Young Writers Society

"Don't worry!" Astrid called out, holding Evan's hand. "I've gotta come, too. Moral support and uh, make sure this guy doesn't topple over on us."

Winifred reclutantly grabbed her bear. "You'll die without me," she stated. She stopped at Izzy for one last lookover, than joined Sage's side.

All that was left was Izzy. She sniffed absentmindedly. The horrible smell was enough to push her, despite her urge to stay. "Fine. I'm only going to keep Winnie safe. I don't exactly trust most of you." She shot a glare in Evan's direction.

Dawn was aching to be out the door, bolting the moment the vines went down. She hated her mother, but she needed her more than oxygen. She loved her mother, but she wanted to see that vile woman to rot for the rest of her days.

She rushed to the ladder and went up, desperate for any sign her last remaining family could be okay. Despite everything, it was still her mother. It was still the one person she knew her entire life. The sun was only beginning to come over the horizon and Dawn was already zipping through the halls, desperately making her way to her mother's room and office.

The rest of the group followed more slowly, cautiously picking their way through the school. Since the sun was only just coming up, most of the students were still in bed, so the hallways were mercifully empty.

Sage was careful to keep herself calm--she didn't want any little vines popping up behind her like a screaming SAGE WAS HERE! sign. One of the downsides of growing a plant that didn't occur anywhere else, I suppose.

"Dawn! Slow down!" Avery whisper-screamed at the redhead's retreating back.

"Maybe we should speed up," Evan suggested, face pale as his eyes darted around the hallway. "The less time we spend in here, the better."

Sage silently agreed as the group picked up the pace, settling somewhere around a light jog. After a few stretched-out seconds, they reached the door to the Adjudicator's office.

Izzy caught up to Dawn in a flash, literally, carrying Winifred on her back. Dawn's hand was already on the doorknob, but she was frozen. She didn't have the courage to open that door. On the other side, her whole world could shatter. The thought still hadn't set in. Her mother could be dead on the other side of the door. She could be lying on the floor, hunched over her desk... Or she could simply be sitting there, reading over papers as she always did.

Winifred tilted her head, watching Dawn carefully. "Why kill her in her office? It'd be more scary to do it in public..."

That's when Izzy decided to glance away at the stairs leading to the teacher's rooms. She quickly slapped a hand over Winifred's eyes. "Oh, shit. Dawn, you might want to... not look?"

Of course, that got Dawn's head moving. From the Adjudicator's door, there was a slight corner that covered the stairs and elevator to the private floor for people like Ms. Lane and Dr. Emily. Peeking from just around the corner was a pool of blood.

"Mom!" she cried out, sprinting over. Izzy didn't try to run after her, instead waiting paitently for the screams of anguish or whatever else people did when they saw dead people. To her surprise, it never came. When Izzy looked back, Dawn was just standing there, staring down. Finally, she put Winifred down and creeped over. The first thing she saw was an empty wheelchair on the platform between the first and second flight of stairs. Izzy turned around quickly after that. She didn't need anymore confromation.

Dawn simply... stood there. Right at her feet, Louise Whitlock lay motionless in a pool of blood that had splattered across the steps, her eyes open in... some sort of unreadable expression. Not fear, not sorrow, just... open. Dawn didn't even feel sad or angry. She didn't feel anything now.

The thought had lingered for a while now, what life would be like without her mother, especially considering they were planning to destroy this place, but... it never set in how hollow she'd feel. Dawn Louise Whitlock was officially an orphan. No father, no mother, no brother... she'd never felt so alone in the universe.

Was there a chance she could've saved her? What if she bled out, thinking her daughter was slipping from her grasp? Quite the opposite, in fact. Dawn never felt more caged and controlled by her mother than she was now. It felt as if her mother won. That all the cuts, burns, pain, fear, manipulation, scars... they all meant nothing. She never got to prove her mother wrong. Her mom died thinking she was a gentle, delicate thing that must be diligently controlled and caged. It all meant nothing. Her entire life was defined by this defiance, and it all meant nothing!

She couldn't even muster out a tear or a sob. Instead, Dawn choked on the words. "Oh, gosh." No vines or kudzu crawled up her, but wood. Her pale, freckled skin turned to bark, consuming her completely in mere seconds. All that was left was the wooden statue of Dawn, her eyes nothing but sockets in the indented wood.

Her horrible, devoted, digusting manipulative, protective, controlling, loving mother. Gone.
It was so silent for a death.

Avery ran over to Dawn, but her hand stopped just inches away from the redhead. Her eyes widened as she took in the full extent of the scene, horror bubbling up inside of her like carbon monoxide. It stole the air from her lungs and the words from her lips, leaving her frozen, a living statue at the top of the stairs. Sage followed soon after, her morbid curiosity driving her steps forward. She regretted it immediately when a wave of nausea overtook her stomach.

"Did he...push her down the stairs?" she asked in a thin, knife-scrape voice. Avery shook her head slowly, not to answer the question but just to feel the numbness in her body. She opened her mouth, but the words simply failed her. There was nothing to say.

In the hallway, Evan sank slowly to the ground. He only needed to see the expression on his sister's face to know what had happened. He didn't want, nor did he think he could ever bring himself, to look.

"...What do we do now?"

Astrid stood by Evan's side, trying to stay as close as possible. She'd be rather lost without him, all things considered. "I... I don't know. I guess we worry about Powder and... I dunno, do we get a teacher? I-I mean," Astrid had to resist the urge to grab her DS and escape from reality. Somebody was dead! Not just mind-controlled or mind-wiped, but dead! "I can't believe it. It was that easy? Just... a push down the stairs? It isn't right."

Izzy was sure to keep Winifred close, keeping the gruesome sight away from her. She'd been through enough already. "It felt like judgement day whenever you walked into her office and now she's just... kinda folded over on the floor." Izzy sat against the wall near Evan, Winifred sitting in her lap. "We're so screwed. What do we do? Do you go back and hide? Find Powder? Dude, I don't..." Izzy covered her face, burns and all. "I just wanna go home..."

Dawn was barely conscious. This statue form of carved wood was a limbo state. She didn't breathe, she didn't even feel alive. Sure, she felt, but she didn't feel human.

This all was wrong. It wasn't supposed to be like this! She was supposed to save the day and watch her mother go behind bars, then finally see the redemption of her mother. Now she couldn't even hope that her mother would see the error of her ways.

She couldn't even comprehend that. So, she stayed on this tree form, roots beginning to take over near her wooden feet. They spread to the stairs and walls, eventually to the people around her. It was infectious, taking over everything they could.

Sage was shaking. Screw not leaving any evidence behind, Semavry was spreading like wildfire all around her, tangling with Dawn's roots. This time the vines looked different; they were dark, glossy, and red-tinged, with huge thorny barbs sprouting from every surface. They curled around her legs and the floor and the stairs, long tendrils sending tiny ripples through the pools of blood.

"This is wrong," she croaked. The words fell, suicidal, off the cliffs of her lips in waves that she couldn't control. "This is all wrong. How did he do this? He's such a small little boy, and she's so much bigger and stronger than him...I-I don't understand."

Eventually, Dawn's petrification slowly came undone, roots now surrounding her feet. The wooden sculpture was now replaced with a terrified young woman, her red hair still stuck with shards of sharp bark.

Trembling, she made her way to her mother's empty wheelchair. She remembered countless days spent in her mom's lap, as a young girl, and a many more spent pushing and riding her wheelchair. Her fingers had permanently indented the handles.
She'd be the only one who could remember. Nobody else was a Whitlock. Not anymore.

She sat down in it slowly. There was no warmth from it. She'd been dead for a long while. Dawn gripped her knees tightly. What was she supposed to do now? She uttered the terrifying words, "My mom's... dead."

Finally, the world began waking up. She could hear the footsteps of teachers and staff waking up, roaming the halls upstairs. She couldn't muster up the strength to call for help.

Sage was on the brink of collapse now. She shifted from foot to foot, terror turning her tan face white. “Oh, what do we do, what do we do, what do we do…”

“We can’t stay here,” in light of recent events, Evan found himself to be the calmest of the group, which was a rare occurrence. “If we do, they’ll think we killed the Adjudicator, and arrest us for sure.”

“But what about Powder?” Sage asked.

“We’ll deal with him later,” Avery replied, suddenly breaking out of her trance. She rushed over to Dawn, careful not to step in any of the cold, congealed blood. “For now, we need to leave.”

Finally, Dawn woke up. Her blank expression sprung to life with terror. "Leave?" she repeated, staring at Avery. Her eyes were wide as she stood back up. Dawn couldn't let go of the chair at all. Even standing, her hand was on the armrests.

"M-My mom is dead!" Dawn shrieked, tears rolling down her cheeks. It was finally starting to set in her soul, and her heart hurt. It was like a stab in her chest. "And you just want me to leave!?" Dawn grabbed Avery's wrist, hoping she wouldn't pull away. "I-I can't just go- she's gone and I need her!" Eventually Dawn's grip was crushing while tears streaked her cheeks. "Please- I can't leave her here. I-I need her. I can't be alone-" Her sobs turned incoherant in an instant, leaving her a complete mess of babbled words and pleas for help. Finally the footsteps started making it to the stairs. The dress shoes were distinctly similar to Dr. Emily's. Ms. Lane's flats were close behind, whispering something about a commotion.

Astrid held onto Evan tightly. They were sick to their stomach and had no clue what to do from here. First, they needed to find Powder, then... Did Powder even want to do anything? Was he going to poison the whole school or was he finally sedated? Astrid kept their smaller figure glued to Evan's side.

Izzy brought Winifred back onto her back. "We can go back to the sewers, or back to the dorms. We clearly don't have the Adjudicator after us any longer, so..."

"Please, Dawn," Avery half-whispered to the redhead, trying to pull her out of the wheelchair. "I know this whole thing is terrible, but there's nothing we can do. The only thing we have control over is getting out of here, and our time is dwindling away!"

Evan flattened himself against the wall, turning himself and Astrid invisible as the footsteps drew nearer. "Hurry!" he hissed.

Dawn's face was already a mess, her eyes and nose both red and puffy as she cried. "Oh, gosh," she repeated, over and over. She felt frozen in place, not helped by the weeds growing near her feet. She tried nodding to Avery, but she could barely move without shaking violently. Quickly, she folded up her mother's wheelchair and took it under her arm. "Please, I-I need it, I need," Once again, she was reduced to mumbling. "They wouldn't think I... look at me..."

Izzy and Winifred had already made a dash to the other end of the hallway, waiting at the stairs down. Astrid tried nudging Evan in the same direction. Dawn was relentless, though, desperate for any closure coming from her mom. When they passed by her, she snatched her mother's glasses and cardigan. She would've taken everything, if she could, but there'd be time later. It's not like they wouldn't allow her into the personal dorm, now that she... wasn't using it. "W-Where are we going?" Dawn muttered, sniffling and wiping her face as she pulled a long, oversized cardigan over her shoulders. She choked back even more sobs when she realized it even smelt like her mother. When did the Adjudicator have a smell? Was she really losing it now?

"Back to the sewers?" Sage said it like a question. Evan kept his mouth shut, casting quick glances over his shoulder as the group moved down the hallway. Any minute now, Dr. Emily would find the Adjudicator's body lying on the stairs. And when he did...

Avery was a different kind of tense. Her olive skin was flushed and sweaty, and her broad shoulders were shaking under her ebony hair. She held Dawn close, partly for her own comfort as well as the redhead's.

"I want to find Powder," she said in a throaty, clogged voice. She stroked Dawn's frizzled hair, watching the light catch in the vibrant ruby strands. When she opened her mouth again, she looked very un-Avery. "I want to find that murderer and--well--we can't just do nothing!"

"How do you expect we do that?" Evan demanded. "Do we even have any idea where he might be?"

"He's got to be somewhere in the school," Sage pointed out. There were little green vines growing out of the collar of her shirt, winding slowly up her neck. "Probably in his dorm, playing dumb. Right, Izzy?"

Darcy's scream was easy to hear. It was distinct and heartwrenching. Dawn looked as if she were about to explode. Everything had already been reaching her breaking point, but now she was boiling over, barely able to hold herself together and Ms. Darcy rushing to the Adjudicator to try and find a pulse only made it worse. Dawn wanted to scream and cry and hold her mom, but no, she couldn't. She so easily could, but she shouldn't. She wanted to hate her friends, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She felt entirely too conflicted about every little thing to do anything. "Just... go somewhere." She just needed somewhere to grieve.

Winifred cut Izzy off before she could speak. "Why play dumb?" she asked, "Adjudicator's dead. He could've put stuff in their already."

Izzy licked her lips nervously. "I guess she's right. He could be in her office for all we know."

“Well, you two are the experts,” Sage raised her eyebrows at Izzy and Winifred. “What do you suppose we do?”

“I can take Dawn somewhere safe,” Avery offered, her shoulders still trembling slightly. “To the sewers, or the garden or something. There isn’t usually anybody up there.”

"Yes!" Dawn blurted out. "P-Please, I need to go." She was desperate for some sort of escape and release. She wanted a hug, she wanted to sleep, she wanted to run away and not deal with anything anymore. "Garden. We'll go to the garden. Less," she sniffled, "Less suspicion."

"You think I know!?" Izzy whisper-shouted. "Someone just died and you think I know how we should handle it!? All we can do is make sure nobody thinks it was us! Confronting Powder now would just cause us more trouble."