Annabelle pushed open the door to her classroom and walked in, clutching her bleeding arm with her left hand. The heads of everyone in the class turned towards her, but she avoided eye contact and found a seat.
"Miss Annabelle, you're late!"
"I know," Annabelle replied curtly, attempting to hide her wound so the lecturer wouldn't notice.
"Are you alright, Miss Annabelle? You look injured," the female lecturer asked, her sharp eyes taking in Annabelle's disheveled appearance.
"It's all thanks to Mirabelle, but I'm fine, ma'am," Annabelle replied, taking her seat.
"You need to go to the infirmary for treatment," the lecturer insisted, staring at Annabelle's bleeding arm.
"I said I'm fine, okay?" Annabelle replied rudely, the pain from her injured arm making her irritable.
Mirabelle had done an incredible job, not only stabbing Annabelle with a dagger but also inflicting a deep cut on her skin.
Do students still bring weapons like that to college? Annabelle wondered as she glanced at the teacher, contemplating bringing a dagger to school herself. It seemed necessary for self-defense.
She took a deep breath, feeling lightheaded, and waited patiently for the lecturer, who was assigning them a take-home experiment involving animals with four legs.
Finally, the lecturer left the classroom, and Annabelle's tired eyes sparkled with excitement.
She sighed with satisfaction, grabbed her backpack, and stealthily left the campus.
She couldn't risk being seen by the lecturers, especially Mirabelle.
She was certain that if Mirabelle spotted her, she wouldn't hesitate to attack her.
If that happened, Annabelle wouldn't be able to defend herself because of her injured arm. Mirabelle was much stronger than she had anticipated.
...
Pushing open the door to her house, Annabelle stepped inside, noticing her dad's absence.
The house was eerily quiet, and a chill ran down her spine, as if something had happened in her absence.
The living room, which she had tidied up earlier that morning, now looked like a mess, just like she did.
She groaned, running her fingers through her hair in frustration as she screamed at the top of her lungs. She was already frustrated, with an experiment to conduct, and now she had to clean up the house as well.
Her alcoholic father was giving her a hard time, but he hadn't caused this much destruction before. There were bottles scattered around, and she knew he couldn't have done it alone. He wasn't usually this aggressive and destructive, even the curtains were torn. "He must have brought one of his drunk friends, and maybe they fought," she concluded. That was the only explanation she could come up with, as the house looked like a battleground. She was relieved that she hadn't left any of her books or important belongings in the living room; they were safely locked away in her room. She couldn't afford to replace her textbooks if they got ruined. Her savings had just run out, and she planned to find a part-time job to earn some money.
She tossed her backpack onto the sofa and began unbuttoning her uniform. Suddenly, she turned her head, squinting as if someone was watching her, but she couldn't see anyone. She was alone in the large, ruined house, and didn't want to scare herself to shit by pondering about it, so she shrugged it off.
She discarded her school shirt, now wearing only a singlet and a skirt with a broken zipper. She had no money and didn't know what to do about her ruined school skirt zipper. She was now only in black leather shorts and a singlet, which could be considered revealing, but she was alone in her home—or at least, that's what she thought.
She threw her clothes on different sofas, her frustration evident, before hurrying into the bathroom to take a bath and tend to her injured arm.
...
Stepping out of the bathroom, Annabelle headed to her room and put on a long loosed black shirt that reached her knees before walking into the kitchen to prepare something to eat.
Since she couldn't cook with her injured arm and had difficulty eating, she gulped down a glass of milk. When she finished, she washed the cup and put it back where it belonged before leaving the kitchen.
She hummed a melodious tune as she gathered the equipment she would need for her experiment, hoping that she still had a rabbit in the cage for her experiment.
However, when she approached the cage where she had kept the rabbit, she was disappointed.
The cage was empty; her rabbit had vanished.
"Dad! What the hell...?" she yelled angrily, knowing he wasn't at home but had likely let the rabbit escape. Why couldn't he stay away from her things? He was making her life unbearable, and now even her rabbit was gone. She had no money left; what was she going to do now?
The cage door was wide open, and the rabbit couldn't have opened it on its own.
Thinking of how to proceed with her experiment since she no longer had any animals with four feet, she decided to go into the woods and find another animal.
Though she didn't know how to use a bow and arrow, she thought she could give it a try. She had seen her dad use it on several occasions, and it seemed pretty easy.
She could have bought another animal with four feet, but she had spent her savings on other equipment for her experiment. So she was left with no option but to venture into the unknown, into the woods she detested. If anything happened to her, her dad would be held responsible.
She walked out of the house and closed the door before venturing into the woods, hoping that since it was noon, there wouldn't be any lurking shadows. And if there was any danger, she would defend herself with the arrow.
...
She had spent hours in the woods but hadn't seen any animals with four feet, except for the birds, which were producing weird noises that frightened her.
Birds don't have four feet; otherwise, she would have trapped one and gone home with it.
Every little noise she heard frightened her, and fear had consumed her to the extent that she wanted to crouch to the floor and cry until someone else arrived to rescue her and take her home.
She had a great detestation for the woods, but if not for certain circumstances and her love for experimenting with animals, she wouldn't have thought of going into the woods. But right now, she was regretting her decision of stepping foot into the woods. It felt like volunteering oneself to be sacrificed. It was like she intentionally walked into a lion's den.
Fortunately for her, just as she was about to give up, she spotted a rabbit feasting on a lifeless antelope.
"What!" she gasped softly, trying not to scare away the rabbit.
She was surprised at the sight of the dead antelope. Her dad had told her that the only creatures that could be found in the woods were birds and rabbits, so how come there was a dead antelope? She would have a word with her dad once she returned because this was proof that she had indeed heard growls in the woods.
She aimed her arrow at the rabbit and was about to shoot when she unexpectedly felt a strange presence, which made her heart skip. As a result, she missed her target and shot the dead antelope instead of the rabbit, which had already run away.
"Shit, I missed my chance," she complained, clearly disappointed.
Feeling alarmed by the eerie feeling surrounding her, she decided it was best to head back home and borrow some money from her dad since it was already getting close to twilight.
The feeling of being watched intensified, confirming her suspicion that something or someone was standing behind her.