Across the room

A Story by Rose

Mr Fire-Escape Man used to taunt me like he taunts Heidi -my character-, this is my "flirting" with the idea of him coming back, in public, sending me insane. All the characters are true people.

"Okay -Nathan, be quiet- get stuck into your task." Spoke the drama teacher, she obviously wished to be anywhere else other than here.

The children immediately started talking about everything but the task. The only reason anyone ever came to drama was for the conversations, the work was just an excuse to persuade the children's parents to let their offspring come.

After getting shouted at by the teacher a few times, the students -only twelve to thirteen years old- buckled down and started to plan their sketch. Four people per group, they lay in huddles on the floor, chatting noisily about the plot; the arrogant, attractive male called James tried to change the subject to "how many numbers he has", but the rest of the group -two girls and a boy, unusual characters- wouldn't allow him.

The paint was crumbling off the derelict walls, a slow, consistent drip fell from the mouldy ceiling, the floor was cover in black paint and scratches. The footprints of dead children scarred the floor, memories were carved into the walls, "He will come again, the man of all men, the demons of all demons, the Anti-Christ, the Lord, our God."

"I see your point, but I don't think that a single character can affect a strong personality like Emerson as much as to make him run screaming from the room." Debated a playful-looking girl called Heidi, she had short, blonde hair, sparkling green eyes, pale skin with blushing cheeks; she was unusually tall and lanky for her age. But the main feature was her emotion, when you looked at her, you saw happiness beaming out of her, but just one deep observation and you'd notice that her smile faded as soon as she wasn't being watched. She was an interesting specimen indeed.

"I think it could!" Argued Nathan, also a tall and lanky boy, but with curly brown hair, blue eyes and a face of freckles. Heidi and Nathan were strangely attracted to each other, they used the group as a chance to learn about each other, because left on their own, they were too shy to converse. Though they were good friends, they had many secrets from each other.

"Really, because, I think-" Interjected another girl called Susan, a bold ginger, who was good friends with Heidi, but very protective over her good friend, Nathan. No one would listened to Susan, because Heidi and Nathan were the strongest characters.

"Let's just start improvising already!" Moaned James. Everyone was bored, so they all went along with it.

The children started to act, none of them had any particular gift, but as stated earlier, they were just there for the social meetings, rather than the work.

As their improvisation went on, some changes were made clear in their work, Heidi was starting to act unusually, her normal, calm facade was fading and a stream of anxiety was becoming obvious to everyone, as it slipped through and into her act and temper.

The teacher called the class in, and they all gathered round to watch each others work. The children sat in the theatre chairs as the groups nervously got up to act. While watching other performances, Heidi was looking around nervously, on full alert, but when she was asked what was bothering her, she just looked confused, and genuinely said "I have no idea…"

When the time came for Nathan's group, the audience of pupils were starting to get bored, just adding more pressure to the actors.

Halfway through the sketch, Heidi stopped dead in her tracks with the look of death upon her face. "No. Why are you here?" She whispered into thin air.

Everyone was taken by confusion.

"Why?!" She screamed, slowly backing away from the audience with tears rolling down her tense face. "You were gone! I saw you go!" She whimpered, obviously becoming very weak.

"Heidi, whats wrong?" Asked the teacher, cautiously walking with her arms open to embrace.

"Stay back!" She shouted, almost pleading. The look of defeat had crossed into her eyes, she grabbed a chair and thrust it into the air. She looked even more scared when she saw that her act of defence had no affect.

"Say my name, Heidi!" Taunted the figure, confidently meandering towards her, flirting with the knife in his hand. "You can't hurt me, you know that."

"No! I can't say it!" She cried.

"Say it!" Roared the creature, now centimetres from her fragile body, but no one except Heidi could see him.

Across the room, a pair of tweezers glistened in the light of heaven. She bolted for them, all the while the class sat in horror as they watched a girl, their friend, love and passion, plunge the small blade deep into her eye multiple times.

"Tell me!" Screamed the man as he shook her dying body. He watched her eyes fill with horror at his cold touch.

"Mr Fire-Escape Man." She whispered with the last breath in her body.

The teacher lay on her knees in silence, the class was whimpering, a low sob broke out in Nathan, a tear fell from Susan's eye.

Heidi's cold body and mysterious death was classified as a hallucination that made her go insane; when in reality Mr Fire-Escape Man waits in every mirror, hand-in-hand with Heidi, her playful look gone, the sparkle out of her eye, disappeared, but the mystery and emotion behind her green eyes still remain.