Chapter Two: Listen or Ignore
Myrtle slid back onto her bed once the two men had left. The younger boy's remark about reminding him of Tom Riddle should've insulted her. Instead, she basked in the glow of the words. Like Tom Riddle, she thought savagely, Didn't he maim students in the Harry Potter books? I'll be like him, if the voices allow that path...
However, she didn't have much time. Before Myrtle knew it, it was dinnertime and the children of the school were rushing to sit down and eat and gossip. But she never went down for meals-- all that chatter made her ears ring in pain.
Clank clatter. The sound of the door opening and her tray of food skidding in made her jolt out of her absentmindedness. Myrtle slowly got to her feet and swept across the room, picking up the tray and returning to her bed. She settled on the dusty, warm bedspread and finished her meal just as the intercom rang with the single word,
"BED!"
Myrtle tossed the tray away. It bounced off the wooden floor and shattered into a million pieces, but she felt no remorse. Then she dived beneath the covers and fell into a strange vision.
"Hiss," said a voice in her ear. "We know what you are."
"I know. You are myself, you are the world." Myrtle replied breathlessly. But the voice seemed to shake it's head.
"You will wake up to the sound of voices of the two men you saw today, and they will tell you what I am, what we are, what is wrong with yoooou." With that last word, Myrtle twisted around violently, and was plunged into darkness.
Myrtle woke up, shivering in her bed, clutching it's sides with trembling icy fingers.
"I just realized what is wrong with dis child. She's a psychopath! And she hears ruddy voices all over the place. She must have a brain disorder or something."
"Does she see ghosts?"
"Laddie, ghosts to me are just demons sent up from Hell."
"Does the Bible prove that?"
"No, laddie, its what I think. But it's strange..."
Myrtle sat up, having had enough of the shouts, of the ridicule. Then she flung the window open, welcoming the cool fall breeze. Then she swung onto the ladder extending from the sill to the ground, and disappeared from sight.
