Timeless Snow ✓

Ch. 2 - Plagued

The nightmares started around ten years ago. Tormented dreams that refused to submit to reason. To this day, you couldn't make sense of them, you had just learned to ignore them better. Some days, you didn't know what was real or fiction. That's when things got worse.

Your parents pulled you out of school at just sixteen after an incident with a teacher. You never intended to hurt him, you didn't want to. You could have sworn he was trying to take it away. He was trying to take away your parents, your love, your brother. He was trying to take it all and it was only right to rebel against his relentless force. To try and get back what you were losing. You couldn't lose your family without a fight, but that was just how you remembered it.

The third period came just before lunch. A classroom packed full of twenty-five teenagers and nearly all of them anxious and hungry. An hour separated them from that cardboard tasting rectangular pizza and fries that the school served every Friday. You had taken your usual seat in the back, second to last row third from the left. You were tired - scratch that - exhausted. The nightmares of last night awarded you with no more than forty-five minutes of sleep and it was taking its toll on you. With your history book spread out in front of you - page sixty-three just as Mr. Lee instructed. You had propped your elbow on your desk and rested your heavy head into the palm of your hand. 

You concentrated on the impossible task of keeping your eyes open and focused on Mr.Lee. It wasn't entirely because history was a dreadfully boring subject when told by most midwestern white men. It was mostly the lack of sleep. The lecture went on, discussing the 1918 influenza epidemic. A subject not normally gone over in school, the pandemic was largely forgotten due to the fact that it coincided with World War I. Mr. Lee was a history fanatic, he felt it should never be forgotten. This lead to more obscure writing assignments than other students might receive in other classrooms. Lucky for you. 

You tried to memorize the numbers that your teacher spit out, statistic after statistic. You couldn't focus, hell half the class couldn't. You could see Bryan in the row before you, just to the right texting on his phone under the cover of his desk. Another quiz was coming that half the class would fail no doubt. 

"Y/N?" Dreadfully, Mr. Lee called out your name. Your head quickly bounced up from its place and rocketed in his direction. Inwardly you cursed yourself. You didn't need another PTA meeting after school, how many would that make that year? Five."Roughly how many people died in the American state of Philadelphia in just one week of October during the influenza outbreak?" Whatever Mr. Lee said emerged out his mouths at the same monotonous pitch, tone, and volume as it always had been. Just as if it had been pushed through a blender. The result, pureed speech.

Looking down at your textbook, you tried to quickly scan your tired eyes for the answer he demanded. Of course, knowing Mr. Lee - he said the answer some time ago and was testing to see how well you were paying attention to his lecture. Fuck. Under your desk, you began to bounce your knee to try and relieve some of the nervousness that was building in your core. "Uh.. a hundred?" You took a blind stab in the dark as you raised your eyes back up to meet his gaze. Your brows knitted together, wrinkling in the center as you focused on him. You prayed you got the answer right this time but seeing the instantaneous disappointment on Mr. Lee's face told you your prayers weren't heard. Placing your hands atop your textbook, you only hoped he would go easy on you as you picked at your fingers. 

"Five thousand." He corrected. Raising his hand, he pointed the pen in his palm toward a nearby student, instructing them to quickly write the answer down so they did not forget it as you had. You quickly hung your head in shame. Your chest caved and your spine bed as you tried to curl away from the situation and make yourself seem small. "See kids, this is why you pay attention in class." Whirling his hand around, he pointed his condescending pen in your direction. "Or else you'll end up like Y/N here."