“Open it.” A voice like broken glass shredded the silent night. “Open it and face what is inside of it.” His raspy voice sent chills down my spine. I tried to speak but my throat burned whenever I tried. “Open the letter. Release us. Open it and alleviate the hunger of curiosity regulating your mind. Or face that hunger forever!” It spoke again. I tried to call out but instead of words vibrating in my throat it felt like razor blades ripping apart my larynx.
“Open it or face a pain far worse than the fate inside of that envelope.” Another dark voice sounded. “Open it now, or face war.”
“Open it or suffer a sickness worse than any pain you have ever endured,” A high voice sounded. It was like nails on a chalk board.
“Open it or face death!” A loud dark rumbling voice sounded.
¨¨¨
I woke up with a start and coughed up red sticky blood onto my hand. I looked around to see the silver envelope that remained on my desk all night. It glowed an eerie blue color. I walked over to it and grasped it. The envelope glowed brighter, so bright that I had to shield my eyes. Hastily I opened the drawer in my desk and threw the envelope into the drawer, slamming it shut. I rushed back to my bed and dove under the covers. I tossed and turned, trying to get a wink of sleep, but the whole night I stared at the ceiling with eyes wide open.
Eventually dawn came, ending my suffering. I got up and got ready to go back to the hellhole they call school.
I threw on a random pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I brushed my black hair. I grabbed my old converse from the corner of my room and pulled them on over a pair of mismatched socks. I swung my book bag over my shoulder and went to leave my room. ‘Wait.’ A raspy sounded in my head. ‘You forgot us.’ It stated.
I slowly turned to the silver envelope on the desk. That was not where I put it. I grabbed the eerie note and stuck it into my pocket. I ran out of our barely standing house and onto the road. I walked hastily to school with the creepy feeling that I was being watched.
A chill ran down my spine. ‘It’s nothing.’ I told myself calmly. I casually glanced over my shoulder expecting to see nothing. Instead I saw an old man. He look about 60 years old. I kept walking but I picked up my pace a bit.
I kept walking, not stopping until I got to school. I turned around and glanced behind me. The old man was nowhere to be seen.
I entered school and went to my locker. I spun the lock quickly, imputing my passcode. The silver lock clicked open and I grabbed a note book from my locker. I went to close the door but instead I hesitated. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the note. I flipped it over. Everything looked the same as it had yesterday. All except for the seal. Instead of the number 4 on in it there was a horse. It was standing on its hind legs and looked as if it were letting out a battle cry. I shrugged and put the note into my locker, feeling like a weight had been lifted off of my chest.
I continued to homeroom. Instead of my regular homeroom advisor there was someone else. A man. The same man who I saw on the street. I gasped when I saw him and quickly took my seat. It’s just a coincidence. It has to be. I tried to calm myself but my instincts screamed danger. I didn’t let the man out of my sight. I sat there for the rest of the short period.
As soon as the bell rang I practically jumped out of my seat and ran to my next class. Panting, I entered the room. I took my seat in the back of the room.
Class started and I couldn’t get myself to focus. My mind always going back to the man, the letter, and the dream. I couldn’t take the torture anymore. I waited for class to end and I did all I could not to sprint to my locker. I quickly opened the lock and whooshed the door open. I grabbed the envelope off of the top shelf.
I tore off the seal and threw it into my locker. I ripped the envelope open. A weird breeze carried itself through the hall way and an unusual chill remained in the air.
In the envelope was a single piece of white paper. I unfolded it and read it. “Thank you.” Was written in drippy, red, bold letters. I sighed. It wasn’t anything important. I tossed the letter back into my locked and locked it shut. I turned around. “WHAM.”
I saw a boy slam his fist into another boy. “Stay away from her!” He shouted.A crowd of students gathered around them. A ‘fight’ chant started. I pushed my way through into the middle of the circle. The taller and older boy slammed his fist into the smaller boy’s stomach again.
“HEY!” I yelled I went to break apart the fight but the taller boy pushed me back into the crowd. I attempted to break up the fight again. I pushed the taller boy away from the other boy, who was now crouching on the ground clenching his arms around his stomach.
A trickle of blood dripped onto the floor from his mouth. He looked up at the older boy. “YOU’RE DEAD.” He yelled and lunged at the older boy’s throat. I attempted to pull him off the older boy. I grabbed him around his stomach and tried to pull him off. The boy turned around and slammed his elbow into my nose. I let go and clenched my nose. I looked at my hands. They were covered in blood. I wiped them off on my jeans.
“Stop it right now!” The principal said as he broke up the two boys. They attempted to get passed the principal but he pushed them back in response. “Get back to class!” He roared at the by-standing students. “Clover,” he said to a short girl with blue eyes and brown hair, “Bring Miss Toa to the nurses’ office at once.” Clover nodded and walked over to me. I still held my hands over my nose.
“Come on,” she said gently. I followed her down the hall. “Are you okay?” She asked. I nodded.
“Just a bloody nose. I’ll be fine.” I responded.
“It looked like he hit you hard.” She said. We turned left and kept walking down the hall way. Eventually we reached the nurses’ office.
When I walked in a nurse grabbed a tissue box and rushed over to me. She sat me down onto a white wooden chair then handed me a few tissues from the tissue box. “What happened?” She asked with concern in her voice.
“I tried to break up a fight in the hallway and I got elbowed in the face.” I responded. My voice came out kind of nasally because of the tissues I had pinched around my nose.
“Next time just get a teacher. We will handle it from there. But, Sami, it looks like your nose is broken.” She told me. The sound of glass breaking came from behind her and I looked over her shoulder.
“Nice going, Kathrine.” A nurse said to another.
“What are you talking about? You’re the one who bumped into me!” The other nurse stated.
“Did not! You dropped it by yourself!” She retorted.
“You should have watched where you were going!” Nurse Kathrine yelled back.
“You’re the one with butter fingers!” said the other nurse.
“Hey, stop it and clean it up together. Be mature. It doesn’t matter who did it.” Another nurse stepped in. She handed one of them broom and the other a dust pan. They quieted down and cleaned up the glass shards.
The nurse that was helping me stepped into another room and returned with a bag of ice. She handed it to me and I help it to my nose. “Stay here until you stop bleeding, then you can go back to class. When the ice melts come back to our office and I will get you a new one. If it starts to bleed again come back down.” She said. I nodded in response.She went to her desk and wrote something down on a post it note. She sat on her chair and did nurse stuff.
I looked around at the white tile floor and the ugly lime green walls. There where brown wooden cabinets throughout the room and a white marble counter that lined one wall. On the counter were glass jars of Band-Aids, Popsicle sticks, gauze, medical tape and other doctor stuff. I continued to hold the ice pack to my nose and leaned back on the uncomfortable chair.
It took a while for her to let me go to class. When she did it was lunch time. I walked to lunch, clutching the ice bag to my nose. I sat down at the table. “What happened to your face?” Iris bluntly asked when I sat down at the table.
“I heard that two guys were fighting over you and one accidentally hit you.” Fable said.
“No, that’s not what I heard. I heard that she beat up two random guys for no reason and one got in a luck hit.” Will said.
“I heard that you tried to hug a guy and he hit you to get you off.” Nat said.
I rolled my eyes at the stupid rumors. “Nah,” I said. “I went to break up a fight and got a face full of elbow in return.”
“Ow,” Nat said.
“Is it broken?” Will asked. I nodded. “That must hurt.”
I shrugged. “It’s bearable.”
“Who were the guys?” Iris asked.
“I shrugged again. “Just two random dudes.” I responded.
“Did you hit them back?” Fable asked.
“No, the principal interrupted the fight before I could.” I told them. I pulled out my lunch box from my bag. In it was a sandwich and an apple. I dug in. The conversation changed topics. They were now talking about Fables secret admirer.
“Any idea who it is?” Nat asked. Fable shook her head.
“I have been paying attention to people’s hand writing but nobody fits the description.” Fable answered.
The conversation continued, switching topics quickly.The school day continued quickly. I only had to go the nurses’ office a few more times to get a new ice pack. Besides that the rest of the day was uneventful.