The Variations by Jones M (iphone ebook reader TXT) 📕

"Go ahead," Darcy shrugged.

Emma stared at the people in front of her in disbelief.

"I cannot believe this. I can't believe that every one of you is right here, and you are still taking this shit!"

"Whoa. That is quite the mouth you have on you right now. Are you sure you want Darcy to make your life much worse than it already is?" someone on the table commented, and the rest laughed.

It angered Emma.

"Take one more step in front of me and you will regret it," she warned Alex.

"What are you going to do?" he smirked, still approaching her.

Emma quickly reached into her jeans pocket and took out something that had him stopping his movements.

"What the fuck?" Alex, suddenly scared, said as he stared at the gun pointed at him. Movement started all around the cafeteria as people seemed to back away in their seats.

"I am tired of letting you bitches ruin my life! Let's see how you'll all feel when I ruin yours," she said, making sure the gun clicked loudly when she switched the safety off.

"I'm sure it's fake," Darcy said nonchalantly. "You can do what you want to do with her, Alex."

The scared look on Alex's face turned into back into a smirk.

"For this stunt you just pulled, do you know what I'm going to do to you?" he said, resuming his approach towards Emma.

"No," Emma said, "but I know what I'm going to do to you."

She aimed the gun and fired it towards the ceiling. Two shots sounded in the area as they hit the roof, and everyone screamed as they went to the floor.

A pin drop silence fell upon the cafeteria as everyone watched what was happening.

"How is that for fake?" Emma smirked at Alex who looked more frightened than he had recently. He quickly backed away from her, and Emma walked slowly towards him with an evil grin on her face.

"Emma, c-calm down," Darcy stated as she raised her hands in front of her. "Let's talk about this."

"Talk about what, bitch?" Emma exclaimed as tears clouded her vision for a moment. "Ever since I came into this school, you guys have done everything you could to make my life hell."

"Emma--"

"You humiliated me on a daily basis. You never stopped to see the suffering I have gone through. You just wouldn't leave me alone!"

No one spoke as Emma breathed in the room.

"What I want to know is: why did you do it?"

Darcy gulped as she turned to look around her. The surrounding people had raised their hands in surrender, and they had panicked expressions on their faces.

It angered Darcy that she had lost control, and so she glared at Emma.

"Because I can. You are just a stupid, weak girl who doesn't even have the strength to stand up for herself. I mean, seriously? You waited until I uploaded your nudes on the Internet so that you could come here and threaten me?"

Emma's hold on the gun shook, and Darcy smirked. She believed there was a way she could get her to drop it.

"Just face it, Emma. You are nothing but a worthless attention-seeking little bitch. Everyone hates you, and no one will like you after what you did today. So just go back to that little hole you crawled from and die."

No words were spoken between the two. Emma was soon crying, her form shaking as her sobs rang through the room.

Darcy smirked. With quick movements, she went and slapped Emma on the face. The motion had taken her off guard, and it loosened her hold on the guard.

"Listen here, you little bitch!" Darcy yelled as she glared at her. Her fingers had held onto her chin, forcing her to look at her.

"I am going to make you regret what you almost--"

Darcy was cut off when Emma punched her in the stomach. Darcy let her go, and Emma moved to grab the gun. In quick movements, she was standing back up with the weapon aimed at her.

"No," Emma declared, shaking with uncontrollable fury as she stared at Darcy. "You are the one who is going to regret bullying me ever since I came to this school."

The blond yelled as she charged after her. Emma did not hesitate to pull the trigger.

Her expression turned into one of shock as the shot rang through the school. It seemed to echo for a long time, even though it had been seconds. The shot had stopped Darcy, and she stared at Emma in shock before looking down at her torso. Blood was coming out of it at a fast rate, soaking through the material of her dress.

Without a word, she collapsed onto the floor.

Then all hell broke loose.

Screams pierced the air as every student started rushing for the exits. Emma panicked at the sudden flurry of activity, and it had her accidentally pushing the trigger of the gun again.

The bullet had bounced off a wall, but it did not cease the screams.

"You bitch!" Alex screamed, charging toward Emma. She acted out on impact, and so she fired again. The bullet hit him in his chest, stopping him from making further movements. More screams sounded afterward.

"Alex!" Chris, who had been silent throughout the ordeal, yelled as he ran to his friend. Emma was prepared to shoot him, but then she noticed he wasn't coming after her.

She looked around the cafeteria, hearing the screams of the other students as they went to exit the room. Some pushed others as they rushed for the doors, not caring whether they stepped on those who were on the floor.

'What have I done?' she asked herself, staring at the mess around her.

"Darcy... Darcy..." Alex was sobbing as he stared down at the blonde girl. She was unresponsive to his calls as blood continued pouring out of her torso.

"You shot my friend!" someone yelled. Emma turned just in time to see Kate charging towards her.

"Kate, no!" Alex stated as he crawled towards Emma. He looked determined to get to her, and so she had her aiming the gun at him. She was about to shoot him, but Marie jumped on her.

Screaming, they went to the ground.

"Let go of it!" Kate yelled at Emma as she reached for the gun. Emma held tightly onto it, not loosening her grip. 

"Stop it, Kate!" Chris yelled in fear, but the two did not listen to him. They rolled on the ground as they fought to grab the gun, but seconds later, a shot sounded in the room again.

Emma panted as she stared at the confused look in Marie's eyes. She soon collapsed above her. She pushed her form away from her, moving to quickly stand up. That was when she saw the bullet wound on her torso.

"Kate!" Chris yelled out, shocked at how things had turned out that afternoon. Marie was still alive, but she was having a hard time breathing as blood seeped out from her stomach.

Emma looked around, panicked that she had fired a gun at three people. Students around her were still rushing to escape the cafeteria. Her eyes started tearing up as the revelation of what she had done fully dawned on her. At that moment, she started regretting ever coming into the school with the gun.

The distant sounds of police sirens soon reached her ears. Emma's heart thudded in both fear and worry as she wondered what the authorities would do to her.

There was no way she could easily get out of the mess she had created. She believed the police could decide to take her to jail or even kill her as punishment for firing a gun at a couple of students!

Emma looked down at the gun, and she knew what she had to do.

"Kate!" she heard Chris call out again. By then, he had placed her head on his thighs. Alex was also next to him, staring helplessly at the girls who were shot. Marie was trembling as blood continued to pour out of her torso, coating the clothes she had worn.

Emma aimed the gun at the spot near her heart. Her eyes teared up once again. She closed her eyes, and within seconds, she had shot herself. Excruciating pain shot through her form as she fell to the ground. Fortunately, it did not take long for the darkness to swallow her.

Back to the present...

Time seemed to still as the four stood in the hallway, staring at each other.

Emma stared at Alex, Chris and Kate, and she could not hide the shock of seeing them. They all could still remember what had happened in high school, and being in the same building reminded them of the incident.

They continued looking at each other for a while longer. Emma slightly shook her head in denial before she quickly moved towards the building exit. She took off in a run, having the people around staring at her in confusion.

No word was spoken between Kate, Chris and Alex until she had disappeared.

"You have got to be kidding me," Marie commented, still shocked.

"What the fuck?" Alex stated, infuriated. "What is she doing here? I should go after her and--"

"Alex, no," Chris stretched out his hand to stop his friend from going after Emma. "Let her go."

"But..." Alex trailed off before releasing an anguished sigh. "You know what she did to me. To us."

"Yes, but we can't do anything. We are in college, and if we go after her, the university heads will go after us. They will ask how we know each other. Is it really worth ruining the life we have formed for ourselves here?"

Alex did not say anything for a while as he thought through Chris' words.

"This is unbe-fucking-lievable," he said with a shake of his head before storming farther into the building. A couple of people he had passed turned to face him, and they curiously looked at each other, wondering why he was in a mood.

"Why does the universe hate us?" Chris wondered, and that had Kate directing her attention to him. "Why did she have to come here of all places?"

Kate stood there, silently watching as he shook in anger. 

"Let's go to class," he said with a sigh, grabbing Kate's hand and dragging her towards the direction of their class.

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The day's lecture passed much quicker than anyone had anticipated. Most of the students had filed out, including Chris who had told Kate that he had to go check on Alex. She had remained behind to make sure the files she had typed on the computer she was using had been uploaded to her cloud storage.

Once she was done, she got up from her seat and started heading towards the doors.

"Miss Velias, may I talk to you for a second?" her professor called out, making her stop to face him.

"Mr. Bernard?" she said as she approached him behind his desk.

"How are things between you and Chris?" he asked. Marie was confused for a moment, but then she understood he was asking about the project.

"Things are fine, sir," she replied, giving him a genuine smile.

"And how is the project coming along?"

Kate seemed to pale at the question.

"You have been making progress on it, right?"

"Oh! Yes. We have started the animation process."

"Good," Mr. Bernard commented.

Kate seemed to relax in relief.

"You can