At Any Cost
by: FrickNfrack
Would you cry if I died today?
I think it�d be better if you did not say
(Papa Roach - �Infest�)
CHAPTER 3
�Are you adjusting well Lyssa? What you said back there... well, are you having any troubles?� Mr. LeRoux said softly, sitting on the edge of his desk. He looked concerned, and she couldn�t blame him. All this shit was crashing down around her ears and she couldn�t stop it. She sighed.
�Well, I guess Lory�s just getting on my nerves. I think she thinks I�m trying to get with her boyfriend or something. I don�t need this crap,� she said sullenly. Mr. LeRoux patted her on the back and mumbled something she didn�t hear, then she was walking in the hall again. She bumped into Jacob but kept walking.
�Hey, what was that about? Did he jump on you for something?� Jacob said softly. She just shook her head, unwilling to talk. He left her then and she walked on alone, sullen and disinterested in the things about her. She looked at her schedule again and saw that she had Calculus. She groaned and found her way to the room, slipping in the same as before and taking notes mindlessly. She couldn�t wait for the 3:00 bell to hurry up and ring so she could walk home...
*******
It was now 3:05 and Lyssa was walking home, albeit slowly. Her shoulders sagged and her feet dragged the ground, as though sullen to get home. She heard footsteps behind her but didn�t look back. She thought they would soon overtake her to walk on past like so many others, but these stayed a calculated distance away; not very loud but always loud enough so she heard them. She still didn�t look up though; she was not worried about footsteps at the moment.
It was only when she got to the drugstore with it�s silly stupid sign �We have drugs...only prescription though!� that she got worried. She wondered why footsteps, and yes, that�s how she thought of them, footsteps, with no body and no face attached to them, would be following, no, stalking her?
She turned a corner in hopes of losing the ever-present footsteps, which now caused her nerves to rattle. Faster faster, like a racecar without a speedometer. She doesn�t know where she is or where she�s going now, all she knows is she wants to get these damned footsteps far behind her, and then, when she�s home, she can take this whole incident apart and measure and digest it and say �Oh, it was just nerves� or �Oh, it was my silly imagination.�
She wants to turn around and face her (footsteps?) follower with fury and rage and scream at him... or her... or it? She wants to know why she is being followed, why she is singled out. Trouble is, she�s scared now, and it�s getting dark. That silly strange line, what is it? She put de lime in de coconut She drank em bot� up from some song in her past keeps popping in her head and she doesn�t know why.
She is running now, but the footsteps keep up with her. Her books go flying and her legs are pumping. She really is a rabbit now, running scared, she is. Her heart races and her blood pumps fast. Her long, long hair is whipped into a frenzy by the wind and her shoelaces are untied. Oh God, not now she thinks but she miraculously stays on her feet.
She is turning here, there, trying to stay ahead of her (shadow).... her what... would be attacker? assailant? good citizen of Atlanta trying to make sure she gets home alright? She knows she should stop this foolishness, this... bullshit and stop running. But she is in a panic now. Seeing an alley ahead she darts into it. Trouble is, it�s a dead-end, and the footsteps have her now, they are on top of her, choking, like the darkness around her...
