Vanished

Chapter Eleven

Esme rushed around the staircase at the east end of the school's building, searching each classroom. She sped up the wide staircase, trailed by more of Luke's thugs. She stopped in front of a bathroom, holding a hand against a wall, breathless. The soles of her feet ached as she looked over, seeing the hole that Preston had panicked about.

Walking into the bathroom, she took off her bloody socks, throwing them in the garbage. Planting her foot on the small, white sink, she let the water sting at them. Even with bandages wrapped around her feet, she still needed to figure out a way to prevent scrapes from happening. It wasn't like she could grab another pair of random shoes since they got torn up again.

After drying her foot off, she placed the other beneath the faucet. "Ouch," she said, clenching her teeth and closing her eyes. Focus on happy thoughts, besides the feeling of dog bites on her feet. It wasn't working exactly, since soon enough, the thugs were going to catch up.

Suddenly, she heard the toilet flush. Immediately, she went to dart off but fell, realizing her foot still rested on the sink.

"Esme!" Jade Cooper exclaimed, rushing to her side and helping her to her feet. She was one year older, had dark hair, and always wore winged eyeliner. "What exactly are you doing?"

Esme looked toward the door before slowly shutting it. "Hiding," she whispered, feeling the dust and dirt on her feet when she walked.

Jade helped her over toward the wall at the back, where a metal trash bin and small sink were in the left corner. Leaning against the bright yellow wall, she placed her legs over the garbage.

"I'm hiding from some of Luke's thugs," she whispered. "Henry, Finn, and Isaac, I believe. Maybe there was a girl with them; not sure."

She tried to lean back, but no position seemed to comfort her. Between the large metal garbage can, spray painted with swear words, and the uneven wall.

A lot of girls would go to this washroom for gossip. They always had a teacher or even security guarding the building, since they've caught people doing reckless behaviour in classrooms. Esme just enjoyed spending time with some of her friends, whom she hadn't seen since The Bubble started.

"Did you have Emma heal them?" Jade asked.

"It doesn't do much. I know I developed these freaky powers, but I thought they wouldn't get destroyed," Esme sighed.

Jade slowly took off her running shoes, grabbing her long socks and tying them around her feet.

Esme stared at what the girl did. The orange socks were warm on her cold feet and covered some of the scrapes. Slowly, she lowered herself to the ground, sliding around on the floor. She picked her ankle up and checked to see if her wounds had started to bleed, but they hadn't.

The girl rushed to hug Jade before speeding off into the other building. There was shouting around and people walking through the halls as she stood behind one of the black walls, showing sports team pictures from the previous year.

People didn't play Uden, but rather the school played itself for two separate teams. They've played
some sports games with Simcoe, but one year a boy purposely threw a basketball in someone's face, knocking a tooth out, so they had to stop playing them.

Esme had seen not just guys fighting but girls being caught. Scarlett, whom Esme had seen in the halls, had started a lot of taunting. Her looks were ravishing, and being on Greyson's right side had caused drama. It wasn't just finding out about them having sex, but sticking her wit into people.

She noticed the small square windows above, where you could see the gym. James had his laptop open, hooking up different screens. In the middle, they laid a blue tarp with a plastic chair in the centre.