Laye
I wake up to find myself tied to a bedpost. My hair is its natural black, tied down into braids that almost touch the ground if I sit on my knees. I haven't had my hair this long since I was thirteen.
I look out the window of the small bedroom, where there was no stars and the only light illuminated in from the moon.
The handle on the door rattles, and an old lady shouts, "Miss Layanne! You better be in bed by the next time I come back, or I'll have you whipped!"
A shiver goes down my spine as I hear her walk off, opening doors and closing them as she ascends down the hall.
A half an hour passes, and the door handle slowly turns before opening. I flinch, thinking that it would be the old woman, but instead three girls walk in. One of them holds a box cutter, and she silently cuts me free of the ropes.
"Come on, we're going to our hide out." She says. I raise an eyebrow.
"Come on, it'll be fun. It's not that far from here." One of them whispers, so I nod.
We walk silently down the hall, and down the stairs to the front door. We leave, and just as we do, I turn around to read the sign on the door: Miss Harriet's Catholic School For Girls.
A Catholic school?
We walk down the road a bit, and then they stop in front of a run down shed. The first girl, with brown hair, a white nightgown, and a crucifix around her neck, pulls up a lever unlocking the door.
"Why would you hang out in an old garden shed?" I ask.
"Um, excuse me, but would you rather us leave you tied up in your cupboard sized bedroom, or are you going to shut up?" The girl behind me says.
"Gwen, maybe you should shut up. Your ass is going to get us caught." The girl who opened the door says.
"Sorry, Raquelle." Gwen says.
"Heather, get your lazy butt up and hand me a crowbar." Raquelle says, heading into the shed. Heather hands her a metal bar, and she uses it to pry open a trapdoor on the ground.
"Come on, guys." Raquelle says, hopping into the hole.
Gwen and Heather follow, Heather pausing to curse at how unsanitary it was.
I go in after them, and the room we were left in was almost completely dark.
"Hey dipshits, find a light switch so we can actually see." Gwen says.
"I can't find anything." Heather says, but Raquelle says nothing. There was a sound of two rocks grinding together, and then there was light.
"Maybe you two should stop bickering and actually get something done." Raquelle says, holding up a torch.
She hangs it on the wall, and that's when I see what's in here. A table with various different scalpels and medical scissors, two chains connected to the wall connected to handcuffs, and different weapons hanging on the wall, knives, guns, even a mace.
"What is this place?" I ask.
Gwen laughs. "Raquelle, it's been so long since we've done this, I almost thought you had retired the urge."
Heather looks around, picking up a scalpel and looking at it. "Yeah, last time went by too quickly. He died within a couple hours. This time, it'll be slow." She says, looking at me with a wicked glance.
Raquelle looks slightly annoyed. "We can't make it slow. Remember what happened with Kathryn? We were so close to getting caught, the police almost found a fingerprint. I think we'll use the M16."
"What are we doing down here? Someone explain." I say, heartbeat racing.
"Oh, I almost forgot." Gwen says, taking my wrist, and locking it in one of the handcuffs. I yank, but it doesn't budge.
"What's happening?!" I yell.
"Shut up, Layanne." Raquelle says, lifting a gun off a rack.
"Seriously, why are you doing this? You uncuff me and then bring me down here to cuff me again? Put that gun down!" I yell.
"Jesus Christ, do you ever shut up? I guess that's why your parents wanted to be rid of you." She says.
"What the heck?!" I yell.
She points the gun at my face. "Say another word and I'll blow you to pieces."
"Your crazy. Absolutely insane. You won't shoot me, you can't!" I yell.
"God doesn't like the homos." She says with a look of disgust.
"Yeah, well I'm pretty damn sure God doesn't like raging psychopaths." I say.
"You have no right to judge me, idiot." She says, wrapping her finger around the trigger.
"Go to hell." I say. I flinch as she pulls the trigger.
•••
I'm not sure if I'm dead. There's grass as far as the eye can see, and I quietly hum to myself. The sky was a desaturated blue, mainly clouds moving at an irregularly fast rate, like a slideshow.
There's a sound of someone snapping, and suddenly the old guy Charlie stands there.
"So am I dead then? Because I'm pretty sure you're supposed to see your family and loved ones once you get to heaven, not some old guy that runs an apartment complex in a video game." I say.
He smiles, "Laye, you aren't dead. It was just a flashback that you're having as you go through the portal." He says.
"So, what's going on?" I ask.
"Well, I've already explained to Elle and Jemma in their dreams. There's some things you've been questioning since you've entered Jaylemm. And I'm here to answer them."