Chapter Text
ANNE'S POV
Anne's tired. She always is, but this morning the feeling of weariness and weakness is worse than the other days.
She drags herself out of the bed, almost falling on the ground when she puts her feet on the cold floor. Her legs are tired as she, they don't bear her in the right way. She sways to the door, opens and almost fall ahead on the dark hallway.
There are no lights in the house, she's the only one awake and she doesn't want to wake any other up. With nothing less than a miracle she's able to reach the bathroom at the end of the hallway without making any noises. She opens the door, switches on the light. Her reflection in the mirror makes her almost flinch for the surprise. She looks like someone who has been hit by a truck, the bags under her eyes seems done with the black marker.
Anne sighs, exhausted, as she closes the door behind her. She's not in the right mood for going to school but she has no choice, like every morning. With a great effort she takes a shower, hesitating a lot under the hot stream of water, it's comfortable behind surrounded by steam and water. She can't stay inside the shover too much, she exits with another sigh of relief, grabs the first towel she finds and rubs her hair, there's no way they'll be dry before the time to go out but she doesn't care: she dresses up still wearing the towel on her messy hair, she doesn't need to chose something complicated as clothes: the first hoodie she has in the wardrobe and a pair of bleached jeans will be perfect. The jeans have also a reap on the knee, she doesn't care as she puts them off, she searches for the shoes in the end. One is under the bed, the other near the window.
She ties them but she's not looking at what she's doing: with her gaze she searches her bag, the maths book she's sure she didn't put inside the backpack the night before. She finds everything and stands up, puts the bag on his back and goes downstairs, always trying to be more silent than a ninja.
She opens the fridge, searches for some already-prepared food to eat before waiting for Sasha. She finds a sandwich with ham and mayonnaise from the day before, she takes it and with the other hand she closes the fridge. Her phone buzzes as she's about to bite the sandwich with satisfaction, she flinches and puts the sandwich in his mouth anyway, biting it hard to not let him fall on the floor.
She walks to her phone, detaches the charger from the socket on the wall. It's Sasha, she texted her less than a minute before. Are you ready? I'm waiting for you... She sends Anne a smiling emoji, Anne shakes her head but a smile bends her lips, she finishes her sandwich in a record time and exits, remembers to grab the key on her way to the door.
She closes the door behind her and gives a look above, on the second floor: her parents are still asleep, she has been silent enough.
The sky this morning looks like shit: it's grey, faint, the sun cannot pass through the veil of clouds. Anne feels her mood, already under her feet, lowing even more. Now it's at the centre of the Earth.
She sighs, starting walking with hurry on the empty sidewalk, she glances nervous at the phone every second. After three minutes of walk, she turns in a secondary road and sees Sasha, leaned at the bus stop with her motorbike parked behind her like always.
Anne can take a comforted breath, the anxiety leaves her only now. She waves one hand in Sasha's direction, the blonde girl raises her gaze from the phone and smiles to her.
-Finally, you snail! Come on!- Sasha screams as she raises one hand to greet back Anne.
-Here I am, Sasha!- Anne says, walking closer to her, Sasha is already searching for Anne's helmet in her backpack. She passes the blu and golden helmet to the curly-haired girl, with a smirk.
-That's for you, m'lady! Come on, our ride is waiting us!- She comments as Anne takes the helment, they chuckle together before Anne puts the helmet on, lows the visor on her eyes. Sasha gets on the motorbike before her, Anne follows her movements like every morning, hugs her waists.
Sasha makes the engine of the motorbike rumble with only one jerk of her wrist, her hands are grabbing the handlebars.
Anne laughs when the motorbike goes on with another rumble, Sasha presses on the accelerator and the wind blows into Anne's ears as the motorbike runs ahead. She holds tighter Sasha's waist, leaning to her back. Sasha turns her head behind to Anne for only one second.
-Are you comfy, Anne?- Anne nods and makes her hint to look ahead.
-Do not distract from the road, Sash!- She screams against the wind to make Sasha hear her. The girl drives the motorbike to the school, a few times they crosses the speed limits but who cares, Anne care only to stay wrapped to Sasha, feeling the wind and the velocity, the freedom. After five minutes it all breaks, Sasha parks the motorbike behind the school and puts off her helmet.
-Woah! Crazy ride, huh?- She gets off with one elegant jump, Anne imitates her with a more clumsy move, Sasha grabs her wrist right in time before she can fall behind.
-Thanks, Sash.- Anne says to her with a smile as she puts off her helmet, gives it Sasha. Sasha shakes her shoulders but she's smiling, she loves those morning rides as Anne does.
-No problem, girl. Now move, we're already late.- She pretends to be mad at her for the little late of five minutes, Anne doesn't believe her and starts running without waiting for her bestie, directed to the school, a laugh bends his lips.
-Ehy, Boonchuy! That's not fair, wait for me!- Sasha laughs and runs a step behind Anne, they both enters inside the school and Anne goes faster. She has always been the fastest, the strongest, the one most athletic of all. She outdistances Sasha without any effort, she has started running only now. Sasha behind her has already no breath, stops near her locker and leans his forehead to it.
-Fuck, Boonchuy. I'll cut your legs one day, I swear.- Anne laughs hard at Sasha's words while she's fighting with the padlock of her locker.
The combination is right but the padlock is broken and the second bell rings as Anne is already cursing against it. Sasha taps her on her shoulders with one hand, with the other she unwraps a chewing gum and puts it inside her mouth.
-Ehy, Anne. Are you ready? Now we're gonna be really late if we don't go...- Anne frowns, she's biting her tongue in the useless try to unlock that damn thing.
-I'm almost done, Sash. You can go, I'll be right behind you.- Sasha trusts her, nods as she starts walking on the hallway. She waves at Anne with one hand before she turns behind a corner, she has hurry to be in classroom as soon as she can. Anne has too, but she's stuck with that fucking lockpad. She can't go in class without the book of English II, another time. The teacher would be mad at her, she can't stand another scold.
Finally the lockpad opens in Anne's fingers, less than a minute before, Anne exults. A sudden noise makes her flinch, turn behind. There is someone in the hallway, maybe? No, no one. But she heard a dull thud, she didn't invent it. She bites her lower lip, makes an hesitant step ahead.
There's someone crying, she realises, they aren't only strange noises. Someone's sobbing, crying ugly, they're distant but not so much. Anne thinks a few hallways away, if she can hear them so clearly. She turns at the locker, she doesn't know what to do. After a last, strong grab on the straps of her backpack, she goes for the cry, leaving the locker opened behind her.
She was right; whoever is crying, they're not far from her. Anne runs, turns behind a few corners and stops, listens carefully at the sound.
-Ehy, anyone? Are you ok?- She asks, her voice filled with worry, she walks slow, her eyes are moving from door to door. She has understood from where the cry is coming, she stops in front of the white door of the toilet. A classic. She enters, there's no one, who's crying is doing it inside one of the little toilets, probably sitting on the wc like Anne did a lot of times.
-Ehy...Are you ok?- Anne asks again, she leans one hand against a door. The cry comes right from there. No one answers, the cry doesn't stop. Anne frowns, takes a deep breath. She knows, it's a problem of hers, she's too impulsive, but she has to go in classroom as fast as she can, this stop wasn't planned and her hurry is still there. She opens the door in a breathe, steps in.
-Ok, tell me what's wrong!- She shouts, knowing she's ridicoulous, she opens her eyes ready to meet the killer gaze of the girl she has interrupted crying. But there's no girl inside the bathroom, she flinches for the surprise. She's tempted to run away but the situation isn't scary, it's odd. Anne frowns, rubs her forehead with one hand, his eyes are again moving around to search something, anything, to understand where the cry was from. Nothing, absolutely nothing. It was only a stupid joke.
-Ah, ah, ah. Not funny!- Anne bursts out, broadens her arms for a second and then the thought of being late as hell makes her return back, on her way to her locker. Her gaze rests only for a second on the floor near the wc.
-Holy shit!- She curses, her loud voice makes the thing near the wc gasping and jumping higher than her. Whatever the fuck it is, it starts flying with a metallic noise and overpasses Anne's messy hair, flies out of the window. Anne has covered his head with his arms to protect, sure that fucking drone was about to kill her. She opens again her eyes only when the drone is gone, feeling a perfect idiot.
-What the hell?- She curses alone another time. Definetely it wasn't something alive, that thing. A drone, crazy. Anne shakes her head and walks fast to her locker, she sighs when she sees she has left it open, like an idiot.
-Man, today I am a mess.- She comments, she knows there is no one around her but hearing her own voice makes her feel better for once, after all the shit that happened in less than two minutes.
The jump of the drone has left her shivering at the only thought. She puts one hand inside the locker, grabs her english book. It's definitely not her day, because a spider was inside her locker. And what happens? Worst than in a comic, Anne sees the spider on her back of the hand too late, she can only let go a little scream before the spider bites her.
-Ouch! YOU ASSHOLE!- Anne slams the back of her hands with the english book, she knows she has gone way too soft with the description of that bastard. She's speechless, the spider falls on the floor and stops moving, the english book killed him as deserved. Anne looks at the corpse with disdain.
-A fucking spider. Crazy, crazy, crazy.- She comments in a low voice, rubbing the back of her hand, she's nervous. She only hopes the spider wasn't poisoning. Can she use this crazy story as excuse for her late? Maybe not. Oh, geez, Miss Sophie is gonna kill her.
Anne walks away, turns behind a corner. She cannot see the spider anymore, she doesn't notice the little spark that lights between two of the "spider" mechanical legs. And, worst of all, she can't hear the message said in a low, buzzing voice.
«SUBSTANCE INJECTED. WAITING FOR THE SUBJECT'S REACTION.»