Life as a Demigod

Chapter 7

The rest of the day went increadibly slow. I've always had problem paying attention but today it was worse than ever. My mind kept wandering and my teachers kept getting annoyed at small things that I didn't even notice I was doing. It was the last class of the day and I was anxious to get out.

"Vannessa! Will you please stop doing that?" The teacher yelled. I looked up at her in confusion.

"Doing what?" I asked. My question angered her even more. She pointed sharply at my desk and I looked down. I had been unconsciously been drawing an ogre on my desk or at least what I thought was an ogre. My drawing skills have never been good so it looked more like a combination of weird pencil blobs. I put my pencil down and took out my eraser, after I finished erasing my 'drawing', the teacher scoffed and continued the lesson. A few minutes later the bell rang. The teacher asked me to stay for a few minutes to which I responded.

"Nope. I have something to do". I stepped out of class and was about to walk out of the building when I saw an old lady glaring at me. I tried moving around to seem if it was really me whom she was glaring at and after confirmation, I headed back to my classroom. I was not going to deal with some freaky monster again. Not yet anyway.

"On second thought, I would like to stay here a little longer." I told the teacher. A little confused, she started lecturing me about my grades and behavior in class. It was the same thing she always told me. Seriously, did she write it down and then memorize it? After she let me out, I was a little more cautious, trying to make my footsteps as silent as possible and payed attention to every detail. Which, by the way, was a mistake. You never want to pay attention to detail in High School. You will find some weird, disgusting stuff.

When I finally reached the place where I last saw the old lady, I fell back from shock. Now, not only was there one old lady glaring at me but three identical old women glaring at me. They were all knitting something. A scarf? A Christmas stocking? I was too far to tell.

That's right idiot! I told myself. They're too far away. There is no way they'll be able to hurt you from this distance.

Yet something about them made me uneasy. I took it a deep breath. Suck it up. I have to save my brother or something. I just have to stay alive. Easy, right?  I closed my eyes and took another deep breath. Then, I made a run for it. Although I didn't have much stamina, I could run fast. I could win against most people in a race. Unless it was a large distance, because I usually collapse before I get to the finish line. However, despite all that, I seemed to be going slow. It was as if I were trying to run in quicksand. My feet felt heavy and every step took an agonizing amount of time to take.

I looked around at my surroundings. Everything around me also seemed to be going in slow motion. The birds, the cars, even the wind seemed to be slowing down. Everything except, of course, the old ladies that were knitting in unison. Sounds seemed to have become louder as well, they had become deafening.

I could hear my heartbeat.

Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum!

I could hear the knitting needles bumping against each other.

Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!

And above all of it I could heard laughter. At first I thought it was the old ladies but no. Their lips weren't moving and it seemed as if the more time passed, the more voices joined.

Hahaha! One. Hahaha! Two. Hahaha! Four. Hahaha! Six. Hahaha! Ten. Hahaha! Fifteen. Hahaha! Twenty. Hahaha! Thirty. Hahaha! There were too many now. Impossible to count.
They all seemed to be laughing at me. Look at her! One of the voices said. How pitiful! Another said. Like a mouse trying to break free from a cats claws. Getting no where yet struggling to get away. To live a little longer. How unfortunate!

Shut up! I thought. Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! By then, my mind was throbbing, my adrenaline high, I was trying helplessly to get away from the loud voices that insulted me.

Then it stopped. It happened so suddenly. Soon after, there was a loud sound, louder than the voices. It seemed to vibrate across continents and drown out everything else. The sound was familiar. Something that I often heard but never paid attention to...
And then I realized. It was the sound of scissors. It was a snipping sound that made everything go back to normal. I was confused, scared, angry. There was a wave of emotions all happening at the same time, but the moment it went back to normal it was all replaced by one thing. The need to get away from there. And I did; the moment it all stopped, I ran faster than I've ever had in my life.