Chapter 4: "The Offer,"

Chapter 4: "The Offer,"

───── ❝ R U B Y F R I D A Y ' S P O V ❞ ────

I was panting heavily as I reached the Headmistress' office, barely able to keep up with the vast space of the whole vicinity. As soon as I took a fair glance of the sign that told me I was in for my right destination, I begrudgingly opened the doors, only to be greeted by an ominous feeling that I could not explain. The space I was standing shrouded in a deathly silence, and the only thing that could be heard was the sound of my own panted breaths.

As I entered her office, I could feel the eerie feeling starting to fill the room. It was like it was trying to trap me and to hold me captive in the darkest dungeons ─ obviously a feeling that is far from being safe and sound in the bounds of this place.

The office itself is quite large, with a high ceiling, giving it a feeling of intimidation. The windows are all boarded up, as if to keep out any and all light, and the only illumination comes from a single, frail light bulb that hangs from the ceiling. It casts an eerie glow over everything, making the room feel even more oppressive.

But what is even more puzzling was the fact that I couldn't quite shake the feeling that I was being watched. It was like someone was observing me from the deepest, darkest corners of the room ─ like they were waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

It was then that I realized that the feeling wasn't just coming from the dark, dreary atmosphere of the room. It was coming from the Headmistress herself. Like a viper, I saw her sitting in the very most center of the studio, her back facing me as her long, blonde hair hanged down her on her bare back like a cloak.

I could hear a sound of paint brush clicking against a canvas, but I tried to whisk it away as I nervously step into the floors, trying not to make any sound. I approached her slowly, waiting for her to turn around, but she never did. It was as if she was doing something important, to the extent of being unconcerned and unbothered with my presence. It was as if she was channeling all that dark energy into her work, and it was all confusing to watch.

With it, I continue to inch forward, but something made me hesitate, strangling the urge to run away. It was the feeling, the icy cold dread that was emanating from the Headmistress' body. I had never felt anything like it before, not even when I saw a schoolmates dead body in my former school for the first time.

"I figured out you'll came running through that velvet gate, Ruby. But, not this soon. I must say I am quite surprised."

I almost jumped in my stance when I heard her speak, her back still facing me. As I calmed my surprised self down, I noticed that she had a deep, yet enchanting voice like that of a siren that I couldn't help but be alarmed upon. She has a way of making people feel both comfortable and seemingly uncomfortable, like she can see right through them.

Yet, because I was curious to learn more about what she was doing, and I had so many queries

left to ask about the games that her students was warning me, I continued through my path ignoring her sinister remarks, only to hitch my breath once again when I saw her painting a dark yet royal portrait on a sinister black canvas.

I could vividly see what she was working on─ a girl with long violet hair dangerously holding a piece of a broken shard of mirror, leveled in her eyes. Painted in that very same shard was a foreboding aura and a seemingly alter ego, a much darker version of herself.

Upon seeing the wholeness of the painting, my heart raced as I recognized the person it depicted.

It looked strikingly similar to me, down to the smallest details of my face. The girl in the painting had the same hairstyle, the same eyes, even the same moles like me. The similarity was so uncanny that I could barely contain my terror as I felt a sense of dread wash over me.

"What is that?" I couldn't help but to ask as my voice viciously stammering, pointing to the painting.

"That..." Ms. Rose started to speak, her swivel chair making an eerie screeching noise as she turned to face me with her grinning crimson lips, "... Is your future."

What the hell? I couldn't miss cursing in my mind as Ms. Rose's choice of words sent chills down my spine. I can tell she's enjoying this, as her malicious gaze and grins were pierced onto me as if she was tormenting me mercilessly in her office. I can feel her eyes on me, watching me with a sick pleasure as she speaks.

"No... no..." Shaking my head violently, I staggered a step back as my eyes scanned the painting, taking in the dark and foreboding looking scene before me.

I had never seen her paint anything like it before─ it was almost as if she was trying to capture my soul in the paint. The figure seemed to be reaching out for anyone who would look at it, exposing their deepest fears and secrets. It was a painting that had the power to make even the bravest person fear for their safety. That can't be my future. I whispered to myself.

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As I pondered the Headmistress' motives, I realized that she was trying to control me. As soon as I woke up, I had asked her a series of questions, and she had been evasive in her responses. I realized that she was trying to obscure the truth so that she could control me. Her motives are unclear, but she is trying to keep me in the dark.

As I ponder onto her actions, answers to my questions earlier swarm like an escaped soul out of the pandoras' box to my subconscious mind.

Raising my burning gazes to her, I decided to speak up. "You lied didn't you? About this place serving as a sanctuary? A shelter for scarred people? A safe haven for teens like me?"

I definitely wanted to confront her about this matter. That is what's been running in my head ever since the incident at the school's corridor. I just hoped I get an answer for it this time.

She nodded her head solemnly, her eyes never leaving mine. "Yes, I did. And so?"

I clenched my jaw, feeling the anger and betrayal bubbling up inside of me. I was lied to. I was used. I was angry, hurt, and disappointed all at the same time. I wanted to lash out at her, but I knew that would only make things worse.

She had told time and time again that this place was my sutures. A retreat from the harsh world I had been. A place where I could finally feel safe. But, now I know that wasn't true. Those were all lies.

She saved me when I was at my greatest downfall, and used that situation to made me believe this place was something, it wasn't. And now, I was paying the price. I had been tricked, and it was all because of my foolishness. I'm starting to regret in asking for her help. I shouldn't have stepped my toes in this weird school in the first place.

I gripped my knuckles tightly, raising my grounds as she leave her seat, lowly walking towards my direction. She was always so poised, so in control. It was as if she had this air of superiority around her. I couldn't help but be intimidated by her, no matter how much I tried to act like I wasn't.

In span of a few seconds, she was now standing in front of me as she appeared harmless enough, but the power she wielded was unmistakable.

"You see, Ms. Friday... everybody tends to lie. One way or another. Because that's what humans are made of─ the original sin of lying."

Her words were like a spell, enchanting me to the darkness. I had the urge to control my knees shaking as she circled me while saying those words as if dragging me to the deepest oceans. I could feel her cold, clammy hands gripping my breaths and squeezing it tightly. The oppressive feeling she was injecting had me feeling like I was suffocating, like there was no way out.

I look up at her eyes piercing through me. When she held my hair and swirl it around her fingers, I can vividly feel the coldness emanating from her, as if she were a spirit that had been condemned to wander the earth for all eternity, "Besides, aren't you aware that my act of lying made you still breathing out here and doing fine? When I stopped the monsters that came to haunt you outside the gates by announcing that you are a part of our school, didn't you realize that... I saved you at the right time by a mere lie?"

Just then, memories of my near-to-death like experience came flashing before my eyes, and I had no choice but to walk down my memory lane to remember what she was pertaining to.

........ Just as the gunmen outside were about to reload, a voice echoed in the oblivions that made the other gunmen outside stopped, momentarily confused, "That girl is a student of ours. Please stay away for your own safety. If you did continue to harm her, we have no choice but to fight back."

.......... The voice in the succumbed fogs seem to also had seen their plan course of action and so, they made their last call, "That means you want gores? Very well then, soldiers. But, remember that we had warn you~"

The Headmistress was right. I was alive because of a lie. Alive because of her lies about me being a student in this institution. Colors started to withdraw out of my face as I realized that she's using the words that I threw to her as a knife to cut me up.

"Do you remember it now, Ruby?" She asked with a hint of malicious glee in her tone. It's like she's enjoying my surprise and humiliation. I can barely concentrate on what she's saying, my mind is focused on the feeling of her eyes on me, piercing through my skin.

"Fuck. W-what do you w-want from me?" I stammer, unsure of what to say as questions started to flood my head again.

"Oh dear... since we are on that matter, please have a seat first," she says as she takes a seat to her swivel chair, her voice merely a whisper that quite frankly scares the crap out of me. Against my will, I sat down on the nearest chair that I could reach facing her, feeling like I'm in a place that is not of this world, a place that is only meant for the wicked and the evil.

With her gazes fixated on me, Ms. Rose placed her elbows against the glass table and rested her chin against her velvet painted and clasped palms, "A news through the grapevine has come to my awareness about the commotion on the academy's corridor earlier this morning. I believe my students had given you the old academy's welcome. Perhaps that's what happened, isn't it?"

I blinked my eyes twice, taken aback by her question. As creases formed in my forehead, I held my breath. Shit. Is she pertaining about the warnings and games that her beloved students decided to use to freak me out?

As if reading my mind, the lather nodded her perceptions still pierced through mine waiting for answers, "Yes. I am talking about the warnings, games and stuff, Ms. Fridays."

So she knew what happened down that alley. There's no point for me to hide nor say it out loud then.

Maybe it was the way the sunlight streamed in through the small windows and made the dusty old bookshelf seem all the more ominous, or maybe it was the way the air seemed to be saturated with the feeling of unease. Whatever the reason is, I felt like not answering her question this time. Instead, I did something both of us in the room didn't expect to witness.

I tried my chance to be fucked off. Just like what her students asked me to do.

Clenching my jaw while whisking her questions away, I said, "Release me out. Forget the pleas I begged you to hear. Forget treating and curing my wounds. I want to be fucking out from here."

After my words, I took a deep breath and prepared myself for what was about to happen. I bit my lips hard and waited for the inevitable. Half of me was expecting someone from the academy's security to drag me out of the place, so that I can finally feel the light. Yet, instead I was forced to end up lurking together with the silence. Ms. Rose face didn't even changed a little bit. That's when I knew this isn't going to end well.

"I'm sorry, Ruby. But the moment you held the hem of my dress ever so tightly, with your eyes begging for mercy and salvation... I vowed to myself to never let you go out of this institution again."

With her words, an invisible chain seemed to wrap around my chest, quietly tightening until I couldn't breathe. This was what I have been dreading to happen. The institutional walls seemed to close in on me as I listened to her. And so, my eyes dangerously watered but I tried so hard to contain my emotions and just keep the anger and resentment that boiled inside me.

I wanted to scream and rail against her unfairness and all, but I knew that would only make things worse. Now, worse than ever, I felt like a caged animal, constantly on the edge of disaster.

"I would like to consider your suggestions, but my I still believe my voices beats yours. So, instead of granting your wish, I have an offer to tell you."

Her face inched closer to me as she smiled and placed a glass-like card on the table.

"Be a player at my Wonderland."

When she started talking, paintings of a dark velvet themed circus slowly unveiled on my side. It was just beside my portrait, the painting of the girl she drew earlier yet because it seemed hidden all along, it didn't became visible through my perceptions earlier.

"Every Fridays, a game will commence at midnight. It will be a simple truth or dare. Your task is to win each rounds until the semester ends, and if you successfully manage to finish it all safe and sound, I will let you out..."

With her words, it seemed like the paintings are ethereal and whimsical, depicting a very dark and sinister world of an arcade. The setting is a bustling fairground, with tents laden with weapons and things I can't distinguished, of all shapes and sizes. With each of her words, the paintings come to life, and the circus becomes a tangible reality.

Her voice is like a sinister melody, coaxing the hidden secrets from the paintings, "Yet, just a little spoiler, the questions and dares are extremely disturbing, since everyone has secrets they must cage. So, what really matters in the game, is how far the players would go to protect them. That rule certainly applies to you, Ruby. You must watch out, for your darkest past and secret that has a connection on who you are right now, might be unveiled out."

I froze in my seat as soon as I heard those words. Shit. My past. What does she know?

Even though disturbingly shaken in the thought of her knowing my enigma buried deep within my soul and her games, I still had a chance to tweak her words in my head and came up with another offer to battle with hers. An offer that she might seem to ponder off.

"I will play your damn games, your rules, your arcades, but under one condition. Ensure my safety, and that secret you know about me... it must be keep out and protected." My voice was laced with no emotion while saying those words.

The Headmistress' words echoed in my head, refusing to leave me alone. I couldn't shake the feeling that she was right─ that my future was with lurking in her playground, her wonderland. I tried to push the thoughts away, but they kept creeping back. What if she said yes? What would happen then? Will I battle and play at her Wonderland until my secrets left unfold? My stomach turned at the thought. I can't let that happen. I won't let that happen.

With all her words and tricks, I should have known better, I should have known that she's somewhat trying to grave me in. I had never felt so uneasy in my life before and I could tell that this woman had something sinister up her sleeve.

Why the hell would she save me in the brink of my death, just for me to be offered a place safe away from hatred? I wasn't any of her students that time. I didn't know her, so why did she bother to kill those gunmen and kept me alive?

I should have known that everything can't be given for me, free. Everything must have a price to play.

The weirdos that warned me in the vicinity of the school corridors were right. I need to stay away from this place whatever odds maybe. Because in this place, my secret can't be safe, sure it may for a while, but a while was clearly not in my vocabulary.

And so, with the fire of freedom burning in my eyes, I watched her blank face earlier, now etched with grins as she pondered on what I've said. "So you mean that as long as I hide the skeletons in your closet, you will play my games..."

As soon as she flipped the glass card she was holding, revealing my information as a student and player in her academy, I knew that I somewhat ended up with my one leg dragged in hell. Staring at her playful eyes, I realized that I was a pawn in a game that I didn't even know was being played.

"Deal, Ruby. Welcome to my playground then."

A game that I could try to win.

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T O B E C O N T I N U E D...