Princess or Prey?

*Crash*

A loud sound was heard in the hallway and all eyes turned toward it. There stood two girls, one with red hair and the other with blonde hair. It wasn’t hard to recognize them cause they were the two most popular girls in the college…well, one of them surely was.

Chloe, the blonde girl the actual popular one; stood there fixing her dress, her expressions neutral. She didn’t seem mad at all and didn’t seem to care about anything around her. Unlike Lilia, her best friend. She had red hair and a little duskier skin tone than Chloe. She was really mad and screaming at the person who had caused the whole thing, our protagonist, Siana.

She was on the floor, a drink spilled all over her grey shirt and blue jeans. The beige bag that she always carried with her was lying near her, all of its stuff scattered on the floor. A redness took over her face once she realized that people were watching her and her hands started trembling. She averted her eyes toward the ground, trying her best to avoid their gaze.

“Watch where you’re going weirdo!” Lilia shouted at her. “You ruined Chloe’s dress just now!” Siana closed her eyes tightly as she heard all the screaming. The crowd around them started getting bigger because of the screaming and people wanted to know what was happening. 

“I…I’m really sorry…” Siana stuttered her words as she apologized. Her head was still down and the whisperings around her only increased. 

“Let’s go…” Chloe grabbed Lilia’s hand and started walking toward the end of the hallway. Siana could hear them arguing with one another. 

Lilia didn’t think that her apology was enough and wanted to punish her whereas Chloe just told her to calm down and stay quiet. She didn’t seem to care about Siana at all. They were finally at the end of the hallway and standing in front of the room where they needed to be. Lilia entered the room first and was annoyed about how easily Chloe let the whole matter go. Strangely enough, Chloe turned to look toward Siana before entering the room. Their eyes met and she could see that Siana was on the verge of tears; she gave her a nod and then entered the room.  

The people that had gathered around Siana started to scatter slowly as the center of attention was gone and so was the drama.  

With her trembling hands, Siana started collecting all her stuff and put it all in her bag as she felt all the gazes move away from her. She didn’t want to be in that place anymore, it was giving her too much stress. In a hurry, she grabbed her bag and ran towards the stairs that were at the other end of the hallway. 

“Why does she gotta act like that?” Someone whispered. 

“I think she did it on purpose…” The other person followed and Siana heard several other people on her way toward the stairway. 

“Maybe she’s jealous of Chloe.”

“Why has she got to be so arrogant?!” 

“I know right? Wouldn’t hurt to apologize properly and compensate for her dress.”

*Thump*

Finally! it was all quiet. 

Siana entered the stairway and it was inside a dark room, with no windows anywhere along the long staircase. It seemed as if she had entered a different world because no voices could be heard from outside. No whisperings or sweet voices from poisonous people. The quietness got to her in no time and it set her at peace.

*ting* Siana flinched at the sound. It was her phone’s notification sound. She took out her phone and it read a few messages from someone named Alex. 

“Where are you?!!!!!” 

“What the hell happened in the hallway?! Why is everyone here talking about you?!!”

There were several other messages that followed. Siana sighed lightly as she read all of them slowly, standing silently on that dark staircase. She had no intention to reply to any of them. 

That place was her comfort zone. That darkness was where she found comfort whenever she felt bad or wanted to run and hide somewhere. The darkness didn’t scare her, it talked to her instead, it hugged her, comforting her and telling her that everything was going to be alright, that she was safe and away from the outside world in that room. 

Siana dropped her phone without a thought. The thud sound echoed in that silence. She didn’t have the courage to answer Alex or explain the whole situation to him. For now, she just needed to be with herself and tell herself the rules that she had set up once again. 

Leaving her phone on the floor, Siana started walking up the stairs. Her eyes were blank and not focused on anything in particular. She had stopped trembling since she entered the room. 

*Thud*

The door to the rooftop closed with a loud sound and Siana stood against it. She looked in front of her and there it was, the place that set her free. The place where she could see nothing but the sky. No people, no eyes watching her, just nothing. A sigh escaped her mouth as she just stared into the distance and then closed her eyes, her hands clenched tightly.

Her chest went up and down at a fast pace. And in that silence in that place was filled by her breathing, increasing with each passing second.  

The bag that Siana was carrying was dropped within a second. She walked forward, each step loud and stern. Her brown hair which was tied into a bun that whole time was open as she ran her fingers through them; the tips trying to grab it tightly and so something. 

“Argh!!” A frustrated groan escaped her mouth as she stomped her foot. Holding tightly onto her hair out of the anger that filled her. Her eyes filled with tears and she fell on the floor in no time as her knees got weak; she had no energy left in her body from experiencing that whole incident. 

The silence continued, and the brown strands fell over her face, falling down to her knees. Her breathing slowed down with time and once again no voice could be heard in that place. She just sat there staring at the sky in front of her, not caring about anything else. 

“You just had to do all that right?!” Siana said all of a sudden. Her tone was stern and she stared at the floor while talking to herself. “You had to make that damn supid mistake and be noticed by so so many people.” The anger was clear in her words and tone. Her eyes filled with tears in no time but she was trying hard not to let them escape. 

“Siana… remember our promise, you can’t be close to anyone, you can’t get too close to anyone…Never.” Siana told herself as if talking to a child and scaring them so they won’t do something. 

“You have got to be more careful with people. You can’t be close to anyone! You’ve got to be away from all of them…” Her voice kept getting lower with each word she said. 

In that college, Siana was known as a weirdo and well there was a reason for that. Siana tried her best to avoid people and preferred to stay alone than socialize with anyone. Even when someone tried to talk to her, she ignored them and always stopped herself from talking to anyone. They could tell she wanted to talk and make friends but something was stopping her and she never allowed herself to get close to anyone. 

Some time passed and finally, Siana felt at peace. Her mind said the same things over and over again, engraving them in her head to not ever forget them. A sigh escaped her mouth and she was trying to prepare herself for the drama that was coming up. She knew very well that she was going to get judgy looks and several questions because of the drama that had happened earlier. 

Siana got up finally, preparing herself for what was coming up next. She turned around and walked towards the wall to get her bag. Her hands froze for a second because her bag was placed against the wall. 

It was a little strange because as far as Siana could remember, she threw her bag away but now it was placed so nicely against the wall. But she didn’t have the courage to get too deep into that and just brushed it off. She grabbed the bag and placed it over her shoulder. 

Once again the door opened with a loud screech which annoyed Siana but she was also used to it considering how many times she had visited that rooftop already. 

*Thud* The door closed and once again Siana entered the darkness. She was used to it but still held onto the railing to feel safer. She walked down those stairs slowly. 

Nothing seemed different but she felt a strange energy around herself and her gut wasn’t wrong. Something was indeed different. 

There was a keychain in the front zipper of Siana’s bag- a round clear glass with gold edges- it had been a gift from her friend. And the weird part was that it was glowing green at that moment. Siana wasn’t able to see it because it was behind her but this had never happened before.

Another thing that she didn’t notice was that behind her was another green glow…a pair of green eyes…