Act 2 | Chapter 22

The black charcoal stained the white paper as I dragged my H2 shading pencil across it. The shadow of the figure I drew gave off an eatery view. His face blocked out by the dark shadow of his grey hood, making it impossible to see any of his facial features. The left hand was outstretched, offering help to whoever was looking at the drawing. His were made from pure bone, with no tendons or muscle. The sleeves on his arms ran up into his cloak, which was short enough to reveal the lack of feet the figure had. He was here to offer you his hand in death. My own grim reaper.

"Miss Morgan." Mr. Mcvay spoke up. I quickly jumped from my seat and turned to look up at him.

"Oh, yes?"

Mr. Mcvay gave me a blank expression, His eyebrows furrowed, and he let out a long sigh. I hadn't ever seen him look like that. He almost looked concerned.

"We may need to speak after class, Zoey." Was his response, before walking off past Maria's empty seat and cover to the next table. I watched him walk away and tilted my head a bit. Looking back down at my paper, I could see that my finger had smudged a bit of lead in the top corner. I let out a groan of frustration and quickly erased the section before doing it over again. "What would he want to talk to me about?" The class went on like usual, and at the end of it, Mr. Mcvay called me over to his desk as the bell rang. Kid's stood up, and left the room until it was just me and him. There was an awkward silence as he stared at me with the same expression as before.

"I'm concerned Zoey." He said blatantly.

"What do you mean?"

"Zoey, Over the last few months, I've been paying attention to your drawings. I've known you for years, and whenever you draw you always have this look to your art. It's... you." He frowned, "But recently I've seen changes. Your work is much darker, it has more contrast, and it's not the same as you've been doing for years. In my years working here, I've seen times when kids like you go through phases, where their artwork really represents how they feel. Yours has drastically changed."

I stood there in silence, trying to think of a way to respond. "Have they?" I asked. All he did was give me a nod. "Has my art really changed because of how I feel?"

"I... I'm sorry." I tried saying.

"You're sorry?"

"Yes... I just... I don't know why?"

He went silent and asked a single question that made my heart skip a beat: "Is this because of Maria's disappearance?"

"W- What? N- No, but her gone has made me feel a bit better. For as bad as that sounds."

"I thought it might be her, considering she's caused you problems in the past. Perhaps her absence has left you feeling different."

"N- No." I responded, "I've just been doing a lot of new things recently."

"Such as?"

I went silent and started twirling my finger through my newly dyed hair.

"Well, A lot of things with my friend. She's been introducing me to new things, and now I've moved in with her. Been watching horror movies, and stuff like that."

There was a moment where Mr. Mcvay went silent. He stared at me and sighed, shaking his head slightly.

"It might just be my superstition then. Apologies."

"No, I see what you mean. "I'm sorry."

"Nothing to apologize for Zoey." He frowned, "Go run off to class, I'll see you later today."

***

Stepping out of the bathroom stall, I waltzed over to the mirror and let out a tired groan. It was lunchtime, and I had just finished, though I couldn't help but feel tired for some reason. My eyes felt like they were burning, so I splashed some water into them and looked back up at the mirror. Right then, I could hear talking on the other side of the girl's bathroom door.

"What is it?" The voice on the other end asked.

"I saw her go in there." Another vice.

"Goddammit, I need to piss. Hey, body paint girl!" A voice on the other end yelled, knocking on the door. I was able to identify that the voice belonged to one of Maria's friends. For the life of me though, I could never remember her name. I think it was Lilly, but I could be wrong on that. "Is she talking about me? I thought that the whole incident was over with?" Tilting my head, I approached the door and pulled it open. Both Lilly and another one of Maria's friends were standing there. Lilly had her hair all done up in a large ponytail that ran over the side of her shoulders. Her cheerleaders uniform was on, and her arms were crossed. Maria's other friend simply stood behind her, frowning and growling like some animal.

"Umm... hello?" I said nervously, this time not taking a step back.

"What the hell did you do to Maria and Hannah?" Lilly asked bluntly.

"W- What?" I took a moment to let out a long and drawn-out groan, rolling my eyes. "What the hell is wrong with you guys. I've said it before, I hadn't done anything to anyone... and what do you mean Hannah?"

"Don't act like you don't know. Before Hannah went missing the other day, she sent us a message saying she was going to go meet someone, and if she didn't get back, that you were responsible for it. You or a list of other people."

"Hannahs missing?" I asked, tilting my head and trying to act dumb, but convincing at the same time.

"Mhm. All of her evidence points to you being the main culprit, but she has evidence for other people too, so just thought we should start with the biggest thorn in our side." Lilly explained, giving me a large smug.

"Thorn in your side, I haven't done anything to you guys!?"

"No, but you're annoying as fuck, and we think you're the reason both Maria and Hannah are gone." The girl from behind Lilly spoke up.

"Yeah," Lilly chuckled and raised her voice, "Maria did nothing to you and then you tried to attack her out of nowhere." A couple of nearby tables looked our direction, their eyes fixating on me and Maria's friends. I glanced around at all the faces looking my direction. 

"She's trying to make a scene." I thought to myself.

"What are you talking about?! I never attacked Maria!"

"Yeah, sure paint girl." The girl behind Lilly said.

"Okay then. Let's say I did attack her, what would I have done. Look at me." I held my arms up in a T pose position. My slender body and skinny arms wouldn't have been able to do anything serious to hurt anyone. Or at least that's what I wanted them to believe.

"Bullshit." Lilly frowned, "I know you did something to them, Hannah left us with evidence, now tell us where they are!"

More faces turned to face my direction. At this point, a good couple of tables were watching the two of us argue with each other. "Goddammit." I was reaching my breaking point. Day after day with accusations, I can't get away from them, and now the rest of Maria's friends are believing the same shit as Hannah. I mean, to be honest, they're right, I did do something to the two, but they can never know that. These girls aren't going to just intimidate me like the other two, no I'm standing up for myself this time. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and exhaled before looking back at Lilly in the eyes.

"Look," I started in an irritated tone, "I didn't do anything to them. I don't know how many times I have to say it before you get it through that thick skull of yours. There isn't even any evidence that remotely points to me doing anything to them. There isn't any evidence on what happened to them, period." I raised my voice a bit, "If you really think that me, the shut-in who has tried to avoid you guys since day one, has somehow managed to do something to cause Maria and Hannah to disappear, then there is something wrong with you. Yes, I hated Hannah, she was an absolute bitch, so was Hannah, and so are the two of you!" Both Lilly and her friend behind her went silent. They dropped both these arms to the side and frowned, "I hate them. They humiliated me dozens of times... but I wouldn't go as far as 'hurting' them for it. So how about you quit accusing me about there disappeared, and go fuck yourselves because I am done with your bullshit." The tone of my voice had changed to a more serious one, and both my hands had rolled up into fists. My nails dug into my palms as I tried to take a deep breath and calm down.

It went quiet. Everyone nearby was looking in our direction. Lilly's fists were shaking and soon she groaned and raised her hand, slapping me across the face and causing me to stumble back a bit.

"Don't ever call me bitch!" She yelled at me, with a hint of defeat in her voice. I held my hand up to where she had slapped me and pressed up against it to help with the stinging. I could feel more anger building up inside me, and before I knew what I was doing, I had swung my arm in Lilly's direction and punched her right where she slapped me. There was a loud gasp from the audience. Lilly took a step back and tried running at me. She pinned me against the wall and tried hitting me again.

"You fucking bitch!" She yelled, punching me in the eye. I let out a groan on pain and scratched at her face, dragging my nails across her cheek and cutting into her skin. Not enough to bleed, but enough to sting. Lilly let out a groan, and kneed me in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me. The crowd started to chatter, sounding both entertained and panicked at the same time. Lilly went to hit me again, this time hitting my shoulder, causing another grunt of pain to escape me. It hurt like hell, but I tried ignoring the burning pain all over my body. Using my left leg, I raised it as high as I could and went to kick Lilly between the legs. She let out a loud yell of pain and stumbled back as she put both hands on her crotch. Her face turned to shock as her own urine began to seep out between her fingers and run down her legs, probably soaking her panties as well.

I could hear a loud "Ohh" from the watching audience, and Lilly looked back up at me.

"That does it!" She jumped at me again, pushing me against the wall and trying to slam me into it.

"Get the fuck away from me! I screamed.

"Admit that you killed them!"

"I didn't do anything to them!" I punched Lilly again, this time in the chest. My hands were aching, with a bruise already formed on my knuckles. At that moment, one of the teachers patrolling the lunchroom ran over and pulled Lilly off of me. Riley quickly ran to my side and tried pulling me away from her.

"Stay the fuck away from me!" I yelled at Lilly, stumbling back and limping. I had to keep my left eye shut from the pain. My shoulder felt numb and so did my knuckles. Lilly looked a bit worse, with a bruise on her chest most likely, and her own urine dripping down her legs for everyone to see.

"Come on Zoe," Riley said, leading me a bit further back and helping me sit down. I started to tear up as the pain became more apparent. Riley wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a hug.

"It's okay, she's gone now." She said in a soft voice, glancing back and glaring at the cheerleader as she was dragged away by the teacher.