Paranoia
Faith's eyelids feel heavy as the light of the morning sun filters through her sheer curtains. The pale rays streamed into the room and onto her face, a sort of alarm telling her the night had passed and made way for the haze of a new day. It must be time to get out of bed. She briefly bristles at the thought before settling and stretching her limbs. Her mind is foggy with sleep as she begins to collect her thoughts and process the events to the previous day. First a dead body and then two of the strangest interactions she'd had in her high school experience...
The sudden turn of events left Faith bitter at the thought of going to school for the day.
Faith shoves the covers off her body, wincing at the feeling of cool air suddenly touching her bare arms. The pit of worry that had made its home in her stomach the night before momentarily forgotten as she begins to get ready for another day in her own personal hell. Her feet pad lightly on the cool hardwood floor as she gets out of her bed and walks to her dresser in search of clothes for the day. She decides on her usual grungy style, just an old pair of dark wash jeans, a band shirt she stole from her dad's closet, a flannel and her favourite pair of beat-up black converse.
She walks out of her room and into the small kitchen of the house. She smells the scent of eggs being cooked before she can see or hear the other occupant of the house, her guardian Mia. Mia- a small woman with medium-toned skin, brown eyes, dark hair and a kind smile- had been a constant force in Faith's life ever since she was a child but they had become closer when she moved in to take care of Faith, after her parents' disappearance, as the girl was too young to live alone.
Because of the suddenness of the Addams family disappearance and the lack of any other immediate family, Mia, one of her parents sole family friends, was the only one able to take care of the now orphaned teenager. Mia was a good enough temporary parent to the young girl but Faith, emotions still raw from the loss of her family, couldn't find it in herself to get too close to the woman.
It wasn't that Faith held any dislike for Mia. If she thought she could love her like she did her parents she definitely would, the wounds left by her parents when they went missing still felt as fresh as the day she heard the news, feelings of loss playing her mind as a constant reminder of what could happen when you got close to people.
Faith hadn't had any siblings and never managed as her social skills weren't very developed and she preferred to keep to herself, especially without her parents there to guide her. She was never really liked by her peers, but her parents' sudden disappearance and her flighty and seemingly apathetic demeanour had ushered in a whole new wave of trouble for her at school. Fork's may have seemed like a cute and quiet town but the gossip machine worked as well as any big city.
"Faith, I cooked for us, come to the kitchen!"
Faith gives Mia a small smile of gratitude before walking towards the table and grabbing some of the food that had been prepared. She starts to eat her food quietly, attempting to keep conversation to a minimum while she was so deep in her thoughts. She pauses briefly before resting her fork and looking towards Mia.
"Did you hear about the body they found in town yesterday?"
The glimmer in Mia's eyes faded as she turned sombre, "Yes," the older woman pauses as she gathers her words, "I received a call from Chief Swan letting me know about it before it got on the news," her eyes drift down as a small sigh leaves her lips, she shifts slightly on the balls of her feet as she feels the heat of Faith's gaze. "he didn't want us to assume the worst, I was going to tell you last night but you were asleep by the time I got home." Faith pauses in disbelief, mind spinning. She had been so consumed by her strange day and chance meetings of some of the Cullen clan that she hadn't even considered what the older woman was insinuating. Her body shivers at the realization.
"Oh."
Faith grabs her plate stiffly and takes it to the sink, her mind completely overwhelmed by the new information. She knows she should be happy that the outcome was not the worst and that the body was not one of her parents but she couldn't help but be frustrated by herself for not even considering the body's possible identity the day before.
Mia's voice rings distantly in her ears as she grabs her bag and strides towards the door, a sudden desire to escape, to be anywhere but here. Faith pays no mind to the older woman's worried eyes and comforting words her mind spinning with self-hatred. As the door slams behind her, she lets out a breath she didn't realise she was holding. How could she be so thoughtless?
This question plagues her mind until she's made it a fair distance away from the house. She pauses a moment to observe where she had gotten herself to in her blind worry. Observing her surroundings she realised she was luckily still on track to get to school and hopefully bury the unrelenting worry she was feeling under a mountain of work.
This thought kept her on track for a few minutes as her mind began to feel clearer. She looks to her feet avoiding the cracks of the pavement to keep quiet the building dread that was consuming her. A small pothole on the path takes her thoughts in a different direction, her eyes flying up as she pulls out her phone.
She was not going to get to school on time.
Faiths pace speed up at the implications of being late, she already had too many absences this semester and being late the day after a death in their sleepy little town would surely not reflect well on the black sheep of Fork's teenage population.
She had hoped to avoid the woods today, wanting to stay on the main roads and avoiding isolated areas so as to not worry her guardian but there was no way she would get to school on time otherwise.
Faith contemplates this briefly before deciding there was nothing else to do and turning off the sidewalk and onto the dinghy hikers' trail that took her towards the school quicker than any winding footpath could.
Her eyes drift slightly as she walks, not too worried but wary of things that may be hiding inside the deep brush of the woods. She had to be careful, for her guardian's sake at least. Halting in a small clearance of the hiking trail she catches her breath and checks her phone only to discover she was making much better time than she had expected. Good, if she keeps moving at this rate she shouldn't be too late.
The wind picks up suddenly causing a few nearby bushes to shake gently. The girl lets out a small shiver as she rubs the back of her neck slightly, feeling almost as if eyes were staring into her form. She shakes herself out of her stupor quickly and picks up into a slight jog continuing down the woodland path, her mind much more alert than when she had begun her journey.
---
Faith's somewhat foolhardy detour had paid off, arriving only slightly late and narrowly avoiding detention from her first-period teacher.
"Alright class glad you could all make it, even if some of you weren't exactly... punctual" the small pause combined with some stray snickers from around the room makes Faith feel slightly ill but she pushes the feeling down and takes out her work. Hopefully getting busy with work would ease the sense of dread that was slowly building in her stomach.
After the days less than stellar start Faith quickly falls into a routine of completing her work quietly and quickly. Her teacher's words floating through her head as she sits through all of her classes. The almost robotic routine focusing her on anything else but her anxieties.
She's only broken out her extreme focus when she here's the sound of the announcement bell, something that is quickly becoming more menacing then she had previously thought possible. Once the announcement finished, the whispers began, theories and accusations being thrown around the room like nothing she had seen recently. She shook her head and reached to the back of her neck again, clammy hands tangling themselves in her dark hair once again feeling eyes boring into her form. Wildly unnerved eyes flicker around in hope of a source when none is to be found she slumps into her chair and groans quietly.
Hopefully, some fresh air and a smoke would smother the unease that was loudly growing in her intestines.
She was out of the classrooms as soon as the bell rang, this whole situation felt incredibly off to her but she had yet to be able to place the reason why. Forks was never this eventful a few years ago, some cheating maybe? a car crash or two? but something like this was just unheard of for Forks.
Faith sighed a breathy, unsteady sigh as she smoothed down her slightly unkempt hair, it would all be resolved soon, it had to be. Shaking her head quickly she makes her way through the halls weaving in and out of the nameless blobs she considered her cohort, aiming to stay out of trouble for enough time to get her things and get the fuck out of the oppressive atmosphere that was smothering the air inside the building.
Faith reaches her locker without much resistance. Reaching into its depths she begins collecting her things for lunch. She wouldn't need much, just her food and her cigarettes. She slams the door shut and put the lock back on with downcast eyes.
This day had not been great so far.
As she turns to leave Faith's dusty green eyes suddenly meet gold. She lets out a small shriek at the new figure stepping back to create some distance between the two of them. She opens her eyes and re-evaluates the situation, seeing the lithe Cullen girl standing where the door of her locker had previously been, leaning against the metal lockers, a small smirk displayed on her face. Faith breathes heavily reclining in her shock was how long had Alice been there? Faith certainly hasn't seen her standing there when she had gotten to her locker.
"Hi Alice, you-you gave me quite a fright, " she gave an awkward chuckle not wanting to talk to anyone after the mediocre day she had been having, "I didn't think I would run into you again so soon," If anything Faith had quietly been wondering if their encounter would be a new topic of bullying within the next few days, it wouldn't be the first time. "I can't say that running into someone and causing them to drop their things is a very pleasant introduction."
Alice gives a small, warm chuckle that makes Faith bristle in surprise, her cheeks flush a dusty, embarrassed pink. Most of her classmates would have held an interaction like that against her.
"I think it was a fine introduction," she pauses as if stuck in thought, the hesitation makes Faith gnaw at her lip in worry. "Very memorable..."
Faith barely suppresses the grimace that rises to her face, even if Alice hadn't thought much of the situation Faith's mind still burned with worry about it. She didn't want the school year to be any harder than it had to be, and that meant no new enemies. Her eyes fall downcast once again as she attempts to regain her demeanour, beginning to walk away from the situation.
Alice seems to catch Faith's reluctance and drops her attempt at conversation, falling gently into step behind Faith, an action that only further cements the worry building inside the unpopular girl. As they reach the cafeteria Faith turns back taking in Alice's slightly worried expression, why would she be worried? She's probably just going to use this to mock me to her friends anyway. Her eyes flicker back into the schoolroom as her face burns with the feeling of being watched from all sides. She had to get out of here before she started feeling sick again.
Muttering a quiet apology to Alice, in a small attempt to counteract the coldness she had just been presenting, she turns and fleas out of the crowded room and away from prying eyes. God, she needed that cigarette
---
Faith laughs a short cruel laugh as she puts her cigarette to her lips slowly drawing the smoke through the opening and into her lungs. When she was walking through the lunchroom she could feel their stares again and she hated it. Cold and cynical, raking her body for anything they felt was out of place, something they could use to confirm their already determined suspicions of her role in the town's latest mystery. It felt too much like it had when her parents left and all she wanted was for it to stop.
Her classmates were always quick to pin things on her, a dead animal in someone's garden, a fight breaking out between some students. They had been doing this to her ever since she was younger, it was easy to pin things on the anti-social girl in the back of the class, so that's exactly what they did.
Her breathing picks up as small tears prick in the corners of her eyes at the thought of her past, it was her last year of high school, she only had to keep her head down and survive school for a few more months, just until graduation, then, she would be free. There was no need for her to get caught up in gossip again. No more reason to cry. Those thoughts calmed her slightly, breathing in shakily she takes another drag of her cigarette. Her mind falling into an uneasy relaxation as she rests her head against the cold bricks of the wall behind her.
Her mood is ruined when she feels eyes on her again, head shooting up from its resting spot rigidly, frantic eyes looking around to see if there was anyone out with her. Misty fog obscured her vision of the thick woods surrounding the area behind the school, the eyes remained focused in her direction, unrelenting.
A shiver rattles her body as she quickly begins packing up her belongings and throwing her cigarette to the floor, the damp grass snuffing it almost immediately. She shoves the rest of her belongings into her bag and falls into a quick walk as she advances on the exterior door, the anonymous gaze following her every movement.
As the door swings shut behind her she looks back through its glass cutout, curiosity getting the better of her, desperate for any confirmation that it wasn't just in her head. For a moment, Faith swears she could see two blinks of red.
---
Faith makes her way through the rest of the day in a haze of paranoia, her experience from before having shaken her greatly. Sitting inside the school unable to shake the feeling of being watched she felt like an experiment under observation and she hated it.
She turns slightly from her position staring at her desk and faces the teacher whos' class she was currently annoying, it wouldn't help her if she got another detention so she might as well pretend to be listening. The feeling of being watched only gaining in intensity every moment she sits there.
She attempts this for a few minutes before her paranoia becomes too much again causing her to retreat to where she was previously. Her mind mulling over continuingly darker thoughts at a quick pace. Her eyes grow damp again as she grips the material of her pants trying to suppress the panic attack she could feel building inside her.
She gasps quietly as she feels a tight pain in the back of her mind, sharp and probing, like a comb being dragged across her skull. Gripping her head with her hands she looks around the room frantically for a source, but the pain is too much to bear, her eyes unable to focus on finding the culprit. Faith's breath feels heavy in her body Her hand shoots up shakily as she utters a request to go to the nurse's office.
Grabbing her things quickly she races out the door as her mind burns hot from the pain. In her rush, she doesn't notice the whispers of the class or the small frowns that had made their way on the faces of the two students sitting at the desk behind hers, their eyes locking in a shared confusion.
The male of the pairs' brows are knitted, mouth slightly agape as he tries to figure out how Faith could have felt him trying to get into her thoughts. He wasn't attempting to pry too deeply, only attempting to find the source of the girls' frantic paranoia that had been seeping from her for the better part of a day, a powerful feeling that was putting his volatile, emotion-sensitive brother on edge every time Faith got within range of him. The girl had never been on his radar previously but this was certainly an interesting development.
The other half of the pair had her brows knitted in a kind, worried confusion that mirroring the males in intensity. Bella didn't know the Adams girl well but she couldn't help but worry for her. Especially after she noticed how panicked the girl had been looking recently. Bella's kind heart ached at the expression she had seen on Faith's face as she searched the room, pure terror had painted the brown-haired girls' features.
Faith's feet hit the floor rapidly as she races out of the classroom, her breathing laboured but the pain slowly subsiding. She pauses after she had made it out of the school building, mind racing as she used the outer door for balance. There was no way she was going to go back for the last few minutes of the period. She collected her thoughts - the pain being completely dispelled by that point -, and started walking home, completely exhausted by what was supposed to be a somewhat normal school day.