Not If You Were The Last (Excerpt)

The room felt more desolate and depressing than ever before. The school it sits in was silent, far from the usual noise and chaos that carried itself through the halls on any other day. Only two students were in, the rest having gone home for the holidays only the day prior. The silence sat heavily over Mary and Vanessa as they both glared pointedly at opposite ends of the large dining hall, a detention hall for today. They were free to talk; the teacher supervising that Saturday’s detention had wandered off not long ago, presumably to find some food or any activity that would make the first day of Christmas break spent at work not feel so dreadful. It was only meant to be a couple of hours detention; the girls would be picked up around noon and finally taken home for the holidays. After spending every day for the past few months in this school, Mary was especially excited to catch a break. A break from Van, too, who sat tapping her food so loudly that it could only be to annoy.

A huff from Van broke the pointed silence as she glanced over at Mary, “You know none of this would be happening if you’d just kept your gobby mouth shut.” She bites out, checking her nails with low eyebrows.

“Me? You started it all,” Mary begins. She was feeling especially argumentative, since none of Van’s friends would be here to gang up with her, “You and your stupid friends started this, but I’m the one who got in trouble.”

“I’m here too, aren’t I?” Van bites back, putting her foot down and turning fully towards Mary.

“Sure, now we both get to miss part of our break,” Mary snaps, “was it worth it? Was the one laugh your bitchy prank got worth it?”

“Prank? Please, I’m too old for pranks,” Van huffed out, “You needed to be taught a lesson, it was a lesson.”

Mary’s cheeks and ears turned a slight pink as she felt her temper rising, “God, you really are the worst. You make my life here hell, you know that?”

Vanessa rolled her eyes, but looked away and lowered them simultaneously, “Whatever. So sensitive.”

Mary wanted to go on. She wanted to scream at Vanessa, try to get through how horrible she has made Mary’s life at this school. A school she lives, sleeps, and eats in, one she can’t escape. That’s already a bad situation for Mary, made a living nightmare with the endless bullying she can’t seem to escape. As she turned towards Vanessa, matching the tense body language, Mrs Welsh walked in. Mrs Welsh was an old woman, the only teacher who was willing to stay an extra day to supervise the detention. She didn’t have any children or grandchildren; her Christmas breaks were usually spent alone, anyway, watching TV with soggy peas and dry fish in front of her.

The girls fell silent, their bodies turned away from each other again as the supervisor walked to her seat at the front of the hall. As she turned her body to face the girls and sit down, a screech came from the hallway, the closed door blocking most of the sound. The girls glance at the doorway, eyebrows lowered as they listened for more. The lights seemed to flicker in matching nerves as they look at Mrs Welsh when another inhumane sound is heard.

“What was that?” Mary whispered, her body straightened as she tensed up.

Van just rolled her eyes, but the crease in her lip betrayed her discomfort as she, too, glanced back at the door.

“Might just be another stray cat, I’ll go have a look.” Mrs Welsh stated dryly as she stood up, groaning lowly while her old bones carried her back to the door.

As soon as she had left the door, Mary glared back at Van.

“This better not be you.” She barked out, her anger returned to her as quickly as it had dissipated.

Van laughed, “Me? Seriously, get your head straight-”, she began, tone rising to match Mary’s in a second.

“Well, I don’t know, do I?” Mary almost screamed, “ Maybe it’s your little friends again, come to stick my head down a toilet, or pour lighter fluid over me and light me on fire-”

“We were only pretending! We wouldn’t have actually burned you alive, God-”

“It still wasn’t funny.”

“We all thought it was hilarious, actually.”

“Of course you all did, because you’re goddamn psychopaths!”

“Oh my god, shut the fuck up-”

As the girls bickered, they barely heard the commotion out in the hallway. Until a loud rattle of the door and the screech that followed broke over their argument. They jump when a handprint appears on the door, followed by footsteps as whoever did it seemed to walk away.

Turned towards the door again, Mary felt the hair on the back of her neck rise as she glanced nervously at Van. As Van returned the nervous look, she took a hesitant intake of breath before standing and walking towards the door.

Mary watched her, “What are you doing?”

“Investigating, obviously? You just want to sit here while something that sounds like it’s from a horror movie happens outside.”

Mary said nothing, unwilling to turn everything into an argument, she just watched Van silently.

As Van got closer to the door, she felt her nerves start to splinter. “Besides, according to you, it’s probably just one of my friends.” Van tried to hide the waiver in her voice as nerves started to set it.

Mary just rolled her eyes in response, crossed her arms and lowered slightly more into her seat.

Van’s eyes were trained on the door as she got closer. The handprint on the outside of the glass turned red as she faced it fully, little teardrops leaking from it and wobbling down the pane. As she grabbed a butter knife from the cutlery set next to the door, Mary sat up alert again.

“What are you doing?”

Van had no chance to respond as the glass door was shattered, inhumane screeches filling the air as something ran into the room, intent on Van and Mary. The proceeding moments were a blur of teeth and nails, but Van put the butter knife to good use.