"Shut up." The demand came so simply, so threatening. "Or I'll break yr neck. I promise nobody would find out- we'll make sure of that."
"Even in front of so many people?" Aerie laughed, breathing. Somewhere inside her bones, she did not feel like herself- she felt like a other person, attached to a body with the same name as hers and was forced to play in a drama that unfolded in front of her.
"We?" Leo laughed, "we are a group. A same group of people. Unlike you- alone."
"Thought that you won't betray each other, huh?" Aerie laughed. It seemed like her- it seemed like her now. "If you're calling those hormones, whatever, that was playing that silly little game in your mind thinking it's funny- let me be honest. It won't last long."
"Shut up-" he said, raising her even higher up. Aerie could not touch the ground even when she tried to move her toes and stretched it to its furthest. "Since when did you know how to talk back?"
"Since today?" Aerie laughed. "You never thought I could, don't you?"
They stared at her, and hesitated for a moment. Thinking? Figuring what happened in her head? "You- oh god- we were so pretty harsh that we drove someone nuts?"
"I'm not nuts." Aerie said, "you are."
"What did you say?!??" The crowd said, "what did the whore call us just now?!? Mind what you say- bastard."
"Yeah. If that makes you better." Aerie said. "Having fun, huh? Cool-" she didn't manage to finish her s'entende- her head was being banged back onto the blackboard. There was a sharp bang, and her head vibrated like hell.
"Say that again- huh? Dont dare to do it again now?" As if she was really going nuts.
The came tighter, before Aerie actually yelled. She was sure that seconds ago, when she was still on the ground- she had nothing left inside her little lungs.
But now when the grip came tighter- the people chuckled and chattered, she suddenly noticed that there was such a small gap between suffocation and her situation. That she could still scream.
It covered everything. Until Aerie could no longer feel the force, she stopped.
"You have to wake up."
So simple, so soft, so calm. Aerie opened her eyes only to see the bullies completely gone, and in front of her was a figure that she knew.
"Cade." Aerie said simply. "Why- what are you?" Surprised, yeah. Cade gently whipped the object on his hand on his shirt, leaving traits of red on it.
It wasn't a knife, even when it was pretty completely soaked with crimson top to bottom. "Oh sorry if I ruined your brush-" Cade said so calmly that made Aerie shiver a little.
"Sorry but I was running out of stuff that I could grab. But you won't be needing them anyways. The bullies too."
"What- what have you done?" Aerie asked, watching the trail extend form the edges of his shirt to across his entire piece of cloth. And- where are they?"
"You saw what they had done to you and the first thing that you're asking about is them?" Cade replied, "they're- somewhere. I promise. Not in the best situation, but breathing."
"But hey- that's not okay, is it?" Aerie mumbled.
"What's okay and what's not?!" Cade said, suddenly pulling the brush end of the brush and pointed it directly at Aerie, making her fall backward. "You're scared. And it's only any other brush that you used when you were drawing."
"And that's what make you vulnerable." Cade concluded. He gently placed the brush on the table, fresh and new, with every last stain of red being whipped onto his shirt instead. "You have to fight it, Aerie. It could only be you."
"What- why?" Aerie said. "Aren't they like- gone already?"
"They have been gone for a long time already. But its in there." Cade said, pointing to her head, "it's inside your head. You allowed that part of you to stay. Thats why you're dreaming now. It will come again. And you would have to fight it."
"But how?" Aerie asked. "I have never done that before. I had never won then before. They were great- really. School teams, choir, cheerleading, so on so on. I am nothing- just a random who had good grades and skip lessons."
"The difference between then and now is that- then was then, it was what really happening." Cade said, calmly as he spun the paint brush, the side with the brush facing the piece of art. "It's in your brain. It always had been. Notice how you never draw but you're in this art room? Remembered what happened later that day?"
"It's later 'that day'- how could I possibly know?" Cade said. "You know. You could feel it. The pain inside you. You knew what will happen. You need to try harder."
"I- I have no idea about what you're talking about." Aerie said.
"The hospital." Cade said, dipping the brush into the tiny amount of red paint, "remember the hospital?"
"What hospital-" Aerie replied in confusion, only to cut herself halfway. There was an image of the hospital flowing inside her head. The sound of the week dog hospital beds. But then there were the rooftop. The unlocked rooftop where she brutally pulled the saline attached to her left hand.
The breeze that came from a lonely night, the cautious steps that she made stepping onto the barriers. The roads that extended beyond her legs.
"Great." Cade said simply, "that is what happened afterwards. After now. You had a surgery, the seventh rib in your ribs completely cracked and it needed to be removed. Large surgery. But it succeeded. You woke."
"Really?" The question came in sounding more like a statement.
"You danced." He continued. "It was the first time you had ever done that in your life- after all of the anaesthetics, after all of the painkillers. The first time you did. When you finished you thought you would fall forwards. But instead, when you looked down onto the roads below you, you fell back."
"Remember that?"
"I—" Aerie said. She was not supposed to remember what happened. What happened after this. But this was not true, right? It was just a dream. She was in someone's dream.
"That's where you start off." Cade said, "it will happen- the bullies- they will come again. And they will hurt you again. But you must not let them get you. You have to run. You have to fight. That's what you're gonna do."
"And you won't be there?" Aerie asked simply. "But you were here- just now."
"Of course I won't be there, Aerie." Cade said, "I had not been- and will not be. You have been relying on that figure of me inside your head for too long. You would only be here if you relied on me every time."
"Why- and why did you come then? Why did you came just now?" Aerie said. "What about-"
She wanted to ask. She wanted to ask about everything. But when she finally stopped to think about herself, she understood that what he said was true.
"You were only being pulled into a dream because your brain had a weakness, Aerie." Cade smiled, a warm and gentle smile that was all bitterness. "It's what we take advantage of. It's the reason why you could be controlled. Even if you didn't know, you don't have the time anymore."
"Wait-" Aerie said. But it was too late.
The drawing. Aerie added a stroke of green onto the drawing. It was the scene just now. Moments ago when she was drawing quietly inside the art room. The same grassland drawing that had not been finished.
"Look at your drawing- you call that a drawing?!" The voice came into her ears again, the same scene, but slightly different. "Oh god, if you make me look at it again I think I might actually-"
Aerie didn't wait for him to finish. She dropped every last paintbrush on her hand and stood. "I'm leaving- thanks for your shit comments. Now piss off." If the others came, then it would be much too late.
She had to fight back. And it had to be from the very first moment.
"You're being rude, bastard." Leo said, marching after her. Aerie didn't bother to look back- she ran. She ran for the door with the fastest her shoes could being her. "Wait- you're running?! I'm not finished with you yet- look I've got a bet-
"I literally bet sixty dollars on you're going to miss school tomorrow- we haven't started yet." He said. Aerie swung the door open, and made a run for it.
But she knew that she was too late when the cold hand gripped onto the door, and the door was being slammed back shut.
"Don't try to run." Leo said, annoyed. "Haven't you figured it out already? You're just an entertainment."
The door opened when Aerie was being dragged onto a seat. The door opened, the others of the gang pouring into the room.
//
"I didn't told you to run, Aerie." Cade said, patiently sitting in front of her and explaining. Now it wasn't the paintbrush that was on his hand. It was now a pair of scissors, still stained with red. Though this time, due to the massive amount of crimson, he bothered to wipe it on a piece of tissue.
"You have to wait for it, and you have to face it eventually, Aerie." Cade said. He stated at her into her eyes, with much sincere. "It's the only way."