"What are you going to do?" screamed Angie at the sky, hoping she could negotiate some kind of peace with the... thing Vanessa had turned into. But this time, there was no answer. Did she hear a distant laughter in her mind? She wasn't sure. But everyone around her, people were starting to recover from the shock, as the silence fell, no voice speaking anymore in their minds, and after a long, unproductive conversation about what everyone had seen and heard, and what could be coming next, the authorities evacuated the former base, and closed it, while the visitors were all sent home. The long way home was really quiet in the school bus, everyone focus on what implied what a being like Vanessa Barnes becoming omniscient and omnipotent implied. Everyone eventually ended up all, telling the story of the sad end Vanessa met. The part about her turning into a goddess... was believed by no one, as expected. The only strange thing was how the Barnes family itself received the news. They just politely thanked the cops sent to them to tell them their daughter had considered as dead, even if there was no body, and closed the door. A cop thought they looked like almost... hypnotized. Or something. But he shrugged, forgot this stupid idea, and went back to his office to type his report.
The next day, when Angie woke up, she expected to find herself living in hell, but nothing seemed to have changed. Or did Vanessa change something and then made it so it always was that way?
Angie went to school, anxious, her guts almost painful, as she didn't know what to expect. Was Vanessa furious about how they fought in the museum or thankful for what it turned her into? Or was she just enjoying it now and going to take revenge, just for fun, later? And, damn... was she hearing her thoughts right now? Angie tried to think about weird noises and musics to repel her but... can you repel a goddess with simple tricks?
As she arrived to school, she noticed the staff was guiding everyone to the school gymnasium, where the principal was waiting, along with the vice-principal, the secretaries, and a huge portrait of Vanessa from last year prom. The principal called for silence, and then, spoke in a solemn way.
"Our friend Vanessa Barnes left us yesterday, as you probably already heard, during a terrible accident in a museum. Her family had been informed, and now, we wanted to inform all of you so you'd hear it officially. As a consequence, and because her whole class witnessed the terrible event, we opened a psychological support cell in the school, and a psychologist will be there for the coming weeks to listen to you all."
He made a sign to designate a woman in her late thirties, who nodded to salute the crowd of the students gathered there.
"Now... we also heard the terrible rumors spreading about Vanessa... speaking from her grave, or some supernatural events regarding her sad end. The museum team confirmed it could be cause by the dust and the old chemicals in the air at the moment of the explosion, making people suffer from a collective hallucination. Blood test will be conducted in the coming days to make sure everyone is alright. But please, stop speaking nonsense, think about her family and honor her memory."
For just a moment, at the very limit of her field of vision, Angie thought Vanessa's big portrait just grinned. She turned her head brutally to check if she had been dreaming, and saw multiple classmates doing the same. But... no. The portrait was the same as before. God, Angie silently prayed for all this to have been indeed an hallucination. Just like everything that happened at the museum. Maybe the principal was right... maybe the world was rid of Vanessa Barnes, as cruel as it sounded. Maybe it had been chemical in the air, the reason why the voice in their heads stopped speaking and ever did it again a few moments after the explosion. The time for the chemicals to stop their effect, right?
The class started right after the speech, the principal trying to get things back to normal as fast as possible, but you could feel the tension in the air in the classes that had been present at the incident. Between two classes, Lucy came to Angie, showing up her phone.
"Hey Angie, you should check this."
"What is it?"
"A video that had been put online late last night. Remember Christy, the queen bee from this other school Vanessa hated?"
"Of course, yes. She never invited her to any party and tried to avoid her as much as possible because she was taller and bustier."
"Check this. It's her in a club last night."
Lucy played the video, and Angie watched it, seeing Christy in a sexy dress showing her every curve, furious in a nightclub. She was screaming about a pipe breaking while she was in the toilet, ruining her dress and make up. And indeed, she was a mess. The guy filming was trying to zoom to get a good look at the transparent parts of the wet dress, the reason why he was filming, but as he was doing it, the fire sprinkles went on "accidentally" and Christ was wetter by the second, running outside the club, furious, only to find that outside, there was a storm.
"But there was no storm last night!" Angie said.
"No. Except on this very part of town." Lucy added with a hint of anxiety. "But look."
Christy was running to her car under the rain, that seemed to go stronger the second she was under it. She was close to her luxurious sport car when suddenly, lightning hit it, the shock wave sending Christy to the ground, and making the guy filming almost fall. As he filmed up, Christy's car was now burning. "What the HEEEEELL?!"screamed the girl, seconds before the video stopped.
"Weird how "unlucky" she was, right?" Lucy said "And how this unexplained micro-storm ruined her car and nothing else. Just like..;"
"Like if the elements themselves were against her." whispered Angie.
"Yes. Still thinking the principal is right and we all hallucinated? Vanessa might have indeed turned into an absolute being." Lucy explained "And if she started messing up with Christy's life... then no one is safe."
They both gulped at once...
Sun Dec 11 00:00:00 2016