ANGER ISSUES

I found myself in a small dark room. My eyes were still adjusting to the darkness. Where am I? What is this awful smell and most importantly, why my hands are smeared with blood!!! My head was throbbing with pain.

“How did you get here Cooper? Come on! You must remember something!” I asked myself, growing more irritated by the second. Just when I was about to start kicking the walls angrily, I remembered something.

I must have been the first class after lunch break because i was full and sleepy. The cafeteria food in our school is really good. But just like all the other good things, it was also expensive. Money has never been an issue to most of the students. But i lived in an orphanage so i could never afford it. I must have spaced out while thinking of the exotic looking cafeteria food because when i came back to senses everybody was screaming, well at least two of the girls were. The others were just cheering them on.

“Stop you two! This is a class, act more like a civilized human being! And as for the others, if you all don’t stop cheering them on right now, there’s going to be a pop quiz first thing in the morning tomorrow!” the teacher yelled.

That threat was enough to make everyone shut up and sit down, except those two girls. They just kept on pulling on their hair and scratching each other’s face. I had to admit it was kinda funny, well it was until one of those girls poked the other one, with a pen, in the eye. But that wasn’t enough for her, she kept stabbing her again and again.

“Emma, stop! She is gonna die if you don’t!” the teacher shouted as she moved towards them to pull them apart but stopped realizing that if she moved any closer, she might get stabbed herself. So she did what any wise women would do.

“Help! Help! Somebody, please!” she cried and then ran out of the class. Out of curiosity I and a few other students went out of the class as well.

The hallways were eerily quiet. The sun must have gotten hidden behind the clouds for there was no sunlight coming though the huge windows, no fluttering of the curtains, everything was covered by a grey shade.

“Where is everybody, it’s way too silent.” Said Rosaline, the girl who broke every rule of the universe just by existing. She was smart, beautiful and rich yet she was kind, generous and caring. That kind of combination just didn’t exist.

“err… maybe the classes are over and they all went home.” I suggested. As soon as I finished saying it, I realized how stupid that sounded. First time you talked the most perfect girl on earth and you say that, way to go Cooper. Darn me and my inexperience with girls.

“Not the time for jokes Cooper.” She said. Well, at least she thought it was a joke- wait a sec, she knows my name? I could die as a happy man now.

“Heeeeeeeeeeeelp!!!” my fantasies were interrupted by a scream that came out of the Women’s restroom.

“That sounded like the teacher.”Rosaline said as she turned towards me. I nodded and then we ran towards the restroom.

Women’s restroom was the last room in that corridor so we had to pass a few classes before reaching it. What we saw inside those classes made me want to turn back and run towards the Men’s restroom so that I could keep puking for rest of the day. The rooms were full of bloody dead bodies. At least I hoped they were dead, the condition those bodies were in, I wouldn’t even want my enemies to feel that kind of pain.

“Oh my god! What the hell happened here?” cried Rosaline and broke down into tears.

“Hey, look here, look at me! You need to hold it together. Besides, whoever did this might come back here.” I told her.

“Don’t say that! It scares me” she said as she wiped away her tears and looked down at the floor. She looked so vulnerable. Nice move Cooper, now you managed to scare her. I was so angry at myself, I wanted to tear off all my hair.

When we reached the women’s restroom we saw Nolan, our linebacker, sitting on top of our teacher and smashing her face with his punches.

“I just wanted a passing grade! Not a A+, not a A-, Just a tiny- little passing grade. But no, you just had to give me a F+. A friggin F+” Nolan shouted at her as he brought down his massive arms down on her face, again and again.

“Do something! She’s going to die if we don’t stop him” Rosaline whispered to me.

“Yeah, am thinking.” That guy was a linebacker, there’s no way I could beat him and the teacher looked pretty dead anyways. But I didn’t wanna act like a coward in front of Rosaline.

“Wait here, I’ll be back.” I told her and went to take the fire extinguisher. I took it and came back to Rosaline.

“Nice thinking.” She complimented me.

“ thought it might cool him down” I said and started moving towards Nolan from behind and as soon as I reached close enough I struck him with it, on the back of his head. That did the trick, Nolan was knocked out cold. I had to admit, I liked this feeling, it made me feel powerful. I just took out a guy who was about a feet taller and way wider than I was. I wanted to hold on to this cylinder, ever.

“Mrs. Winston, can you open your eyes? You are going to be alright! We are gonna get you help!” cried Rosaline while holding the teacher’s disfigured face.

“Who is this? Listen you have to tell the people. Something was injected into the student’s body, it makes the victim feel extreme uncontrollable rage.-“miraculously she could open her mutter other these words.

“friggin F+” Nolan shouted as he kicked the teacher’s head. I knocked him out with the extinguisher but it was too late. That was a footballer’s kick, her neck broke with a loud snap. Rosaline broke down to tears again.

“We did our best” I told her and kneeled down in front of her.

“Hey, I will always be by your side, I’ll never leave you alone.” I told her, as I wiped her tears with a thumb. She looked so beautiful at that moment. I leaned towards her to kiss.

She pushed me back.“Wait!”

“Why? Don’t you like me?”

“Of course I like you, I just… I … I just don’t like you like that- “

“Like what?” Isn’t this the scene where we are supposed to make out? She was not Rosaline; my Rosaline was not like that. This girl just looks like her; she’s just like the others. Now I was really pissed off.

Now I knew whose blood was on my hands…

A whole month has passed since the tragedy. I ran away, if I didn’t the government would have probably used like a lab rat. I have been able to keep this ‘disease’ under control all this time. There was some news broadcast about the tragedy coming on the television.

“The government has disclosed new information on the Timbleton High massacre (that’s what they have been calling it).” A brunette reporter said on the television. Then the screen switched to a police officer surrounded by a dozen of microphones, labeled with various news channel logos.

“It was a terrorist plot, a bio-weapon synthesized by the terrorists, in the form of a serum was given to the students through the cafeteria food.”

The officer was still talking, but for me the world seemed to be at pause. That’s the day when I realized I had some serious anger issues.

__END__