The Friends That Grief

Stuck in School

"Miss Code!" Someone shouted her name.

"Huh?" Love gasped, looking up from her boring math book, staring at her homeroom teacher, miss Spring-Bloom.

"Class is over." She pointed with her thumb behind her. "You can leave now."

"Oh, right." She blushed a little. She had been so caught up in her own day-dreams that she had forgotten the time.

'Day-dream?' She furrowed her brows, closing her eyes in thought. A few seconds later she shook her head. 'What did I dream about?'

Ignoring that for now she closed her book and dumped it into her bag, looking at the emptiness around her. The other students were already gone, she could even barely hear them in the hallway. Standing up she yawned and stretched herself, her back giving of satisfying pops, before rubbing her left shoulder, especially her collarbone and neck.

"My goodness gracious." Miss Bloom looked at her student. "Was today that boring?"

"Nah." Love answered with a shrug. "I don't know... I just feel tired."

Shaking her head, miss Bloom chuckled softly, although it sounded forced. "I apologize that I couldn't make this any more exiting."

"It's fine." She answered, putting on her satchel.

Walking towards the desk of her teacher she noticed, and not for the first time the past few days, the dark rings around her magenta eyes.  "Hey.... Azalea." She stopped in front of the desk, addressing her turquoise teacher as the friend she was. "You... okay?"

Miss Bloom, Azalea, looked up to her student and, after school hours, friend. "I... yes. Much better, thank you."

"You sure?" Love raised a brow, her voice filled with worry. "The rings around your eyes say otherwise."

"Yes Love." She stated. "I'm fine, really."

Wincing, Love took a step back, looking at her friend with a hurt mien.

"Look... I'm sorry." Azalea's expression softened, if not by much. "I... I'll manage, okay?"

"Okay..." She shrugged, turning away she walked towards the open door. Midway she turned around, walking backwards. "You have my number... just call me if you need someone to talk to, okay?"

Azalea smiled, an honest smile. "Yeah, I will. Thank you Love."

"You're quite welcome." Turning back again she left the room, walking through the, weirdly enough, now empty hallways of Manehattan's smallest college.

'I don't believe her.' She bit her lower lip, looking over her shoulder to the open class room door. 'The death of her friend hit her too hard.'

Last week Azalea's friend, Love didn't even know his name, had died in a car crash. It had been quite a shock for the whole class to hear that. Miss Bloom was one of the nicest teachers in this college, always working hard for and with her students to help them. She was warm and caring and always smiling.

Things had changed since his death.

Azalea had become much sterner, even going as far as ignoring her students or even shouting at them. And more than once Love and a few other girls had found her crying in the bathrooms.

Love sighed, kneading her shoulder and neck again. The last few days had been horrible. She was never a huge fan of college, at first she didn't want to go anyway, but her parents had forced her, telling her to attend or they would kick her out, she was lucky enough to live close to college so she didn't need to live in the dorms, or, which was much worse, sell her games.

She never liked college but there always had been Azalea, someone that made the whole thing bearable.

But now, after the death of Azalea's friend... She wasn't too sure if she could bear this any longer. To see her friend hurting like that.

She had tried. A few times that Love had visited Azalea she was send away. But then there was that one time Azalea had actually let her in. The two had barely managed to reach the living room before Azalea had collapsed into a wailing pile. Love had spent her entire evening and night in Azalea's cramped and sobbing embrace.

'Once I'm home I will call her.' She groaned at the rising pain in her shoulder and neck. 'But first I will take a nice hot shower.' The cramp in her shoulder was really annoying the shit out of her. 'Great...' She groaned annoyed as the pain in her neck began to creep higher and quickly turned into a throbbing headache followed by a high pitched humming in her ear.

The door right in front of her opened fast.

Too fast.

Love winced.

Slowly, oh so very slowly, she opened her eyes, hissing at the weak flickering light that was blinding her as well as the massive pain in her forehead that told her that the door had hit her, hard.

"Mhh..." She murmured. "Fuuuck..." Reaching up, she found a thick piece of cloth stuck to her head, right over her left eye. Jolting up she reached up with her other hand to confirm the feeling, and indeed there was something stuck to her head, something that felt suspiciously like a bandage.

'Ain't that friggin great?' She groaned. 'I knew that something bad was going to happen. The whole week was feeling weird.' Groaning a little more she looked up to the clock and saw...

"Huh?" She narrowed her eyes. 'Did the hit damage my eyes?'

The clock was going backwards.

Shaking her head, she ignored the broken clock for now, sure that it wasn't showing the exact time anyway.

"Hello?" She called into the room. "Anybody there?"

Nothing.

Getting out of bed she was surprised that aside from a headache she was feeling fine. Walking around the screen she gasped.

Someone had emptied her bag, scattering her belongings on the tiled floor.

'Okay... what the fuck?' She was starting to get annoyed. Which was not good considering her headache. "Hey?!" She called into the room. "Anyone here?!"

Again no answer.

Ignoring that for now she lowered herself to pick up her belongings-

-but jolted back up.

She shuddered and the pain in her shoulder returned. Something felt weird, as if she was being watched.

"Hello?" She called out again, a little quieter this time, looking through the empty infirmary.

And then it hit her.

Empty infirmary.

She didn't know how late it exactly was but no matter the time, if there was an injured person in here then somebody had to be here, a nurse or doc, a teacher, maybe even her parents.

But she was all alone.

Quickly lowering herself again she picked up her belongings as fast as possible, stuffing them into her bag. Standing up she turned to the exit of the infirmary-

-and stopped mid step.

There was a big mirror on the door, which hadn't been there the last time she was here, showing a clean reflection of herself, and she felt her eyes widen.

Carefully stepping closer to the mirror she looked at herself, at the dried blood that was covering her face, sticking in her hair and the darkened bandage that was loosely sticking to her head. Furrowing her brows she reached up to the bandage-

• and saw it crumbling away under her touch, it and the blood, revealing the smooth, unhurt, skin beneath it.

Gasping, her eyes widening, she stepped away from the mirror and-

-shrieked loud as something smashed through the door, shattering the mirror into thousand pieces.

"What the fuck is going on?" She cried into the empty room, fear reflecting in her voice.

After a few moments of silence she gulped, carefully stepping closer to the door, the shards of the mirror cracking beneath her feet, she looked at the object that was protruding out of it. It was a long, rectangular and smooth metal object.

'A pipe?' She looked closer. 'No, it's hollow but has the wrong form...' She furrowed her brows, searching her memory if she ever had seen something comparable. 'Maybe a table-leg?'

Gulping again, she wrapped her hand around the doorknob, listening for any sounds on the other side. Taking a deep breath she turned the knob, opening it.

Looking out into the hallway she immediately noticed that there was something wrong. The air felt heavy, the entire atmosphere felt... grim, it was incredibly dark and she could see fog creeping through the hallway.

"What the..." She whispered, looking at the door and noticed that she was correct. It indeed seemed to be a steely table-leg that was protruding out of the splintered wood. It was about 2 feet long and ended in a small 2x4 inches sharp-edged plate with holes for screws in it. And pierced by the leg, sticking to the splinters of the door, was a sheet of paper with a strange symbol on it. The symbol consisted of multiple black rings, an outer ring with three smaller rings inside and weird runes around them.

Ripping off the paper she looked at the symbol and noticed a small arrow in it's corner. Turning the paper she saw a small message written in black ink.

Not every set of stairs has to lead up or down and not every painting has to hang on a wall.

Those one true stairs are between up and down and found on the floor, surrounded by azaleas,

and they lie in the center of the art.

She looked at the message with a puzzled look. "What?" She asked quietly and noticed another arrow in the corner. Turning the paper again she gasped, dropping it as the pain in her shoulder became a loud screeching.

The symbol had vanished. In it's place was now a message smeared in what seemed to be dried blood.

Drip, drop.

Drip, drop it goes.

More and more of it escapes.

Watch out or it's yours.

Hissing and wincing in pain she grabbed her shoulder, furrowing her brows she-

-felt something hit her back, pushing her out of the infirmary, followed by the sound of something metallic clattering over the floor as the door closed.

Rolling onto her back she looked up and shrieked, the sound echoing through the hallway.

Something was standing over her, it's face empty, except for a symbol that seemed to be branded into it. It's body was completely naked and paper white. Scurrying backwards, Love stood up looking at the creature. It was humanoid, and apparently female, it's bare breasts bouncing softly as it turned towards Love, tilting it's head.

The creature took a step forward, jerky and alien, which reminded her of a marionette. And the very same moment she saw the almost invisible red strings that were attached to it's appendages, moving it.

It took another step forward, raising it's arm to swipe at her again.

Ducking away, the pain in her shoulder becoming almost unbearable, she dodged the attack and in a single motion she stood up again and shoved the creature away, it's skin smooth and soft like a humans, making it tumble over, it's appendages splayed in an unnatural fashion. Stepping away from it she turned around ready to run-

-but stopped as she saw another one in front of her, it's arm already raised.

She felt the hit connecting with her face. This time she managed to stay on her legs though, rubbing her cheek she felt the first branches of panic beginning to wrap around her mind. She looked over her shoulder and saw the first creature already getting back on it's feet.

And then her eyes fell on the table-leg lying on the ground behind it.

Turning back she found another slap connecting with her face.  Ignoring the pain for now she pushed the one in front of her away, making it fall over as well and turned around. The one behind her was almost ready to attack again, straightening it's appendages.

Ducking and running around it she slipped, landing on her belly next to the table-leg.

She felt something grab her shoulder, turning her around she saw the puppet lower itself onto her, sitting on her, pinning her down, she felt it's hands clasp around her neck.

Love gasped as she felt it's cold hands beginning to strangle the live out of her and even though she was barely two seconds in she already felt incredibly weakened, the pain in her shoulder now becoming numbing. Wrapping her hands around the wrists of the doll she tried to get it's hands away from her neck.

And to her big surprise it worked, with barely any fight she pulled the dolls hands away from her before punching it's face, making it fall over and off of her. Scurrying backwards she sat up, coughing softly, and her eyes fell onto the table-leg again.

Without any hesitation she wrapped her hand around the lower end.

The doll was still lying on the floor, twitching, and without any second thoughts she raised her new weapon, grabbing it with both hands, and made it crash down onto the dolls chest, the sharp-edged end giving off a soft thunk as it connected.

The doll was still moving and Love raised her "club" again, this time she swung for it's head, the symbol in it's face.

And with an earsplitting cracking the doll finally stopped moving.

Panting, and shaking, like crazy she looked at the creature she had just struck down with widened eyes, the table-leg sticking out of it's head.

And was hit by the second doll she had completely forgotten.

Crying out in pain she stumbled and fell on her butt, holding her cheek again.

The doll reached down, grabbing her by her neck and pulling her up. Dangling in the air Love felt the creatures grasp tightening. And just like before she immediately felt her strength fading away. Uselessly flailing she grabbed the dolls wrists, desperate for air.

But to her shock the dolls grip was like a vice. She had no chance of loosening it like this.

The lack of oxygen was becoming apparent. She felt her lungs beg for fresh air, she became lightheaded and even weaker. In a last desperate attempt she kicked at the dolls chest.

The dolls grasp stayed, even though it tumbled two steps backwards.

And Love felt the hilt of the table-leg, sticking out of the first puppet, brush against her shin.

A wave of adrenaline hit her and she kicked the doll again, this time at it's lower body.

Like before it's grip did not loosen up, but it bend a little bit, lowering Love, her feet connecting with the floor for about a second.

And this time she felt the hilt brush against her thigh.

It took her half a second to grab it and thanks to the dolls grip, as it straightened itself again, she managed to pull it out of the other body.

Feeling her eyes roll back into her head and the darkness closing in she raised the club weakly, she didn't even aim, she just let it crash down as hard as possible.

She landed on the floor, her club clattering over the floor. Taking a huge breath, a hand on her throat, coughing and wheezing, she looked up. Her attack had hit the dolls forehead, bending it inwards, killing it instantly.

Taking another deep breath, Love turned away and emptied her stomach onto the floor. Interrupted by coughs and desperate attempts at taking deep breaths she threw up over and over again.

After a few minutes of vomiting the churning in her stomach began to fade away and Love crawled away from the pool of bile, sitting against the cold steel of a locker she looked at the two dead dolls, softly rubbing her hurting neck.

'This has to be a dream...' Her mind was racing and she felt tears welling in her eyes.

'It's... just a bad dream.'

And then she cried as the pain in her shoulder began to subside.