The Waiting Room

Chapter 9- Strange Faces

I quickly stood up, and squinted my eyed to see the distance. A young girl was racing towards me, screaming. As she came closer I saw that there was a black, sleek animal behind her racing after her. Her blonde hair was flowing behind her and her her electric blue eyes were wide. I would have softened there and admired her, but I saw the complete and utter fright struck on her face and eyes. I widened my eyes in horror, I looked at James and realized he couldn’t do anything to help me. I looked at the floor, to see a shiny object glisteningin the little light the room had. I quickly seized it, and held it incorrectly.

“Um,” I muttered, “how in the world…” Suddenly, the little girl was clinging onto me. The black animal must have been near then. I held tightly onto the sharp metal, and held it threateningly in front of me. That did nothing to clam my nerves, or slow down the jaguar thing. I could vaguely hear from my little bubble of thinking, James screaming directions at me and trying in vain to get up and help. In the end, he would just collapse back onto the floor, and curse profanities at his new discapability.

I threw the knife randomly where the animal was heading, hoping it would land on it. It seemed luck was on my side. Just as I thought it had sailed over its head, the jaguar pounced on me, making the knife go directly in its head. I scrambled backwards quickly, so the jaguar fell onto the floor and not my body. I started trembling, my eyes still glued to the dead jaguar. My eyes were still glued to that place when the jaguar disappeared.

“Phaedra? Phae? Hello? Are you alright? Talk to me Phaedra! Please!” James begged me from his sitting position. He had already scooted up from his other sitting area a few feet away to join me in my little self-pity fest. Well it wasn’t really self-pity; it was more that I had broken my morals of never killing anything, and that I was just plain terrified. I was so terrified that I had killed something. It was all so…fast. As James leaped onto me, I fell onto the floor and woke up from my daze. I shot a glare at him, and rubbed my elbow where I fell. I then looked at the girl. 

"What's your name?" I asked politely. I couldn’t blame her for driving me to kill that thing. I mean, I guessed I had already killed a shark.

"C-Crystal. H-he was c-chasing me and I- I just-" the young blonde stammered. I wondered if she was scared of us, of James’ wound, or the animal. I strongly believed it was the last one, but I could have been wrong. Maybe James’ wound was pretty frightning.

"I'm Phaedra, and this is James," I cut her off and gestured over to his direction.

"Um, we’re both 16. How old are you, Crystal?" I inquired.

"I'm 13. I don't know how I got here. I was fine one day, when I saw a shadow. And-And it trapped me! I was stuck in a black room for days, with nothing to eat. Though… I wasn’t hungry. And then a door opened and I left. Then the-the cougar thing started chasing me!" she cried out. Tears flowed freely down the poor girl’s rosy cheeks, and she unexpectedly hugged me. I stumbled, as I didn’t expect the sudden weight. I looked over at James, and he beckoned me over. I walked a few steps until I was next to him, then I sat down with Crystal still latched onto me.

“So, since you shared your little story, we’ll share ours, and maybe catch sme sleep? In the morning, we decided to start discovering what was behind the wall you just ran through,” I told her, gauging her reaction. She just nodded as if she needed the leadership. I sighed softly, and began telling my tale.

“Well you see, I’m from Portland, Oregon. It’s quite a big town. Anyways, as you know, I’m sixteen. I had a younger sister named Sydney. We were walking back from the ice cream parlor when a red truck came barreling towards us,” I swallowed a lump in my throat before I continued, “and well, I pulled her out of the way so I received most of the blow. Even after that, I don’t know how she is… I hope she’s doing well. James and I were both in a place called the Waiting Room. It’s  technically a place where you go when you have a long coma and no one knows if you’ll make it. I sure don’t.”