Valeria;Horror Story Part Four

My feelings about Valeria were forever mixed after that, coloured by sadness. Though one thing never changed; I never wanted to be alone with her.

The most immediate reaction to our fall out was from the boys whose en mass response was to goad us incessantly into more arguing. It amused Valeria and me briefly that the response to that from us girls was identical silent stonewalling. It didn`t amuse Clem one bit.

MS Halisted was watching Clem,myself and everyone on our table closely so we tried to use this sudden alertness  to find out more about Valeria. It didn`t work. She really was not even on the register. MS Halisted stonewalled us!

The next day however MS Halisted expressed great surprise at not finding Valeria on the register and made a great noise of going off to find out why. It seemed like a set up for a showdown that was not coming. It didn’t. When she returned she seemed in very good humour,apologising to Valeria over some or other “Mix up” She was of course on  the register she responded, adding slightly accusingly “why wouldn`t she be? “ It struck me through with horror.

On the way up to dinner that day I felt someone kick  me in the back of the shin but I didn`t say anything. For all her cleverness there was something not very new about Valeria. Clemency spotted me rolling my eyes ,she came over and commiserated “You can`t get into a fight with a ghost  can you “ We looked around for Valeria knowing she was not there. That was the first time either of us had said what both of us were thinking in seriousness beyond the defensive. We didn`t really know if we believed it ourselves though.If we were wrong we would be wrong together at least, failure of too much imagination or not.

After our moment of matching silence at the boys I had noticed Valeria seemed to be looking at me occasionally with less intense fearsome loathing. It occurred to me in passing she might even be going to talk to me, it was a scary thought I tried to dismiss. Not least due to the sheer height a girl like Valeria would presume to be talking down to you from.

It was just when Clem`s fear of the dungeon like bathroom had begun to rub off on me and I decided I didn’t want to go alone that Valeria decided to confront me in it.A face to face with Valeria was always going to be a High Noon moment. She simply stood there in front of a grey concrete wall waiting for me to go and stand in front of her. The first thing she said was

“Why do you hate me?”

“I don`t” I began not thinking she would believe me and the fact that I only said it once  confirmed to her that it was a lie. She didn`t want to believe it.Thinking that a lost cause I went on

“I don`t think you like me or Clem.You don`t even like them,your`e own”

She shot me an angry look

“They aren`t my own!”

Venomous ,I thought.They were her friends and appeared to like her quite a lot but I didn`t know what to say. Didn’t really want to say anything. I just wanted to get away but she was still talking
“You are all so stupid. I picked the best at being stupid at least”

I thought I saw someone behind her then. Valeria was studying me for a reaction and I was waiting for her to explain what was going on. The fear overwhelmed and paralysed me and what actually happened then is all a bit of a blur due to the passage of time the confusion of the moment and the blow to the back of my head. I have thought most often that I received the blow on the way out but given what I think I saw I’m not so sure. Maybe Valeria knew more about the power of suggestion than she ever let on. The other children behind her appeared to be fading in and out of view. Seven or eight of them. It was dimly lit single bare bulb bathroom but the bulb was never known to move at least. The children seemed to be fading in and out of view as if under a bulb swinging back and forth. Someone was beside me too.

After Valeria had laughed and laughed at my paralysed state she became sad and sorry for herself,turning her face away. I managed to unfreeze enough to make a dash for the door and that was when someone threw something heavy at my head

“You’re so stupid” I just heard her say sadly

I was so dizzy and light headed leaving the bathroom I felt I was about to faint.I think it knocked me out for awhile.I remember going downwards wondering why i was unable to keep moving.I don`t recall getting out the door.I just remember being in the hallway with the whole view sliding sideways and shutting off whilst i fought to right it. I only made it back to my classroom with the help of Paula who saw me as she was coming down from the cloakroom. She held me up and steered me.I could feel and hear but not see for a while.

Sat in back in my chair my vision started to return. The other children from the bathroom,clearer and more solid looking now,were amongst us but everything was wrong. I shut my eyes and hoped not to see them again. It was vision of hell. The children peeled off their own flesh, burnt and bloody and black, they threw it at each other. A child walked backwards unwinding the intestines of another. Others were wrapping themselves in intestine like Christmas tinsel. A boy took off his ears and I buried my head in my arm it was too much to look at. To even have found out was he was going to do with them would have felt like the end of the world.Amongst my own classmates there was at first blissful ignorance.Clem couldn`t see. Not at first and then eventually everybody could.

Across the room from me a blonde boy with a neat bowl haircut was one of the only all right looking of the other children. He was stood quietly so I looked at him instead of everything else until he came into sharper focus. The blackened burnt looking girl stood next to him was blowing gently in his ear with a straw clasped in blackened fingers. Out of the boys other ear oozed dark blood and brain. The blonde boy widened his eyes in mock horror at the boy in front of him, meaning to complain she was not blowing hard enough. The laughing boy was shaking and shrieking with laughter and at blonde boys insistence took over the straw. Steadying his laughter for one huge blow laughing boy then caused an explosion of blood and brain matter to burst all over the wall. Blonde boys right eyeball bulged and then popped out of its socket onto his cheek. Laughing boy and the girl double up in hysterics .It was now the most gruesome scene in the room .There was no escape.
I don`t remember the rest of that day. Someone shrieking at me to tell them what was going on, a teacher I think.I was so breathless by then I couldn`t speak. The school was closed for a week after that day. Due to an outbreak of a “nasty bug “according to my mother. She said the nightmares were a symptom and everybody was having them. She insisted I had it because I had the nightmares.
 After spending all week convincing her I was fine  I finally wore her do

wn to “well you had a bit of it “I could not get hold of Clemency, her parents said she was not well enough to come to the phone or talk which seemed impossible. My mother was so calm and laid back about it, so sure it would soon clear up.

When you are a child things always seem to be happening that are never explained, maybe they think this is for your benefit. But sometimes you know absolutely that information that concerns you is being withheld and it totally frustrates you. All week was like that but then “This bug affects your imagination “I was also told so what do I know?

www.abctales.com/story/witchling/valeriaa-horror-story-part-one

www.abctales.com/story/witchling/valeriahorror-story-part-two

www.abctales.com/story/witchling/valeriahorror-story-part-three

www.abctales.com/story/witchling/valeria-horror-story-part-five