t w o

I follow my friends inside the dining hall and a couple of professors walk up to us. One of them, Mrs. Greene, smiles at me. She is my professor and Arin's too, "Oh! I am glad you and your friends were able to make it, Caroline! You, Arin and Victor come with me. Amy! The arts professor is waiting for you over there! Doug, you can work with the engineering group over there!" She turns and swiftly hurries over to the back where some are already working on the lights.

Great, I get to work with Victor and Arin.

When we follow Mrs. Greene to the back wall, she hands me parts of the light circuit and Arin other parts, "We are working to make this festival different than the rest! Feel free to make your own design with the electronics! We just want lights on this back wall! Be creative!"

"Ah, so you just need my help back here then?"

"Yes, please Victor! You may float around and help the other groups as well!" She says happily before hurrying off.

Arin looks over at me and smiles, "Ah, finally I get to work on the same project as you, my sweet Caroline!"

I roll my eyes, ignore his comment and look down at the parts Mrs. Greene handed me, "Which parts do you have Arin?"

"Ah, parts A and C,"

"Okay great, I have B and D. So put A right here,"

Arin chuckles, "I know how this works too, my sweet,"

I face-palm and sigh, "Just, for once, let's get this done, Arin,"

Arin chuckles again and finally does what I asked, "You are really fun to pick on, Caroline,"

Victor chuckles from behind us, "I actually agree with you for once Arin,"

"Both of you are assholes," I say plainly. I connect part B to the A and fiddle with it, making myself busy as to ignore the assholes around me. Arin then connects part C when he finishes laughing and the contraption we are holding is beginning to look the way it should.

From the corner of my eye, I see Victor watching me curiously, "Are electronics really that interesting to you, Victor?"

"Well, obviously they are to you. I am just watching. You better be grateful I am going to help you,"

"Huh, it's not like you had nothing else to do, right?" I say sarcastically.

Victor smirks at me and crosses his arms, "It's not like you can do it yourself, hmm?"

"Are you two having a sass off right now? This is highly amusing, by the way, my sweet Caroline!"

"We can hear you all the way over here, Arin! Ya loudmouth!" Doug calls from across the room before laughing loudly, "And for the last time, she's my sweet Caroline, not yours!"

I turn away and connect part D to the electronic board and all the lights surrounding us on the floor and wall light up all at once.

Victor's eyes shoot up at them and his smirk fades into just a smile. I turn away before he sees me watching him and I begin climbing the short ladder to reach the top, "Victor, hand me the white string of lights over there,"

"I was going to," He says as he hands them to me.

"Shut up, no you weren't!"

Arin chuckles, "My sweet ice queen, what may I do for you?"

I scoff, "I don't care what you do, Arin. Begin placing the other lights or something and be useful, will you,"

I hang up the white light string on one hook and turn back to face Arin, "Actually, Arin, connect the next circuit board parallel to this board. That might be a good thing to do,"

"Ah, parallel, that's when you connect another circuit to the closed one right?"

"Mm-hmm, the second circuit is independent to the first one. Did you seriously forget this, Arin? Our finals are next week!"

Arin fumbles with the circuit boards behind me, "Of course not! You passed my assessment!"

I scoff again, "Sure you didn't forget,"

Victor chuckles softly, "Says the one who comes to Arin with questions,"

I narrow my eyes at him, "Shut up Victor! No one asked you!"

I turn around and finish hanging up the string of white lights across the top of the wall. I carefully climb down, pick up the long string of red lights and look behind me to Victor, "Follow and help me hang these around the entire ceiling of the dining hall,"

"Not with that attitude!" He smirks and takes the wad of lights from me. I roll my eyes and begin to scan the room. I can't tell what he's really thinking. Whatever. Now to hang these up and check on Doug.

As I approach Doug's area, I glance down at what they are doing as I hang up, piece by piece, the red string of lights as Victor hands them to me. The room is beginning to look like a nice holiday party with red, green and white lights glowing everywhere. Doug's group is building mechanical projects of holiday characters that interact with other characters. Like snowmen and other holiday related things. Later they will need us to build small circuit boards for the lights of those characters.

Easy.

As I begin hanging lights above Doug's working area, he looks up with those pretty green eyes of his shining from the red glow from the lights and smirks, "Hey! Don't fall from up there! Those lights look good!"

"Thanks. Arin was helpful for once. Can you believe it?"

He laughs, "Well he is your classmate. He ought to know all that stuff, finals are next week!" He turns around, fiddles with one of the parts of his project and then looks back up at me, "We are almost ready for the lights, Caroline,"

"Cool, I will be done soon with these red lights,"

"Nice," He says then turns around and continues working.

We make it all the way back to where we started and Arin has finished getting the rest of the lights working in parallel. I pick up the string of green lights and now the area looks organized. Surprising for Arin being the one who was working over here.

"Nice choice of placing the red up top, Caroline! Now for the green!"

"Mm-hmm, and Doug needs us to light up his mechanical projects soon. Head on over there and find out how many,"

He smiles at me with his wide and creepy smile. Something about it is more silly than creepy, but this is Arin we are talking about, "Right away, my ice queen!"

Ugh, and why does he call me that again? Oh right, because I am an asshole. Why does he like that anyway? He's totally a weirdo.

Arin walks away and when I look around, Victor has also disappeared. I grip the green lights and begin approaching the large tree on the far wall opposite to where Doug's group is. This is our holiday tree that needs to be lit up with lights. Last year we used white, but this year it will be green. Green to match Doug's beautiful eyes.

As I begin lacing the tree's branch layers with green lights from as high up as I can reach while using the nearby stool, the music seems to decrease in volume and the rest of the room seems to darken. I stop what I am doing, look around to find my vision is darkening and I begin to slightly feel lightheaded.

No... not again. Not here.

My head begins to throb violently as the dining hall around me morphs into a deserted and decrepit room. Just like the courtyard before.

The tree that I was just decorating is gone and the room appears like it is falling apart slowly. The stench of decaying bodies reaches my nostrils and I feel my stomach tighten. The room appears dark with faint lights dangling around from the walls and ceiling. Are those the red lights I was just decorating the ceiling with?

I look down at my hands and pieces of the string green lights are scattered around my feet like the tree fell apart and disappeared. Most of the bulbs are broken, shattered and scattered all around my feet and I begin to notice more bodies littering the floor. Patches of dark, dried red liquid is scattered all over the floor. Sounds of thick liquid is heard dripping from somewhere, echoing through the room.

One of the faces on one of those bodies is looking directly at me. It looks like a young guy and the colors of his eyes and hair cannot be seen clearly; the room is too dark. I step down from the stool and slowly approach the body. It is in the area close to where Doug was working just moments ago. The closer I get, I notice the position he is in and the colors of his features.

My heart races in my chest as I begin to make out the deep red hair on his head and the dull, dark green eyes looking back at me with horror all over his face. They are wide with no life left in them at all.

No.

"Why... have... you... not... come... to... play... yet?" A young girl's voice fills my ears, the same voice I heard before back in the courtyard.

My insides jump 10 feet into the air as I spin around and see that same bluish-white figure staring at me with no eyes, looking right through my soul. I feel shivers roll up and down my spine once again as she stares me down, slowly getting closer to me. As long as she stares at me, a cold breeze whips around me, blowing around my black hair.

Fear washes over me and I fall backwards as she reaches out towards me with her see-through hand, "Here... let... me... help... you,"

I shake my head forcefully and try to back away, only causing myself to find one of the lose boards in the floor and forcing my headache to throb even harder. It shatters beneath me and the sensation of myself falling is brief. Then it is followed with a hand gripping my arm, lifting me up into the air.

But when I look up, I expected to see the ghost girl bringing me to my death with her soulless eyes. But instead, I look around vigorously and see the dining hall is the back the way it was. Doug is helping me to sit up from lying flat on my back with a worried look in his eyes.

Now they will not like the same stupid excuse I gave them last time...

Amy is behind him with her hands covering her mouth while Arin and Victor are watching us with a concerned look on their faces.

Mrs. Greene hurries over to us with a deeply worried expression, "Oh! Are you alright, Caroline? I will go get the nurse! Boys, keep watch on her, please!"

Maybe I should let the nurse check on me. Maybe there is a logical explanation of what is happening to me. I hate hiding this away from everyone, from my friends.

Doug keeps his perfect emerald eyes locked on mine and kneels down right next to me, "Are you alright, Caroline? What were you thinking, falling like that?"

I look at him and glance at everyone else for a moment with a confused look, "What? Falling?" My voice comes out weak and in a low whisper.

Arin pushes past Victor and kneels down on my other side. Doug wipes the tears away, that I just now noticed are sliding down my face, with his thumb and searches my face, then whispers, "Y—You don't remember... anything?"

I shake my head slowly, telling them more than I really wanted to. This must label me as crazy. What if they won't like me anymore knowing this? Knowing that I must be insane? To be seeing things that I have been seeing?

"Something is bothering you. I'm your best friend, Caroline. You can tell me anything,"

Before I can say anything, a wave of dizziness hits me again and I feel a sudden wave of sleepiness. My hearing drops and begins to sound wobbly and distorted. I cannot hold myself up any longer as I feel hands and arms stop me from hitting the ground, then lifting me up into the air.

"Mrs. Greene? She fainted—!" Doug's voice calls out. His voice sounds distant as the sensation of someone carrying me somewhere washes over me. I allow my eyes to close and sleep tugs on the back of my mind.

"You will be alright, Caroline," Doug whispers to me. My stomach drops as I listen to his voice. I continue to feel him wipe away the tears sliding down my face.

I just want this all to end. To leave me alone.

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