It was silent. Their breaths were the only sounds loud enough to be heard. Maya sat on the dining room floor, hiding her face in between her knees to let her tears run mutely.
"We'll be fine," said Mariette, trying to comfort her classmate. "We have to."
"There's no way we can survive the night," she whispered in return. "It's over."
"Look, the windows were all closed. It might have been the wind. You don't know if there is really a murderer outside."
When Mariette tried to sit next to Maya, she saw two red balls under the dining table. Her heart skipped a beat, her hands became sweaty, and her eyes could not look away from the floating red marbles. Nothing could be seen or heard from under the table. Those vermilion spheres were the only thing illuminating the room.
"M-Maya... are you seeing that?" asked Mariette. "There's something under the table..."
"What? There's nothing there," she said. "Are you making fun of me? I thought you were my friend."
"No! Can't you see it? Two floating red marbles!"
In an instant, the red marbles fell on the ground, making a light noise. They rolled until reaching Maya's feet. Mariette stared at her friend, waiting for her to react, but it seemed she was the only one who could see the marbles as Maya did not move.
She got closer to the little balls and touched one of them. An inexplicable heat began to run through Mariette's thin body as soon as she did it. Suddenly, a hand reached out from the table, grabbing her arm and pulling it in that direction.
"What are you doing? Are you searching for those invisible marbles of yours?" she laughed at Mariette.
The terrified girl could not even respond.
Mariette tried to resist, but she soon was under the table, hearing the breath of another being there with her. Her body froze as she felt sharp teeth scraping the skin of her neck.
"Boo," a feminine voice whispered. "Are you going to wet your pants, girlie?"
"Why are you under there? You're scaring me, Marie!" said Maya, who did not seem to hear that voice despite the silence.
"Don't you dare," said the person before kissing her neck. "Be a good girl and say you're looking for the marbles."
"I can't find the red marbles!"
Even though Mariette could not see her, Maya nodded as if she understood. All the emotions of having someone trying to break into the house on a Halloween night might have put Mariette in a difficult position. That was what Maya thought, at least.
"Good girl." She felt the beast sink its teeth into her exposed neck, sucking on it to take out her vital fluid.
A blood-craving demon; that is what the thing was. Mariette desperately let her tears fall as she felt the monster grab her waist and sink its fangs even deeper. Trying her best not to move, Mariette had to bear the pain without letting out a single cry.
That thing only stopped sucking when it heard the noise of a door opening, disappearing into the fog like it was never there. The catholic took a deep breath and prayed silently, hopelessly thanking her God for remaining alive.
"Girls?" Sophie Riviere muttered.
"Here," said Maya. "I thought you were supposed to be upstairs..."
"Long story. Let's find Lethia and Lianne."
"Where's your girlfriend?" asked Maya, but Sophie did not answer. "Something happened?"
"She was attacked... by something. There was a bite mark on her neck. I'm afraid this is much worse than we thought," said Sophie Riviere trying to appear composed.
Mariette thought of mentioning what just happened, but before she could pronounce a word, she felt a slow passed breath on her nape. That thing was back to threaten her, and so she remained silent. The poor catholic could almost hear the feminine voice saying "good girl" inside her head.
***
Lianne felt a small tear drop from her eye, but instead of cleaning it, she hugged Lethia so she would not see. Lethia was much weaker than her emotionally and would fall apart if she knew.
"Let's wait for them," she said. "Come with me to the bathroom."
Before Lethia could say anything, our delicate Marion Lianne pushed her inside the bathroom and immediately closed the door behind her without making much sound.
"How do we tell them that—"
"Don't worry. It's not our fault," Lianne touched Lethia's face softly, but the contact was not elongated. "I'm sorry... I'm terrible at this."
"I know," she giggled.
That young lady was terrified of too much human contact and could vaguely understand how she managed to hug Lethia a few minutes ago. Panic makes us do things we would not do otherwise.
"But it is our fault," Lethia continued. "If we were faster maybe—"
"There's no 'maybe' now. It's over. Forget the door. We did what we could, but it was not enough. Listen to me: they might already be inside the house. Our priority is to find our friends and get out of here. Ariadne probably knows a safe place we can head to."
Not even Marion Lianne believed her own words.
The two spent the minutes that followed in absolute silence. They did not move until the sound of running water took over the room. Marion was the closest to the shower, and although she could not see a thing, she squeezed her eyes and held her breath for more than a minute even though her lungs were screaming for air. When she let go, the sound of running water stopped.
"Do you feel pressured because of waiting?" asked Lethia after hearing the unusually loud breath of Lianne. "How do you feel? Tell me something, Lianne. You're scaring me."
Lianne could not speak. She was busy trying her hardest not to fall into despair, to control her breath and pull herself together. For the first time in her life, her body did not listen to her.
She felt close to having an episode like those Ariadne used to have. She did not know the exact name of it, but she could understand how painful it was. In her mind, she wished for Sophie Riviere to magically materialise in that silent bathroom, as she was always the one to help Ariadne out when those occurred. The sound of the water could not leave her mind: they were not alone.
"W-Water," she muttered.
"Do you want water? Is that it? Breathe..." Lethia who was about to start crying had her hand on Lianne's forehead.
"The sound of water," she managed to say.
"Do you want to hear the sound of water? I can't do that right now... we could be exposed."
Suddenly, Lianne's breath returned to normal. Her only explanation was that there was no sound of the water; she must have daydreamed about it, or so she thought. Lethia did not hear, and so it does not exist.
The bathroom door was then opened calmly by Sophie Riviere. Lianne would have screamed if Lethia did not cover her mouth with her hand.
"You scared the living shit out of me, Sophie," cried Lianne.