Monday, July 13, 2009

The White Room

Nobody understood. Nobody knew why. But they went along with it all the same.

Mr Bones poked his head out of the classroom door, and watched Lucy run away until she turned a corner and was gone. It wasn’t until she was completely out of sight that Mr Bones noticed Matthew was glaring at him suspiciously, he gave the untrusting student a polite grin before closing the door and heading back to the classroom desk. A sudden realisation of exhaustion hit Mr Bones and he sank into his chair, took a deep breath and was once again lost in daydreams. He pictured Lucy’s blood loss causing her to pass out on the way to her next lesson, Mrs Proshore distressed that one of her students had been rushed to hospital while under her head supervision and then, most uncontrollably, rows of teachers and students sittings in their black suits and dresses bidding Lucy farewell at her funeral.
Rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger (as if this might just eliminate the distressing image from his mind) Mr Bones remembered that there was still a splash of blood near his classroom door, grabbed several tissues from the box on the corner of his desk, and went to wipe up the shining red liquid he could now see in the distance. He bent down by the door and started mopping up the small pool of blood, to his annoyance the tissues couldn’t withstand the thick consistency and blood oozed beyond the disintegrating tissues onto Mr Bones’ fingers.
At this moment the blinds on the opposite side of the classroom slapped shut of their own accord, and the lights flickered drowsily until the room was completely black. Mr Bones felt a gush of wind swoop by his face, and attempted to stand up but was overcome by his own sudden, unexplainable weakness. A flash of what appeared to be a streamer of blue light whizzed by, followed by the quickly building sound of two knifes being scrapped together. Panicking, Mr Bones lifted his arm and felt around for the light switch which he knew too well was on the wall behind him. The weight of a hundred pounds seemed to be pressing on his arm, and he couldn’t continue his hunt for the light switch. A ladies’ scream filled the pitch black room, almost ghostly and other worldly as if it was coming from a radio. There was a spark of electric green, which illuminated the entire room for a millisecond, but it was over too quickly and Mr Bones caught no sight of another person. The scraping knife sound was now dominating the room, the air was boiling hot and humid, Mr Bones barely noticed that his shirt was drenched in sweat.
For as long as the last flash of light had lasted, Mr Bones could see Lucy standing metres away from him, he didn’t even wonder how he could see her in the dense blackness, he was too distracted by her mutated face which was covered in deep, unhealed scratches. A flap of skin dangled oddly from her cheek, revealing a pair of blood covered molars. The sound of scraping knifes reached an ear piercing volume and Mr Bones lost control of his body, he collapsed to the floor and a beam of yellow sparkles sent him off into a dreamless sleep.

***
Before he fathomed the aches in his muscles and his new location, Mr Bones lay on his back building up some energy to open his eyes. The light touch of something wet and cool on his forehead, alerted him enough to flicker his eyes open. At first his vision was far too foggy for anything he could see to be properly processed, he blinked continuously trying to focus on what he figured was a face in front of him.
“Lucy?” he mumbled, his throat far drier and croakier than he had anticipated. He managed to steady his sight enough to make out the blonde wavy hair and delicately pale face of Lucy.
“Shh” she whispered, dabbing a wet cloth on his head “you have to rest.” Her face was perfectly normal, there was no trace of the deep gashes. Mr Bones was far too uncertain of the current situation to obey his pupil’s considerate orders, and heaved himself into a sitting position. They were in a white room just big enough to fit the small bed he was now sitting in, there were no windows and the roof was so low Mr Bones knew he wouldn’t be able to stand up. There was a clinical feel to the room, and a smell which ignited memories of injections.
“Where am I?” he asked, aware of how cliché the question sounded
“Don’t worry about that” Lucy insisted before quickly changing the subject “you really need to rest.” The blood marks on her neck also appeared to have vanished completely, Mr Bones tilted his head to try and find at least a scar. Lucy coughed slightly and Mr Bones apologised.
“I have to get back to the school” he told her “I have a class to teach in period 4”
“It’s well past midnight, Mr Bones” Lucy notified him with concern. He swung his legs out of the bed and pushed passed Lucy, who was kneeling on the floor beside him. He bumped his head trying to stand up, confirming his original judgement of the height of the ceiling. For a moment Mr Bones was greatly disturbed by the fact that there was no door, he began to feel incredibly claustrophobic and found himself sitting back down on the bed.
“How do I get out of here” he demanded, looking Lucy square in the eyes. She directed her gaze to the ceiling and Mr Bones followed her line of vision, there was a trap door on the roof. “Do you want to tell me where we are before I leave” he suggested angrily while trying to pull down the hatch.
“I have to talk to you” Lucy whispered, her bright blue eyes full of worry. Something in her aggrieved tone made Mr Bones stop trying to escape and sit back down.
“I think you have a fair bit of explaining to do” he said with a grin, trying to make light of the situation.

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