Back Again

I walked into Emissary High. Guys and girls, some that I knew, passed by me, but I stood, and surveyed my high school. I sighed, and walked down the breezeway. I walked up to my usual locker, and threw my backpack in. I locked it, and walked to my homeroom. I stepped in, and nodded to a few of my buddies from last year. My homeroom was Math. Ugh. I sat down, and Mr. Eppes, our homeroom teacher walked in. Mr. Eppes was a kind man, and I felt I learned more from him than any other teacher I had had. Eppes began to give the traditional greeting, "Hello, Ninth graders. Welcome to math class, your new homeroom. I know many of you dislike math..."

I sighed. Sometimes I wish that they would skip this greeting and start the lesson. Eppes went on about how math would be used later in our lives, and it would be one of the most important subjects we would learn, blah, blah, blah. I hadn't gotten much sleep last night, mainly because of worrying about the start of school. I slowly drifted off to sleep, and finally my eyes closed, and I lost consciousness.

Air fills my lungs. My eyes snap open. I look around me, but all my classmates are gone. The room is dark. I look out the window. Nighttime. I get up, knowing that Mr. Eppes would have let me sleep this long. I open the door to my classroom, and step into the hall. I am greeted by scuttling noises. I looked in the direction of the noise, but saw nothing. I walked down the hall, toward the exit. It was very dark near the exit, but I reached for the door handle... I felt a cold hand already closed around the handle. I looked down to see a arm with a head hanging off it. I don't stop to see who it is, I yanked the arm off, and tried to pull the door open. It wouldn't budge, and I felt a hand close around my ankle. I looked down. The head looked at me and grinned.

I shook it off, and sprinted away from the exit, screaming like a 3 year old. I passed dozens of classrooms, sometimes seeing a dismembered body, and sometimes just a skeleton. I stopped screaming, and screeched to a halt. The fire exit was in front of me. I yanked it open, and ran through it. I ran into the school. I looked back, but a grinning face is in front of it, flying toward me. I ran down the hall again, and faces began to fly out of classrooms at me. They surrounded me, and I finally couldn't take it.

I dropped to the ground, crying. The head pulled itself toward me, and grabbed my ankle. A cold began to seep through me, and I felt sleepy. I just wanted to lay down, and fall asleep. But something inside me said this was killing me. I tried to get up, but my strength was quickly seeping away. I jumped up, and grabbed the arm on my ankle. I spun it around, making it collide with the floating faces. The only sound was of cracking skulls, and the thumping of flesh on flesh. I ran toward the exit, the cold of death quickly being replaced by the fire of life. I ran into the doors like a football player, and exited the school, and into the sunny outdoors. I fell to my knees, and looked back. The ghostly school began to melt like ice, and finally slid apart, exploding in a grey mist.

People walked around me like nothing happened, although some glanced at me. I shook with fear, and relief that I escaped whatever THEY were.

I slowly got up, feeling the weight of my backpack, but I was strangely not surprised. I walked toward my home, still shaking with relief.