It occurred to her that the curse was something that only supposedly worked in town. If she left, maybe it wouldn't work on her again. With a glance back down the road towards her house to make sure nobody was following, she turned a corner and started heading towards Main Street. Luckily she wasn't far from the east end of town.
Upon reaching Main, she hung a right and started walking down the sidewalk that passed in front of a collection of closely packed stores. None of them were really any good, in her mind. If she wanted quality, she had to go to the mall three miles away for that. However, her nerves did rise when she saw more people walking around on the road than usual. "Please don't change. Please don't change. Please don't change." She told herself quietly. As far as she could tell, she didn't.
"Jen!" she heard shouted towards her. She spun around to see Peter stepping out of one of the old tv repair shops. It was so outdated she didn't see anything other than the fat box ones that couldn't be mounted onto the walls. Why did people even keeps those any more? "Are you alright? I heard..." He paused. "I heard nobody could find you after the attack. There were some pretty disturbing rumors flying around afterwards. Most thought you were one of the dead."
"Uh," she stammered. "No. I... I got trampled a little and just fled. I banged my head, got dazed, and just sorta wandered off for a few hours."
"You sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine," she responded, too fast for her own liking. "I-"
"Oh shit!" some girl yelled across the street. "It's her! It's the creature! It's alive!"
Blinking, Jennifer looked around confused for a moment before spotting the woman pointing at her with the one arm she didn't have in a sling. She vaguely remembered the her. She was a student from the school, but she didn't know her name. Some sophomore.
A few other people on the street were staring at the panicked crazed girl, but most weren't following her indications directly to Jennifer. Too many other people were walking around Peter and her to make who she meant clear. But one or two other people, others from the school, did seem to blink upon seeing Jennifer standing there. One kid, another junior, looked like he was about to piss himself before he ran off. She had the vague memory of him running away as she first knelt on the ground.
Jennifer looked over her shoulder and noticed the coffee shop next to the repair shop. "Coffee sounds good. Come on." She grabbed Peter and pulled him with her inside.
"What?" he said confused, as he was pulled in. "I don't drink coffee. Do you?"
"No," she admitted. "But I don't think any place that serves scotch is open right now." As she got in a line of a seven or so people ordering or looking over the bakery items on display, she looked up and saw the local news on one of the wall-mounted televisions. They were finally releasing a list of those who died. Her throat clenched when she saw her friend Emily Ericson on the list. She had no memory of who she killed versus those who died fleeing, and the report was not making any distinctions. Then, all of the names vanished and several more students were listed on the screen, including the reporting officers. Jennifer had to look away when she saw Paula's name displayed. Twenty-six dead in total: five officers, two teachers, one of the vice-principals, seventeen students, and a mother who was there that morning to deliver an epi-pen with the school nurse. Many others were still being tended to, and some expected the numbers to continue going up. Jennifer cursed herself.
"Hey, look," Peter said, tapping her shoulder. Looking up the list had refreshed again. Six names were listed under "Missing". Her name was up there. She wasn't really surprised by that. However, Kyle Perkins was also listed as missing. A phone number was then put up for people to call if they knew where any of the missing were.
"I'll uh... I'll call... Shit." She almost pulled her phone out, but after a second she put the phone back - debating whether to call herself or let somebody else do it. Crap. It only just occurred to her she should still be trying to leave. Dammit, she thought. I'm not thinking very clearly.
Soon she ordered a croissant and some french roast-like thing, and sat down at a recently vacated table. Peter sat down across from her. He was also being quiet, looking hesitant to say anything. Then again, he was sitting with somebody whom at school he'd have ZERO shot at approaching. "How... uh..." He paused, looking nervous. She just realized that he might had lost a few friends as well during the... massacre. She drank. It tasted like bitter under sweet. She forced herself to drink more as she scratched a mild itch behind one of her ears. Carefully she adjusted her hair over the ear, hiding it. Just in case.
"I'm sorry," she said finally, referring to dragging him in here. She just had to get away from the accusation outside. "I-"
"How long ago were you bit?" he asked quietly.
Jennifer stared at Peter with caught-in-the-headlight eyes.