"The Runaway"A Story by Jack Buckner“The Runaway” By John Smith
1. The runaway. Most people around here won’t bring her up. The shame and terror that she brought upon this town was enough to make most people completely forget she ever existed. But isn’t that how most people think? They would rather forget what scares them than confront it. But I’m not most people. To be perfectly honest, the runaway didn’t scare me that much. She was just a little girl. That’s all she looked like anyway. She was just an average little schoolgirl. I remember the first day I saw her. I was an English teacher then at the local high school just down the street. It was halfway though the school year and I was writing the lesson objectives on the big black board that was mounted at the front of the classroom. The typical mumbles that take place behind a teacher’s back halfway though the year all of a sudden stopped and everyone turned and focused their attention at the door. This I found very strange. Nothing scares the s**t out of someone like silence. I placed the calk down and turned to face the door. Standing in the doorway was young woman with long black hair wearing a long denim dress? She was carrying a pink and black-checkered backpack on her back and her head was aimed down at the floor with her glaring up at me through her hair. She walked over to me and handed me a slip of paper from the office. I grabbed it from her and read it. Joey, this is Vivian Floyd. She is a
transfer student from Minnesota. I looked up at her and smiled. “Class, this is Vivian! She’ll be joining us in class for the remainder of the school year. Vivian, my name is Mr. Johnson.” I said as I extended my arm for a handshake. She just stood there for a moment before finally reaching out and grabbing my hand. We shook ands and I pointed to the desks. “Vivian, just choose a seat and we’ll get started.” I said to her. She turned her back to me and walked to the back of the room and sat down at the isolated desk in the corner. I didn’t think too much about her the first time I saw her. But I think I could say that I felt something was not right from the start. 2. Several weeks went by when I began to notice a recurring theme. At first the students mostly avoided Vivian. It was as if they didn’t want anything to do with her. You know how it is with kids, especially teenagers. They are afraid of what’s different from them. They don’t like to be different. But as time went by, they began to change around her. They went from just ignoring her to being brutally hostile. One day in particular was the worst. Up
to that point it became very regular for me to have to call down several of the
girls on a daily basis for being hostile towards Vivian. But that day I got a
call over the loud speaker. “I’ll be right there.” I said to her. I looked out at the class. “I got to go to the office just for a second. Take out your copies of The Catcher In The Rye and began your daily reading! You’ll have a test tomorrow over today’s chapter.” I said to them as I began to make my way towards the door. I walked out of the room and down the hallway to the office and walked inside. I didn’t think for a second that the students would sit down and actually read the book while I was out of the room. I’m not insane. But I did hope that they would at least consider it and not get into too much trouble. As for the phone call, it was very strange that my wife calls me at work during the middle of the school day. I knew it had to be one of two things. Either I sold one of my books or something had gone terribly wrong. Luckily for me it was the first one. I left the office with an overwhelming feeling of happiness. But that didn’t last too long. As I got closer to the English pod of classrooms I began to hear one class really stick out. That better not be my class! I thought to myself as I continued walking. When I stepped inside the classroom. When the student’s saw me they quickly ran back to their desks and sat down and began to read. I walked in the classroom and stared with a sickening look at Vivian who was duct taped to the wall. Duct tape covered her eyes and mouth and they had taped her hands and feet together. Paper wads and paper air plains were covering the floor. “What they hell is this? What the hell is going on? I’ve only been gone for five Goddamn minutes! Will somebody please explain what the hell is this?” I shouted as I pointed at Vivian. I reached over and pulled her away from the wall. I then reached up and pulled the duct tape from her mouth and then slowly peeled the tape away from her. She screamed and then began to sob. “Vivian, who did this to you?” I asked her to no response. “You don’t have to protect them! I want names!” I shouted with anger. She just fell to the floor and continued to sob. I walked over to my desk and pushed the speaker button that was on the wall beside it. “Can you please send a nurse to Mr. Johnson’s classroom ASAP?” I said speaking into the speaker. “Sure!” one of the secretaries said. I then walked back over to Vivian and knelt down beside her. “Alright Vivian, stand up. I’ve got some help coming for you!” I told her as I grabbed her by the forearm. She nodded and began to push herself up off of the floor. Nurse Wendy walked into the classroom. “Vivian, why don’t you go over there to Nurse Wendy! She’ll take care of you!” I assured her. “Alright.” She said as she slowly walked over to Wendy. The two of them left the room and then the dismissal bell rang over the loud speaker. The students began to pack up their things. “Stop! We’re not done here! Now, I’m no idiot! I know that you all had something to do with Vivian being duct taped to the wall. Even if you didn’t do it, you didn’t try to stop it!” I said to them. “Now, the big question is what am I going to do? What am I going to do to you? I could suspend every single one of you! But that would be too easy. You guys will be serving detention for the remainder of the year. Every single one of you! And believe me, it won’t be your typical detention.” I promised them. “Now get out of my sight!” I said angrily. The students all stood up and walk out of the classroom. 3. I wish I could tell you that her only problems were at school. I would love to tell you that after six hours of torture at school, she went home to a loving family who cares about her. I wish I could tell you that, but I can’t. That’s simply not the story. Vivian was quite frankly a b*****d child. There’s nothing else to it. Her father was a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. He found his life to be too difficult to continue so he ended it. He sat in the living of their trailer park home, grabbed a 12 gage shot gun, and pulled the trigger splattering his brains against the wall right in front of Vivian’s mom, Fannie. Just seeing that was enough to screw Fannie up for the rest of her life. Ever since then she often resented the fact that Vivian was her daughter. She later went on to become an alcoholic and drug addict with the only thing stopping her from taking her own life was Vivian. I decided to go there for a visit. I wanted to check up on her after what the kids have done and I wanted to develop a parent teacher relationship with Fannie. When I first arrived it was Vivian who came to the door. She looked awful surprised and bothered to see me. “May I come in?” I asked her. “No! You have to leave! You can’t come in! You can’t be here!” She said as she quickly shook her head and shut the door. It was that moment that I decided to research her family records. Something was night right there. I could feel that. 4. She went on to miss an entire week of school. After seeing the conditions of her home life she had I would be lying if I said that I was surprised. I figured that she was sick or something. So I went on to my normal everyday life. When she returned she was wearing a dirty hospital gown and smelt like something that has been dead for days lying on the side of the road. She was covered in dirt and bare foot. Turns out shortly after my visit somebody reported what I had found out and they took Vivian and her mother to a mental hospital. The class fell silent and just stared at Vivian. Vivian
turned and looked at the door leading to outside and it swung open. She then
reached out at me and I was unable to move. She raised her arm and I was lifted
off of my feet. I was then thrown out of the room and the door was slammed
shut. She looked around at the class and then looked up at the florescent
lights. The lights burst into flames and then fell upon the students. The high
school no longer stands there. It burnt down to the ground and everyone inside
was burnt alive. Except for the runaway of course. 5. So
you can see why many people may see Vivian as a murderer. But I don’t quite see
it that way. I see her more like a victim. I was reading the paper a couple of
weeks ago when I came across an article reading THE RUNAWAY GETS EXECUTED! They executed her via electric chair for
the murder of many throughout the city. I wish I could say that was the last I
saw from her. But I can’t. I
was sitting in my office late last night with just my desk lamp on working on
my latest novel when I began to get a strange feeling. The feeling that
somebody was watching me from the corner of the room. I shined my desk lamp in
the corner of my office. Sitting there was a very pale Vivian. She stood up and
walked over towards me. I down at the article that was sitting on my desk and
then looked back up at her with fear. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up
as she reached out to me. “Thank you.” She whispered and then disappeared into the darkness. It’s been a while since I have set foot on the campus of the school, but I often hear stories of a teenage girl who roams the hallways with a never-ending quest for revenge. Copyright by John Smith Courtesy of TRUE TERROR PUBLICATIONS A division of TTP Entertainment <a target="_blank" href="http://www.copyrighted.com/copyrights/view/gr5d-vayb-ai2t-ozap"><img border="0" alt="Copyrighted.com Registered & Protected GR5D-VAYB-AI2T-OZAP" title="Copyrighted.com Registered & Protected GR5D-VAYB-AI2T-OZAP" width="150" height="40" src="http://static.copyrighted.com/images/seal.gif" /></a> © 2014 Jack BucknerAuthor's Note
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Added on March 19, 2014Last Updated on March 19, 2014 Tags: science fiction, thriller, tragedy, horror, suspense, John Smith Author
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