Maybe In Another Life

Chapter 26

It was another insomniac night that had Mavis up at the brick of dawn.

She sat up in bed, furiously rubbing at her eyes. As the covers fell off her, the crispness of the winter morning nipped at her exposed skin making goosebumps rise across her body.

She looked to her left where Persephone was curled up under her blankets. Only the silhouette of her body rising and falling was visible from underneath. Her heavy breathing the only disruption in the quietude of the whole building.

Mavis threw her feet over the mattress, her soles padding across the cold tiles as she slunk around the room, putting on layers after layers of clothes to keep her frail body warm.

Out the room she went, wandering the empty halls like a ghost, her weightless steps almost too loud in the silence.

She found herself on one of the stray couches in one of the corridor corners, smoking as she watched the sun rise over the distant city. The glass was fogged, clad in frozen dew, slightly rattling with every gust of wind.

Soon enough, silver light poured through every crack in the dense gathering of stormy clouds, and life came to the once haunted halls.

She could begin to hear the hushed conversations of freshly woken up roommates, and sink water running in the bathrooms.

So she ventured past the rooms awry, making her way down the stairs. But before she could make it to the bottom, hands flattened against her back and she was pushed onto the floor.

Laughter rung in her tired ears as three figures loomed over her. Looking up, she was faced with the three girls who had bashed her head into the stall door in the bathroom before Christmas break.

"Well well, this isn't a rare occurrence for you is it?" One of them, who looked like she had a reaction to a peanut allergy, snickered. "Being on your knees."

"A little birdy told us you're quite the whore back home." Another one, with bright pink hair, said. "He said you're good too."

"I wouldn't mind testing that theory with you." The third, who had her dreads tied in a knot on top of her head, winked suggestively.

Mavis's sneer turned into a sinister smile as she reveled in the throbbing pain in her palms and numbness of her knees.

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" She imperiously smirked at the third girl. While she laughed, the peanut allergy one seemed to get possessive.

"You're a pathetic loner." She pushed Mavis backwards with her dirty shoe.

"If I'm so pathetic, why does it take three of you to pick on lonely me?" Mavis's smile only stretched wider. "Afraid I could take you on?" She goaded as she slowly stood up and began backing away. "Or do you secretly like me?"

"I- what?! I don't like you." The first girl yelled.

"I do." The third intervened, but Mavis was running down the hall.

"HEY! COME BACK HERE IM NOT DONE WI-"

A fourth voice resounded in the halls behind her. A voice of authority.

Glancing back in her sprint, Mavis caught a glimpse of one of the hall monitoring ladies, barging out of one of the doors screaming at the three bullies.

By the time she stopped running, she was back before her room, panting as the world around her blurred. She felt nauseous and dizzy, a tight knot forming in the pit of her stomach.

One of the doors open, and Soren came out with his roommate, a towel thrown over his shoulder while he held a toothbrush in hand.

He spotted her hunched over, face pale as she struggled to even out her breathing.