Avery suddenly stopped as she touched the cold silver doorknob of their classroom, and remembering the past events that transpired, she hesitated on her next action.
"Alright, someone else do this." said Avery.
"What do you mean, Avery?" Said Gerald.
"The last time I opened this door, scientists came in and knocked us out, what if something is waiting for us on the other side again?"
"You worry too much, that was probably just a one-time thing, scientists don't usually attack a classroom in the middle of the day, actually, scientists don't usually attack at all."
"Yeah, let's just go home. I don't think I want to stay at this school any longer after what happened today. We probably need to report whatever happened to authorities." said Serenity.
"Fine, let's get out of here, but I'm not the one who's opening the door this time, someone else have a go." Avery stepped away from the door, she pointed at it with an open hand, motioning for someone else to do the job of opening it. It was a simple procedure, yet from her previous experience, she was a bit worried about what would happen in case something did happen again, something that might be a far worse experience than those with the scientists. She doesn't risk second chances nor place her trust in something that has previously been proven to be dangerous.
"Fine, I'll do it." said a boy. He seemed to be impatient, as he wanted to go home and reflect on the events that had occurred—like everyone else. He stepped up to the door and twisted the metal knob without hesitation. He slowly pulled the door open. The boy stopped. His hands fell to the ground as if his nerves were cut. He didn't speak nor move for a few moments.
"What's wrong?" asked Avery.
"Hey dude, what happened?" said Gerald. He placed a hand on the boy's shoulder and shook him to get him to respond, but instead, the boy fell to the ground.
"Holy shit!" screamed Serenity as she covered her eyes.
"Oh shit! What the fuck happened!" exclaimed Avery. She pointed at the boy's head as she covered her mouth, preventing herself from gagging.
Everyone started to scream in terror.
In confusion and curiosity, Gerald quickly glanced over at the boy and saw the horrifying sight. The boy was limp on the ground, eyes wide open, with a large bloody kitchen knife sticking out from his forehead, blood oozing out as it created a pool of red around the pitiful boy's head. In just a few seconds from him opening the door, he was now on the ground, lifeless as his eyes lost color and his soul left his body, growing colder by the second.
"Nooooo!" Screamed one of the girls, she pushed her way through the crowd of people who were shocked at what had happened, and she covered her eyes with both hands as she dashed out of the room. As she took a step out to the hallway, a hand appeared from the side of the doorframe, the hand was holding a knife, and before the girl could even see or react, the hand quickly lunged the large kitchen knife at the side of the girl's head. Just like the boy, the girl dropped dead in only a matter of seconds, blood oozing out from the side of her head.
"Two down, many to go." said the figure. The students could only watch in shock as they glanced over to what had transpired in the hallway, a second ago, they were looking at the corpse of the boy, but now their eyes were fixated on the dead girl who was just alive a second ago. The figure revealed himself and walked in front of the doorway. There stood a tall man wearing a blood-soaked blue polo shirt and overalls with a lighter blue shade. A large brown paper bag covered his face to mask his identity.
"Who are you!?" said Gerald.
"Who, me? I'm just your friendly campus janitor." He talked like a crazed lunatic, with random high-pitched instances as he talked, much like the joker in the Batman movies that Gerald loved to watch as a kid.
"Why are you doing this!" said Avery.
"Hmm, well.. I'm simply doing my job as a janitor," said the man as he reached for something to the left of the doorway, something that was hidden from view, "and that is to clean up." As he finished speaking, he pulled his arm to show what he had just grabbed, in his hand was a mop with the handle sharpened like a stake. He stretched his arm behind him and threw the mop like a javelin, soaring through the room.
The mop was heading towards Gerald with insane speed, if he doesn't dodge, he will be a goner. In a split second, he leaned back as fast as he could, the sharp mop scraping his forehead, barely dodging the thrown object. He lost his balance and fell backwards to the floor, his back slamming against the ground. From the mop scratching his forehead and from the fall, Gerald was in pain, but not as much as the person behind him, if that person could even still feel pain. Since Gerald barely dodged the mop, someone else took the hit. Gerald was frozen on the floor from shock when a red fluid showered him, covering his eyes. As he wiped the thick fluid out of his eyes, he saw the boy that was behind him with a long metal mop piercing his throat. The boy was suspended for a bit, and after the harsh breeze of the blizzard knocked against their classroom's windows, the boy collapsed to the ground, lifeless, as a pool of blood was created yet again.
"Three down." said the janitor.
The students finally realized what was going on, and everyone rushed to the back door of the room. People pushed and pulled the others just for them to be the first ones to reach the door—to reach safety, but their hopes of survival were quickly shut down as the boy in front struggled to open the door. The school's construction was a bit weird and off in some places, the front doors opened inward while the back ones opened outwards. Even with ten or so students pushing the door with all their might, they still couldn't seem to make it budge. It seemed locked, but because the doors lock from the inside, there could be only one explanation. The janitor had planned it out and blocked the back door with something heavy—something far too heavy for even a mob of teens to push through.
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The janitor walked towards the horde of students at the back of the room, very slowly, one step at a time, and he looked at Gerald, who was still on the ground. "You're quite lucky to dodge that, kid, I'll get to you later." said the janitor as he walked past him.
As he walked slowly toward the frantic mob that was still trying to push the door open, he reached from within his overalls and pulled out another kitchen knife, the same as the ones he used to mercilessly kill the earlier students. They started to scream as the janitor got closer. He laughed maniacally and jumped towards the students, slamming his blade against whoever it would hit. Most of the students quickly got out of the corner, but one of them was unlucky and bit the dust. The knife was sticking on top of his head, and the janitor pulled it out, afterwards, a fountain of blood erupted from above.
"Who's next?" said the janitor. He glanced around the room, looking at the fear in the students' eyes. He took a glance at everyone in the room, and as he took a look at Serenity, who was trying to help Gerald stand up, he knew who his next target was. Serenity immediately knew what was going to happen. She quickly pulled Gerald up, and they both ran towards the open front door. They almost got away, but they were forgetting something.
"Stop or I'll carve her brains out!" said the janitor. Serenity and Gerald glanced back to the inside of the room, the janitor had Avery hostage with a knife pointed at her head.
"I've been watching you all since the scientists left, and I know that you three are quite good friends. I've already made up my mind to slowly torture that boy by slicing him to pieces. If you both don't get back here, then I will mount this girl's head on the mop and display her like a trophy.
Serenity and Gerald were so close to safety, they only needed to take a few more steps and they would have been outside of the man's view, but they couldn't leave their close friend behind. If they go back then they would all be killed, but if they don't then Avery will be killed with the rest of his classmates. The better choice was quite obvious, but their bonds made them choose the idiotic option. The two walked back inside the room.
"Now close the door." said the janitor. The two obediently followed. The janitor let Avery go, and Serenity rushed in to hug her, tears flowing from her eyes. "I don't want to die!" sobbed Serenity. Avery knew what they did was stupid, they could have saved themselves, but they chose to die together. Avery simply stroked Serenity's hair as she sobbed on her shoulder.
Gerald felt helpless as he watched the janitor brutally kill off his remaining classmates one by one. A stab here, a stab there, multiple stabs to the chest, two knives to the eye, a knife through the heart, beheading, a face sliced in two, guts pulled out—it was horrible, completely appalling, and disgusting, a scene that could only be dreamed of in nightmares, but instead, they were witnessing it when they were fully conscious.
The three stood there as they awaited their turn to be brutally slaughtered. A girl crawled through the ground, her feet had been messily cut off, she grabbed Gerald's feet. "Please help me!" she said, tears flowing down her blood-splattered face. Gerald could only stand there and clench his fist and grit his teeth. The janitor slowly walked towards the girl and slammed the blade toward her head. Gerald closed his eyes before the blade made contact. When he opened his eyes again, the girl was still holding his leg, but she now had a fountain of blood on her head. Tears fell from his eyes as he felt useless.
The man continued to mercilessly slaughter the remaining students until Gerald, Serenity, and Avery were the only ones left.
"Alright, it's finally your turn." said the janitor as he pointed the blood-stained kitchen knife towards the three.
"Who wants to die first?"
"I do!" said Avery without any hesitation. The janitor slowly approached Avery, they were now only a few inches apart when the man raised the knife, ready to slam the sharp, blood-stained blade on Avery's head. She felt guilty that her friends couldn't escape because she was held hostage, she felt like shit and wanted to make it right by being the first one to die. Granted, they will all die, but dying first is the only thing she could think of to apologize.
Avery closed her eyes, she was ready to die. She had a lot of things that she still wanted to do with her friends, like spend a nice romantic date with Josef, but that will have to wait for the afterlife.
Gerald watched as the janitor readied himself to kill his friend, Gerald couldn't stand it, he had watched his defenseless classmates get slaughtered, he couldn't help the poor girl who was desperately crawling to him asking for help, and now he will fail to protect one of his best friends as well.
He had enough. Before the janitor could lower the knife to Avery's head, Gerald screamed, "GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU BASTARD!" He quickly closed the distance between him and the janitor and landed a nice, strong punch to his face.
The janitor was knocked back as he dropped the knife. Gerald didn't let a single moment go to waste as he picked up the knife and lunged at the janitor. He tried to stab the janitor in the chest, but he had failed as the janitor blocked the knife with his hand. The knife pierced the man's hand, but even though it looked quite painful, he kneed Gerald on the stomach.
Gerald got to his knees as he clutched his stomach. He felt pain swell in his entire body as he gasped for air, resisting the urge to puke his guts out. The man forcefully pulled out the knife pierced in his hand and lunged it towards Gerald's head.
"Die, you insolent brat!" screamed the janitor.
"HONEEEY!" screamed Serenity.
The knife made contact with Gerald's head, but it didn't pierce him. He was still recovering, but he forced himself to see what had happened. He saw the man on the ground with Avery on top of him, she must've pushed the man away just in time. The man struggled to get Avery off him as she weighed slightly more than the average girl. Avery wasted no time and threw a flurry of punches towards the man's paper bag-covered face. The man flinched in pain with each punch.
Avery didn't stop there and continued her barrage, she punched the hell out of the man, and after a minute or so of endless punching, the man stopped moving. Avery steadied her breathing as she rested, when the man grew limp on the ground, Avery thought that she had won.
She got off of the man and reached for the paper bag. She slowly lifted it up, struggling a bit as the man's head was lying on the back of the bag. She had raised it high enough to reveal a mouth, but suddenly, a smile arose from his face.
The man lunged at Avery, pushing her to the ground, the tables have turned, and now the man is the one on top of Avery. The man shakily reached from inside his overalls again as Avery struggled to get the man off of her. He pulled out another knife. Gerald forced himself to stand up and try to help Avery, but the man's knee to his stomach was simply too painful, and the pain still lingered as he struggled to stand up while Serenity stood there, frozen in fear.
Avery thought it was over, it was a good attempt, but they failed.
"I've had enough, I'll fucking kill you all!" screamed the man, raising the knife high.
Suddenly, the front door of the room slammed open and hurried footsteps quickly flew across the room. The man was slow to react, and when he looked over, he only saw a blurry shoe. In a split second, the shoe made contact with his face, and he was knocked back. Blood gushed out from inside the paper bag—probably from the nose.
"Get off of her, you fucker!"
Gerald, Serenity, and Avery, with surprised looks on their faces, looked at their savior—it was Josef. Rage overwhelmed Josef's face as he almost witnessed his beloved girlfriend's death.
The man tried to get up, but Caden quickly rushed from behind and bashed the man's head with a fire extinguisher, throwing the janitor to the ground. His head violently crashed on the cold, blood-soaked concrete floor.