call her,” she yelled back to Tabitha, who nodded in agreement and followed at a walk. 

Tabitha entered Caroline’s room to see her friend muttering, “Pick up. Pick up. Pick up,” into the receiver. A few moments later, Caroline shook her head and hung up. “I got her voicemail. It goes straight through.”

“I don’t get it. This doesn’t sound like Adina one bit.”

Caroline sighed her consent, but then her mind wandered to the previous week. Adina was dating a murderer, how well could Caroline even know the girl? She was so quiet, she could easily be a psycho internally. Caroline sighed, not really believing it but still. Anything was possible, just look at Tiger. Who could possibly believe a man and an animal could be one and the same? Maybe Adina herself was someone else on the inside.

“I don’t know either, Tabby, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. Maybe Adina is trying something new.”

Tabitha shrugged. “Maybe,” she sighed, although she believed nothing of the sort. Fatigue filled the room and swamped the girls, causing them both to yawn. 

“You go ahead and go back to sleep. I’ll stay up a little later and alert campus security to be on the lookout for Adina,” Tabitha sighed softly.

“Okay,” Caroline replied, her response cut off by another yawn. Eyelids dropping, she waved goodnight to Tabby and shuffled into bed, too tired to even remove her robe.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Adina slowly stirred, her body twisting in its tight cocoon. She was sweltering in the unbearable heat. Her face scrunched and rubbed against a soft fabric as she tried to move. She could only groan, mentally crying. Her body was caged in heat, painful heat. Sweat was sliding down every part of her skin, but she was too tightly wrapped. She could not withdraw from the warmth. 

“Shhhhhhh, you’re all right,” a gentle, melodic voice soothed. A few drops of cool water fell onto her forehead as a hand caressed the sweaty bangs away from her face. “Go to sleep, my beautiful. Rest it off. Everything will be better, I promise,” the voice comforted.

Adina tried to reach her head toward the cool water, but all life was sucked from her chest like a vacuum. She collapsed into darkness.