Stepping on Roses

The Incident

  As the car pulled into the parking lot, Bonnie gazed up at the large building. She felt chills run up her spine, and lightly tugged her long, curly brown hair free from it's ponytail, before absent mindlessly putting it back up; something she did often, whenever she was anxious, or upset.
  The building wasn't actually that big, or scary like she had thought. It was a cute, pale yellow with a few windows; Bonnie couldn't help but think the windows looked eerily similar to windows in her favorite Elder Scroll game, Oblivion.
  They had a black X design on them; and black shutters. It looked very...old, but still also kind of cute. It threw her off, considering this was a home for teenagers with mental illness. Think, a mental institution, just one without straight jackets and actual...crazies.
Bonnie's parents had actually tried to assure her that she would be the worst in there. As if that would make her feel better. Bonnie was Schizophrenic, as least, that was what the doctors told her. Truthfully, she had always seem things, but it just got worse once she started high school this year.
  It was the first day of Freshman year for the teenagers in Bloomington, a town where it rained a lot. Bonnie had been excited. She let her curly hair hang down to her bottom, and dressed in a short-white spring dress, with yellow sunflowers on it, with white flats. She was ready for a great year, with her best friends. No drama, no fighting, just the girls (and Miles, their gay best friend).
  The day had started off great, but the first day usually does. Bonnie loved first days of school. Meeting the teachers, figuring out who was the mean teacher, the not having homework bit; and just the overall atmosphere.
  The group was sitting at a lunch table outside, in their usual sitting order; Bonnie and Miles on the left side of the table, with Mila (Miles' twin sister) and Jade in front of them.
  "This is going to be a great year! Did you see how hot Bryce got this year?" Mila was beaming from ear-to-ear. She was a cute girl with a messy ginger bun piled on-top of her head and freckles across her nose.
Miles shook his head, "Girl, that boy does not play for your team." He gave her a dramatic sigh and leaned against Bonnie's shoulder. He had long blonde hair, and beautiful long eyelashes. He was gorgeous, and Bonnie's absolute best friend. He was kind person, so forgiving and understanding; but he and his sister loved to constantly argue, which never bothered Bonnie.
Mila gasped dramatically, "And how do you know that?"
Miles gave her a pointed look, and made a "tsk" sound. "Honey, trust me, that boy makes my gaydar go off." He nodded toward the kitchen area, where the kids were getting their trays, and Bryce turned around, waving at Miles. In return, Miles smirked at his sister and did the flirty finger wave back to him. "Told you."
"So not fair." Mila pouted, leaning back and crossing her arms.
Jade, who had been entranced in her phone this entire time, finally decided to join the conversation. "Can I just say that you guys are soo cute, and I just love to hear you guys bickering every lunch." She rolled her eyes.
  "Why don't you just go back to texting boys who are never going to see you more than a thot with daddy issues." Miles said sweetly.
"Why do you even sit here, gay boy?" She snapped back.
"Because everyone actually likes me. Why are you sitting here though?"
"Because Bonnie likes me, and unlike the two of you losers, I can actually do things for her. Right Bonnie?" She quickly turned toward the quiet brunette. Jade's porcelain skin, turning red with anger; her blue eyes desperately awaiting Bonnie's answer.
The small girl held up her hands in surrender, "I love all of you guys. You're all cool to me."
Jade groaned, looking back down at her phone. "Thanks."
Mila rolled her eyes and turned to gaze at Bryce from across the room, but Miles, he shook his head.
  "Bon Bon, anyone ever tell you that you are too pure for this world, my sweet, naive little friend."
Bonnie looked down, as Miles wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "You know I love you."
After that, lunched ended pretty quickly, and they went on to their next class. At least...they were suppose to. After they had finished lunch, Bonnie had walked to her locker so she could grab her books, but her locker was too high up for her, and often jammed; so she needed help. Being five foot was not as cute as people would think, it was just annoying. As she reached onto her tippy toes, she managed to unjam her locker, and reached up to grab a book, before accidentally pulling down three large textbooks, she felt strong arms pull her back as the books came crashing to the floor.
  "Are you okay?" A male voice came from behind her,
She turned, "oh, yeah. Thank you. Nice reflexes."
The boy, Erik, whom she had 3rd period History with, smiled at her and flex his arms. "Thanks, I should become Batman or something."
She laughed. "Or something."
He smiled back, and the two leaned down to pick up the books. "That was close"
She beamed at him, "good thing you were here to save me then."
He chuckled, "nah, I only did it because I didn't want you to get hurt and sent home early. Wouldn't be fair to the rest of us if you got to leave first."
"But I would've been hurt!" She laughed.
"Hey, I would hurt myself just to get out of this place."
"You're crazy."
He shrugged, "maybe I am."
The two stood, and he reached over to hand her the textbooks. She placed her hands on them, and he put his hands over hers. "Will I be seeing you around?"
Bonnie blushes, staring at this tall, handsome boy with his dark brown hair and big blue eyes. "Well, I hope so. Unless more of my books try to take me out."
"Then I guess I'll spend this year protecting you from those evil books." He winked and she giggled.
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Hero."
He gave one last smile, and nodded before he walked away.
  Bonnie was still blushing, and smiling to herself as she rounded the corner to the girls' bathroom. She should still have a few minutes before the bell would ring, so she walked up to the mirror, sat her books on the edge of the sink and began to put her long hair into a ponytail, that would reach the middle of her back. She reached into her gray backpack with sunflowers, and pulled out her makeup bag. Her father had bought it for her birthday, knowing sunflowers were her favorite. Her friends often told her that the pastel yellow went great with her tan complexion. Bonnie was biracial. Her father was African American, and her mother was as white as you could get. Her family had Irish in them, but she would often use tanning beds so she wasn't paler than her husband and daughter. This was because mostly, her family was a little racist and often made comments about how awful they looked together. Because of this, mom was insecure and no amount of flattery from her father would help. They didn't often visit her mother's side of the family, as they would often take bets on how long her parents would last together. Bonnie loved her mother though. She was a kind woman, but often tried too hard. Her mom was small like her, and her father was a tall, muscular man. They did occasionally run into racism about interracial marriages, but it never bothered her dad. It never made mom worry about their marriage, she just prayed her daughter would never have to hear it.
  As Bonnie continued to think about her parents, while she touched up her makeup, she heard one of the bathroom stall doors open.
Odd, she hadn't seen anyone walk in.
  "Hello?" She said shyly, putting her stuff back into her bag. "Is someone in here?"
Silence.
The wind, maybe? She leaned down to her bag, and zipped it up. She heard the door creak against, this time, slower. Bonnie peaked under the stalls, no feet. She stood slowly, and walked around the corner of the stalls, staring down at the wall.
All of the doors were closed.
She began to cautiously step forward, pushing each door open. There were six in total. Once she reached the last once, it wouldn't open. She peered through the crack to see if anyone was standing on the toilet and trying to scare her, when she heard the first stall door open. The lights began to flicker, as she turned to look at it, feeling her heart pound in her chest.
As she focused on it, she heard the bell ring loudly, and she screamed.
She felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment, and she rushed forward, yanking up her books and backpack and racing toward the door. She tried to pull it open, but it wouldn't budge. Her heart was pounding with such intensity that she felt like she was puke. The stall door creaked from behind her. She kept her back toward it, closing her eyes. Wind, wind, it's just wind.
She heard something that sounding like breathing from behind her, and she started to panic, her own breathing was now short, and hard to catch. Tears stained her cheeks, as she clung to the handle, so tightly her knuckles were turning white.
The lights began to flicker faster now. Without turning around, Bonnie reaches toward the sinks to touch the light switch. There had to be someone in here messing with here, but as her hand touched it, she felt a cold hand touch her. Involuntarily, her eyes shot open, and gazed directly into two black, empty eyes. No... not eyes. There were suppose to be eyes there, but they were missing. Two black eye sockets gazed back at her.
Bonnie stumbled back, dropping everything she had in her hands. She fell onto her butt, and quickly crawled backwards, trying to get away from..whatever the hell that thing was, until she reached the wall.
The figure dropped down, like a disfigured animal; it's eye sockets as black as the abyss. As the lights flickered, she tried to make out the rest of it; although every part of her was screaming to close her eyes.
The thing dropped low, and she swore she heard bones crack; and then it opened it's mouth. Only, it's mouth wasn't normal. When it opened, it opened far too wide to be human. Blood now dripping from it's mouth and sockets, and the most terrifying scream she'd ever heard came from it. A high pitched scream that sent chills down her body as she closed her eyes tight, letting out a scream of her own.

She heard the bathroom door open. "Bonnie?"
She opened her eyes to see and a female teacher standing in the door frame, facility standing behind her as they looked at her in horror.
She looked around, no lights flickering, no blood, no...thing. She began to sob uncontrollably, sobs that racked her body as she hugged her knees to her chest. The female teacher, who she thought might've been her teacher from first period, but couldn't quiet focus, drop beside her and hugged her. The rest of the facility frantically grabbing her things, asking her questions; they helped her to stand, as they wrapped her in a blanket and walked her out of the bathroom; and to her horror, she saw the hall filled with her classmates, with mixed looks of horror, judgement, and confusion; and in the midst of it all, she could see her three best friends, who had pushed their way to the front of the crowd. Tears stung her eyes and she lowered her head in shame.
She sat at the school counselor's desk, Mrs. Turner was her name. She was an middle aged lady with a Georgia accent.
"Are you okay, Miss Barkley?" She asked, peering down her long nose at her. "You're still awfully pale."
Bonnie didn't say anything, just sat quietly, shaking in her chair.
"Bonnie...? Can you explain to me what happened?"
"I saw something in the bathroom." She whispered.
"And what did you see, dear?"
Bonnie shook her head, "I don't know. But I saw it. It wasn't human, it wasn't natural."
"Did you try to leave the bathroom?"
"Yes!" Bonnie shouted. "The door was locked."
Mrs. Turner nodded and wrote something down, "mhmm."
"You don't believe me? It was right there."
"The thing is, Bonnie; when we went in there, the door wasn't locked, and there was nothing there. Just you."
"What?" Bonnie whimpered. "Wha-what about the lights? The stall doors! Something? Anything?! I'm not crazy. I know what I saw!" Bonnie was standing now, her fists clenched at her sides.
"I have no doubt that you believe what you saw is real." Mrs. Turner said, without even looking at her.
"But how did you know I was in there...?"
Mrs. Turner sighed, taking off her glasses and folding her hands on top of her desk, "we heard screaming from the bathroom, and you were an hour and a half late to your class."
"What?" She said, barely above a whisper. "An hour and a half...?"
"You weren't aware...?"
"But we had just finished lunch..."
"Well, Miss Barkley, we have you on camera. After your interaction with Mr. Mosier, you went into the bathroom where you stayed for quite sometime."
Bonnie slowly sat back down, she felt sick. "I don't understand..."
"Do you often lose track of time?"
Bonnie shook her head as Mrs. Turner began to write something down; and they sat quietly for a long time until the counselor finally spoke.
"I think your parents should be here to discuss what comes next"
And after that, Bonnie's parents had arrived. They made her sit in the lobby, as a lot of screaming came from Mrs. Turner's office.
Her mother came storming out, furious as she grabbed her daughter's hand. "Let's go, Bon Bon."
Her father emerged from the office, taking paperwork from Mrs. Turner and the Principal.
Her mother steered her out of the lobby, walking out to the car. "Get in, sweetheart. It's okay."
As she got into the backseat, her parents got in and just sat there quietly.
"We'll...we'll figure this out together, okay?" Her father said softly.
Her mother shook her head angrily, "there's nothing to figure out. She's fine."
He glared at Maisie. Her father was never the type to yell or get angry, but he looked upset... "You heard what they said."
"I don't care what they said."
"What did they say?" Bonnie interrupted.
Her parents exchanged looks.
"Nothing, honey." Her mom plastered on fake smile.
"Tell me the truth."
Her smile faded as she gave Adrian a sad look, and lowered her head.
This time, her father spoke. "You can't return to school until you get checked."
"Checked for what...?"
"Bon...they think you might be Schizophrenic..."
Her mom began to cry softly into her arms as Bonnie looked at them in horror.
And that was just the beginning. A week later they had her see a therapist, who, after that one incident, and few others from her past, had diagnosed her as Schizophrenic.
They then suggested, that as a "troubled teen" she should spend some time at La Bella's. A boarding home for teens with mental illness.