changed. She knew this.
She reached for the black t-shirt on the desk and was getting ready to pull it back over her shoulders when she paused.
Instead of putting it on, she laid it flat on Mrs. Haversham’s desk and walked to the blackboard where she picked up a piece of chalk. Returning to the desk she scrawled a quick message across the front of the shirt, bearing down so hard that she snapped the chalk twice.
Then she pulled the shirt over her head and walked away from Richard’s mutilated body. He had no eyes to read this particular message, no brain function to interpret it. But that was okay. It wasn’t meant for him anyway. None of it ever was.
Polly stepped out of the school and into the morning sunlight.
The long night was over and, oddly enough, the birds were singing.
But she could still hear the gunfire. Could still smell the smoke and see the out of control flames licking at the skyline.
And she walked toward this warren of chaos, armed only with her knife and a black t-shirt with words scrawled in chalk across the front. Words which gave her hope and reassured her that, no matter what happened, she would find a way to make it out of this hellhole alive. She was smart. She was strong. And her t-shirt said it all:
About the Author
William Todd Rose is a speculative fiction author currently residing in Parkerburg, West Virginia. His short fiction has appeared in magazines such as
