Charter: The Book Club

THREE YEARS AGO

At that time a very pretty girl called Amanda joined our math class, she was a year older than me and we were all just turning fourteen. You can't imagine how surprised I was when I saw her bright freckles, there were no such freckles in our school at that time, even if we just crossed our eyes for a moment, I wanted to be friends with her, everyone wanted to be friends with her as the local Cinderella, one day she came up to us to say hello:

– Hi, I hear you're good at math. Could you help me?

Of course we did not turn our backs on her and helped her, especially Kahn, he was an excellent mathematician, after this incident we always helped her, but one day she suddenly changed her character and stopped coming to us, Amanda started communicating with Marky from the class where they studied together and did a creative project with him.

– Sorry, guys, I didn't mean it.

She brought us muffins to really forgive her. She didn't explain what was really going on, maybe Amanda had a disorder, maybe not, that's just my guess. The same day that Amanda disappeared, I was walking by the girls' toilets, as I was always kept in after school for reasons I knew, and I heard her talking to someone, I felt like she was talking to a mirror.

That day I realized it wasn't Amanda.... Please don't think I'm crazy like you, I told my friends that day and we decided it would be best to deal with her and ask her straight out:

– Amanda, can I talk to you?

I was really worried about her as a homework buddy and as we approached her. She turned to look at us with a big smile on her face and her tongue seemed to split like a snake. Then we realized it wasn't Amanda: – Oh, so you want to be new toys for me? Hi-Hi-Hi.

We knew this thing wasn't Amanda anymore, but we had to do something, so we started holding her like an interrogation, asking her where she had taken the real girl. At that moment we heard Marky screaming in the distance, who didn't know anything and started to defend her:

–Stop messing with her, she's not a toy! – Then Amanda said something we didn't want to hear.

– That little boy will be next. Hi-hi-hi-hi. – That's when I warned Marky, but maybe he misunderstood me, because I was trying to say: – Oh, great. So you want to be a puppet instead of her?

After which it all went back to being our fault, rather than Amanda pretending to be a saintly girl with good manipulation skills. She was very intimidating at times when she laughed madly, even after she disappeared into the storeroom our company could still hear her wicked laugh, only the hairpin was left. I kept it as a reminder that maybe the real Amanda exists somewhere, my friends and I have been questioned and tried to find out the truth, our reputations have gone down the drain....

NOW

– You understand why I came to you, and why I want to talk to your father? – Athena abruptly interrupted Stan.

– Firstly, he won't believe it, and secondly, a lot of... things could have happened to the real Amanda in those three years. And I vaguely believe this story.

– I do. Sounds like the Mimic case. – Dolan shared his theory and Francie echoed his words:

– Yes! Remember how in one of the board games there was a chest that pretended to be a chest, but it was really a monster?

– Herod Stan! We have permission to search this school. We're coming in through 3...2...1!!

– If they catch us here, they'll think we're helping you.

– Damn,hide! – The boys scattered to different rooms in the school. Francie hid in an empty cupboard with the picture she'd found on the bookshelf, closing the door behind her. Dolan managed to run into a filthy toilet cubicle that still had old swear words written on it, literally covering the walls of the toilet. Dolan commented squeamishly: – Even in a private school, disgusting, how disgusting!

Athena and Stan were not so lucky, they ran into the office where Athena's father was already there. Probably misunderstanding the boys, he pulled a gun from his front pocket and pointed it at Stan: – Herod Stan, let the hostage go and put your hands above your head!

Athena wanted to make sure that Stan wasn't holding her hostage.

– I said put your hands up and come over here now! – Stan whispered a few words to Athena: – I'm sorry, there's a plan B now, trust me.

Herod suddenly pulled a gun from Stan's back pocket and pointed it at Athena's temple, she wasn't expecting it: – Where did you get that?!

– I'm sorry. – Stan apologized again.

The atmosphere around them was still unpleasant as Athena's father called for help and it was impossible for them to get out, they surrounded them. Meanwhile, in the empty bookcase, Francie still decided to finish reading the verse left on the picture, on closer inspection it was very well written indeed:

Between sea and land,

The voice of the caller rages,

Wanderers will come at the request of the Higher Order....

Francie wondered: – It didn't look like a poem, more like a note... wait, what is this? – The words Francie was reading suddenly began to glow bright gold. The bookcase began to fill with water and Francie tried to get out, but the doors were closed and seawater was pouring from the ceiling: – This is where I'm going to die!

Francie suddenly heard someone's soothing voice in her head, but she didn't understand what language it was in, it didn't stop and it came to Dolan who was hiding in the toilet stall, he decided to look through the keyhole, maybe there was someone outside. But instead of policemen, he saw underwater depths, water pouring out of every crack, even from the toilet barrel. The guys couldn't get out because the doors were glued shut and their voices for help weren't even heard. Meanwhile, the police were moving away from Athena and Stan, who was holding a fake girl hostage, and the boys were getting a soothing voice in their heads, which they didn't pay attention to because they were in a difficult situation.

Athena's father, realizing that he would not let his daughter go, shot Stan in the shoulder, causing him to bleed profusely:

– No! – The girl screamed and time halted around them., the office emptied and there was not a single policeman left except for the shot Stan and Athena. Sea water started coming out of the toilet and the bookcase and drowned them instantly, Athena was numb with fear, she was terrified and didn't know what to do, to run away or help Stan.

Of course she couldn't run away as the locks were glued shut, so she tore her tights off and as the room flooded she did a shoulder roll, but blood wouldn't stop. Athena's hands were covered in blood and her face said she wasn't ready for this, especially when her own father was able to shoot a man and barely hit his daughter, which made her hands tremble and her breathing quicken, she had a lot of thoughts in her head that she couldn't get rid of.The seawater was filling the room more and more, flooding everything around her, Athena was still trying to stay afloat, but it was getting harder by the second.

She felt the wall around her begin to tighten as if it was trying to crush her. The girl saw the mural bleeding, and gradually lost her balance and her vision gradually deteriorated.

She struggled to stay afloat so as not to drown in a space from which there was no escape, holding on to the man with the shot shoulder; together they sank to the bottom of the sea, into what Athena thought was the water. A light appeared in the sea, and she wondered what it was, and the last bubble of oxygen escaped from her mouth, and then, when all seemed lost, she felt a light touch on her arm.

As the world around her began to darken, she heard a whisper: "Do not be afraid, we are with you." It was a voice of rescue and hope. Athena felt warm and protected again, she believed that all would be well and calmly closed her eyes and went to lie down.