ตอน 8: Everywhere

Ava woke up perplexed as to what happened the last night. She sat up on her bed with a burning pain at the back of her head. Ava struggled to remember all the events that happened last night but all she could remember was the horrendous face in front of her and as she looked into the creature's mouth, she felt like something was penetrating her body. She tried to forget the recollections of the soul-less animal that levitated before her, but she seemed to fail every time.

She went to the bathroom to see herself in the mirror. Her face was very pale, and her eyes were crimson red. One thing she noticed was a bruise on the left side of her forehead and it was slightly bleeding. She took a cloth and gently cleaned it trying to reduce the bleeding. She freshened up her face with cold water to wake herself up from all the disturbing memories playing in her mind. She looked at herself in the mirror and she stared at her hair. It was a mess and tangled. Ava couldn't be bothered to fix it at that moment, so she carried herself down the stairs and slumped herself on the kitchen chairs.

"Hey mom," Ava said wearily.

Ava's mom turned around and eyed Ava carefully.

"Ava! What happened to you? And why is your forehead bruised?"

"Did you not hear it last night?"

Ava's mom stared at her puzzled.

"Heard what?"

Ava thought about it for a second and decided it was probably a nightmare she had, and she must have fallen out of her bed. So, she brushed off that thought of the demon-like creature behind her door.

"Nothing. It was probably a nightmare."

"Sure? The bruise looks pretty bad. Does it hurt?"

"Yea I'm sure. I might have just fallen off the bed and the bruise doesn't hurt."

"Ok. Go get ready because you have school today."

Ava nodded and went upstairs dressing up for school. She walked downstairs and had breakfast. She said goodbye to her mom and walked to school trying to administer what had happened the night before. She eventually reached school and was walking towards her first class when she was stopped by Noah.

"Hey... Ava? What happened to you?"

"Huh?"

"Your bruise? Did someone hurt you?"

"Noooo. I just fell off my bed and hit my head. No-one hurt me."

"Ok. Do you have any plans for today?"

Ava looked over Noah's shoulder just to see an odd animal gaping at her next to one of Noah's friends. They carefully eyed each other, Ava trying to figure out if it was the same unearthly creature that she witnessed last night. But this 'thing' was different. The mouth seemed to be stitched shut with black string contrasting to the feeble face of the creature and there were wounds and skin cracking off all over its face. One of the other noticeable features was the long, dark scar that ran through the creature's left eyelid. It was as if someone had taken a knife and intentionally carved it. Ava squinted her eyes trying to figure out what it was until she realized it was a little girl.

"Ava!" Noah shouted.

Ava immediately looked back at Noah, with a worried expression on her face. She looked back over his shoulder again to see that the little girl was gone.

"Ava. Are you okay? Your face is pale."

"Yes, yes. I'm fine."

Noah looked behind him to see what she was looking at. He saw nothing so he turned back around to look at Ava.

"What were you looking at?"

"Oh! It was nothing. Don't worry about it."

"I've been calling your name, but you weren't answering."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't hear you."

Noah looked at her confused. He just pushed away any thoughts he had and continued talking.

"So... Do you have any plans today?"

"Uhhh. No, not really. Why?"

"Do you want to get some ice cream after school. It's a pretty hot day."

It was a hot day, and Ava was starting to think that the heat was making her fantasize things.

"Yeah sure. I'll meet you at the front gates after our last classes?"

"Yeah. Ok, bye Ava."

"Bye Noah."

Noah turned around and walked the opposite direction leaving Ava in the middle of the hallway. Ava walked to her class, but as she was going to enter it, out of the corner of her eye she saw a boy about the same age as her running around the corner. She went to follow him but when she turned around the corner, she encountered a wall with a window on it and a door that was the janitor's closet. Ava was getting creeped out by the things that were happening in her school, so she turned around and went back.

As she was turning back around, a boy with horns as hard as rock coming out of his head jumped in front of Ava. Ava fell to the ground while the boy jumped on top of her trying to attack her. The teenager looked down at Ava and showed off his 3 rows of razor-sharp teeth in his mouth. Ava struggled to hit the boy with all her energy but every time she did, her hands went straight through his body. A student walking by ran towards Ava and stood her up.

"Hey, are you ok?"

"I- I don't know. What happened?" Ava asked, panic in her voice.

"I just saw you laying on the floor punching the air crying 'Stop!'"

Ava looked at him expressionlessly. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Do you want me to take you to the nurse's office?" the polite student questioned.

"No. Thank you for your help though." Ava stated, a bit offended in away.

The student walked away from her heading back to his class as Ava sat down leaning against the wall. She didn't know what was happening to her.

'How could that not be real? I saw him with my own eyes, although he did look a bit familiar. I don't know why I couldn't touch him. But it seemed like he was a ghost. No, it can't be. Ghosts aren't real. I'm probably just seeing things because of the heat. But he looked so real. How come I was the only one who could see him? Noah couldn't see him. This random student couldn't see him. What is going on with me?'