Event #4 "Just let me go" [Tag: Pidge| TTW with Class 1-4]

[Veronica Kishi]

She was hiding in the back of the kitchen for nobody knows how long. The voices she heard in the main hall were gone a long time ago. She was all alone. Probably surrounded by a tong of kitchen appliances. She can simply find a knife and...

No. It won't work. It never did. Or maybe she DID die? Maybe she was now stuck in this limbo. Maybe it's her punishment for all those time she... Nica wiped away her pesky tears.

She couldn't dare to look away from one spot she was sitting in or move at all, afraid to find a body of one of her students... butchered like an animal, here. In this forsaken place. 

"Miss Thruman, why didn't you let me go," she has started crying again, stupid tears streaming down her cheeks. "There is no reason to live. Not back then, not now..."

"This is all my fault. I'm so sorry."

[Catherine "Pidge" Santorini]

After being in the room with some of her classmates, the stress was getting to be a bit too much for Pidge. She wandered into a nearby classroom. Was she hearing noises on the other side? No... she couldn't have. Her brain must've been fucking with her. But maybe it wasn't... she definitely heard crying.

She grabbed the bat and banged it on the side of the wall. "Hello?" The techie slammed it a few more times. "Ms. Kishi? Ms. Kishi?! Are you alright in there? I mean... you were crying and I only want to know if you need any help."

[Veronica Kishi]

"Hello?" Veronica gulped down her tears, her eyes opened wide in disbelief. How? Who? She thought she was all alone. "Ms. Kishi? Ms. Kishi?! Are you alright in there?" the voice kept asking. Seemed like it was one of her students, she couldn't figure out who though, the walls made the voice sound so muffled and distant.

"Are you alright in there?"
Silly question to ask. Nothing was alright in here. Nothing.

"I am," she lied and crawled closer to the wall, leaning her ear to the concrete. "I mean... you were crying and I only want to know if you need any help," finally Veronica was able to recognize the voice.

"Don't worry, Cat, I'm fine," she forced herself to smile and gently touched the wall with her fingertips. She felt... odd. Especially because she was talking to one of her students who clearly despised her in the past...

"Are you alright?" she asked with concern.

[Catherine "Pidge" Santorini]

"No. You're not. None of us are okay! If you were, how could you be okay in a situation like this?" Pidge wanted to scream from the other side of the door. If only she could see what her students and 'lovelies' were doing and how they handled this situation. Thalia looked visibly broken, Amanda was allegedly a murderess, Phillip couldn't speak (or he just refused to speak due to trauma), everyone's phones got text messages that ordered people to kiss or injure another person, and there was barely any interaction between the rest of the members of the club. The only thing that Veronica could hear for a bit was heavy breathing from her student's part. Minutes later, she spoke, "I'm fine, Ms. Kishi."

"I have a few questions I need to ask. I saw something in Mrs. Truman's office... something regarding June 11th. Does that date ring a bell?" She asked, hoping she could get some more answers to this strange situation.

[Veronica Kishi]

"No," she lied. June 11. How? How could she know?! "I don't remember anything- I-" she hesitated, panicking and hyperventilating. They couldn't know. Only Madonna knew. No. It's impossible. Kids can't know. She would dare to look into their eyes again if they...

"Cat," after a short pause she called out for her student, leaning on the wall in desperation. "I- I'm sorry. I'm sorry for acting like a stuck-up bitch. I'm sorry for  letting my anger and frustration flow through me and ruin our club."

Her club. Her kids. It was all that left in this world to hold her...
"Since Jack and I got divorced. I-"

She couldn't tell her the thruth. She wouldn't belive her anyway.

"I- Eh, my life has been hectic," she lied again. "I was stuck... in a loop of thoughts and feelings."

She rolled up her sleeve, looking at the numerous scars covering her wtists.

"An never ending loop," she whispered, tears forming in her eyes. "Cat... This is all my fault. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry!"

[Catherine "Pidge" Santorini]

Her second question just got answered; Jack was her ex-husband. Something about Veronica's response seemed a little off to say the least. Well, that was a total understatement. Almost everything that came out of Mrs. Kishi's mouth seemed unwell.

"No, I don't remember anything- I-"

"Are you sure? You don't sound okay! Like, at all..."

Veronica apologized to her and kept explaining her situation. "Since Jack and I got divorced. I- I- Eh, my life has been hectic... I was stuck... in a loop of thoughts and feelings. An never ending loop. Cat... This is all my fault. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry!"

"SHUT UP!" Pidge screamed from her side of the wall and banged her fist against the concrete. "THIS ISN'T YOUR FAULT! YOU'RE NOT FINE! I'M NOT FINE! NONE OF US THAT ARE TRAPPED HERE ARE FINE!" She calmed down a little bit before glancing at the note. "I found this hidden in the library, Ms. Kishi... It had your handwriting... it looked like a suicide note. I know suicide's kind of a private thing, so I won't go on about it any longer...  So... let me ask you this again. Are you okay?"

[Veronica Kishi]

Shit. What kind of drama teacher were you, Veronica?! You can't fool even your own student! She tried still to pull her act together when she was abruptly interrupted! "SHUT UP!" Catherine screamed at her in a way Nica has NEVER heard before. Startled, she shut herself up indeed. "THIS ISN'T YOUR FAULT! YOU'RE NOT FINE! I'M NOT FINE! NONE OF US THAT ARE TRAPPED HERE ARE FINE!"

"But, Pidge," she wanted to refuse and tell her how many horrible things she did to herself. She tried everything. Ever ridiculous things! She tried to do research in occultism, spiritualism, demonology! She tried EVERYTHING and it didn't work.

So instead she kept silent, while the girl continued talking.

"It looked like a suicide note. I know suicide's kind of a private thing, so I won't go on about it any longer... So... let me ask you this again. Are you okay?"

Shit. She should have burned it.

"No, Cat, I'm not okay," she admitted, her voice raspy from tears. "I indded tried to end my life."

It didn't work.

"Multiple times," she smacked her dry lips and let out a soft sarcastic laugh. "Don't know why I am still alive till this point," the woman looked at her swollen broken ankle. "It's like... Something is holding me here."

She took a small pause before another sigh escaped her lips.

"It started not that long ago, but it feels like forever," it wasn't easy to let it all out like this, but... Cat deserved to know the answers. "In June."

[Catherine "Pidge" Santorini]

Pidge didn't utter any more words. All she had to do was listen to the club teacher's tale; it seemed to be the only thing she could do at the moment. And that's what she did until one phrase was brought to her attention.

"It's like... Something is holding me here." Veronica explained the reasoning as to why she hadn't died yet.

"Now, what do you mean by something? Willpower or something, I don't know, supernatural or paranormal?"

"It started not that long ago, but it feels like forever... in June." Mrs. Kishi continued.

"June 11th, I presume?" Catherine checked her phone as Veronica continued her story, checking if she had gotten any more texts. If it was one of those moments in the movies, the mysterious force behind the texts would be on overload the moment crucial backstory is revealed.

8:51 PM

June 11

It was half-charged, a fact she could excuse but, last time she checked her phone, it was September... None of this made any sense! Unless... No, Pidge... things like that don't happen. There are no time loops or parallel dimensions; this is not science fiction... "Um... Ms. Kishi?  Sorry to interrupt, but have you checked your phone recently? Some students have been getting really weird texts and I'm not sure if you got any..."

[Veronica Kishi]

"Now, what do you mean by something? Willpower or something, I don't know, supernatural or paranormal?"

Veronica shook her head in desperation. "I don't know," she whispered gulping salty tears and mucus. With what powers she had left, she tried to continue her narration, but Catherine sharply abrupted her again by yet another question. The girl was so eager to know the answers, and Miss Kishi would love to help, but at the same time it was so hard to concentrate...

"June 11th, I presume?" she asked.

"June... 11th?," Veronica shook her head again, now in confusion. The woman was perplexed by the precise date the girl has asked her about... And it was incredibly close to the day she tried to end her life. Suspiciously close.

"Um... Ms. Kishi?" Pidge was about to ask another question she probably didn't have an answer for, "Sorry to interrupt, but have you checked your phone recently? Some students have been getting really weird texts and I'm not sure if you got any..."

"Texts? I- I didn't receive any, I-" Veronica felt how her body was slowly going numb, the white static noise was rinning in her ears.  "Cat,.." in a matter of seconds, both parties on the opposite side of the walls fell asleep.