Every Broken Bone

Every Broken Bone

Vensy walked slowly to her homeroom class with her head low, watching her feet slide along the smooth floor of the Gakuen halls. Outside, the rain was gently tapping against the window, the sound making Vensy feel like she would just fall asleep right there on the hallway floor. Her arms were pressed together in front of her, her book bag clutched in her hands, hitting against her knees as she walked. An odd, itching feeling in her neck began to rise up, as if something were crawling underneath the skin. She quickly brought her hand up and gently scratched it, her nails bumping against the Band-Aid just below her chin.
She continued walking the hall, staring down at her feet and listening to the falling rain and approached the door to her homeroom.. Her slow stroll was interrupted when she suddenly bumped into someone coming out of the homeroom, and Vensy stumbled back, falling down on the floor with her back against the wall adjacent to the door. Just as quickly as she fell, the persons hand reached out and helped her up. It was Osa. "Sorry about that, Vensy. People were wondering where you were, so I came out to see if you were here yet. We're about to start setting up, if you're ready?"
Vensy looked at Osa, puzzled, "Setting up? For what..?" Osa was silent for a moment, "You know..the culture fest. We're doing the haunted house, remember?"
Vensy nodded slowly, "Yes..yes, that's right. Sorry. Yeah, I'm ready." Osa opened the door to the classroom again, "Great, I'll let everyone know your here." Osa walked into the classroom, announcing that Vensy was here, and Vensy trudged in behind him, keeping her eyes from everyone else's.

The classroom was already going through the initial set-up process. Some people were getting into ghost costumes, others were hanging up the black sheets to make the haunted maze visitors would walk through. Four of girls in the corner working on the sign to be hung outside the classroom. Three were circled around the desk, painting on the sign, the other was sitting in a chair behind them, writing in a small notebook that was resting on her legs. A few people glared at Vensy, and then got to work.
Vensy walked over and tapped Osa on the shoulder, "So..what am I going to be doing?" Osa was digging through a box that was sitting on a chair, "Well, you have probably the most important job. You have to be the one to actually scare people as they come in." He pulled out a ghost costume from the box and unfolded it, showing it to Vensy, "It's easy, really. All you have to do is wear this and hide behind the door. Surprise the people as they enter."
Vensy looked down at the costume, then up at Osa, "That's all?" Osa nodded and smiled, "That's all." She smiled and took the ghost costume from Osa, and put it over her. She turned it around until she could see through the eye holes. She looked down at the costume a bit, "Do I look scary?" She said, raising her arms up in a reaching gesture. Osa took a couple theatrical steps back with his hands up in front of him, "Haha. Yeah, you look really scary!" Vensy turned and took her place at the door, pressing up against it to stay out of peoples peripheral vision.

The classroom was now finished, the sign hung crookedly outside the door, and the inside now a maze of black sheets, filled with ghosts of various kinds, the paths lit by dim lanterns. Osa stood outside to welcome people into the haunted house. He welcomed a young couple that decided to come check out the culture fest, and pulled back the entrance drape, allowing them in. As he did, he saw three girls walking towards the class. They were from a different class, but Osa recognized them. They were a group of bullies that often made Vensy their main target.
As they approached the classroom, Osa stood up straight and walked in front of them, stopping them at the door, "Sorry, but we're at maximum capacity right now. I'm afraid you can't come in the moment." A bit of smirk spread on the face of the girl leading the group, "Are you sure? We really want to see the haunted house! We've been waiting all week for it." Osa shook his head, "No, sorry, I can't let you in." Behind the door, Vensy overheard this and backed away from the door and behind a black curtain. A girl behind the leader spoke up, "Come on, we just wanna be scared! We heard Vensy is the main ghost, and we want to see how she does! Come on, let us in, please?" Osa shook his head once more, "No, sorry. Afraid I can't do that."

The second girl folded her arms, and looked away, a cross look on her face. The first girl shrugged, "All right, if you say so. Maybe we'll try again later. Come on, let's go." She and the other girls turned around and began to walk away. Vensy approached the door again. The first girl looked back, and saw part of Vensy's costume in the doorway. She motioned to the other girls, and they all quickly turned, grabbing Vensy's arm from the other side of the door and dragged her out into the hall.
"Hey!" Osa shouted, chasing after them, the girls dragging her down the hall, towards the girls' bathroom. They swung open the door and threw Vensy inside and she rolled across the floor. The first two ran in after her, and the third slammed it shut and held it closed with her body. Osa ran up and slammed into the door, trying to open it. He pounded on it and kicked it, but it wouldn't budge.

Inside the bathroom, the girls had taken the ghost costume off of Vensy, and she now lay in a heap on the floor, sobbing lightly. The leader scowled and delivered a swift kick into Vensy's stomach and she yelped. She motioned for the second girl to come over, and she did. They both picked up Vensy by her shoulders, and they slammed her into the mirror on the wall. It shattered against Vensy's back, and she fell to the floor, a few shards of the mirror landing around her.
The leader knelt down by Vensy, and grabbed ahold of her hair, lifting her head up to face her. Vensy was sobbing still, her face bruised and cut. The girl sneered, "You're crying? Tch," She scoffed, "You're pathetic. You can't even attempt to fight back? Come on. Try. Try to get away." Vensy put hands around the wrist of the girls hand gripping her hair and tried to pull it away while moving backwards, but the girl just tightened her grip. She grinned wickedly and laughed, "I don't see it working! Try harder, why don't you?"
Vensy tried again, but the girl just gripped her hair tighter and yanked slightly. "What's the matter? Can't get free?" Vensy shook her head and let her arms fall to the floor, her hand hitting a shard of the mirror. The girl smirked, "I thought so. What will you do now? It's just you and us, and no on else to help you. And you can't help yourself."

Something switched on inside Vensy. Inside, she felt as though she was being pushed aside, and something else slowly took over her. Her hand trembled on the shard and her fingers slowly wrapped around it, gripping it. The girl leaned in closer, "Hm? I'm still waiting for an answer. Tell me!" Vensy's teeth were grinding together noisily, this new presence taking over her completely. "Come on--" The girl was cut off as Vensy lunged up with the mirror shard and buried it into her throat, just under her jaw.
The girl froze, her hand still gripping Vensy's hair, a crimson torrent streaming around the shard and down Vensy's arm, staining her uniform. She pushed it in further, the blood now spraying down on her face. The taste of iron touched her tongue as a wide grin spread on her face. She yanked the mirror shard out and dropped it to the floor. The girl fell onto the bathroom tiles, her body twitching slightly and blood still pooling out from her wound.
Vensy stood up slow, and turned her attention to the second girl. She stood wide-eyed by one of the stalls, hands clamped over her mouth, staring down at the girl's body on the floor. She looked up at Vensy, seeing her approach her. She turns and runs for the door, but Vensy lunges and tackles her to the ground. She pins the girl down on the floor, stomach down, and holds her head between her hands. She pulls the girls head back, and then slams it hard into the floor with crack. She slowly brings it back up, and slams it down again.

She does this again and again, quickening her pace, until it's mere seconds between each slam of the girl's head into the floor. There's a crack from her jaw, her teeth getting knocked loose and scattering on the floor with each hit. Vensy lifts up the girls head one more time and holds it there. The girl is screaming, tears streaming down her face. Vensy turns the girls head slightly in her hands, and then yanks it to the left. There's a loud crack, and her screams cease instantly. Vensy let's go of her head, and hits the ground a final time.
She turns her attention to the last girl, still pressed against the door. She shrinks down against the door, whimpering, "Please..don't..I'm sorry..I'm sorry! We were just playing around!" Vensy runs at the girl, and she scrambles to her feet, throwing the door open and runs out of the bathroom, shoving Osa out of the way and running down the hall.
Vensy chases after her, not even noticing Osa as she ran out after the girl. Osa looked inside the bathroom and saw the mess of blood, mirror, and teeth that littered the floor. He stood there, shocked, and then looked to where Vensy ran, "Vensy..Vensy!" He took off running down the hall after them. He had to stop this before it got any worse. It wasn't hard to find where the two ran off. Students were running away down the hall past Osa, and others were retreating to the classrooms.

Osa rounded the corner, sliding on the soles of his shoes, almost falling, and took off running down the hall. He stopped halfway down. Vensy was standing in the middle of the hall, facing the girl, who she had cornered against one of the windows facing the courtyard of the school. The girl was trembling and Vensy was pressing a metal bat against the girls face. A student had dropped it when retreating into a classroom, and Vensy took advantage of that. She gripped the bat in her hands, winding it back.
Osa ran to stop Vensy, but she swung the bat and it cracked the girl across the side of her head. It snapped to the side and she fell back, crashing through the window and falling to the courtyard below. On the way down, she hit the awning of the entrance, cracking her back, and she hit the ground near a group of students near the entrance. They jumped back, and a girl in the group screamed, which echoed in the silent air of the school yard.

Vensy looked down at the girl's body with a manic grin on her face. She stepped back from the window and dropped the bat. Osa ran over to her and grabbed hold of her shoulders, "Vensy! Vensy, you need to stop this." Vensy just stared back at Osa, still grinning. She chuckled to herself, "You're mad that I did this? I figured you'd be happy. You didn't like those girls, either." Osa became enraged at this, "That doesn't mean you can just kill them! This..isn't you. Vensy, please, snap out of it."
In Vensy's mind, her thoughts became clearer, little by little. The feelings of rage subsided. The grin faded from her face, and for a moment, her face looked lost, like she had no idea where she was or what she did. She looked around at all the students staring at her from the hall and the classroom doors. She saw the bloodied bat on the floor, and she fell to her knees. Osa knelt down with her, putting his arms around and pulling her close to him, hugging her.
She reached her hands up over Osa's shoulders to look at them. They were covered in blood and shaking gently, her mind recalling everything she just did. Her eyes began to sting and she buried her face into Osa's shoulder, breaking into heavy sobs, her hands clutching the back of his shirt. He slowly tightened his arms around her and said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't stop them. I'm sorry I couldn't stop you."

A teacher began ushering the remaining students in the hall into the classrooms, and two others went to call the police and ambulance. Even aware of this, Vensy and Osa remained on the floor of the hall. Osa looked over the aftermath of all this over Vensy's shoulder, her tears and blood seeping onto his shirt. Minutes passed like seconds, and the sound of police sirens could be heard approaching the school. The sound of impending capture approaching, Osa and Vensy remained where they were.