Red: The Beginning

Chapter 18

Ashley Wright lay on her bed. She turned her head and looked at the alarm clock. 5:45 A.M she turned back and looked at her ceiling. Her cheek still stung from yesterday. The anger came back and she clenched her fists. She hated Bridgeton. No that wasn't right, she hated her school. That wasn't right either. She hated the people at school, they were the problem.

Especially Barbara and her circle. On yearbook picture day Ashley had accidentally spilled chocolate milk on Barbara. That was the worst mistake she had ever made. Barbara had sworn to personally make Ashley's life hell.

As if her life wasn't bad enough, she wasn't popular or very pretty. Most of her clothes were out of style and the few that weren't had been practically worn to shreds. Her new foster mother Olivia had been going through a rough patch recently or at least that's what Olivia had been saying recently. But Ashley knew that wasn't true, the main change had started when Olivia's husband left her. That's when the drinking had started. She did well to hide it, but shoving bottles at the bottom of the trash can and spraying perfume wasn't really enough. Ashley had heard about this from the kids back at the orphanage. The man left and the woman slowly hit bottom. Financially, emotionally and most times mentally. Thats when they returned the kid or the kid wished they did. She had a two hundred bucks in savings and all of her bags were packed in case she had to pack. She was tired of here already.

But Barbara bullying her wasn't the most painful part. What hurt the most was that the people she thought were her friends didn't do anything about it.

At first they looked uncomfortable and avoided eye contact with her, and the few boys that used to talk her dwindled till no one was left. Then it got worse. They started laughing at her, pointing and making faces at her. Even her best friend Lola didn't talk to her anymore.

Ashley hated them. All of them. Why couldn't they help her? When had she ever done any of them wrong? What were they saying behind her back? She didn't care anymore, she didn't need anyone. People were scum.

That was until she came across Milk. There was nothing special about Milk, except for his frail nature and his milky white skin. She saw him eating alone at the bleachers and they started talking. One thing led to another and they started dating.

It lasted a week. Two days ago they were lying down on Ashley's bed with a bunch of textbooks lying down at the edge. Milk had coke bottle glasses so he was smart, at least That's what Ashley figured. Ashley on the other hand sucked at all the subjects. Then out of the blue Milk said something that changed her perception of things forever.

"You know I've been thinking about this for a while now And well... Can I ask you a question."

"Shoot away."

"If you didn't fall out favor back at school would we be together?" Ashley's smile died down. That was something she didn't like talking about. She had developed a system to protect herself. When she wasn't at school she didn't think about it. She didn't want to remember it. And when she was at school she ignored everyone. She wouldn't give them the privelege of seeing her break. Barbara still dropped by every now and then but as long she didn't c***k Barbara would move on.

"What's your point?"

"I'm sorry..." Milk stammered. Ashley mentally slapped herself, milk didn't do anything he was just being himself.

"I'm sorry. It's just that I'm kinda tired from all the trig."

"My bad let me rephrase that. That day at the bleachers if you were still the same person you were at the beginning of the year, would you have looked my way?". Milk turned and looked at her with his baby blue eyes. Ashley tried thinking about it but Milk continued. He must have held it in for a long time.

"You know last year I sat beside you in home room " she hadn't known.

" Even in English. I gave you answers to the English test but you didn't know my name till a few days ago. I'm only here with you right now because there's no one else willing to. And I can't continue like this. A tool that you pick up and drop at you own convenience." It took a while for her to realize that Milk was breaking up with her.

She walked him out a little later. Later that night she thought about what Milk had said. She had been suprised when she found out that Milk's actual name was Andrew. Back in middle School Milk had been bullied by this big kid called James. The usual stuff, a wedgie here,a slap here and insult here. Nobody did anything about they had all thought it funny. Now the same thing was happening to her and here she was acting like a matyr. She thought about her creed. Yes people were scum and that included her too.

Yesterday had been the worst. They had been divided into teams to play dodgeball and as usual Ashley was chosen last.

She stood at the end of the back line with her teammates the referee blew his whistle Ashley towards the balls in the center. She had made it to the center line when her ratty sneakers gave up. The sole tore off and she tripped. She came down hard on her two knees. She could see something red dripple down her leg. The sound of laughter filled her ears and she gritted her teeth. She grabbed the last ball and passed it back to her teammates. Unfortunately the person she was trying to pass to wasn't paying attention. The ball hit the girl straight in the face.

The referee blew the whistle and ejected Ashley. She couldn't run off the court like she wanted to because her shoes were messed up and she could only drag her feet. The first ball hit her behind the head and a wave of laughter moved through the court. Another ball hit her back and That's when he'll broke loose everyone started throwing balls at her and most of them felt way too hard to be dodgeballs, probably basketballs.

She held her tears and turned around to show them that they couldn't hurt her. As she turned she saw milk standing at a corner. Milk was talking to some girl in glasses. They both laughed and Ashley could see the girl twirl her hair. It was obvious, Milk hadn't broken up with her for any good reason. He had broken up with her because of this girl.

The tears came free and with that something inside her broke free too. She heard a rushing sound, it felt like it was coming from inside her head. It drowned out the laughter it felt powerful and scary but at the same time it felt like it was part of her, it felt kind of comfortable. She let go and lost herself in it.

The balls floated up, levitated a bit and flew back at the crowd. They were screams of shock and fear as the balls pummeled down on them. Ashley ran out of the gym in the ensuing crowd as people stepped over each other trying to get away from the freak accident. One brave guy managed to video the balls flying round the court unaided. He would later upload it to his dying YouTube channel. It would reach a million views in a week and ten million in a month. Before the buzz died down and it grew stale.

Most people would argue about it, whether it was a large scale practical prank involving magnets and all kinds of high tech stuff to aliens. Soon even the arguments and everyone forgot about the video like they always did.

* * *

Immediately chuck came to his head started banging. He could hardly keep his eyes open and his body didn't feel like his own. It reminded him of when he accidentally took an extra sleeping pill.

He tried standing up but felt something. It was a human arm. It took Chuck a moment to process it and when he did he threw up.

"Aw come on. That's just gross." Chuck squinted into the dark and he noticed four other people at the other end of the room.

"Hey I know you. Your that fat Indian boy at school right?" Chuck focused on the person talking. It was some girl with pink highlights. He had seen her around school. He tried remembering her name Evelyn? Ruby? Sarah ... Saraphina. Yeah it was Saraphina. Wait did she just say fat?

"Fat? Don't You think that that's a bit too much."

"Whatever. Do you think that really matters here."

"Where are we? We need to find a way to leave here."

"you sure 'bout that". A guy said. He had on leather pants and a torn leather jacket.

"Have you seen what's out there? There's a mad dude there with monsters." The guy said. Saraphina closed the distance between them and leaned closer to him.

"That guy's a bit delusional. He was the first to wake up though." With that she did and pointed at him.

"Your face still covered in puke." Chuck cleaned

his face.

"Monsters. yeah really" he heard Saraphina say. Chuck remembered the baby he had seen and how it had looked and talked. He forced himself to look at the severed hand the edges were mangled.

Monsters Chick thought.