Logical Conclusions(tags Annie, open)

[Thad Cotton]

This day had been so unfair. He had just got to school not half an hour ago, finally released from his mothers' confinement once the doctor had assured them he could go to school. He was annoyed that they had insisted he use crutches, but the moment he had tried to discard them pain had shot up his leg, and he had thought better of leaving them. He had been excited at getting to school just in time for lunch, hoping he would be able to see Taki, or Roxy, or Ezzie, or Vic....anyone, really, as he didn't know what had happened to the rest of them. But as he had hobbled to the cafeteria an announcement had crackled on, warning of intruders on campus.

The sound of gunshots in the halls ahead of him seemed to him good enough evidence that this was true, so he fumbled for the nearest classroom, door slamming behind him more forcefully than he would have liked. He glanced nervously around the dark room, at the canvases with splotches of paint stretched out before long blocky desks. Ah, the art room. He wondered if he should hide or if he would be safe where he was; the noise was already receding into the distance, perhaps he was okay....

A rattling from the closet startled the boy, and he yelped, falling over a stool in his haste to leap backwards. He winced, and gave a look of pure terror at the closet. "Who's there?" He whispered hoarsely, wondering if one of the intruders hadn't hid in the closet, just waiting for a student to come....but then it occurred to him what a silly idea that was. The noise of guns had made it clear the intruder(s) had no interest in subtlety. That left only one logical explanation: The closet housed a ghost.

Muffled moans issued forth from the supply closet, and the boy crawled under the teacher's desk, as far away from the closet as possible. His ankle was throbbing, but no matter; he couldn't go back out because there was danger in the halls, but there was a ghost here. At least if he were cowering under the desk neither one would notice him (or so he hoped) though if they did he had left his crutches beside the stool he'd tripped over.

[Annie Holmes]

Annie was terrified. This was perhaps the first time she’d been locked in a closet, and by boys with guns no less. She couldn’t scream, the only use her vocal chords ever really got was laughter, and while that might seem like it was enough, she couldn’t scream. Couldn’t call for help. Could only pound on the inside of the art closet door hoping beyond hope that someone might hear her.

She didn’t know what was going on. Couldn’t hear the screams. But her mind was playing all sorts of tricks on her. They’d had guns. She’d seen that. There was certain body language in the way the one fellow had shoved her into the closet. He was going to come back.

Tears flooded down her cheeks, dropping off her chin and onto her cloth covered chest. Her fingers had red paint on them, but still she pounded at the door. Why hadn’t she ever bothered to learn how to talk? Why?! Was it so important for other people to understand her form of language that it just didn’t matter to her? Or was it because she had in reality been spoiled by her family. They’d all learned sign language. All laughed with her and encouraged her in everything, but this world…

Maybe it was just too cruel for her.

When the art room door flew open and two officers with guns at the ready entered, they checked the room, finding Thad, huddled beneath a table, and the closet. Rattling, with a desk pressed against it. Slowly both officers approached it from either side. The desk was slid away and the door fell open, a tiny girl falling out. Once it was determined that she wasn’t a threat they started to ask questions.

“Names!” They barked.

To which Annie could not answer.

[Thad Cotton]

Thad attempted to push himself further into the shadows of the table as the door creaked open. The presence of the police was not as reassuring as it should have been; not after having been hauled down to the station just last night, and proclaimed a missing child as well as a trespasser. He wanted to warn them to stay away from the closet, because they would let out the ghost, but it wasn't until the spirit tumbled out of the closet that he finally found his voice.

"Annie!!" He recognized the youngest Holmes; she was in the same grade as Sidra, and much like his eldest sister she was difficult to miss. Even had she not been exuberant and colorful, she was the only deaf girl in the school. He just managed to see dried red all over her hands, and immediately his mind leapt to terrible conclusions. "They killed Annie!!" To anyone else this would have seemed a thoroughly ridiculous statement to make, when she was standing right there in front of him, clearly solid and breathing and sobbing, but he had so firmly managed to convince himself there was a ghost in the closet that his mind had yet to filter the information that it was only one of his classmates trapped. "Annie's a ghost!!"

This was all his fault, he knew, a tragic cautionary tale; if he hadn't gone ghost hunting with Takumi then everything today would be normal. He had wanted ghosts, and he had now got one, at the expense of an innocent girl. His wishes had caused the men with guns to come, and they had killed Annie, and she had come back to haunt him as revenge for causing her murder.

"Names!!" The officer snapped again, as both children seemed inclined to shake with tears rather than answer.

Thad wrapped his arms around himself once more, glancing fearfully at the red-head, and trembling himself, both for fear of ghosts and guns and police. Words tumbled from his lips, but none could be easily deciphered by the officers, except "ghost". It wasn't until they loudly demaned he calm down that he offered a more coherent statement:

"Annie c....c....can't hear," He swallowed, "Less ghosts get undeaf when they's dead, I dunno, Si would know. Or Vic." He huddled miserably, wishing for the first time in a very long time that he was at home instead of here. One of the officers immediately radioed for an interpreter, and meanwhile began scribbling his questions onto his notepad.

Thad watched the proceedings wide-eyed, only giving his own name after being asked for the third time, and then added plaintively, "I wanna go home."