Broken Innocence

Ch. XVI

Have you ever felt all alone even though you’re surrounded by people?

That’s how I felt. Even as I would sit and talk to Maya and Sabrina, I would feel utterly alone in the world. I would just sit there pretending to listen to them as we would eat our food and when they would poke me to see if I was paying attention, I would just give them a fake smile and pretend to actually agree with what they were saying. 

The new teacher Miss. Pierce had assigned me to was a nice woman, but I’ve learned after being in here that just because one looked nice, doesn’t mean they actually were. The last few days, Mrs. Williams would go over the material and I would just try to get it all done so I could leave quicker. But I think the woman figured out my little plan and would add on another 10 minutes to the lesson. 

I was slowly starting to like her until she gave me a bit of information that shocked me.

Mrs. Williams was Devin’s aunt. 

The whole thing disgusted me and I couldn’t even look at her the same way. I haven’t received any news about the guy in a long time, but I figured I could take that as good news instead of bad. But Mrs. Williams did tell me that Devin had been moved on the other side of building, which in my case was a good thing. 

The further away he was from me, the better. 

Then there was the fact that I missed Michael. I know it’s pointless to miss someone you’ve only spoken to through small talk on paper, but I just couldn’t help myself. Sabrina has told me that she haven’t really seen him outside, and it only made me feel worst-thinking that maybe he had given up on me. 

I didn’t want him to give up on me.

Just like how I don’t want to give up on him. 

The last few days had been hard at night, making it almost impossible for me to fall asleep. When I do, I only dreamt of his face and it haunting me made me feel even worst. I could feel the exhaustion starting to take over and I would walk slow and couldn’t keep up with what Mrs. Williams was teaching me, and half the time I just blocked Miss. Pierces’s voice out.  

“Ari?” I jumped and looked over at Mrs. Williams, seeing her eyeing me. I quickly looked down at the notes and saw I haven’t touched a single answer she had given me. Hearing the woman sigh, I just looked at the door, seeing two officers standing at the door outside. The room was large and white, with two tables-one on each side of the room as well as two chairs each. It had large windows spreading wide against one side of the room, which let in large rays of light. “You really need to understand this.”

I looked back at the woman. Her brown hair graying starting at her sideburns, and her tan skin wrinkling around her gray eyes. “What’s the point? I’m never going to use this stuff anyways.”

“You mustn’t think like that...” She sighed, giving me the pen and pushed the paper closer to me. “Just try. You’re a wise girl, I know you can do this.”

I just looked at the pen, tapping my fingers gently on my knees and just eyed it. I looked up at the woman, seeing her smiling at me lightly, showing her yellowing teeth. I just clinched my teeth together and I slowly reached to grip the pen, rubbing my thumb against it for a moment before slowly starting to work on the work. I could hear the woman humming lightly to herself, and tapping her fingers on the desk. I tried so hard to ignore it, but the random thumping against the white table was far too annoying to ignore. I peaked over at her from the corner of my eyes, seeing her just eyeing the area and her old wrinkled fingers just taping away. 

The sound was just driving me crazy, and I tried so hard to push it to the side, but before I could even stop myself, I gripped the pen tightly in my hand and I raised it up and quickly stabbed it down right into the woman’s hand. She let out a toe curling scream as the pen went through her flesh, blood pouring from the wound and stained the floor.