Crazy little Carys

Don't make me go back.

Carys looked up over her forearms, her hands clasping her knees to her chest as she rocked gently. She'd lost track of the time in the cupboard with no doors or windows, but the people outside had left a long time ago. The lesson bells were the only thing that had made her open her eyes, just to make sure she was alone. Except for now.

Her hands hurt, her muscles tired from being tensed for so long. Her breathing was finally calm and steady. She hadn't heard anything in a while now, and although the silence was comforting, and the same time it made her think why no one was there. Were they sitting there, lying in wait for her to leave the cupboard? Why her? Why now?

She felt unsteady as she stretched her knees out in front of her, her grip on the shelves to her right as she stood up. Only now did she realize how thirsty she was. The screaming had made her voice hoarse, and while her thoughts had been a million miles away her body had been struggling to recover.

Taking a few slow steps to the door, her eyes peered through the key hole. From what she could see, no one was there. No one was looking for her...

As she attempted to lift the latch off the door the muffled sounds of someone strolling down the corridor made her jump. She fell the the floor, biting the inside of her lip as her breathing became sharp and shallow. Her whole body was shaking, but she tried to make as little noise as possible so that they wouldn't know where to look.

"Carys? Carys!" She knew his voice as Max Knight, but everything she knew seemed to be unraveling in front of her. He could be a trick. He could be one of them. Anyone could be one of them, messing with her head and making her trust. 

Her palms were sticky with sweat, his footsteps grew fainter as she heard him turn the corridor and leave. Cary's voice cracked as she swallowed and opened her dry lips.

“In a Kingdom far far away where the fields were as green as the leaves of summer, where the waters are as clear as crystal. There lived a young Witch princess who was called Carys."

Pushing the blonde cascading locks off her face, Carys sat up gently and slipped her feet out from under the duvet. She couldn't remember falling asleep, she couldn't remember much truth be told. Some running... Some carrying... Her eyes fell to the girl and boy asleep on the floor. That was him, Mister Max. Stretching her legs, she stood up and looked down at him with her head tilted to one side. He looked so peaceful sleeping with the girl leaning on his shoulder. Carys looked to the girl, remembering her as Miss Lizzie from her dorm. With each of her hands she took a corner of the duvet, gently draping it over them as she wasn't going to sleep now. Her eyes flickered to the window, almost dawn by now.

She turned to the door, taking a few steps before looking back at the people sleeping one last time. Some things were wonderful, some things were just perfect. People said things when they slept that they couldn't say when awake. Mister Max's head on leaning gently on Miss Lizzie's was enough to answer any questions.

Her eyes turned to her cut palms, looking at the deep but healed scars that were across them. She didn't remember how they had go there as she walked the corridors, taking a few turns here and there. She didn't really have a destination, she never did when wandering. If you weren't heading anywhere, then you couldn't be disappointed.

Turning violently on the spot, her hair flayed out behind her as she looked around frantically. Someone had been following her. She had heard footsteps. Her arms wrapped themselves around her as she looked forwards again, but even there it was empty. She was alone.

Although she wasn't. The hairs on the back of her neck were raised, some kind of faint laughter seeming to echo down the cold stone halls. No one was there. Yet Carys could hear them. Them.

The warm light of the dawn streamed through the window pain to her left, and all Carys saw was something else. Flames. Flames all along the wall, flames reflected onto the stone bricks, her golden hair alight with...

Running her fingers through her hair she screwed her eyes tight shut, screaming like the people she couldn't see. Her knee's buckled underneath her as she kept screaming, the light glowing red even though her eyelids. Her scream grew fainter as she refused to breath, letting it all out, all of it, until she was almost faint from not taking a breath. From where she knelt on the floor, she made her way to the wall, pushing herself up and keeping her back against it. She had to be as far away from the flames as possible, the flickering fire only she could see. 

She pulled the door to a broom cupboard at the end of the hall, pelting inside and covering her ears with her hands. She shut her eyes again, repeating over and over, "I'm alive. It can't hurt me. It can't hurt me if I'm safe and alive in here.".