ROA – Lost Innocence

[Seven of Clubs]

ROA – Lost Innocence
By Seven of Clubs

Author’s notes
This is my entry to Executionus’ 2022 Halloween Contest: Raiment of Asmodeus. I was a little loose with number six of the special rules, but I hope you still enjoy it.

Prologue: (Tom – 1952)
“Beware the Devil’s temptations!”

My Sunday school teacher would screech at me every week. She would be standing in front of the whole class, pacing backwards and forwards with a thick Bible in hand, but for some reason I always got the impression she was talking directly to me.

Like any good Catholic boy in their mid-teens, I was as God fearing as they come, but if the Devil were to appear and offer to show me what sweet Mary-Ann was hiding under her blue, ruffled skirt, then I was ashamed to admit that I would have vigorously shook his hand on the spot.

When my time of temptation finally did occur, it didn’t require a hand shake or even come from the Devil, as far as I can tell, but given the price I eventually paid, I couldn’t help but remember that warning.

***

I was sat at the end of the second row of uncomfortable, wooden benches. Sister Judith stood up in front of us preaching, but the wall of boys on the front row prevented her from noticing my gaze which was wondering to my left, across the open aisle and onto the visage of the living angle sat just four feet away.

Mary-Ann was perfect. It was like God had personally hand crafted the girl and then accidentally misplaced her. Why else would he just allow her to wonder around amongst us louts? She dressed conservatively, like a good girl, but she would have to don the Sister’s robes if she wanted to fully hide that divine figure.

I was running my eyes over her body like a starving man looking at a gourmet meal when suddenly our eyes met. Crap! Like a guilty child, I quickly jerked my eyes back to the Sister, still prattling on, and my mind almost shut down form the shock. Looking from the heavenly Mary-Ann to the troll like Sister Judith so suddenly was like stepping out of a hot spring and strait into a frigid ice bath. If you didn’t give yourself time to acclimatise, it could be bad for your health.

As I stared forward, pretending to pay attention and trying to control my heartrate, my focus was entirely on the goddess I had momentarily locked eyes with. Those ocean blue eyes were seared into my mind as though I had been staring at the sun. Cherry pink lips, just wating to be bitten seductively. Then those two shapely mounds, heaving up and down with each breath. Opps! I chided myself for getting carried away again and moved my hands over my lap to artfully hide the growing bulge. As I did so, I caught sight of the conspicuous pink ring sitting on my finger and gritted my teeth.

I didn’t know how much longer I could ignore the ring’s urges. It was getting harder and harder by the day. I knew what it wanted, because it was largely the same thing I wanted. But I couldn’t. I had to be good. Someone Mary-Ann would approve of. But I wanted to see! I wanted to see so bad. I almost whimpered right there in the middle of mass. By that point I knew that I was a lost cause. I needed to get my head strait; I would have to give into the ring, again. Not Mary-Ann! I could never forgive myself for defiling such a beautiful flower, but fortunately there were plenty of alternatives. I ran my eyes over the row of girls sat paying attention to the sister and I tried to supress a smile. Tonight.

Part 1: (Hailey – 1986)
Thirty years later…

Cold, chilling eyes stared out form the perpetual fog. Like stony sentinels, the gargoyles observed the approaching road form atop their watch posts either side of the sturdy, iron gate.

What are they watching for? I wondered as I cautiously approached the barricade. Intruders or escapees? If I had a little more courage, I might have turned around and headed back the way I came.

But I didn’t.

So, with an aura of resignation, I approached the foreboding figure of the man waiting impatiently by the small opening in the otherwise impregnable gate.

“I was expecting you by vehicle,” the man said accusingly with glazy eyes, never quite looking straight at me.

“I’m sorry,” I replied timidly. “The driver refused to bring me the whole way. He said… he said…”

The stiff old man waved his hand dismissively. “Superstitions fool. This school has stood for over a century, so now it is the setting of every ghost story the locals can think of. Anyway, you are the new girl, Heather, was it?”

“Hailey, sir.”

The man turned around and began to stride up the long drive, his cane tapping away in front of him. I hastily stumbled along behind him, struggling to keep up under the weight of my heavy suitcase.

As soon as I had taken a few steps, a grave shaking clang caused me to jump and turn around in fright. The Gate was now closed. Locked tight. Again, I wondered whether they were to keep people out or in.

“I am Tom Fitzroy, the Headmaster here at the academy,” The old man said, snapping my attention back towards him. “It is not often that a student starts halfway through term. I hope there was not trouble at your previous school? In this institute I expect a certain standard.”

“I, er… well-”

“Hmm, either way, I will keep a close eye on you.”

I followed in awkward silence. The long driveway seemed to stretch on forever. Then, poking out form the heat sapping mist, I got my first view of my new home and school. St. Optic’s Academy for Young Men & Women. It was a school but there was no changing the fact that it looked like a castle strait out of a Gothic novel; certainly, it had the tell-tale architecture with hard stone and plenty of arches, but there was also the unmistakable aura of the place. I immediately understood why the locals held the castle and school front and centre in any creepy stories they could come up with.

Reluctantly, I allowed the Headmaster to lead me up to the school and though the large, double, wooden doors and up an impressive flight of stone steps, which must have once served as the castle’s state entrance, designed to impart an impression on the first-time visitors. It was certainly making an impression on me, but I was not so sure it was as favourable as the architect once whished.

Once at the top of the stairs, I was greeted by a spacious waiting chamber. I wasn’t as knowledgeable about historical castles to know what the area used to be, but currently the space had a modern touch as it served as the school’s reception area.

“This will be where I leave you, Young Lady,” Mr Fitzroy said. “The receptionist will take care of you. I look forward to seeing what you have to offer the school.”

I watched the Headmaster disappear through a doorway on the right, masterfully navigating the building like he knew it off by heart. What he said didn’t ease my anxiety at all.

“Hello, can I help you?” The gentle voice brought me back to the present. When I looked around, I saw a woman with brown hair looking at me curiously form across the reception counter.

I quickly shuffled forwards, “I’m Hailey Little. I just arrived.”

A spark of understanding appeared in the receptionist’s eyes. “Oh my, I didn’t realise you were coming today. But your documents should be around here somewhere.” The woman looked around seeming a little flustered. I wanted to point out that the intimidating Headmaster remembered, but naturally held my tongue. Then the woman produced a stack of papers from a corner of her office and pushed them towards me. “Here is your welcome leaflet, it has everything you need to know. Your lesson plan. We would appreciate it if you were punctual, but I’m sure the teachers will make allowances for your first week. And, for your convenience, a map of the school grounds. I would keep that on you, even I still get lost.”

Then, just as the woman was explaining the documents, a girl looking to be around my own age, with long, black, silky hair, hurried into the room carrying a pile of clothes. “I’m sorry to disturb you, Miss, but I think it’s happened again.”

A pained look appeared on the Receptionist’s face. “Again? Do you know who they belong to this time?”

The black-haired girl shook her head. “One of the girls from the younger years, I think. I heard a commotion coming from around the changing rooms, but by the time I got there, she had run off in a panic.”

“Sigh. Thank you, Emily. I’ll take care of it,” the receptionist said as she accepted the pile of clothes which I suddenly realised was a girl’s uniform along with their underwear. I felt my face heat up as I tried to work out what was going on. Then the receptionist remembered my presence. “Emily, this is Hailey. She is just starting today. Would you mind looking after her until she gets settled in?”

She looked at me as though she had just realised that I was standing there, and then a warm smile blossomed on her face. “Of course, it is lovely to see a fresh face,” Emily said as she took my arm and began dragging me to the door.

Emily chatted animatedly as she led me through the twisting corridors of the school. Despite every turn of the corner looking like we had made the same turn a dozen times already, Emily seemed to be able to navigate the old castle blindfolded, or while carrying a one-sided conversation as she was now.

I was worried that my inability to hold my own in the conversation department might offend my guide, but if Emily noticed she didn’t let it show. “Down there are the classrooms, they’re not far from the Library. Not everyone has the same lesson plan, so it’s common to see people wondering about during the day, but we’re supposed to stay quite if classes are in progress. The gym and swimming pool are on the other side of the school which is where you’ll also find the changing rooms. Don’t worry, the boys are some distance away, but keep on the lookout for any peepers, just in case. This way is to the dormitories. We are separated by year, so you can take the spare bed next to me.”

She spoke in rapid fire, but her friendly demeanor made it difficult for me not to immediately like the girl, plus everything she said was very helpful, making me wonder if I should be taking notes; the flow of information was halted, however, when a disturbance caught our eyes.

We were walking down a corridor, seemingly alone, when I caught a girl sneaking around the corner. When the girl saw the two of us, she let out a squeak of surprise, and crouched into a ball as though she was trying to cover her uniform clad body from sight.

I found the girl’s actions to be very strange, but when I glanced towards Emily, who was seemingly tying to supress a smile, I thought I saw a hint of understanding. “Let’s go,” Emily said as she tugged on my arm.

With a last look over my shoulder at the clearly troubled girl, I asked, “Is she okay? Was there something wrong with her cloths? I didn’t notice anything strange besides the way she was acting.”

“Er… in a manner of speaking,” Emily answered cryptically. “But don’t worry, she got off lightly compared to some of the other pranks that get pulled.”

“A prank?”

Emily shrugged her shoulders, “It’s what everyone’s been calling them. Strange things happen here, and nobody wants to admit what is really happening, so they just call them pranks.”

I felt a chill going down my spine. I didn’t know if Emily was just trying to scare me, but if she was it was working. “What sort of strange things are you talking about?”

“Nothing you need to worry too much about. Just a bit of harmless fun, really.”

I tried to look calm as I nodded in understanding, but my mind was now going crazy with paranoia, secretly praying I wouldn’t be the next victim of these ‘pranks’.

***

“Why are we starting so early?” Emily whined like a toddler threatening to throw a tantrum. “We have weeks to finish the project.”

As soon as I had received my first major assignment at my new school, I had asked my new best friend to show me where the library was. She had readily agreed, but now that we were actually here, she was quickly becoming bored by the depressing location.

“I just want to check out a few books on the topic. I probably won’t actually start it for a while,” I lied.

I had the three books I wanted to take with me and had come to the Librarian’s desk to check them out. The Librarian, an elderly lady radiating a no-nonsense attitude, was currently in the process of organising a few books. There was a chaotic pile of old, worn journals, text books and other reading material strewn across the desk in front on her. She looked busy and I was too shy to disturb her, so I just waited quietly; however, it was at that moment that one of the books caught my eye:

The Prankster of Optics Academy

Emily’s warning regarding the school prankster was still fresh in my mind so I couldn’t resist the urge to flick through a few age-stained pages of the old diary. Most of it read like a teenage boy’s wet dream, detailing perverted attempts to peek on the female students and ridiculous fantasies involving a magic ring, so I quickly skimmed through those parts, but one of the later entries caught my eye.

***

(Tom – 29th October 1952)

What did I do!

The temptation of the ring had been growing steadily day by day. Each ‘feeding’ required greater and greater incidents. Its hunger was insatiable and today it reached the point that the embarrassed squeals of the ordinary girls weren’t enough. It craved the red face and futile attempt to cover from the girl I loved. The ring knew. The ring made sure to push me in the forbidden direction. It forced me to target Mary-Ann!

Oh, I am pathetic. Pathetic, and weak and sinful. I know now that I cannot manage the ring. I was a fool to ever think I could. But it is a cursed object, and one that is not easily parted with. It chose me for a reason, and it will not leave willingly.

I know what I must do to be rid of it. It readily informed me as it gloated. It told me that if I wanted to be free then I must become a man. Curse that sick ring, it wishes to push me to greater and greater depths of depravity!

It has already begun to show its true colours. For the most part it laughs at my attempt to get rid of it, but it doesn’t like it when I write about it. It says there will be consequences…

***

“What are you doing?” the sound of Emily by my side startled me.

Hastily, I closed the book, convinced that it was the result of some silly boy’s overactive imagination.

Part 2
Things went well for the next few weeks. I spent most of my time with Emily, who had been incredibly welcoming, and I finally started to get used to the new school, ignoring the once or twice (a week) I would get lost in the castle’s many crisscrossing passageways.

It was towards the end of an otherwise tedious history class that things began to take a turn for the worse.

I had started off the lesson wearing my new uniform – white blouse, covered by a light blue sweater, a knee length skirt, and black tights underneath – like Emily, who was sitting next to me and sulking because I wouldn’t pass notes to her during class. I felt bad, but as boring as the class was, I still needed to pay attention.

Everything was going fine until I noticed that the hand I was using to jot down notes looked strange. As slow as I was, it took a while to realise what the problem was, but then my eyes widened as I realised that my arm was bare! What had happened to my sweater and bouse?

Concerned and confused, I immediately glanced at the rest of my body and let out a gasp of horror. I wasn’t wearing any clothes!

Instantly regretting my gasp, which threatened to highlight my problem to the rest of the class, I quickly slouched down in my seat, clamped my legs together and covered my chest with my hands.

Emily, who was closest to me, naturally noticed my odd behaviour and shot me a questioning look.

“Help. What do I do?” I mouthed.

“About what?” she silently replied.

I stared at her, confused. Was she trying to play dumb? I reluctantly nodded to the rest of my exposed body, and at that moment a spark of understanding appeared in Emily’s eyes. Then what looked like a… smirk? She pulled her note pad towards herself and began writing something down before pushing the paper towards me.

Hoping she had some insight into how I was going to get out of this, I shot my eyes over the writing as though my life depended on it.

“It’s all in your head. There’s nothing wrong.”

I shot an irritated glance at her. This was not the time for jokes. With a sigh, she pulled the notepad back towards her and continued writing.

“Can’t see your clothes?”

I nodded my head in exasperation. Obviously.

“But can you still feel them?”

I stared at the last note for a few seconds before I realised what she was getting at. In my panic I hadn’t even realised. Despite not being able to see them, I could still feel the sensation of my clothes rubbing against my skin. My hand pressed against my chest was feeling the rough fabric of my sweater, not the soft, bare skin of my breasts, and between my legs I could feel the tight knit of my skirt, not the tangled mess of my unshaven pubis.

While my brain tried to work out what was going on, Emily continued writing.

“This has happened before. Just one of those ‘pranks’ I warned you about. Whatever it is, it only affects you.”

Pranks? My mind immediately jumped to the numerous strange incidents that had been reported around school. Was that what was happening to me? I shot a pleading look at Emily.

“Just put your hands down and act naturally. Nobody will notice anything is wrong.”

I realised that she was right. Despite not really being naked in the middle of class, my strange behaviour of suddenly trying to hide myself was starting to draw the curious looks of the rest of the class.

Reluctantly, I slid back up in my seat, but I couldn’t go any further. I might not really be naked, but that is what it looked like to me. How could I just expose myself in class.

“Hailey, is something the matter?” My teacher called out to me.

I looked up, startled. Even my teacher had noticed my strange behaviour. While I sat there, frozen, wondering what I should do, Emily came to my rescue.

“It’s okay, sir, she’s just a bit cold,” she said as she roughly pulled by hands away from my chest. Then she pointed to the pink cheeks of my face. “But she seemed to be heating up now.”

The teacher looked a bit flummoxed, unsure what to say to that, so he decided to go back to rattling off his lecture. I just sat there like a statue, my breathing getting increasingly laboured. The teacher’s question had brought me to the attention of the rest of the class and a few were still staring at me curiously. Most likely, one or two had come to the same conclusion as Emily and guessed what was happening to me.

I tried to block out the situation by listening to the lesson, but I couldn’t ignore the fact that, to myself, I still appeared naked. When I glanced down, I could see my nipples beginning to become erect. Like two pink little worms wiggling out of snowy mounds. And further down, I could see the curly bush between my legs. I hadn’t planned for anyone to see it, so I had let it grow, but now I was suddenly very conscious of appearing like some hairy cave person.

Just then, I felt a pinch on my apparently clothed arm and looked up to see Emily mouth, “Normal!”

She was right. Just act normal. I could do this.

I had no idea what was said for the rest of the lesson, all I could hear was the thumping of my own heart, but I think I managed to pull off a particularly convincing performance, because everyone quickly stopped paying me any attention.

When the bell signalling the end of class finally sounded, I wasn’t in any hurry to get up and leave. I slowly began to pack my bags, dawdling in the hope that I could remedy my situation once the class had left, but Emily got irritated and firmly pulled my hand.

“Come on, we’ll be late for the next lesson,” she said as she dragged me out into the crowded corridor.

It was like a living nightmare. Everyone was packed together in the crush of students, moving shoulder to shoulder, and there I was in the middle of it all. I felt like I was on the verge of a panic attack as I walked ‘naked’ amongst so many people. All I wanted to do was crawl up into a ball and hide, but Emily’s comforting hand kept me going.

I don’t know when exactly the change happened, but, at some point during the torturous journey to my next class, I glanced down at my body and, to my delight, I could see that I was once again clothed. Well, I had been clothed all along, but now I could tell that I was clothed. I could finally see my uniform which I never thought I would miss so much.

It was a relief for everything to be back to normal, but my body still shook from the experience. I felt like I wanted to complain to someone. Did the school have a system for documenting strange, supernatural events, like an accident and injury book?

***

Unsurprisingly, having my clothes suddenly become invisible freaked me out – to put it mildly. I wanted to complain, or shout, or do something that would take away this newfound fear and uneasiness inside of me, but I knew that if I went to the school I would either be branded insane, a troublemaker or an insane troublemaker, so I quickly decided against it.

From what Emily told me, it appears that I wasn’t the only one this had happened to. The school was buzzing with all kinds of horrific stories, but I wasn’t sure how much was fact and how much was rumour crafted by board students with an overactive imagination. I need to cut though all the far-fetched tails and find some solid, tangible information, so I decided to do a bit of research. Knowledge is power and all that.

I recalled the diary that I read in the library. At the time I had dismissed it as being made up; however, a mysterious incident of vanishing clothes has the tendency to open up one’s mind, so I headed towards the library as soon as I had a free moment. It took me about twenty minutes of wondering around the portrait lined corridor in a confusion; even after Emily showed me the first time, I was still struggling, but eventually I found the place I was looking for.

The room was large with a great, open space in the centre, containing wooden desks for the students to study and read, while the outside was occupied by a dark labyrinth of tightly packed bookshelves threatening to collapse under their own weight.

If I was going to understand the school’s history a little better, I figured I had better start off in the history section. The area wasn’t difficult to find, it seems history was a popular subject for the library users, so I immediately began looking through the large selection of old tomes. I narrowed the search down to the local history and found a lot of interesting material to read; unfortunately, none of it made any reference magically disappearing clothes.

After a lot of waisted time, I finally bit the bullet and asked the old lady who seemed to be managing the entire library single-handedly.

“School myths and legends? Specifically ones involving mysterious pranks?” the Librarian thought to herself for a moment before scrawling a reference number on a piece of paper and handing it to me. “Yes, I think I know what you are looking for. Try looking in the fiction section. The Head Teacher told me to move them there after taking issue with the contents.”

After thanking her for the assistance, I hurried off to the fiction section. With a quick glance at the selection of books, my optimism quickly dropped, but never-the-less I followed the Librarian’s instructions and found the book she had suggested. It turned out to be the same book I was reading last time. It was a collection of diary extracts form a former student named Tom. My curiosity piqued, I took the diary to one of the desks and began to read, this time with an open mind.

***

(Tom – 31st October 1952)

Well, the ring has won.

I was so overcome with shame that I had to get it off my chest. I waited until Mary-Ann was alone before approaching her. Then just like that, I lifted the invisibility the ring uses to permanently hide itself and revealed it for the first time. I confessed everything. The curse I was under, the regular ‘feedings’, I even told her what I did to her.

She wasn’t angry. There was no shouting or throwing things at me as I ran away. No. If anything, it was worse. The unmistakable look of fear in her eyes broke me into a thousand pieces.

I have lost my love, which means that I have lost all hope. All that is left is to sink into a life of depravity with the ring. I can’t even bring myself to care about the ring’s backlash. It was furious that I told Mary-Ann about it, and now I can feel my eyesight getting weaker by the minute. I fear it will not be long before the ring has claimed my vision completely.

I cannot help but laugh at the irony. I am losing my sight, but that doesn’t mean I cannot see. With the Vision Ring, there is nothing preventing me from seeing whatever I like. With a single thought I could see three-hundred and sixty degrees around me, or look through the eyes of the girl changing at the other side of the school, but that is only with the ring.

I wanted nothing more than to be rid of the thing and spend my life with Mary-Ann, but now I have lost the girl and am forced to really on the ring like a cripple clutching to his cane. The ring has won.

***

I closed the diary with a thud. A chill ran through my body as though I had just been reading a Steven King novel. Could the contents of the diary be real? A cursed ring that forces the owner to pray on innocent victims. If this was a few weeks ago I would have agreed that the book belonged in the fiction section of the library, but after the incident in class, I had seen with my own eyes what the ring is capable of. One thing was clear, I shouldn’t ignore the warning in this diary.

Part 3
After the incident in class, a few days went by without anything strange happening. Or at least nothing happened to me, for all I knew the perverted prankster could have found another target elsewhere in school.

I had agonised over what to do about the information I had uncovered. Naturally, I brought Emily up to speed regarding the whole situation, and she promised to keep an eye out, but also suggested that I hold off on bringing any more students in on the secret. She believed that if the ring realised that we knew, it would just paint a large target on our backs. So, for now, we were lying low and trying to assess the situation before making our first move.

Currently, I was in the girl’s gloomy locker room; it was in areas like this that the building’s age began to show. We had just had Physical Education and I was hastily washing up in the chilli, communal showers. The others girls in my class were already getting dressed in the cloak area, so I figured that I should get a move on.

The reason that I was last out of the shower was quite simply because I was last in. I took so long to summon up the courage to remove my cloths and join the other girls that by the time I was finally brave enough to strip down, most had already left. Naturally, I didn’t have anything to worry about and I was just being silly. I was just another girl taking a shower.

Making sure I had my towel wrapped tightly around myself, I walked out of the shower stalls, shivering as I pattered across the cold, tiled floor. The other girls were either almost dressed or just leaving, and Emily wasn’t in this class so I realised that I would soon be the only one left. Spurred on by my lateness, I quickly dropped my wet towel into the laundry basket and reached for my pile of clothes sitting on the wooden bench.

It was when I grabbed hold of my underwear that I started to suspect something was wrong. I could clearly see them in my hands, pure white and decorated with pretty flowers, but for some reason I couldn’t feel the soft cotton against my fingers.

A little unnerved, but with no desire to hang around undressed, I quickly slid my panties up my legs and fastened my bra in place; however, when I reached for my knee length skirt, with a dread deep inside of me, I began to get an idea of what was going on, because I couldn’t feel my skirt either.

I wasn’t an idiot. After the vanishing episode in class, I could guess what was going on. This was clearly a reverse of what happened then. Instead of feeling my clothes but not being able to see them, now I could see them but not feel them. Cursing the magic ring that was causing these diabolical scenarios, I continued dressing in my immaterial cloths.

It was a weird sensation, not being able to feel what I was wearing. Buttoning up a school shirt is hard enough, but it is made ten times harder when it is by sight alone. I had to double and triple check that everything was in place, and by the time I was decent, I found that I was the last girl in the changing room, with only the life size portrait of one of the school’s former athletes looking down on me. I was now definitely running late, so not wanting to hang around, I grabbed my bag, which I also couldn’t feel, and threw it over my shoulder before leaving the empty changing rooms.

As I passed through the door, the cold from the poorly insulated school hit me. It seemed that not being able to feel my clothes also meant that I lost any insulation they provided. Currently, their only purpose was to hide my naked body form the rest of the student population.

Rubbing my arms for warmth, I looked up and down the long corridor, which was empty besides myself. I took this as an indication of just how late I was and speedily set off in the direction of my next lesson.

After a few twits of the maze-like hallway, I finally ran into my first person, literally. I was hurrying around the corner so quickly that I actually bumped into a boy in the year above me. He was almost twice my size and the collision nearly sent me sprawling on all fours. I apologising profusely as I quickly walked on, but he just gaped at me with an open mouth. Rude.

Continuing on felt a little more surreal. When the student had bumped into me, I felt their hands on my body though my ‘altered’ clothing. Phantom sensations of the touch lingered on areas of my body no boy had ever groped and reminded me of all the new sensations I was currently feeling. The hard stone underneath my feet. The breeze coming from the open windows tickling the private areas of my body. The lack of support I felt around my chest with each step I took. It was rather unnerving, so I just focused on getting to class as quickly as possible. I’d feel much better if Emily was by my side.

When I finally reached my destination and entered class, my sense of unease only increased, because everyone suddenly turned and staired at me. I didn’t think I was that late, but I quickly shuffled over to my seat next to Emily, who was also staring at me with her hand over her mouth.

“Hailey, what the hell are you doing!” she hissed at me.

I just looked at her dumbfounded. “What are you talking about.”

Emily’s eyes widened at my remark, and then she immediately jumped up, out of her seat, and unceremoniously dragged me out of the class full of students. As I was manhandled into the corridor, I could hear the rest of class mummering in excitement behind me.

Once out of the class, Emily didn’t stop and continued to drag me down the corridor. From what I could make out, we were heading in the direction of our dormitories. There were a few students wondering down the corridor, stragglers intending to slip in to class at the last minute, but they soon stopped and staired at the spectacle that Emily was creating.

“Emily, stop,” I finally managed shout and pulled my hand out of her arm. “What’s gotten in to you?”

My friend just glanced around nervously before turning back to me, at which point I noticed her gaze drifting south. “Look, will you just trust me. I’ll explain when we get back to our rooms.”

It was then that my brain finally caught up to reality. The lack of sensation from my clothing had been constantly on my mind. Add in the reaction of everyone I had met since leaving the locker room, along with Emily’s agitation, and the answer hit me like a ton of bricks.

To give Emily some credit, I really should have received this news somewhere in private. You see, when adrenalin floods into your body, such as in dangerous or nerve-racking situations, then scientists like to talk about the fight or flight response. You either fight whatever is posing a threat, or you run away, simple. Unfortunately, there is a third option which I like to call the possum.

When I suddenly realised that the clothes that I couldn’t feel were no better than a figment of my imagination, when I realised what I had been showing to my whole class, instead of doing something practical like running away, I froze.

It was like I was having an out-of-body experience. In front of me I could see my friend looking very concerned and a little agitated. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the students watching on, watching me I now realised. And behind me I could even hear the voices of a few students who had crept to the classroom doorway, unable to resist a glimpse of the naked girl wondering around school.

My heart rate pounded in my ears and my chest rose and fell dramatically as I began to hyperventilate.

“Oh, no!” Emily exclaimed. “Hailey, don’t fall apart on me just yet.”

Thankfully, her plea punctured my panic-stricken mind. Like being hit by a bucket of ice water, her words snapped me out of whatever mental episode I was having, and I came to my senses, realising that this was not the place to be dawdling. I broke free of Emily’s arms and my naked body hurtled down the very public corridor as I sprinted for the safety of my dormitory. I tried to tune out all the murmurs, laughs and gasps of surprise from my numerous spectators, but above the clamour I heard my friend cry out my name with more than a hint of concern.

***

Slap, slap, slap, came the sound of my bare feet hitting the hard floor. Round a corner I ran, and another.

The halls were not crowded, but each new stretch of corridor revealed one or two more witness to my shame. Each new look of surprise added on to the panic building inside of me. Having them see my bare body was bad enough, but every second their eyes lingered on me only increased the likelihood that the shameful image would become permanently seared onto their minds.

So I sped up, darting around bend after bend.

Wait, was it a left to the dormitories or a right? In my frantic dash I wasn’t paying attention. Damn these maze-like corridors. I wasn’t confident I was heading in the right direction, but I had no desire to stop and ask for directions, so I carried on running.

The ache in my chest quickly brough to light the problem of running around without a bra on, so I cupped my hands over my breasts, stopping the obscene pendulum swinging, but now I was forced to maintain this humiliating pose.

Round another corner and another. Crap. Now I really was lost. Or did that portrait look familiar? It looked a lot like the one near the library. Not an ideal haven, but it was the only place I recognised, so I quickly followed the corridors and didn’t hesitate to burst through the double, wooden doors with a great crash.

I saw the Librarian jump up in fright, but thankfully the rest of the room was clear, so I immediately darted towards the book stacks and practically threw myself into the shadowy hiding spot between the shelves.

I had had enough. So, I just sank down, my bare bottom making contact with the ground. I hugged my legs to my chest and just stayed there while I tried to get my shaking under control.

I wasn’t sure how much time passes, it could have been a few second or a few minutes, but eventually I heard the sound of the Librarian cautiously approaching.

A teacher telling me off for running around naked was too much for me to handle, so I just buried my face in my hands and pretended I was somewhere else. Like a little child who believes no one can see them so long as they cover their eyes.

But the Librarian could see me, and after the footsteps got closer, I felt some scratchy material falling over my skin. When I peeked out of the hiding spot of my hands, I saw that it was the librarian’s woollen cardigan, which she has slung over my shoulders.

“Don’t cry, pet. It’s not that bad,” she said kindly.

I staired at her, uncomprehending, but then I noticed that my eyes were slightly blurry. I had been crying and I didn’t even realise it. Quickly, I wiped my face with my hands, and sniffed. Willing myself to hold it together.

“You are the new girl? Hailey, is it?”

I nodded my head pathetically.

“Well, I have a few spare clothes in my desk, just for occasions like this. You can wait here while I get them or you can come with me.”

I climbed to my feet without a word, careful to keep the cardigan around me and covering the little that it did. Then, like a baby duck, I followed the Librarian across the room, and true to her word, she handed me a dress that was a few sizes too large and not exactly fashionable, but ideal for covering a spontaneously naked girl.

I caught a glimpse of the inside of the librarian’s desk, and it was like looking into lost and found. There was a mountain of clothing for both boys and girls, but mostly for girls.

Then, with the dress covering my body, I suddenly remembered my manners. “Thank you, Miss… er, Miss…” It suddenly struck me that I didn’t know her name.

“You can drop the Miss. I’m not a teacher. Just call me Mary-Ann.”

“Mary-Ann!” Like a flash of lightning, I suddenly thought of Tom’s diary. It seemed like a long shot, but I still reflectively looked towards the fiction area of the library.

“Ah,” she said, catching my reaction. “You’ve read about me, I see. I suppose you also know about the ring that got you into this predicament.”

“Yes,” I cried. “Please, you have to help me. He’s been terrorising the school all this time, and I’m just the latest victim. I’m begging you, don’t let Tom keep doing this to me.”

Mary-Ann’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “I think you’re a little confused. My Tom doesn’t have anything to do with it. Well, at least not since I helped him get rid of the ring all those years ago.”

It was my turn to look surprised. “Your Tom?”

A dazzling smile bloomed on Mary-Ann’s face, momentarily revealing the beauty that Tom spoke about in his diaries. “I probably shouldn’t call him that while we are at school, but I haven’t been able to help it ever since we were married.”

My head felt dizzy with all the revelations I was receiving. “You and Tom, married? Got rid of the ring? But that can’t be possible; the ring is clearly still active.”

The happy look on Mary-Ann’s face quickly dropped into the stern expression I had come to know. “Yes, the ring is still active. It seems to like the school for some reason, because after every few years it pops up again with a new wearer. I wish there was something I could do, but the ring is powerful. All I have accomplished so far is to leave the diaries here as a warning and to help the poor victims.”

“New wearer? But who?”

Just at that moment, the doors to the library flew open and Emily ran in, panting. “Hailey, thank goodness. I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

***

(Emily)

I hurried down the corridor as quickly as I could, concern welling up within my chest. It hadn’t even been a month since I met Hailey, but I already considered her my best friend, possibly something more. And right now she needed me.

“Dame it, Hailey, what are you doing in the Library?” I muttered out loud.

I was mentally kicking myself for letting her out of my sight. When she ran off in a panic, I had intended to follow behind and then take care of her back at the dormitories, but I was already half way there by the time I realised she had gotten lost.

The Library doors loomed ahead of me, slightly ajar from when Hailey recently passed through. I pushed my way inside and breathed a sigh of relief when I finally locked eyes with the girl I was looking for.

“Hailey, thank goodness. I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“Emily!” she cried out.

The way her expression lit up when she saw me made my insides melt. I saw the librarian scowling at me, but I paid the old bat no mind, because my Hailey was running to me. She threw her arms around me, and I hugged her tightly as she cried profusely into my chest.

“Shh, it’s okay,” I whispered into her ear as I gently stoked her beautifully soft hair.

“But they saw me... they saw me...” Hailey trailed off. “From now on, I’ll always be known as ‘that girl’.”

“No you won’t. If this was a normal school, maybe, but for better or worse things like this happen all the time. Just wait a few days and the school will be talking about the next girl to go wondering around naked.”

She pulled away from my chest and looked up at me with puppy dog eyes. “Promise?”

My heart ached with guilt, but as I glanced at the bright, pink ring glittering on my slim finger, I vowed to make this right.

“I promise.”

Epilogue: Tom
I could feel the soft caress of Mary-Ann stroking my hand. Now that my sight was no longer what it used to be, my other senses had become sharper, and the feel of my love against my skin was indescribable. However, as her fingers traced their way down to the now empty space on my finger, reality began to sour my happiness.

“I’m so glad that the ring is finally gone,” the angel sat beside me remarked. Then, when she saw the frown on my face she added, “I have no regrets about what we did. I would do it again if it meant ridding the world of that evil.”

“That’s the thing,” I replied. “We didn’t rid the world, only ourselves. The ring is still out there, and it will find another host. Someone it can manipulate and corrupt, just like me, and I’m afraid they won’t have someone as strong as you to help them when the ring whispers its temptations into their ear.”

Her hand tightened around mine, conveying an unfathomable strength of will. “There is more good in this world than you would believe. If the ring threatens to drag them into despair than all it takes is one good friend to pull them back into the light, one person willing to stand up for their friendship and the ring will once again be cast out.”

I forced a smile onto my face. “I hope you’re right.”

[Executionus]

Finally got the chance to read all of that. This story was really good, well-written and incredibly dark. You painted a far different picture of the Vision Ring than what I did with my more lighthearted version. It's a great Halloween story for sure.

Also you didn't break the rule at all. The Rings are known to produce a general feeling of "this isn't too abnormal" in the people around it, and you covered that well with how the school became conditioned to see the multi-decade haunting of a perverted ring as being nothing to worry about.