Chereads / Affliction / Chapter 4 - Chapter Four

Chapter 4 - Chapter Four

The car pulled up to the front of the school. She hadn't felt the drive but everything registered when the driver began to honk the horn. She stepped out and the car drove away. Now that she was alone in front of an empty school driveway, she thought about going inside but then she would be more alone than she felt right now. She had been betrayed by her two best friends but the funny thing was that this did not feel like a betrayal it just felt as if they had gone out of their way to leave her out.

This was not normal, she felt herself getting angry to the point that her eyes began to burn and twitch. There was something very strong burning inside her and it was so intense it was almost blinding. Since when could anger feel this palpable? She thought to herself.

She decided to head to the back of the school to the restrooms near the gym to avoid any possible early comers but first, she'd have to pass the basketball courts. She ran as fast as she could and when she made it halfway her legs started shaking and she fell to her knees.

The strange energy she felt in the pits of her stomach threatened to pour out of her, almost as if it was going to rip her in half and climb out of her body. She thought she was going to vomit but what came out was a loud almost animal-like thundering scream and suddenly she saw a bright white light and felt a huge ball of energy dispelling from her body and encroaching her axis.

The ground began to shake and crumble underneath her and she passed out...

Quinton had watched his best friend of nearly eight years rush out of the café looking equal parts devastated and furious. He felt like absolute shit for disappointing her especially after everything she's gone through because of the actions of a few inscrutable people which subsequently included his new girlfriend.

He never meant to fall for the redheaded beauty but it just happened one night when they were at a party and things spun out of control. He knew he was risking his friendship with Xanthippeia but he was only hoping she would be a bit more understanding. However badly he handled the situation he knew he needed to talk to her and fix it so he got in his car and drove back to her house.

There was a loud knock on the front door when Xanthippeias' father was going downstairs. It was Quinton and he was in haste.

"Hi Mr C, is Xan here?" he asked. Mateo Castiano looked confused at the boy he'd known for years.

"No, no I was under the assumption that she left with you earlier. Why did something happen?" He answered and asked.

Quinton looked nervous again. He didn't know what to say. Should he have admitted that he had betrayed his daughter? No, he couldn't, he just couldn't. Instead, he just answered;

"Yeah um nothing happened she just forgot something here and she said she'd come and fetch it. I just wanted to give her a ride back."

Mateo gave him a sceptical look and nodded. He was suspicious but not to the extent that he would be worried. Instead, he just told Quinton that he had to get ready for work and that he didn't have time for this teenager nonsense.

Quinton got the hint and made his way back to his car. Once he was in there he decided to call Carey and check if Xanthippeia wasn't with her.

"Hey Care um is Xan with you by any chance?" he asked. Carey answered that she hadn't talked to her since earlier this morning.

"Okay cool. Where are you right now?" he asked and she told him she was making her way into the school building.

"Q, what's with the twenty questions? What's going on with you today?" she inquired. But he didn't answer her right away. He got this nervous knot in his stomach and blurted out that he had breakfast with Xan this morning and told her everything. Carey didn't say anything for a moment.

He heard her taking in a deep breath and then she started to yell at him about the fact that they were supposed to tell her together so to cushion the blow and then she stopped abruptly as she was walking down the hall towards the gym. She stood next to one of the floor-length windows and something caught her eyes when all of a sudden she smelt smoke and it was coming from outside.

"Carey. Are you still there?" Quinton said over the phone. She turned the phone off and slowly walked to investigate the strange smell.

She was halfway through the gym when the smoke came in through one of the open windows and set off the fire alarms. Trickles of fast water were coming down on her so she ran as quickly as her 6-inch heels would carry her. When she finally made it outside there was a big cloud of smoke coming from the basketball courts that were surrounded by the buildings.

Carey has never been a person to walk into danger, she would have much rather picked up the phone and waiting on the sidelines but today was different. Something was pushing her to move forward. Even though the thick smoke was making her cough she fanned it out of the way to try and beat a path to get to the source of it.

She stepped closer and tripped on a bag on the ground, she bent down to pick it up and saw that it was a black leather backpack with a heart stitched graphic patch on the side and instantly recognised it as Xanthippeias' bag she got for Christmas last year from her father. In a panic, she sped up and was suffocating when she squinted her eyes really hard and saw Xan crouched down in a hole in the ground. She was so mortified at the sight that she started to scream.

"OH MY GOD!! Xan, Xan is that you?" Carey screamed down at the hole. When she didn't respond Carey took a step closer and bent down to grab Xanthippeia by her arm, she stretched out her hand futilely because the hole was deeper than she thought and it slipped onto the side of the hole and burned her, it was excruciatingly painful, she let out yet another scream, this one was so loud it stirred Xanthippeia out of her complete comatose state a little.

After Carey cut the call, Quinton sat in his car for a few minutes until he decided to start up the engine and drive. As he was making his way to school he started to really worry about what he did to Xanthippeia and the fact that Carey was mad at him now also only seemed to make things worse.

He thought about trying to call Carey again but he didn't and decided he'd deal with it when he saw them at school in a few minutes. Xan had to be with Carey by now anyway and they had probably gotten into it. He figured if he gave them time to talk it out first then it wouldn't be so hard to deal with the both of them.

His logic was flawed but it gave him comfort so he decided to slow down and just cruise for a little bit so he could think of what he was going to say to get over this hump. He really wanted to make things better with the two most important girls in his life, hopefully, it wouldn't be too late.