ENTER ZION MATTHEWS

We’ve been walking for over half an hour now I think. Nothing really out of the ordinary has stood out. Not that I can call this place ordinary, but there hasn’t been anything going on in any of the rooms. A lot of the rooms we pass are just empty classrooms or janitor closets. All the doors are locked so they’re pretty much useless.

We gave up looking at the rooms and just decided to try and find another hallway that leads to somewhere else like before when we all made it to that giant announcement Room.

We’ve been quiet the whole time. I guess we’re too afraid of hearing us. Or maybe it’s something else. We both have a lot on our minds. Maybe talking will lighten the mood a little bit.

“Soooo… you and Eliza-”

“Not talking about it.” He shot me a cold response.

“...Okay… Do you think this is our school?” I asked him. I was dragging my hand across the lockers as I walked by.

“I don’t think so. I mean those security guards uniforms did look kind of like the ones at our school, but…” He shook his head.

“I noticed that too. What else?”

“This white keeps throwing me off. Everything is WHITE except for the windows and the silver railings on the staircases.”

“And the doors… well not the doors, but the beam around them is black. The handles on them are silver as well…”

He raised an eyebrow.

“You think the colors have something to do with this?” He gave me a sarcastic tone.

“Oh don’t give me that! I’m trying! But it’s weird… you said you were walking and next thing you know, you were just… here?”

“It was like…” He raised his head a little. “Everything just shifted. Like… there was a flash of black and then… the classroom. I was really freaked out. …It felt like I was gonna have a panic attack. It felt like my mind couldn’t comprehend the sight it had seen. I think you and Robbie didn’t have the same reaction as me because you both weren’t aware of it at the start maybe.”

Oh yeah… I was crying.

“And Louis and Ryan were asleep.”

“‘Sleep’ for Louis is an understatement.” He started to grit his teeth as he spoke. “He was dead. He wasn’t breathing….he…”

“H-hey calm down. He came back…”

I honestly don’t know what to say. When we all saw Louis like that we couldn’t believe our eyes. One of the core parts of Louis… I would see him walk into the cafeteria for breakfast every morning. He would grab his food and come sit down next to me. We would talk endlessly until the bell rang for class…

Seeing him lie motionless on the ground. It was….. it felt dreadful.

“We don’t even know how. Who knows what could’ve happened to him…. When I heard him wake up screaming, I thought I was going insane. I wanted to cry. I did cry… I don’t…. I don’t wanna ever have to see any of you like that again.”

Elijah’s voice started to quiver, as his nose began sniffling every time he inhaled through it. “Y-you both… really… scared me…”

Our walking came to a halt. His body sank to the ground.

“e-Eli!”

I started to walk over to him.

“D-don’t… leave your side…”

“...Okay.” I returned to my side of the hall.

I did think it was a little strange he was handling our situation so normally. He was still his quick-witted self. But I see it’s finally piling up on him from our time walking. Even he isn’t gonna be able to hide his emotions right now.

“I just….. It’s just getting overwhelming… I wanna ignore and just keep pushing forward, but… Seeing this place… hurting you all like this and not knowing if there is a way to escape… I feel like… I could lose you guys at any moment….”

I sat down on the floor against the lockers.

Eli… talk to me.

He wiped his nose before speaking again.

“Our last moments together could be you dying in an instance… no way for either to react to anything…,” His face became riddled with tears. It became hard to understand him from his crying, “A-and these powers… whatever they are… they just make me feel weaker now. When the time came for me to show up… I failed… and now r-Ryan…”

His head sunk down into his lap, slightly muffling the sounds of his cries.

The burden that I felt… must weigh on him as well. When I felt I couldn’t protect Louis. But that…

“Don’t. You said I shouldn’t think that way… So I think you shouldn't either!” He raised his head slightly to look at me. His face was puffy, and eyes red from his crying. “We’ve both… have been on the verge of death already… but look at us here now. Who’s to say they haven’t endured and survived similar circumstances. We can’t… We can’t stop Eli.”

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“B-but-”

“It’s like you said. We don’t know for sure what happened to him or any of them yet.” I stood up, and walked over to him. Helping him up from the ground.

“Y-you’re right…” He started to wipe his own tears. “For all w-we know… They could all be giving those monsters hell right now.”

I shot him a smile. I started to pat him on the shoulder, “Then we need to hurry and find them. So we can be right there along with them.!”

The once teary eyed Elijah was now a face spouting a soft smile.

“I thought I told you not to leave your side unless I said so.” He let out a small laugh. “Let’s hurry up before more of those guards come out of the walls.”

Both of our expressions changed after that was said. I think both of our stomachs turned at the sight of seeing it in our minds again.

“L-let’s go…”

“Yeah…”

……………………..

Well…

I… have no clue… how long we’ve been walking for now. We’ve been walking for a long time. We don’t even see rooms anymore, just lockers. Just. Lockers. At one point I was thinking Of asking Elijah if he wanted to double back. But that’d be dumb decision. My legs and feet are killing me. I’m not used to walking this much continuously. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I'm not in the best of shape physically. I’m really skinny, and I'm short.

…I really am the younger brother of the group.

It does get annoying sometimes though. Being the youngest. They’re kind of protective of me in a way. Like they treat me as a child in certain situations… I guess it makes me feel… a little lesser in a way.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to have such good friends. They always stick up for me in times where I hadn’t for myself. They’re my voice in a lot of situations…

They graduate this year. Elijah, Robbie, Louis They make me feel like a kid at times but… am I ready to go deal with high school without them? I don’t have that many other friends. People that I can, I really say I enjoy hanging around.

They’re pretty straightforward in their own way, but even after spending so much time with them… I don’t exactly feel like I've become as confident as them. I’m only sixteen but… I wish I was older.

They’ve got college. Dreams that they’ve figured out already, and me… I think I'm getting left behind. All because of something that I can’t control or do anything about. I know they say every underclassmen has their ‘Seniors’ but…. What if they're all I have?

“Zion… Zion?”

“Huh…?”

“Oh sorry, it’s just you’re like Louis when he gets lost in thought. Both of you fuckers have the whole world around you tuned out. I just thought that there was something wrong.”

“Nah ah, sorry. I was just thinking about… stuff.”

“I feel that. If you wanna take a break, we probably could. We’ve been walking for about an hour now. The more we walk, the more I feel like I'm in some sort of sci-fi film.”

“H-hey…”

“Hm?”

“What are your plans after graduation? Law school still?”

“Well I have to go to college first. But yeah, I plan on majoring in criminal justice and english.”

I raised my head in awe, “Two majors?!”

“One major, one minor. I got accepted into a few good schools actually. Me, and Eliza were planning on going to the same school but well, shit happens. I haven’t heard back from Michigan yet now that I think about it…” He let out a deep sigh while shrugging his shoulders.

“Y-yeah… how do you plan on paying?”

“Well before the government gives me my money, I actually have a lot of money in scholarships so far. You know with me being in the top ten of my class.” He said with some pride in his voice. “Actually… What's your rank in your class?”

“....Eighty-eight.” I let out a frown.

“That’s not bad at all. Not to mention you’re only a sophomore, you have plenty of time to move up. Especially when it comes to your gpa. After junior year if your gpa is fucked, it’s just gonna stay like that, I’m not gonna lie. But if it makes you feel better, Robbie is ninety-six.”

Such a lovely way of words, Eli.

“Ninety-six..? Wait, how many people are in your guy’s class?!”

“One hundred and thirty-eight people. We do have one of the smaller classes. Our school’s average graduation class size is a hundred and fifty.”

“Still, that is quite a lot.”

“A lot? I’ll never forget the first day of junior year. I showed up to breakfast for the first time ever, and I couldn’t even eat OR find a place to sit because you freshman were all crowding the damn cafeteria. Me, Louie, and Robbie would just roam the halls for the first few days instead of going up to the fourth floor to eat. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I starved because of your class Zion. You need to take responsibility for this.”

“I’m not taking responsibility for something that happened almost two years ago!”

I have a lot more than the average students in my graduating class. Around two-hundred something. I guess it won’t be as easy to rise. Especially with so many with the same goal, behind me.

Elijah must’ve spotted the long face I was making.

“Stop making that face, besides, it’s like I said, a good gpa is really all you need. And It's not like it’s bad for Robbie either. Considering everything he had to deal with, he actually started making a comeback our senior year with his grades thanks to me and Louis. Hell Louis is only forty-eight but that’s only because he’s lazy, if he actually tried more and didn’t just do the bare minimum that gets him a passing grade he’d be in the top ten with me as well.” He crossed his arms.

“You're that sure?”

“Louis is really, really smart. I just feel he lacks something that he needs to succeed. Not to mention he waits till the last minute to do things. He didn’t even buy his cap and gown until the very last day.” He sighed at the thought. “As for Robbie… I sometimes wonder how far he could’ve gone, even in track if everything was different. I still believe he’ll go far. It just makes me sad when I think about all the opportunities he missed out on. He deserves them all.”

That’s interesting. I was wrong. It looks like… they’re still figuring it out as well.

“I-I see…”

“Don’t worry Zion. You have plenty of time- …wait do you see that?”

“See what.” I looked over down the hall.

“There’s a staircase…”

Hearing that we both started to stand on guard.

“What’s the plan?”

“It’s the end of the hall and we’re too far to turn back… Let’s just do it.”

There was a hesitation in his voice. I don’t blame him. I get a bad feeling the more and more we get closer to it. It doesn’t feel natural. That staircase doesn’t look like it belongs there. Should we run?

“I-I don’t… think we should.”

“Huh? There’s nowhere else we can go? I’m as spooked as you are, but the only option we have is this staircase. …Don't worry, just stay behind me.”

I wanted to protest more but I just nodded my head in agreement.

“Mhm.”

We walked over and stopped in front of the staircase. It was dark. So dark you couldn’t see anything down it past the first three steps. The sight didn’t bear well for the imagination.

“Okay… this is sketchy as hell.” Elijah said, concerned.

“You’re telling me.” I started to scratch my head.

After much consideration, we decided to go down the stairs.

“After you, your highness.” I said jokingly, bowing towards him.

“You have jokes now I see. I should push your ass down those stairs.”

“W-what-?!”

“HAHA, you should see your face right now!” He started pointing at my face while laughing.

“Funny guy, hooray.” I said sarcastically. “Let’s just go down the stairs before more guards come.”

“Make sure to watch your step once we get further down. Wait, hold on to this.” He reached into his pocket, and handed me a part of his torn shirt. “We’ll both hold on to this so we know where each other are at all times. It’ll make going through the dark less stressful.”

“You’re right. Good thinking!” I grabbed the end of the cloth while Elijah held on to the end on the opposite side.

I actually haven't noticed him being shirtless the entire time. If I didn’t have to give my under shirt to Louis for his head, I could’ve maybe given it to him.

We gave each other one last look at each other before going. We both nodded and started to walk down the stairs.

We were only slowly inching forward, but after passing the third step, my vision turned stale. As if the whole world around me disappeared.

“Z-Zion! Can you hear me?!”

“Y-yeah!” I gave a little tug on the cloth to reassure him that I'm still behind him.

“G-good. Just take it slow. Falling is a terrible scenario right now.”

“No kidding.”

It’s hard to navigate the steps, and Elijah keeps pulling the cloth and walking pretty fast. He’s gonna make me slip.

“Slow down!”

“No, wait! I see a light!”

“A light?!” I uttered before I could even think of the words.

Walking more it didn’t even feel like we were walking down steps anymore, but on solid ground. I started to see the light that he was talking about.

“Woah…”

It’s getting brighter and brighter the further we walk towards it. We were able to see each other now yet we still clung to the cloth that binds us together. Even walking into this light we knew that this was still something that we could not trust. For this place is still nothing but a mystery that wants us dead.