丂.爪
• some patterns are warnings •

She stopped screaming, only to realise no sounds had left her mouth. Ria didn't know weather to be grateful or scared. Silent terrors tormented in secret only leaving one to look crazy at the end. In her minute of fear, she had let go of the fabric allowing the mirror to be covered again. Her fingers shook uncontrollably as she lifted it again. There was nothing on the mirror, in fact it was probably the cleanest mirror she'd ever seen. There was no recollection of dust or old age as though it had been restored anew. As if it was cleaned the minute she entered the room.

'Guys, do you believe in haunted houses.' She typed the message before catching her breath.

The RAYS believed in anything. The possibility of more intrigued their minds like poison spreading in one's veins. Ria knew that she could never tell the girls of the apparitions she had been seeing for the past days. They'd of course believe her but they'd also want to know the backstory and she wasn't ready to be a monster.

You can't be un-monstered once you've become a despicable one. Croaked the voice of a far-away friend. She heard Claudia ever so often; trampling on her thoughts, telling her she deserved nothing but death. Even death would be merciful.

Yeretzi: 'yEs'

Scarlet: 'no'

Annabelle: 'umm the school is haunted so yes'

Scarlet: 'you lost case'

Ria: 'interesting'

Yeretzi: 'what's'

Scarlet: 'interesting'

Annabelle: '?'

Ria: 'lol guys just type one sentence.'

Scarlet: 'stop changing the subject with a .'

Ria: 'with a what?'
She smiled, the RAYS never failed to make her smile.

Scarlet: '.'

Yeretzi: 'a fUlLsToP dummy'

Annabelle: 'can I send a gif?'

Scarlet: 'no'

Yeretzi: 'don't listen to Reginald's girlfriend.'

Scarlet: 'REGINALD IS MY COUSIN'

Ria: 'and he's gay.'

It was as though what had happened a second ago was just a distant memory. Ria always enjoyed devouring problems, stuffing  herself till it all wanted to come out, pungent and rotten. She just wanted to be somebody to someone, sit idly and flash Scarlets fake smile but she couldn't, she wanted to change the world, be the savour in the dark night and lead the way. Be the next move. Be the revolution.

When the clouds get heavy, it rain but when Ria become heavy with burden, she'd plug in her headphones and tune someone to you as loud as she could. She knew she was harming her ears, she knew the science behind it too, all by heart but every time something like that happened, when memories came tumbling back, she did the last thing she should, she'd remember more.

Yeretzi: 'le gasps'
'Lies'
'He liked one of you.'

Ria:'who?'
She giggled in between the lyrics.

Scarlet: 'you'

Yeretzi: 'I'm disgusted for Ria.'

Ria: 'he liked Annabelle.'

Scarlet: 'RIA'
'How could u just say that!'

Yeretzi: 'you traitor'
'You broke the promise'

Annabelle: 'what?'

Scarlet: 'Annabelle and Ria close your eyes, I wanna swear.'
'Wait noo it's for Ria so Ria look.'

Ria: 'to quote Meghan, "I am confusion."'

Yeretzi: 'you didn't just quote Meghan from maths, I hate him.'

Scarlet: 'RIA YOU DUCKING WITCH YOU BROKE THE BLOODY PACT WHERES YOUR DUCKING HONOUR NOW'
'YOU PICK HEAD'
'YOU MASS HOLE'
'WHF WHY CANT I SWEAR????'

Ria grabbed onto the closets box labeled "books the 3" for support as she laughed her heart out.

Teenagers make a fool of themselves; they think the second of laughter will last them forever but they certainly do not know what comes next.

Ria's phone chimed once more, but this time is was a message from an unknown user.

'Hi Ria, it's River, Damien gave me your number. It has been a pleasure knowing you.'

She could help but smile but it didn't last for much long before the word Damien began to flash bright and red.

Furious, she stormed out of her room just as soon as Damien's head popped out of the stairs.

"YOU ARE DEAD TO ME!" She screeched. "This was the ultimate straw and now you shall be penalised." Damien laughed as though she hadn't just threatened him but told him a joke.
"What in the holy world is so funny."

"You... you." He could hardly speak within his laughter. "You... s-sa-aid pee-nalise."

"And?"

"Sounds like you're analysing pee." Damien continued shamelessly. "Pee analyst."

"Oh for gods sake. I give up on you."

"What's all this chaos?" Mr Colton asked. Startled Ria searched for her father but couldn't see him anywhere. "Up here, Ria. We have an attic now."

She moved her head to glance up. A rectangular hole was visible on the ceiling with a dangling hatch. Mr Colton held a round board in his hands which he handed to Ria.

"Take this downstairs and put it with all the other rubbish, cariño."

"Of course, dad." She obeyed and helped her father pull the antique item. It was lighter than she thought but the edges were rough.

"Why am I never called cariño." Damien flipped a response at his father, the young boy often felt jealous of his sister and he sometimes wondered if his parents were sexist.

Mr Colton chuckled lightly before saying: "cariño means sweet and are you at all sweet, Damien?"

"I'm more sweet than the sweetest sweet in this sweet wide world."

The conversation between the father and son was wholeheartedly amusing however Ria found herself deeper in head. The board was made from white ceramic which had been tinted brown from the dust that had collected on its surface. Within the surface there were scorch marks that looked random but to Ria it had a message. The marks illustrated the last image Ria witnessed at CleuBerg. The dead body of Claudia Vandell sprawled across the car park.

"Ria?"

"I need some water, I'll take this down with me."

She ran down the stairs as fast as she could. Ria was many things but crazy wasn't one of them.

She was not mad and she knew that quite well.

Once is an incident, twice is a coincidence and thrice is a patters. She knew fourth was to come.

There were two conclusions:
1) Her sins were finally catching but and they wanted her gone.
2) Someone somewhere knew something they shouldn't.

•—•

Ahhh finally!

I swear I've never had a worse case of writers block than this.

A little tip, things are gonna get messy and convoluted so do get ready ;)