Running Wild

Part Two, The Other Half

After Grandpa left I remembered what had happened and I started to feel guilty about what happened between me and Johanna, even though the girl I saw before me earlier didn't look like her at all, I must've imagined it again, something was clearly wrong with me. I ate what Grandpa brought me and went to sleep again after I was finished.

When I woke up, it was already early afternoon. I was hungry and walked in the kitchen to eat something. As I took the plate out of the oven, I suddenly heard that note again, I let the plate fall and covered my ears, my hands felt wet but I didn't care. I fell to my knees and sat on the floor, the plate was shattered, and a shard was stuck in my right knee. I didn't feel it at first, because I didn't paid attention to it. The sound and pain stopped as the front door opened.
I heard footsteps. I looked behind me to see Chris, wide eyed. He rushed to me. The adrenaline rushed through my body, I felt as if I could kill someone. He crouched beside me and tried to help.
    "Fuck off! Just go away!" I shouted, surprised about what I said. He looked at me in fear, but then with anger.
    "Calm down I'm going!" he shouted, and let the shattered glass, he picked up, fall down.
What was happening? Why was I so mean to everyone? A tear rolled down my cheek. I looked down and noticed something red was dropping from my knee, also I felt something wet on my cheek. My ears and my leg were bleeding. I pulled the shard out and groaned in pain. With a few paper towels I cleaned the blood from the wounds and the floor.

   "Look what you've done" this time I could hear the voice clear. It was a little girl's, but I have no idea why I heard it. There was no sound, no pain, nobody, just her voice. But that alone was reason enough to freak out.
    "Hah, everything's fine, just go to bed and sleep, hah, it'll be fine..." I began to snicker and went back to my room.

The next day, when I stood at the front gate, I had a bad feeling about school. I opened the doors, and no one cared. I seemed to be the only one to bother about yesterday. When I entered my classroom, I felt sharp glares from the girls that surrounded Johanna. The boys were snickering, but as I looked at them they shut. What was going on? Johanna was standing in the middle with Kathy and Miriam, laughing. Then one of them pointed on me, and she turned. Her smile faded and she walked over to me.
    "Hmm?" she said.
    "I wanted to apologize, for yesterday. You know I-", I was cut off by her.
    "Yeah, yeah whatever, don't make a fuss about it" with that she turned to her friends and began to laugh again. I somehow had the feeling she didn't care about what I just said.
    "Johanna, I just-"I tried to explain.
    "I don't care, it's done, no need to worry about it, okay?" What? I knew she meant to be understanding but it sounded like the complete opposite. The teacher came in, and asked us to sit down. Why did this happen?

    "Because she doesn't need you anymore" the voice said.
    "But why?" I asked.

    "Because she has already her own friends, you're just a burden on her" I began to shiver.
    "That's not true!" everyone was looking at me and began to laugh.
    "Miss King? Is something wrong?" I was shocked, I talked too loud.
    "Nothing." I said hurried. I looked to my left, where Johanna was sitting, she looked a bit pained at first, but then she smiled darkened with her other friends. I never thought she would change like this. When I looked out of the window, I froze. There was a tall man in a suit. He had tentacles and no face; he looked like the thing I always saw at the park. I must have looked with shock, because everyone went silent. I felt a tap on the shoulder. I jumped and slapped it away. Then I looked at where it was coming from my teacher, Mrs. Peol stood there, with a really angry face.
    "Ms. King, you don't look so well, maybe you should pay the infirmary a visit." she said worried. The others began to snicker and whispering. I glanced to the window, it was gone. I packed my things, and as I stood up I still heard them talking.
    "Shut up!" I yelled to the others. But they just laughed more.
    "Enough everyone! No need to be mean!" I heard the teacher and walked out of class. I slowly walked my way as I heard her talking again.

   "Do you really want to live like this?" my first foot stepped on the stairs.
    "Stop talking to me, you just make it worse!" I said, controlling my anger.

   "I can show you a way out of this" her voice made raise my anger.
    "What are you talking about?" I could literally picture her with a smirk on her tiny evil face.

   "You know what you have to do" I got dizzy again, I felt as if I could puke. I ran to the bathroom. I washed my face, but when I looked up, I saw myself in the mirror. My eyes, my normal brown eyes, were glowing yellow. It scared the hell out of me. Hastily I washed my face again and as I peaked, everything was normal, my eyes and my head didn't hurt anymore.
    "What is going on? Am I going crazy?!" I breathed heavily.

   "You finally get it? We're one." It felt like my heart dropped, my whole body trembled.
    "What the hell?! You're not real!" I heard her snickering again.

   "I am as real as you.", she began to laugh crazily. I held my head and fell to the ground.
    "Stop! Please stop!" after I begged, she stopped and the pain disappeared. My heart was still racing but I calmed down and stood up again. My eyes were watering, but I didn't care, I went home without doubting to do so. The whole way, I saw the same thing sitting on trees I went past. As if someone stalked me, and wanted me to know.

The days after my incident with Johanna weren't easy. In school they all laughed about me, and spread that I've lost it. At home it wasn't easier. Grandpa had a fight with our aunt, because she thought he can't handle me, since the school called so often. My grades got much worse in just a month; I failed every test and didn't do my homework at all. And my friends, they all laugh about me. My life got completely ruined by this little voice in my head, which made me hallucinate.
Every time I got out, I saw this guy with a mask, it had feminine lineaments, even when I was at school; he then sat on the tree next to my class. It all drove me crazy.
I looked at the clock it was already morning, I haven't slept at all. I was sitting in the bathroom; using my towels to stop the bleeding. After I washed the cuts with water, I threw the already dull razor away. Before I used the bandages to hide it, I looked at what I have done.

   "Beautiful, isn't it?" I smiled, but it faded as I realized what was going on.
    "Be quiet." I said annoyed. I couldn't stand her, but I've finally made my peace with her. I opened the closet and got dressed. When I looked out of the window, I saw this guy again. He was sitting on a tree at the neighbor's house. With an emotionless face I turned and packed my things for school. After all what happened, I didn't show much emotion any more, at least not when I control it. Until I came to school, everything was normal; I saw this guy in the trees and this little girl's voice were talking to me. Somehow I got used to it all.
    "Look who's here, the psycho bitch!" a girl yelled, everyone began to laugh.
    "Because of you!" I whisper yelled to myself.

   "This happened all by yourself." She angered me from minute to minute more. I tried to ignore them and walked to my locker. Around me they all watched me and snickered. When I opened it, a lot of paper came in my direction. On them was written things like "Go and die!", "your poor brother" or "don't bother your family and kill yourself!" no, I didn't cry, I was full of anger. Everyone should choke on their attitude.

   "That's right, they all should die" I was about to explode.
   "No!" I shouted. My breath got heavier with every time I breathed. When I turned around I saw him, the guy who followed me around for the past days, the reason for my attacks, was standing leaned against the wall, laughing. I saw red for him. I stomped over to him and began to shout.
    "You think this is funny, asshole!!? What the fuck is your problem!?" I began to hit him, to smash his face against the ground and to break his arm. His screams gave me life; some students began to scream too. I could feel his blood under my finger and it felt incredible. I held his head in my both hands, and pushed it against the floor, I began to laugh.
Two students dragged me away from him. Teachers came and called someone, the others were helping him, and then one of them came to me. I still laughed and didn't really listen to what they said.

About half an hour later grandpa came to pick me up, before we drove home he talked with a man about the police, but I was too tired to understand anything. I walked with grandpa in my room, that's the last thing I remembered before I fell asleep.