Prakriti Gurung
Violet heavily pants as she struggles to make her way through the bushes. Her body was weak and frail, she had bruises everywhere. She couldn’t bear it any longer, when all of a sudden she started to feel dizzy. She could hear a faint voice calling out her name but it was too late, she blacked out and fell on the ground, unconscious, alone and in the dark.
A few weeks ago, Violet had entered her classroom as usual. As she walked in she noticed her classmates showing each other their phones and talking about something. Curious, she asked Nathan her best friend. Nathan showed her his phone, he showed her a video of a distressed biologist Maxwell Bennet screaming and being taken away by the authorities. He screamed claiming that they’re coming. Who was coming? When and where?
This situation would’ve been irrelevant if Mr Bennet’s daughter wasn’t Violet’s classmate, Sophia Bennet. Sophia entered the classroom fuming. Her eyes swollen and puffy, her uniform dirty and untidy and her hair a mess. But her appearing in class in a state like this was normal. When she entered the classroom, everybody went silent. She seemed to know why but she looked like she was on the verge of tears. However, she sat down in her seat quietly, but she glared at Violet and Nathan.
Creeped out, the duo left the classroom. A few days later, the situation calmed down and lost relevance, but new rumors kept spreading about Sophia and her father. All kinds of rumors were spreading where people were saying Sophia’s father is a psycho or her father is telling the truth. Sophia stayed quiet throughout all this, until one day she couldn’t.
One morning as everyone settled down in their seats, Violet noticed Sophia’s absence. This was a rare occurrence since Sophia never missed a day at school. A few minutes had passed since the first class began and suddenly the doors opened. It was Sophia, everybody gasped as they saw her. Her uniform was bloody, the teacher felt concerned and started asking Sophia questions. Sophia ignored all the questions and started walking. However she didn’t walk to her seat, she walked towards Isaac. Before the teacher could say anything Sophia struck Issac knocking him down from his seat. Everybody went silent, Sophia mumbled something and left the classroom. The teacher hastily attempted to call somebody to get Issac’s limp body to the infirmary. Just then, Violet recalled something. Issac was mocking Sophia for her father. She froze in shock as she realized that Issac was not the only person who mocked Sophia, more than half of her classmates did. She looked around to see if anybody else knew, but they all seemed to not understand.
During lunch, Violet admitted feeling a sense of relief as she never harassed or bullied Sophia in any way. She went back to the classroom and sat down, when she suddenly had eye contact with Sophia. She felt shivers down her spine as Sophia stared at her like a maniac. She mumbled something under her breath ? Violet shook it off and acted like she was doing something. A few days passed by and Sophia seemed to be calm until she charged at Asa, the daughter of a wealthy businessman. She was suspended for a few days, but returned to school. In a matter of a few days Sophia’s attacks became frequent. She charged at someone new almost every single day. Nobody knew why she was doing it. Nobody knew her intentions. Violet watched from afar, keeping herself out of the drama and avoiding Sophia. Violet was safe, or so she thought.
One morning, Violet entered the classroom. She walked to her seat, when she realized that the class was silent, and everyone was watching her. She scanned the room in the hope of seeing Nathan, no sign of him. She texted Nathan, no reply. Alongside the absence of Nathan she noticed that Sophia was gone too. A few hours later, while returning from the restroom, Violet was struck on the head from behind. Before she could process it, she passed out in the passage. She suffered a hard blow on her head. A dark void was all she could see. She woke up, tied to a chair in a dark room. The first thing she saw was Sophia's torso. She looked up to see Sophia's face, a creepy smile, her eyes wide open. It didn't take long for Violet to notice that Nathan was beside Sophia, with the similar lunatic face. Violet freaks out and she screams, but is immediately shut down.
A few hours passed by and Sophia and Nathan were still there, looking at her, in the same crazy way. Violet zones out, pondering on why she was in this situation. Violet had never done anything to Sophia, and was always kind to her. While she was lost in her thoughts, Sophia suddenly attacked Violet. She fell on the floor and hours went by in the same manner. Violet suffered incredibly. She lost the sense of time and realized that it had been a few hours since she had ended up here. Nathan was nowhere to be seen and Sophia had finished beating her up. Sophia hit Violet’s arm with a metal rod and mumbled something under her breath and looked down at Violet. In the dark room, the only source of light was a small window with bars. It was dusty and dirty. Sophia kept mumbling words as she left Violet in the room, all alone, to die. Violet fought to stay alive for as long as she could.
She managed to hold on until after what seemed an eternity the door opened. Violet quickly opened her eyes trying to see who it was. She couldn’t make out who the person was. She looked closely and realized that it was a boy, no.. a man. It was Mr Bennet. “I pity you, kid” he mumbled as he untied Violet. Violet looked at him in shock and disbelief. His drastic change in appearance was the most shocking. He looked pale, and thin. He looked sick. Mr Bennet opened the door and led Violet up the staircase. The two of them got out. Violet had only been confined to the room for 2 days, but she felt like it had been years. She looked around to see a forest, green, thick, tall trees. She felt the air as the breeze touched her bruised skin, her beautiful brown hair moved softly. She felt peaceful despite the previous tragedies.
Suddenly Violet came to her senses, startling herself and Mr Bennet. She looked around properly and looked at Mr Bennet, once she recalled everything and realized what had actually happened, she screamed. Violet screamed and turned away and started running. She had nowhere to go, but she ran. She ran as fast as her frail legs could, panting heavily, and sweating profusely. She ran through the bushes and trees, pricking every part of her body. It hurt, but she didn’t care. She had to survive, she ran and ran. She could hear someone calling out her name but she didn’t care, she ignored it. She started feeling dizzy and suddenly “VIOLET! ARE YOU OKAY?” the last thing she could hear before passing out once again.
Violet awoke to the sound of her classmates calling her, but how come? She wasn’t in her classroom, nor was it a school time. Violet quickly gained consciousness. Where was she? She was confused, and looked around the classroom. Everything was fine, better actually. Issac looked fine as ever, Nathan by her side and Sophia, was not there. She went around asking for the whereabouts of Sophia. Her blood ran cold as she heard the response from her classmates “Who’s Sophia? We’ve never had anybody in our class named Sophia.” Violet was confused. She looked at her arm, the bruise was still there. She looked around and saw Sophia, smiling and waving at her. Violet screamed and blacked out once again, her classmates surrounding her while Sophia smirks and walks away.
