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Innocence
By Anna Li
Copyright 1999 Anna Li
Chapter One
"What was that movie about anyway?" Mackie Eggleton asked as she straightened up her mini dress.
"Well, you would know if you took a moment to watch it, but no, you were too busy playing smoochies with Chris" Buffy said as she tucked her hair behind her ears.
"Oh right, you can talk. Who was playing tonsil hockey with Mark, huh?" Angel teased. Buffy poked her tongue out at her best friend. They turned right and walked through the school gates of Sunset Valley High School.
"What time is it?" Mackie asked, rubbing her bare arms.
"Ah…about 10:45pm" Buffy answered as she squinted to see the hands on her watch. Angel pushed open the swinging glass doors of Bay House, the boarding house for boys and girls, and the three girls walked inside the warm, carpeted hallway. They walked over to the office where the house mistress, a friendly old lady, sat. "May I help you?" she squeaked.
"Yes Mrs Lory, we need to sign in" Mackie told her.
"Oh yes, of course." Mrs Lory said to herself as she searched around for the sign-in book. "Here we are" she said as she plonked a thick blue book onto the counter, "Here’s a pen" she said placing a black biro on top of the book. The girls signed in quickly and walked away.
"Why couldn’t they have came back with us?" Buffy asked her friends. Mackie sighed and answered, "Well, they wanted to watch that action movie that was on later and we all wanted to come back. So we split."
Angel pushed the button on the wall and they chatted as they waited for the elevator to come. "So, what are we doing tomorrow?" Mackie asked.
"I’ve got a chemistry class at 10:20am and then geography afterwards." Buffy answered.
"I’ve got a drama class at 9am and that goes for an hour and a half." Angel said as they doors opened and they stepped into the elevator. Buffy pushed 4 on the elevator wall and the doors slowly closed and the elevator went up.
"Well, I haven’t got anything on tomorrow. Maybe Chris will come to the beach or something with me," Mackie rambled, "Should I get that new sun lotion that came out? You know the one, the one that Jennifer Love Hewitt advertises?" The elevator came to a stop and the doors slowly crept open. "Well, what do you guys reckon?"
Buffy looked over at Mackie who waited for a reply. "You know what I think?"
Mackie arched an eyebrow, "Why do you think I asked? Of course I want to know."
"Okay," Buffy started, "I think you’re a gullible loser. I mean, seriously. If you bought that I doubt that Callan Mulvey would pop up suddenly and say, ‘Hey chicky babe, need some help there?’"
Angel grinned and reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out her keys. She opened the door to their room and switched on the lights. They filed in noisily and Buffy slammed the door shut.
"I think you should get it." Angel suggested as she threw her shoulder bag and keys onto her study desk. She walked over to her cupboard and changed into her pyjama’s.
Mackie and Buffy did the same and they all grabbed their toothbrushes and headed out into the hall again, towards the bathroom. Mackie twisted the handle and pushed the door open.
"How come the lights are switched off?" Buffy asked as she felt around for the light switch, "Can you two please help me find the lights?"
Mackie and Angel ignored her and started talking about the french teacher.
"Fine then, I’ll find it myself. You two are so…" Buffy didn’t finish her sentence, "Uh…guys, I think a pipe is leaking or something."
"Huh? Why?" Mackie asked curiously.
"Because the wall is…well, wet." Buffy answered. "Here, I found the light."
Buffy flicked on the light and it took them a while to adjust to the brightness. But when they did, what they saw made them scream. Buffy’s hands, the mirror, basin, walls and just about everything in the bathroom was covered in a dark red liquid.
"Oh god." Mackie repeated over and over again. The girls backed out of the bathroom, their breaths came out in ragged gasps.
"Hey good lookin’. What’s up?" Daniel asked as he tickled Buffy.
Buffy screamed, turned around and slapped him across the face.
"S---! What the f--- was that for?" Daniel demanded as he brought his hand up to his red cheek.
"What the hell were you doing?" Angel screeched.
Daniel looked at his hand wide eyed. It was covered in a dark red liquid. He looked straight at Buffy and noticed her hands were covered in the same stuff. "What is this crap?" he shouted accusingly.
Tim, Greg, David, Simon and Masa stood around watching. They had come with Daniel to visit his girlfriend, Tina, who was on the fourth floor with all the other girls. Then they saw Angel, Buffy and Mackie and decided to ask them where Mark, Chris and Adam were.
"I don’t know," Buffy blubbered, "It’s everywhere."
"Where?" David asked.
Mackie motioned towards the bathroom.
The boys slowly pushed past the girls to see. They cursed and backed away immediately.
"S---! It’s blood!" Ben screamed horrified.
"It can’t be." Angel protested.
"Then what do you think it is?" Daniel challenged.
Before Angel could answer, Miss Allen came charging towards them from her room.
"What is all this racket? People are trying to sleep. And what are you boys doing down here in the middle of the night? I want an explanation and I want one now." Miss Allen finished coldly. She glared at them all and kept her lips held in a grim line
"The bathroom." Buffy whispered.
"For goodness sake! What is wrong with the bathroom?" Miss Allen asked angrily as she pushed past them all to get to it.
"Miss, I don’t think you should…" Simon warned.
Miss Allen screamed so loud, the teenagers all cringed and covered their ears, then she hit the floor.
"Is she dead?" Tim asked.
"I…I don’t think so. I think she just fainted." Angel said shakingly.
The elevator doors opened and Mr Brigit and Mr Pendergast stormed over to them.
"What on earth is going on here?" Mr Brigit boomed.
Mackie filled them in with the details. The two men quickly called an ambulance for Miss Allen, sent the boys back upstairs and gave Angel, Mackie and Buffy 5 minutes to get cleaned up in the boys bathroom upstairs.
Mackie, Buffy and Angel plodded back into their room after Buffy washed the red stuff off her hands. There was a message on their answering machine so Angel pushed the ‘Messages’ button and they listened quietly.
A mechanical voice played out a threatening message. "Enjoy the bathroom ladies?" There was some laughter and then, "Be careful, next time it will be your blood." Then there was a click indicating that the message was over.
Angel faced her friends slowly.
"A prank?" Buffy suggested hopefully.
"Yeah, that’s probably it. A prank." Mackie agreed, nodding her head vigorously.
Angel deleted the message and crawled into her bed. "Good night." She whispered.
"Good night." Mackie replied. "Angel?"
"Yeah"
"Are you scared?"
When Angel didn’t answer, Mackie said goodnight to Buffy and switched off her bedside lamp.
