Chapter Text
Running was something she was used to.
It was simple. It was pleasant. It was repetitive. You pick up one leg, place it down, pick up the other leg, and then place said other leg down. And then you repeat.
Repeat was a word you would associate with Kaiya’s current situation. The doors, the windows, the lockers. It was practically all the same down every hallway. When you reached the middle of the school year, you could hear kids groan over and over again about how school was like a prison. But that’s what this place was for Kaiya. The school was an actual prison.
It was all because of that fucking ghost, too.
Whatever. She shouldn’t drawl on the past when she had to have all of her focus on the present to live. She continued to run, not daring to look behind her. Looking slowed her down and ruined her sense of direction. She didn’t need to look behind her to know she was in danger. Thankfully, the repetitive running she learned in P.E. class had taught her some good. Her breath was in pace with her legs, and she in no way, shape, or form felt out of breath.
She could hear the repetitive thud, thud, thud, of the creature behind her. She changed her mind. Repetitive and simple did not belong in the same sentence. Running may be those two things, but getting your rhythm thrown off by the predator was not.
She stumbled, but continued to run. She could see the end of the hallway. All she had to do was reach it. It was hard to focus clearly, because not only was her pace off, but her eyes were also blurred with tears. She could still see the general shape however, and she curved around the hallway and almost fell down a whole round of stairs.
She dared to take a look back as she heard a loud crash, and saw a skeleton. That would be fine if it were like the ones she had seen in biology class - she let herself fleetingly think about how many days she had been absent, and how many detentions she would have to live through if she got out of here - but no. It was never that simple. This skeleton was absolutely huge. It was almost as if it was the skeleton of a giant.
She screamed, because hypothetically, skeletons don’t have ears so they shouldn’t be able to hear her- she didn’t have time to think logistically! She had to get the hell out of here! She turned her head back and focused on what was ahead of her - a door; not like the ones that led into classrooms, no. It was a door outside of school. An exit. An escape.
She took a deep breath and braced herself. She put all of her energy into booking it down the stairs, stumbling as she skipped a few, and decided to just hop onto the stair railing and slide down it. She probably looked cool, but whatever. It didn’t matter. She just didn’t want to trip anymore.
She hopped off the railing and ran towards the door. She could feel the skeleton slam its hands onto the stairs as she flung her whole body weight at the door, flinging it open. Once she was safely on the other side, she turned around and slammed the door shut, bracing herself against the door in case it swung open.
She breathed heavily for a few beats as the ringing in her ears slowly melted away. She never thought she would enjoy hearing the sound of silence. Silence felt like a beautiful melody that was to be played in an opera house, not an empty street while nobody was around.
After catching her breath, she finally let herself process what just happened. She slid down the door slowly until her knees were up to her chest, and she let herself cry. Who cares if a spirit were to find her right now, She just had the worst encounter of her life. The tears just wouldn’t stop no matter how hard she tried. But she had to keep going. She had to escape.
She stood back up slowly, wiping her nose on her shirt. She didn’t care if it was gross. She had sweat everywhere from running. A little snot couldn’t do her much worse. She continued to walk, even though the tears were still swimming in her eyes - a pattern she had noticed - and began getting settled into her new labyrinth.
She took a few deep breaths as she walked. In, out, in, out. It was methodical. It was repetitive. As she continued walking, she took note of her surroundings. It seemed as if this school was like the last. It had sleek, slightly cream colored walls, and wooden doors. However, this wood seemed more splintered. The lighting also wasn’t amazing. That wouldn’t do her any good.
There were also less windows, she noticed. She wondered what would happen if she were to ever jump out of these windows. Of course, she never did. Jumping out of windows would mean suicide, considering she always started a new school day on of of the higher floors.
Less windows weren’t exactly an issue for her though. She just enjoyed staring out at the scenery. A false hope that one day she could get out of here. The bell chimed, and she began to pick up the pace. For some reason, whenever that bell chimed, she began to see her chaser. It seemed more like an alarm for her to start looking for the next exit. Her next escape.
She began her light jog once again, and began carefully looking around the corners. She never knew what would pop out at her. Everything was like a blur for her as she jogged by all of the lockers and windows and classroom doors, it all looked the same. It was all repetitive.
That was her life now. A stupid spiral of repetitiveness. Pick up a leg, put it down. Breathe in, breathe out. Escape one demon, live, escape another monster, and live. It was all the same.
And just like clockwork, a woman appeared, staring at the ground as she turned the corner. Kaiya stilled, one foot still forward and the other one now planted to the side, so she would be able to turn and run easier if it was needed in this scenario. The woman appeared harmless, but she had been down this route long enough that they were never truly harmless.
“Am I beautiful?” The woman asked, looking up. She had a mask on - one equivalent to a surgical mask that doctors would wear.
“Are you beautiful?” Kaiya echoed back.
“Am I beautiful?”
Okay. Damn. This lady could only say those three words Kaiya guessed. She shrugged and narrowed her eyes. “I mean, I can’t really see half your face ‘cause of the mask, but yeah. I guess you are.”
The woman continued to stare at Kaiya, unblinking. It was a little bit unnerving to be honest. She moved up to where her mask is - the main point of Kaiya’s interest, and took it off. SHe held the mask at her side and what image Kaiya saw next was a sight to see.
The woman’s face was mutilated, with scars and cuts everywhere near her mouth. It was cut to look like a wider smile than what was typically normal. It spread from cheek to cheek, those cuts deeper than any others around. Blood slightly dripped from them, and Kaiya could feel bile rising up in her throat. She swallowed it down.
“Even now?” The woman asked, tilting her head slightly still unblinking.
“Um.” Kaiya paused, watching the woman’s movements. She looked unhappy and slowly began reaching behind her. Okay, so anything slightly negative was off the table. “Yes! Yes you’re so gorgeous!” Kaiya blurted out, nodding. The woman’s movements paused for a few moments, a slight smile appearing on her face before she continued to reach behind her.
What the fuck?! Kaiya did what she was supposed to. Why was she being punished for a compliment? She finally saw what the woman was carrying; some scissors. Clean, sharp scissors. As the woman approached her, Kaiya took a few steps back. “Oh hell no!” She screamed, turning on her heel and running back from which she came.
She could hear the woman run after her. “Nope! Bye!” Kaiya screamed again, turning into a different hallway. The schools typically were a square shape, so she could do a few laps until she got far enough away that she could safely ascend or descend a staircase.
However, she could hear the woman rapidly approaching her. Somehow, for the first time, her enemy was faster than her. Kaiya looked around for anything she could use, and her eyes locked on a spare desk and chair. She had seen them around, but never thought about actually using one. She was typically too weak to push them out. But maybe…
She had to make a choice now. The desk and the lady were very quickly approaching. As soon as she made it to the desk, she felt fingers in her hair that yanked her back. She screamed at the pain, and felt tears immediately begin to surface.
She couldn’t see through the blurriness of tears as the woman yanked her again so she was facing her. However, she could see the colors, the difference of the sleek and bright silver versus everything else in the room. “Please.” She whimpered as the scissors touched her skin. She felt the cut run deep as it moved across her face. She screamed once again, and thrashed.
Kaiya turned towards the chair and desk with a fervor she had never felt before. She grabbed the very end of the desk and threw it at the woman, who collided quickly with the desk and flew back towards the wall, crashing into it and slightly cracking it. Kaiya then threw the chair towards the woman’s face, not even pausing to look at how messed up she probably looked now before turning and running again.
She rounded a corner and she could hear soft steps above her. There were two demons here now? This had never happened before. She groaned and descended down the stairs. Going up to where that other demon was, was not a good idea.
She continued to run, not bothering to slow to a light jog. Every staircase only descended or ascended to one floor, she had never known of a staircase in this hell that went down all of the floors.
She turned many hallways and went down many floors. It seemed as if the lady with scissors had left her behind; her nose was probably more fucked up than her face was with that chair to the face. Kaiya saw the doors exiting this school and she pushed through it, turning around and slamming it shut, just as she did last time.
It was all repetitive.
She finally let herself rest and assess the damage she had gone through. Almost immediately, she saw blood dripping down her face and onto her shirt and hands. Right, that lady had cut her cheek. Kaiya shakily reached a hand towards her face and felt where the cut reached from. It went from the point of her lip to mid cheek, and it seemed like a deep cut. Her face hurt.
She groaned loudly and sat down, looking at the school that was across from her; the next labyrinth. It looked the same as the one she had just gone through, and the one she had gone through before that. She wanted this over.
Plus, she had no bandages. She would probably bleed out right here, right now. She sighed, shutting her eyes and accepting her fate.
Until she heard a crash. She looked up, eyes wide with alarm as she became alert about any dangers once again and watched some sort of animal fly out of a window, fur all fluffed up and screeching. It looked sort of like a… cat?”
She immediately looked down as the furry creature crashed down to the ground. She knew enough to make sure no broken shards of glass got into her eyes. When she heard no more soft clicks of glass, she looked up slowly, backing into a protective stance.
The cat had one paw on its shoulder, murmuring soft words to itself before Kaiya watched these cuts from the glass and maybe other things heal. She backed up more, shooting her hands up rather quickly.
The cat-thing seemed to notice these movements and looked up from healing itself, smiling. “Hi!”
“It can talk ?!” And for the sixth time today, Kaiya screamed.