Reckless

Reckless - Chapter Twenty-Two

I slumped against the wall, I wanted to be sick.

She looked nothing like my Maths teacher from the start of the year. Her short grey hair was sticking up irregularly and in some places was ripped out, her forest green eyes were glazed over with terror and confusion, and her normally round, kind face had turned gaunt.

The words of Brittany’s note rang through my head. Please help her… now I knew what she’d meant.

I straightened up and managed to step slowly towards her bed, my whole body shaking with shock and terror. “Mrs Court?” I whispered unsteadily. “Can you hear me?”

Her eyelids flickered open and she gazed drearily up at me. A quick look at the rows of bottles beside her told me everything I needed to know – she’d been sedated.

So this was how the vampires fed in school – from sedated, human prey. They must’ve come in the room every night to feed on the elderly teacher and fed the school lies about her curious illness. I wondered how she’d been caught in the first place and why they had chosen her of all people. Mrs Court wasn’t bothersome, threatening or inquisitive – she was the perfect stereotype of a little old lady who doted on everyone younger than her. What could possibly be the incentive to choose her? I guessed they didn’t need a proper incentive; just pure bloodlust would be enough.

Now they’d left her to die while they were gone… or, if I looked at it more positively, left me an opportunity to save her.

“Mrs Court, you’ve got to listen to me. I’m going to help you.” I took the frail woman’s hand and squeezed. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

A small smile wavered on her face, and then disappeared. She seemed to shake her head slightly. Her gaze seemed to linger over my shoulder, ignoring me.

I whipped around, trying to find what she had been staring at in the darkness, but nothing was there. The room was completely empty.

“Who did this to you?” I demanded, already knowing the answer.

She gazed off into the distance.

“Was it Chris? Christopher Everdeen?”

Mrs Court seemed to recognize that name. Her forest green eyes grew wide and scared. She seemed to visibly shrink before me, trying to huddle up and protect herself through the haze and inactivity of the drugs. She looked pathetic, confused and, above all, terrified.

“I’m going to get help. I’ll be back soon, I promise,” I told her unsteadily, kneeling down beside the blood streaked bed and squeezing her hand again.

The woman clutched silently onto my hand like it was a lifeline, her cloudy eyes bulging out in panic as I stood up to leave the room. I didn’t want to leave her, seeing her like she was, but there was no other way to get help for her.

“I’ll be back soon,” I said more forcefully, yanking my hand away. “I need to get some help for you – it’s the only way you’re going to make it through this. Please.”

She collapsed back down into the bed, like all her energy had flooded out of her with the simple action of grabbing my hand. Her eyes closed and she started wheezing again.

I put my bag down on her desk and started to search desperately through it for my phone. If I had it then I could call someone without having to leave the dying teacher. It wasn’t in there.

Cursing, I slung my bag back over my shoulder and, with one last look at Mrs Court, sprinted out the room.

I tore down through the corridors and took the stairs two at a time, nearly slipping on them and tumbling down. I didn’t stop once to catch my breath as I careened towards the reception.