The guy looked at me with confusion. No, it was more of a shocked look.
"Em… I am a student here. I wasn't feeling too well so I was asked to come here."
I still held up the syringe. I mean, who would believe that? I started preparing for the worst-case scenario, calculating how fast I could run to the door if he charged at me.
The guy saw my reaction and knew I didn't believe him. He gently shifted out of the way, making a clear path for me to go outside.
"I was going home because it was getting late, I couldn't leave you alone in school."
'Getting late?' I looked out the window. "Oh my gosh!"
Everywhere was pitch-black.
'How long was I out for?' I lowered the syringe and came down from the bed.
"Th-thank you." I forced an apology.
"No problem, I'm Arthur by the way."
"I'm Neyrene."
We walked out of the sickbed together using my phone's backlight as guidance.
Coming out of the hallway, I spotted something or someone charging through the school gate.
It was… Jamie!
She must have remembered that she locked me in the sickbed for over five hours.
"Jamie!" I shouted her name.
As soon as she turned in my direction, she ran over to give me an apology hug.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, girl. I completely forgot…"
"It's okay, I'm fine now."
She finally released me and turned to the guy beside me.
"Who the hell is he?"
Arthur, for some reason, was using his hoodie to cover his face.
"He's uhm… never mind." I read the room and quickly understood that Arthur wasn't a very social person.
'Strange… he was fine talking to me.'
…
The three of us left the school, going down the sidewalks when suddenly… a van came from nowhere and stopped right beside us.
Three men came out, all of them holding guns, the barrels casually pointed in our direction. They looked like one of those Italian mafias from the cringy movies my mom watches.
Fear gripped me and I instinctively took a step back. At my side, Arthur was shaking uncontrollably and Jamie was… well, being Jamie.
"Who are you! What sort of joke is this?!" Jamie shouted at the top of her voice. It seemed the strange-looking people with guns didn't scare her. She probably thought this was all some funny prank.
Bang!
One of the men shot his gun up.
"Shut up, pretty girl… we not here for you." The man had a weird accent, turning his gun towards Arthur. "We here for him.
I looked at Arthur who was still trembling but then he suddenly started talking desperately.
"My father is dead! What more do you want from me?!"
"Hahaha, the boy a funny one." A different man spoke this time. "Your father dead, yes, but he no pay us back the ten million dollars he took from us."
'Ten million dollars?!' The number was so huge, it didn't even feel real. How can someone owe that much money?
The amount shocked Arthur into perfect stillness.
"Come on boys, let's get this over with." A man spoke from inside the van.
"What do we do with girls, boss?" One of them asked, gesturing his gun towards Jamie and me.
"Which sort of question is that, Bastoni? We can't have any witnesses." The voice was more fluent in English than the rest.
'No witnesses? No! No! I don't want to die.' My heart started beating incredibly fast.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
One of the men shot four bullets into Arthur's chest in quick succession. He collapsed to the ground, blood spreading across his white shirt.
Jamie screamed, stunned by the scene. She started running blindly into the darkness and I followed behind her.
One of the men chased after us.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three shots fired at my back, the remaining two landed on Jamie. The pain was unbearable. It was like being hit with a sledgehammer multiple times.
I fell forward, hitting the ground hard, my bag flying off my shoulder as everything scattered across the ground.
Jamie also fell down, blood rushing out of her body at an incredible rate.
"J…amie." I stretched my arm out to hold hers. She looked like she was in a lot more pain than I was.
As I drew my last breath, I heard the van drive away, leaving the three of us to die.
I blinked, and again, and then…
・
・
・
2011, Evergreen's residence.
"Neyrene, can you go call your dad for me? Dinner's almost ready."
"Yes, mommy!"
Neyrene jumped down from the couch of the living room where she was watching cartoons and ran all the way to her father's study.
She stretched her short arms to reach the door knob, opening it slowly.
Entering the study, she saw her father writing at his desk. Stealthily, she tip-toed under the desk, aiming to jump-scare him.
"Boo!" She popped up from the table and shattered her father's concentration.
The shock jolted him, shaking his glasses, but then he realized it was his daughter and smiled, adjusting his glasses back.
"How are you doing, my little angel?"
"Fine, mommy said I should call you for dinner."
"Is that so?" He lifted her up on his shoulders.
She looked down at what he was writing and asked out of curiosity.
"Daddy, what are you writing?"
Her father looked down at his work and smiled. "I am writing a novel, sweetie."
"Novel?"
"Yes, it's like one of those stories you used to read but longer."
"You mean like the princess and the frog?"
"Yes, darling, like the princess and the frog."
Her father closed his book and carried Neyrene out of his study.
・
・
・
They say after death, your brain plays back seven minutes of your best moment.
The day I learned about novels. Ever since then I became reckless and would constantly go to my dad's study, reading some of the books he had kept on the shelves.
'I really didn't want my life to end this way… I haven't even finished my own story. How will my mom feel when she hears the news of my death? I can't die; I can't—'
And then, everything faded away. All my senses stopped working.
I… died.