The Walls Have Eyes [closed]

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Red light washed over the empty classroom, abandoned for the school day, but she'd stuck around long after the rest had filed out the door. Silent. A lot of people were quiet these days. She'd never paid much attention to their names or faces, or anything in class except her doodles and daydreams and how she'd pass the time until the next period, but she'd been watching them all since it happened, trying to pick out that one sign, that one tell, that one slip-up that would scream 'gotcha.' Every day, every second, she had her finger on the trigger, a coin nestled in her pocket, pressed into her thumb.

'We know who you are.
We know what you fear.'

They were everywhere, crawling through the walls like fucking r҉ats͢, and she had to root them out like rats. Her eye twitched, sparks dripping from her bangs. Tap. Tap. Tap. Kayla leaned at the window sill, her forehead resting against the glass, staring out across campus. That w͠om͝a҉n̸'s voice rang through her head, mocking her, taunting her... Fuck. The hot flash of anger cut through her like a knife, and it took all she had not to smash her fist into the wall.

'Many of your schoolmates are already in contact with us. Some have already taken the full step and sworn their devotion to our cause. We have almost a dozen plants in the academy.'

She'd kill them all. She'd kill them all. She'd kill them all. She'd kill them all. She'd kill them all. She'd kill them all. She'd kill them all. She'd kill them all. She'd kill them all. She'd kill them all. She'd kill them she'd kill them she'd kill them she'd kill them she'd kill them she'd kill them she'd kill them she'd kill them she'd kill them she'd kill them she'd kill them she'd kill them kill them kill them kill them kill them kill them kill them kill them kill them kill them kill them kill them kill them kill them kill them kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill.

'Katherine, Katherine, Katherine... You're slow to follow. The point is that we have no desire to kill you.'

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Where could she even start? Kayla stared into her glossy reflection in the glass, dark bags under her eyes, old scars scratched into her skin, her hair unbrushed and unkempt. She'd started to wear it down since she'd lost her hat, letting it fall down to her shoulders. Some days it was easier that way. None of it mattered.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

'W͠é'r̨e͜ ̷asking̀ ͜yo̸u͢ t̀o j͡ơi̶n us.͜'

Did she have to spell it out for her?

Kayla bit her lip until blood rolled down her chin. She wiped it away with the back of her hand, free from the stifling cast. They were watching her. It wasn't just fucking paranoia, they were watching her. They'd told her, they'd şho͜we̵d̸ her, and she'd fucking seen it... All these people, these rats, these moles, these fucking vermin, anywhere she walked, they were under her shoes like fucking roaches.

She wasn't a detective. No matter what she did, they were always one fucking step ahead of her.

It'd be safer to just burn the whole fucking thing to the ground. Kayla curled her fingers into a fist, digging her nails into her palm until it bit deep red marks into the skin, a familiar sting to keep her on track. There was just one thing that mattered, one thing that she cared about, and the rest could all go to hell.

I h͡av̶e to get her back... I have to get her b̴ac̸k̶... I have to get h͘ȩŗ back...

Tap. Tap. Tap. Except this time it wasn't her. Footsteps echoed through the empty classroom behind her, like thunderclaps in her ears.

Her heels clicked on the floor, each step forward rung out slow and reluctant. While her emerald gaze was steeled, she couldn't bring herself to say much of anything for the moment. Her mouth felt like dry cotton. It was the girl from before, the one who'd had tried to murder Mason. In truth, it was hard to remember much from that day. Everything had happened so fast and she had already been on the verge of blacking out when this girl had struck her down.

But why? It made her sick to her stomach to think alone that he had been at the forefront of whatever happened to the school. Pills and mind control and destruction. It was a miracle of itself that she had survived at all. How many others hadn't been so lucky?

"I left because this group that I'm in is a bit of a threat to some of the students here at the school..." 

It was almost laughable thinking back on it. A bit. Wasn't that the understatement of the year? But even knowing what he did, she refused to believe it was for no good reason. He wouldn't have done something so cruel for nothing. Those people he was with... What exactly were they capable of? Who even were they?

As much as Dakota would have loved to turn heel and leave, she knew that the girl knew something about them, and she had so many damn questions...

Starting with: Get who back?

"Your name is Kayla, isn't it?" The Spring called over, crossing her arms behind her back. She wasn't any sort of threat, she told herself, so there wasn't anything to be afraid of. And no one was stupid enough to attack another student in plain sight? She tilted her head. "Is this a bad time? I've been wanting to talk to you."

There she was.

If she had to start with somebody, she was the first one she'd have to burn to a crisp. Kayla turned to look at her at the sound of her name, electricity cracking down her arm like a whip. "Talk?" she echoed, turning the word over in her mouth. Red hair knotted into twintails, green eyes, a soft face, standing up straight and defenseless. She looked patched up since the last time they ran into each other. A bad time...? Her lips twisted into the start of a smile that bordered on mocking. After all that, and she still opened a conversation with something like that, all perfect and polite. Kayla leaned against the window sill, letting the sparks dance across her fingertips. "And what do you want to talk about?"

All she had to wonder was if she lit her up here and dropped her by the Headmaster's office, would she be thanked or punished?

The young woman was polite enough at least to return Kayla's crooked smirk with a soft smile of her own, all the while digging her nails sharply into the thick fabric of her blazer, twisting the sleeve around in her fingers. She couldn't let herself be fearful, Dakota told herself, the worst was already over. She wouldn't dare do anything. The girl took another small step forward, a dull pain shooting across her back. Well, she wouldn't dare try to do something again.

Kota's heart was pounding in her chest. At least around her, it wouldn't be noticeable. "The people who attacked," she answered simply, cutting straight to the point. "You know about them, don't you?" The Headmaster had coughed up little information, she knew, but beyond what Will had told her - she knew absolutely nothing about the people that had Magic had run off with.

That damn, stupid cult, whatever it was... Why hadn't she questioned it sooner?

Oh? Huh? Really? Really? R̕èál҉lyr͘̕͡e̵all҉͝y҉̸r̀͘e̢̧a҉͜͟͡͏l̴̡̢͜͏l͢y̧̢? Kayla stifled a bark of laughter, baring her teeth in a wolfish smirk as her smile grew. "Man..." she breathed, leaning farther back against the window, the lightest chuckle slipping past her lips. Yeah, she'd figured it'd be about this. What other reason was there? But she hadn't thought, after throwing herself between them, that she'd ask something like that... For a second she had to wonder if she was trying to catch her off guard, but she could hear the sincerity in the question. Fuck. "You really don't know? After all your stupid heroics?" All she could think of was Magic's face, and the way his eyes had lit up the second she'd gone down in front of him... What a sack of shit.

Yeah. She knew them. She met them. A whirlwind of memories flashed through her jumbled thoughts, black suits and mangled corpses, red ink and r̷ed̛ eyes. Yeah. She knew them. Kayla brought a finger up to her face, almost subconsciously, tracing her nail along a faded pink scar that stretched across her cheek and toward her ear lobe. How many broken bones? How many bruises? How much blood had she lost over them, how many sleepless nights?

That voi҉ce, slick as ice, filled her ears again. 'Do you believe in angels?' A snakelike whisper that crept up her spine in all her quiet moments. She suppressed a shiver, letting her hand fall to her side. 'We are something so much more than human, Katherine Croft.'

She laughed again, not holding herself back this time. "You must feel like a real cunt, huh?" Clueless. Fucking clueless, and all she had left was the fallout. Even after something like this, the Headmaster still just fed them the bare minimum. He was as clueless as the rest of them. "Then let me tell you straight. Your boyfriend's a fucking killer. They're all fucking killers." Sparks crackled around her sleeves, adding to the dark grit that filled her voice, spitting each word like it was poison, like she was trying to rub it in her face. Ragged. They all looked ragged since it'd happened, but she'd seen herself in the mirror, and she knew she looked like a dog someone had kicked out on the street. Her hair was a mess, she couldn't wear her clothes right, and the best part was that she'd stopped caring. "They're psychopaths. Is that the answer you wanted?"

She could feel the pit in her gut growing, nausea creeping up on her as her worst fears were confirmed. It took a great deal of strength to not waver where she stood, gently gripping onto the edge of an old wooden desk behind her and shaking her head. Hints of terrible memories brushed the edge of her vision. "No," Dakota muttered despite herself, defiant still. "You're wrong. He's not like that!" Maybe these people he ran with were, the ones that kept him away from home. Away from her.

Had he known they were going to attack, back then? Is that why they were in Rosebury? The Spring grabbed at her head, running a few fingers through her bangs. No, she would have been able to tell he was lying. He said that he had never wanted to hurt anyone. She believed that. She had to believe that. There had to be some good reason for all this.

But then, this... this bitch wasn't lying either, was she? She could feel her ears burning as Kayla... or Katherine - laughed in her face.

Kota shook off a shiver, clenching her palms together and staring straight again, ignoring the warmth in her eyes. "I know more than you think," she called back. Her voice was on the verge of cracking, but she couldn't stop now. She took another breath, deep and uneven. She could hear it. She could see it passing glimpses. These people in black, they'd killed so many people, but her...

"You know them well, don't you...?" That much was obvious. Dakota could see through her facade, peek into the dark memories that crept into her own mind. "Why? What do they want?"

Hilarious. Fucking h͟il̢ari̷ous. She would've laughed if it wasn't so sad. Kayla didn't know her, and she barely knew Magic, so she didn't know what kind of history they had between them, but if she was still denying it now... Man, man, man, what kind of bullshit did he fill her head with? No matter what else she might be, she'd thrown herself between them when she could've just ran away, and how did he repay he̛r̵? It almost made her feel a little nauseous. "He's not? How can you say that?" What did she know that she didn't? Nothing. Fucking nothing at all. This girl was just some vapid bitch with a puppy crush, way too deep over her head. If she was asking questions, then she couldn't tell her how things really were. "All those corpses in the hall, you think they deserved it? He brought the whole fucking ceiling down on top of them. He joined them. If I'm wrong, the fuck do you think he was doing?"

She let her head loll to the side, electricity snaking down her neck as her lips twitched, holding back giggles. "Yeah, I've run into them a couple times," she muttered, a little quieter. Talk about an understatement, right...? Kayla laughed. Her head was swimming with a torrent of memories, but they'd all started to blur together in her head. Tokyo, New York, Des Moines, when you saw one corpse, you'd seen them all. "When I was new to the school, I went on a mission to Japan. All we had to do was trash this building. Pretty simple, right? But then these people came out, and..."

Kayla choked mid-sentence, staring straight through her and into the distance. She could still see her face sometimes. Long black hair, silky, a pink hair clip. Her mom had never let her grow her hair out long. It got too tangled and she wouldn't brush it, so she'd just take a pair of scissors and trim it over the bathroom sink. Black jacket, black tank top, black shorts, black combat boots that laced up almost to her knees. Black, black, black. The rest, she'd started to forget the rest, but she'd never forget that one, the splatter of blood and bone, the way she'd toppled over like a puppet with her strings cut. When she'd pulled herself to her feet, pulled herself through the wreckage, a girl in the vat, the eyes, the muzzle flash, eyes, the sharp sting in her shoulder, red eyes, a girl breaking apart, eyes the color of blood, spilling across the floor, spilling, spilling, spilling spilling spilling spilling all over her hands spilling spilling spilling s͏pi̧ĺli͝ńg̛ spreading spilling.

Why was she telling her that? She just laughed again, shaking off from the tangent. "...They're monsters. That's all I can tell you. That's all they do." She was just doing her a favor, telling her all this. If she didn't want to listen, then she could go to hell. A hot flint of anger flashed through her, making electricity snap out from her knuckles. "They want something, so they join to take it. They're full of people like your piece of shit boyfriend." That's how they got what they wanted. That's how she knew.

'What is it you desire, Katherine?'

This school had got off easy. Kayla felt her stomach churn as she met Dakota's eyes again, electricity flaring down her waist. "So tell me I'm wrong. Your Prince Charming isn't some fucking saint. Whatever he told you, he's full of shit." She'd seen bodies, she'd seen blown out buildings, she'd seen the letters, she'd seen the bloody aftermath and the pictures and lit candles, so she'd seen what they could do. "Killing's all he's good for." There wasn't anything else. There wasn't any other reason to join. She'd seen right into the heart of it all. What other kind of people would touch a little girl? They'd taken her҉. They'd h͘ưr̕t̨ her, they'd k̡i͘l̀l her. "Tell me I'm fucking wrong!" Her voice cracked like a whip, ringing through the empty classroom.

"I'm trying to gain their trust at the moment, and I don't have it just yet... So I'm doing some sort of bad things to gain their trust... though I really don't want to do them..."

Kayla might as well have sent one of her bolts straight through to the girl's heart. Hot and cold flashed away through her, leaving her light-headed as she shook her head in sheer, stubborn disbelief. No, that was impossible. He never killed those people, she told herself. All the students to had littered the ground, they had been out of it, but they hadn't died. If he meant to kill them, she would've been six feet under already. And, the place had crushed down, but that hadn't been - It couldn't have been...

He didn't lie to her.

Dakota grimaced. She could see glimpses of it through the Autumn's eyes. The young man's cold stare, the rubble as the old dorms came cluttering down, crumpled under the harsh waves of sound. "No," she fumbled on her own words, trying to scramble up some sort of answer. Some sort of explanation. "He wouldn't, he wouldn't..."

She let her head droop, staring down at the dirty tile and listening in silence as the other girl talked on, all smiles and giggles - talking through some of the grossest imagery. These people, this cult, whatever it was... It was psychopaths that they were after?

With every passing moment, listening into to this girl's scarred songs, it was becoming increasingly obvious exactly why they had wanted her so much.

Her screams, her fear, her desperation, it pierced through her ears; shrill like nails on a chalkboard. It had taken some time for her to pull herself together. "And... and how many people have you killed...? What have they taken from you?" Dakota said, her voice low and dull. "Katherine, was it?"

He wouldn't? He did. Kayla couldn't help it. There was just some kind of sick joy watching her face crumple like that when the truth set in. What did you call it? Sadism? Schadenfreude? Mean. Yeah, it was fucking mean. Maybe she was just another stupid empty-headed idiot who'd got dragged into something way over her head. Then maybe she should've cooed and preened and patted her on the shoulder to help her get through it. That was the right thing to do, right? Ha. But she wasn't going to break it gently. She should've guessed from the second she'd laid eyes on him the first time, and maybe that's why she hadn't been surprised when she'd seen him in that hallway dressed all in black. People were liars. Men were liars. Men like Magic were dirt beneath her shoes.

They were everywhere. Dogs. Rats. Ẃor͢m̛s

Whatever she and Magic had before, she'd been used, abused, and thrown into the fucking gutter. That much should've been obvious. So if she was still on his side, then she wasn't any better than a whipped stray, still crawling back to her master.

Then she froze. Locked up.

'█████ █████████.'

She said ͡ít͝ she͘ ͢s̛ài͢d͏ it̵ shȩ̡ ̨͠s̀́a̢i͜d͜ ͝͠hȩ́͝r̶͟ ̷ǹ͢͡ą̡m̸e ̴s̀h̢̕e͝҉̢ ̵̢͠s̵͠a̴i̵d̕ ̵̡i̴t̨́̀. It was like being kicked in the gut. Something flooded through her all at once, making electricity arc through the room. Metal chairs went sliding away across the floor as she shoved off the wall and flashed toward her, yanking her by the collar and pulling her face to face, nose to nose. "How do you...?!"

How many people? She'd lost track.

Kill her. She had to be one of them. She was stupid for even listening.

What did they take? It didn't matter.

Kill h̕e͟r.

She stared into her eyes, her face contorted with emotion, tightening her grip on her shirt.

Their faces rushed through her head, unbidden. A bloody wreck of a corpse, nothing left above the shoulders. Bodies slumped in an elevator, black figures strewn across a hotel lobby, a coat floating in the ocean a crushed skull her a severed hand scissors and glass her a splatter against the wall someone falling over a railing her and a burned out carcass in a hall and they took her they took them they took L̴a̢i̡n͏ the Lain that always smiled that never cried that still needed help tying her shoes they took her they'd kill her they'd kill her.

Kil͠l ̷her̷.

For the brefiest moment, Dakota had felt an ounce of selfish satisfaction. After all her sneers and mockery, just to catch her off her game and turn the tables, if even for a mere second, was enough to twist the corner of her mouth into a smile. What was it she said? Her name? What of it -

Everything changed in a swift, blurred frenzy. The desks screeched as they flew across the room and the red-head raised her arms up, her own scream catching in her throat as she winced away from the sudden bursts of lightning. "You -" She was dazed, the collar of her shirt digging into the back of her neck.

Kota could hear her death kneel. The look on Katherine's face, her fury, the faces of all those lost to her; and God, there were so many, so gruesome deaths. This might have actually been it for her. She didn't answer at first, realizing how violently her entire body was shivering. Magic certainly wasn't there to save her now, was he?

"It's... it's easy," She murmured through pale lips. Her green eyes met Kayla's. "I can see straight through people." She could hardly feel a thing other than her heart, near ready to beat straight out of her chest. "Killing me won't bring Lain back."

Whoever that was. The girl fluttered her eyes closed. This was never how she'd thought she'd go.

That wasn't an excuse that wasn't an excuse that wasn't an excuse. She shoved her against the closest desk, twisting her grip on her collar and making buttons pop off her school uniform. Hearing heŗ name in someone else's mouth felt like a knife punched into her heart. "You bitch..." she growled, electricity pulsing through the room in ripples and arcs, making the classroom lights flicker. "Where did you—...?! How did...!" Fuck. Useless useless useless us̵ele͏ss̀ useless. It was useless trying to wring anything out of her. K͘ìl̸l ́h̡er. Killing her wouldn't bring Lain back, but it was a start. She'd already killed so many people trying to bring Lain back, and none of it had ever helped, so what did any of it matter? If she was one of them, then nothing stopped her. She knew too much she knew too much she knew too much she knew too̵ ̨m͘úch ͘s̴he knew͜ toǫ ̨mu̸cḩ ̴sh̸e k҉n̛e̕w͠ she͠ had ͝to̷ ̵be ̴one̸ o͟f͢ t͢hém.

Kayla flung her to the floor, electricity crackling up her back and ready to rocket up her arm as she leveled her hand toward the girl on the ground. All it'd take was a s̡n̷a̧͘p̷͏̀ of her fingers and it'd be over.

The young woman choked for air, the fabric of her collar twisting and biting away at her until she was thrown away like a rag-doll, crumpling unto the floor. She hardly had any time to catch her breath, gasping and wreathing, all the while staring up at the crazed student. Was she really so weak? Dakota made a reach for the closest desk, to pull herself up, or hide behind, or anything - she didn't know. Her body was frozen, yet restless, and her mind was in a complete frenzy. She was such an idiot. She didn't want to die here. Not to her.

But it seemed more and more like she had no choice.

"Go ahead and do it then!" Kota screamed at her, her voice shrill and cracking, near blending in with the hideous electricity that whipped around them. "Kill... Kill... Kill..." She clenched her emerald eyes shut, shaking her head. "Kill... Kill... KillKillKill - !!" Even as she trembled, she managed to face the girl head-on, opening her eyes and staring defiantly up at her. "It's all I can hear! You're just as bad as them, so just do it!"

At least, it'd be quick, right? For a moment, her eyes dared to trail away to an open window, where Kayla had been standing before; shattered open to oblivion. She made a reach for a stray table leg, broken in the disarray.

'I'm sorry, Magic.'

Her scream rung in her ears as she stared into her eyes, green eyes, wide and full of fear and on the edge of tears. The girl's voice cracked as a whirlwind of emotions and memories blurred past, rage and sorrow and fear, red eyes, blue eyes, brown eyes. Snap, one snap, one crack, one bolt, one billion volts of electricity through a human body, enough to burn, paralyze, kill, seared flesh and burst blood vessels. She'd even started to get used to the smell, like charred pork underneath the thick stench of ash and sulfur.

K͘͝͝i̡l҉̴̧͝l̷̴̛͟͝ ҉̷͡ḩ̀͘͠ȩ̸͘͜r̵̸̀̀͟.̧͘͝͠

How could she be as bad as them, as bad as Magic and the rest? She didn't know, she didn't see, she'd never wanted this, all she'd wanted was... A wave of fresh anger, blood red rage that swelled up in her chest, flooding through the maelstrom of conflicting thoughts.

K̸ì͜l̀͡l͟ ̵̛h̸̕er̢.̛҉

No, no, no, she'd already known that. Who was she kidding? She'd said it to herself a hundred times. Every night before she fell asleep, if she slept at all, she said it to herself. Maybe she was a monster, but what did that make her? How could she let her live when she'd said it, her name, her name, her name, she knew she knew she knew she knew about Lain and the rest, she had to be one of them, she had to die, she had to save her, she had to protect Lain, she had to kill her so no one would know, she was like Magic, she had to kill her, it'd be sweet to kill her.

K͘il͡l ͏he͘r̸.͜

She had to die she had to die what was she doing she had to kill her she had to die do it she had to die do it now. A hundred voices jumbled together in her ears, trying their best to clamor over the static, a colorless voice with no name attached ringing cold and clear above the chaos. 'And that brings us here, doesn't it, Katherine?'

Like them, never like them, she couldn't be one of them.

'If you refuse, she dies.'

Kill her.

Kayla screamed and snapped her fingers, filling the room with light.

Past her words of stupid, bitter bravery, she was still completely, utterly terrified. The Spring tucked her head down, hiding her face away and letting her tears fall into her lap as she held her hands over her head as if that would do anything at all to stop the hideous thoughts, or whatever choice bolt of lightning would bring her end. It would be over in an instant, she told herself again. She wouldn't have to suffer, unlike any other of the faces she saw flashing before her clenched eyes.

"I'm sorry." More than to just Magic. To her parents for failing and leaving them out? She'd told them she was responsible enough to go off on her own. To Kath-... Kayla as well? Although, it was certainly far too late for that. To Will, maybe? Or Jaii? She couldn't very well help them with her problems now. Or herself, for being such a top-tier dumb-

Her gasp froze in her through as she stiffened up, the roar of thunder biting away at her ears. There was nothing but a deafening roar then and a flash so bright she could've sworn she'd went blind, or caught her first peak of heaven above. It was almost funny once she'd realized that she was, in fact, still in the same room, still trembling on that tile floor; the space behind her to her right nothing but a heaping, smoldering mess.

For some time, the woman stayed on the ground, paralyzed - perhaps somewhat literally. "I..." Her own voice had left her. She was still alive? How? "Y-your mind... I..." Where did all that bravery from moments ago flee to? "I - I can read..."

Dakota bit away at her lip, unable to fathom exactly what had just happened, nor string together a decent sentence it seemed. Her green eyes dared to find Kayla again. Slowly, hesistantly, she pulled herself back up onto her feet. She took an immediate few steps back for the door, holding her breath, like the end might come again at any moment.