A low, rumbling growl broke the silence in the old classroom as the creature took slow, painstaking steps towards Todd, mouth full of teeth bared. The only time he’d ever felt afraid of an animal was the day his neighbor’s parakeet escaped from its cage and, after ingesting sugar from Todd’s cupcake, chased a six year old Todd relentlessly pecking him in pursuit of more. Mr. And Mrs. Stewart spent a week and a lot of money on puppets to coax Todd out of the house and convince him that birds were in fact not flying assassins. Right now, Todd would have taken one hundred crazed parakeets over the large, dog like creature which had emerged from the shadows.
Todd, was too scared to even exhale and watched the beast approach on unsteady legs. His body refused to move in any direction, and the only thought which penetrating the terror was how ridiculous it would be if he wound up mauled in school surrounded by homework for a class in which he was not enrolled. His eyes danced over the various summer projects in search of something he could use to keep the creature at bay. To his right, a desk was separated from the others on that side of the room, and behind the diorama on top, a push broom leaned against the wall. Unfortunately, it was behind one of the large tables that were pushed against the walls. The room was filled with unused furniture which was pushed against the wall; desks and lab tables which held the projects, and there were several stacks of chairs around the room.
The creature jumped down from the desks lined up against the window and Todd flinched. The few lights which were on flickered overhead, but gave Todd a better view of what was sort of predator he was up against. The creature looked like a dog, with features which made it feel slightly off. It had square snout like a doberman, but the teeth were sharper, like a mouth full of fangs, and a long tongue laid over the bottom set. It had patchy brown fur and unusually large hind paws. The ears were thin, long and always perked up. Todd’s back hit the door handle as he instinctively tried to get a bit more distance between himself and the animal. Todd inhaled sharply as he finally remembered that he stood on the literal doorstep of an escape.
Slowly Todd brought his arm behind his back, careful not to make a sudden movement, and tried to blindly feel for the doorknob. He cursed his lack of flexibility as his arm struggled with such awkward positioning. Todd’s heart leaped when his finger tips grazed the edge of the handle. He took a minuscule step forward to gain more room to reach and turn the doorknob and the creature stopped its’ approach. Todd froze as its eyes narrowed and it opened it’s mouth to reveal even more teeth.
Todd held his breath; it was quite literally do or die time. Todd found the handle again and bend his wrist so that it could get a better grip. The creature lowered its shoulders as Todd who carefully lowered his arm to turn the handle; he was exceedingly grateful it wasn’t a round doorknob. The plan was to let the latch disengage, then fall backwards out into the hallway and possibly shut the door before the creature got out. However, the plan crashed and burned when Todd’s hand slipped and he lost his grip on the handle.
Time moved in slow motion as the sound of the spring bolt disengaging then engaging again ripped through the room. The creature lunged at Todd, who threw himself to the ground without a second thought and immediately began to crawl away. The creature flew into the door which broke the bolt and caused it to open just a bit. It shook off the daze of the collision and turned towards Todd. It stood in between Todd and the door and growled even louder. Todd scrambled to his feet and in one motion grabbed the diorama and spun around to throw it a the beast. Whatever it was supposed to be, used real plastic locking blocks for construction, which made it heavier than expected. When the creature batted it away using its head, the force caused it to stagger as the project flew into the door. Todd flipped the table over and ran to a nearby stack of chairs. He drove his shoulder into it and toppled the column. The result was a barricade of chairs and the table separating Todd from the creature.
“Ha” Todd laughed as he caught his breath. The absurdity of situation fully enveloped him. The beast appeared to almost square itself as it watched Todd from the other side of the make shift rampart. Todd ran over to the push broom in the corner and tried to work it free. Two of the large tables were stacked on top of each other and Todd didn’t have the strength to pull them very far. He reached through the legs of the upside down table and frantically wiggled the broom handle until it loosened. Todd retrieved the handle only to discover it was broken. He looked under the table and the other seventy-five percent of the handle was still trapped in the corner. Todd threw the small portion of the broom he’d acquired to the side and turned back to the creature.
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It stared at Todd with an arched back and Todd shivered. The creature was stock still and its eyes became an even more vibrant yellow color. Todd took a step backwards and something hit his shoulder. He slowly looked to see what it was, and saw one of the dioramas floating in the air, surrounded by a yellow aura.
It flew forward and hit Todd square in the face which knocked him to the ground. He rubbed the red mark on his forehead and looked up just as another diorama lifted into the air. Todd barely managed to roll away as it slammed into the ground.
“Is that a crack?” Todd asked as he stared at the impact location and raised an eyebrow. A third miniature started to levitate and clipped Todd in the leg as he started to dart away. It stung way more than a paper-mâché depiction of “A Christmas Carol” should under normal circumstances. Still, it was less than the impact that he’d barely avoided a moment ago. As he crawled forward, Todd noticed a familiar looking diorama depicting a timeline of famous scenes out of literature.
“Sarah!” Todd gasped. He struggled to his feet just as the fourth project was launched and dove to grab hold of her project. He dropped back to the floor, careful not to damage her work, and crawled under the table. As he crawled, Todd noticed several cabinet doors and yanked opened one of the doors. There was nothing inside except plumbing and parts from a disassembled eye wash station. “Chemistry lab!” Todd said. “Which means...” he shot a glance across the room and found exactly what he had hoped for: the door to the chemistry classroom. The lab, where students took practical tests, and the teacher demonstrated chemicals, was always attached to an attendant classroom for the lecture style teaching. More importantly, the connecting class room would have its own door which led to the hallway.
Todd started to put Sarah’s diorama safely away under the sink, when he felt an abrupt pulling on the project. He held on to it and the force dragged him from under the table, into the desks stacked against air conditioner near the window; near where the creature had been earlier. It did stop with just a pulling, however, and Todd was soon lifted into the air as he clung to the diorama for dear life. He thrashed around in a hopeless attempt to dislodge himself from whatever invisible hook had snared him.
Todd looked up to check the status of the diorama and saw the yellow aura glowing around it. He started to be raised even higher, nearing the ceiling, and the thought of being flung to the ground hard enough to crack the linoleum caused Todd’s stomach to flip. Todd flailed around even harder and accidentally kicked one of the desks over and onto the floor. The crash startled the creature and Todd dropped on stacked desks, thankfully landing in one of the empty spots and not on an upside down desk leg. His shoulder ached but Todd was still successful in his mission to keep Sarah’s diorama safe.
He rolled off the bottom row of desks onto the floor. It took a moment, for the reality of the situation to sink back in and Todd immediately scooted backwards towards the desks. The creature walked looked at Todd and the diorama in his arms lit up again. He was thrown across the room and lost his grip on the project as he slid into the wall. Todd turned over and struggled to one knee as the creature advanced, now between Todd and the front door. Todd reached for the close object he could touch, the first diorama, and halfheartedly chucked it in the direction of the creature; which caught it in his mouth, its teeth tearing through it like tissue paper. Todd got up and crashed into desks and chairs as he limped to the chemistry room door.
He grabbed the handle and tried to turn it, but it wouldn’t move: the door was locked. Todd pushed and pushed on the door, but there was no budge. Todd turned around and pressed his back against the door, forced to watch first hand as a predator closed in on its prey, like some harrowing nature documentary. Todd’s heart raced and he felt light headed. He slumped against the door and tried to calm his breathing.
Out of the corner of his eye, Todd thought he saw something fall from the ceiling. He looked past the creature to see if it was something that could save him, but it was just a ceiling tile laying on the floor. Todd’s shoulders sagged as he returned his attention to the creature when Jun popped out of the empty gap in the ceiling, upside down.
“Hmm.” Jun said, and he vanished back into the ceiling. Todd continued to press so hard into the door, he thought he might actually phase through to the other side. Despite the panic in his mind, Todd couldn’t help feeling bewildered by what he’d just witnessed; nothing that boy did ever made sense. The creature growled again and this time it sounded angrier somehow. Todd closed his eyes to brace for the worst when he heard the sound of shoes landing hard on the floor.
Todd opened one eye to look at the same time the creature turned around to see what fell. Jun stood in the middle of the room staring at them. He lifted both hands and brought them together to interlock the middle fingers; his left palm facing Todd and the creature, the right facing himself. Jun curled both middle fingers and slowly slid his hands apart, while the other fingers maintained contact. Todd’s mouth fell open as the gap created by his middle fingers wasn’t a clear view of Jun but was instead a black void, darker than anything Todd had ever seen. A neon green chain shot out of the void and wrapped around the creature’s neck. Jun separated his hands and the chain appeared wrapped around his wrist now, the green blow still bright.
“Heel.” Jun said.