Oddities

Chapter 4

TW: Blood, death. 

As soon as the word was uttered everyone turned and sprinted to the doors, not wasting any time. Most people were out of the door when there was a loud bang, then the world went black... 

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As I slowly regained consciousness the only thing I could hear was ringing. Slowly but surely, I sat up and slightly opened my eyes. Dust was still settling around us, but I could still see many unconscious people laying around me. 
I stood up and silently hoped all of them were breathing. Once I was on my feet I turned towards where the gym was, but all I saw was dust and broken pieces of wall. 
I noticed a few people lying limp on the ground nearer to the gym, I recognized none of them, which I guess was good, but it was still terrifying and extremely saddening to see that about 70% were freshmen. I'd like to believe that it was because they thought this was a joke, and so they didn't run right away, but I couldn't deny the other possibility... 
Upperclassman shoved them out of the way to get out first. 
It was sick and twisted, but no one knew it was a bomb, so they couldn't have known to try to help everyone out. 

"Elana!" A voice cut through my thoughts.  
I turned to noticed Viv making their way over, "You're ok!" 
"Yeah... Yeah... where is everyone else?" I asked, quickly looking over Viv to make sure they weren't hurt, and luckily the most injuries they got were a few scratches. 
"They all already ran back to the Dorm. I noticed you weren't there so I went looking for you, and now I found you... are you ok? are you badly injured?" 
"I'm... I'm fine. Maybe a few bad bruises, but I'll be fine." I wasn't sure how true this was, but I didn't want to worry them. We started making our way back, watching as friends help each other and people mourn the loss of the people who were at the front. 

We made it back to the dorm and I flopped onto the couch, pain overtaking most of my body.
"Elana..?" I looked up to see Lizzie. She looked perfectly fine, other than a few bruises and her hair being a mess.
"Yeah?" I sat up, wincing slightly.
"Uhm... Serena... did... did you see her?" She asked nervously. 
"She ran, right?? Right???" I ask, panicked.
"After a second, yeah, she did. It took convincing but I got her to follow me, but then after a bit, I turned around a-and she was gone." Tears were starting to roll down her cheeks, "P-Pandora is already out looking for her, I-I was hoping you saw her a-and that you knew where she was."  
I shook my head slightly and looked over at Viv. "B-But... she was here! I-I saw her! that's why I went looking for only Elana!" 
"She... She wasn't." Lizzie said to Viv, trying to control her crying. 
Viv sat down on the couch, tears now filling their eyes. I could tell they felt bad that they only went looking for me. I put an arm around them and rubbed their shoulder, giving them a comforting smile. 

After a little bit of silent comforting, Serena busted through the door, coughing and stumbling. Once they came in, I stood up, letting go of Viv. Pandora was behind her, trying to offer some assistance, but Rena was refusing it. Serena looked horrible, her hair was a complete mess, her dress was torn, and she had cuts and scrapes and blood covering a lot of her face and body. She crumbled onto the floor once she got into the dorm, and Lizzie ran over to her, "Rena- O-oh my god, Rena what happened?!" 
"I-I tripped, but before I-I could get up the explosion happened. I-I passed out pretty much instantly and woke up with all these cuts and stuff." she sat with her back up against the wall, Lizzie got a first aid kit and started to help get her cleaned up. Rena would let out a groan of pain whenever Lizzie made her move even the slightest bit.  
"Arina is a healer, right?" Pandora asked, kneeling down next to Rena. 
"She is." Lizzie turned to Maxie, "can you go get her?" 
Maxie nodded and ran out of the dorm.  
I glanced around to make sure we have everyone else when I noticed Viv missing, "Guys where did Viv go?"
"Their room" Pandora answered, "They can't handle blood." 
I nod a little and turned back to Rena and Lizzie, just to be face to face with Lizzie, "eEp-!" I leaned back, surprised by how close she was, "Lizzie what the hell-" 
"Sorry Sorry. you need to be cleaned up too." She started to clean off my face, which hurt like hell, but I could deal with it. 
A couple of minutes later, Maxie walks in with Arina, who immediately starts working to heal Rena, but Rena was not having it. 

Long story short, Rena ended up tied up to a chair and Arina continued to heal her, despite her protests. After healing up Rena as much as she could without overusing her powers, she checked on everyone else then left to go heal some other badly wounded people. 
"So... the gym exploded." Pandora said after a bit of silence, "that's... new." 
Rena nodded, "Did anyone recognize the voice that told us to run?" 
Lizzie, who had started to untie Rena, shook her head, "not at all. It sounded male, though."
Pandora nodded, sitting down next to me and sighing, "Why would someone do that..." 
"I-I'm sure it was just a prank, right? No one would actually want to hurt us... right?" Maxie said nervously.
"People died, Maxie! Unless they're in on the prank and pretending to be dead, then it's not a prank!" Pandora yelled, "We almost got killed by this freak." 
Maxie nodded a little, "I'm... I'm going to my room." Pandora's outburst probably scared her, and honestly, I would be too, Pandora can be kind of scary when mad. Maxie walked up the steps and disappeared into her room. 
 Pandora sighed, watching as Maxie walked off, "We all should probably go sleep this off..." 
All of us gave our own form of agreement and went off to our rooms. I sat down on the bed, my mind running in circles. 
"I'm really sorry this happened, Elana." Pandora sat down next to me, frowning. I just responded in a shrug. She seemed like she wanted to say more, but instead, she just got up and went back to her side of the room, pulling the curtain so that we can both change, which I quickly did. After changing I sat back down on my bed staring at the wall. There was no denying the fact that I almost died, and that was the scariest part of it all. Sure the fact someone put a bomb in the gym while we were all partying was scary, but the idea that the result of it being me or my friends dying... it scares you. This wasn't just some sort of sick joke or some sick senior prank someone pulled, because I didn't want to say it but... that voice was not a teenage boy's voice, it was an older man. 

That means this wasn't set up by a student, this was a teacher.
Or even worse...
It was a terrorist attack of some sort. 
I was told multiple times that "people like us" are hated by the community, so it's not surprising that someone would want to get rid of us... but why warn us? Why give us the chance to run and not just blow it up while we're all in there?
They could of wiped out the whole student body, plus multiple teachers, only leaving teachers who were busy in their classrooms or homes, or those who were like me who have been kept ignorant of their differences. 

These thoughts swirled in my brain as I laid down and drifted off to a dreamless sleep. 

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I woke up to someone shaking me, and slowly, I opened my eyes. Viv was standing over me, looking a little bit nervous; I guess they were scared I wasn't going to wake up, because as soon as I opened my eyes they relaxed.
I slowly sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, "Yes, Viv?" 
"The teachers told everyone that they need to go to their first bell for announcements, but then we have the rest of the day off." They said, nervously fiddling with their sleeves. I nod a little and looked over at Pandora's bed, but she wasn't there. 
I got up and turned back to Viv, "I'll meet you back downstairs, alright?" 
Viv nods and walks out of the room, and once they were out of the room, I found an outfit and changed. I had all colors of outfits, but I thought going with orange for going to my first bell would help prevent me from getting in trouble, even though it didn't have my house crest on it.
I walked downstairs and only noticed Viv in the living room, "Where is everyone?" 
"They already left. Come on." Viv walked over to the door and held it open for me. I walked out and started walking to my first bell.

After what felt like hours of sitting in that classroom, the announcements finally came on 

"Hello, Students. I'm so sorry for what happened last night. We're working on rebuilding the gym as we speak, but sadly, some students were killed during the blast. We want you all to keep these students in your memories..." 

She then went into a long list of people who were killed by the blast, and I was lucky to not recognize any of them. 
That is... until the last name... 
"Nick Everest"