"Avery!" Josef exclaimed, "I'm so glad you're alright, thank God!"

Josef rushed to Avery's side, giving her a nice, big, warm hug. She responded with an embrace as tears drizzled from her eyes.

"Honey!" screamed Serenity, Gerald was still struggling to stand up as the damage from earlier still lingered from within his body. He wasn't as physically strong as Caden, nor was he a weakling, but a grown man's full force attack can definitely cause him severe pain. Serenity rushed to Gerald's side, she placed his arm around her and tried to stand him up, but she couldn't. She was frail and had no form of strength left in her.

"Do you need any help?" asked Josh. He extended his hand toward Gerald. He stared at Josh's open palm for a moment and then proceeded to hesitantly accept his help. With the combined effort of Serenity and Josh, Gerald was finally able to stand up, but he was still wavering with his arms clutching his stomach.

"Thank you." said Gerald to Josh, he avoided eye contact with him.

"What the hell happened here?" exclaimed Matt.

"It's exactly what it looks like." answered Avery. "Everyone is dead. Scientists came in and tied us up, then gas suddenly came out of nowhere."

"The same thing happened with us. The gas probably spread throughout the entire school." said Matt.

"Wait, scientists?" said Caden, "I woke up in a room filled with dead bodies with scientists experimenting on students. What did the scientists do in your classroom?"

"They took the unconscious students and rolled them out in a stretcher." said Gerald. He was still struggling, but at least the pain was subsiding little by little.

"Ohhh, so the students that the scientists were experimenting on came from your class," said Caden. "Wait! Then why was I included there when our entire class of 1-F was slaughtered?"

"Slaughtered!?" exclaimed Serenity, her voice quivering.

"Sadly, yes, everyone from our class was slaughtered and decapitated in the room, we are the only survivors from our class." Josef answered, "I don't know who the culprit is, but what I do know is that it was done by a chainsaw."

"Chainsaw!" screamed Serenity. "I don't want to be here anymore. Entire classes are dead, scientists are experimenting on students, and a chainsaw-carrying maniac is on the loose! Let's leave right now, I don't want to stay in this hell for another second." said Serenity as she held Gerald's hand.

"Yep, we are definitely going to leave and report everything to the police," said Caden, "but first we need to get some answers out of this guy."

Everyone looked over to the unconscious man who slaughtered Gerald's class. They tied him up in a sitting position. They knew that from the time that they spent talking to each other, the man had already awoken from unconsciousness. He was simply silent the entire time.

"All right, moment of truth." said Gerald, he had fully recovered and was now ready to get to the bottom of all of this madness. He faced the tied-up man and slowly lifted up the paper bag that was still covering his face. The bag was now off, but most of them had confused looks on their faces.

"Who's that?" asked Josef.

"Dunno, I don't recognize him." said Matt.

Avery gasped. "Mr. William!? Is that really you?"

"Mr. Who?" said Gerald.

"It's Mr. William, the janitor, well obviously he's dressed like a janitor, but he's the janitor of our school."

"Then why would he do this to everyone!?" exclaimed Serenity.

"I don't know. I have talked to him a few times on campus, and he seemed really nice. I don't know what made him into this murderer." said Avery.

The man laughed, "You want to know why I slaughtered all your friends? It's because it's fun. Seeing a pool of blood like spilled juice on the floor is simply exhilarating. Cleaning it up and tossing the bodies aside like scrap food calms me down. I feel alive when I do it."

"Mr. William! This isn't like you at all, what happened? You were so nice to everyone, and you even lent an ear to students who were having a tough time with their studies. What the hell is going on?" said Avery.

"Nothing happened, this is the true me, what you saw in the past is simply an illusion. Killing students is what makes me happy, I don't care about your worries, all I want is to see blood spill."

"That's enough, you madman!" exclaimed Caden as he kicked the man in the face. A tooth fell to the ground and the man's mouth began to bleed.

"You didn't need to do that!" said Avery.

"I don't know, Avery, something was just bothering me, and I felt like I had to do it. I didn't want to hear him talk about horrendous stuff like that, especially since you knew him as a kind person." said Caden.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Huh? Where... am I?" said the man. Confusion arose from everyone's faces. "Avery? Is that you?"

Avery paused for a second before answering, "Yes, it's me, Mr. William."

"Oh, thank God you survived." said the man with a relieved smile on his face.

"What the fuck happened to him? A few moments ago he was a blood-crazed lunatic, but now he's suddenly back to his senses!?" said Matt.

"Be careful, he might be putting on an act." said Josh.

"An act?" said the man, "And why am I tied up?" He looked down on his binds in confusion.

"Mr. William, what happened to you? Do you remember anything?" asked Avery.

"Ahhh! My head hurts. I can't exactly remember.. much." said the man. "Wait! I think I remember a bit."

"Well, what is it?" said Josef.

"Scientists! I remember them building a machine with the principal. This purple gas knocked us out." said the man. "When I woke up, I was tied up in a room I've never seen before, It was an all-white room that had medical equipment. The other teachers were there as well.

"An all white room? That was probably the room I woke up in as well. It's a secret room hidden beneath the school. Did they perhaps strapped you to an operating table or something?" said Caden.

"Beneath the school!?" exclaimed Gerald. Serenity and Avery's eyebrows rose from surprise as well.

"There wasn't an operating table, it was simply a white room with a table cluttered with medical equipment." said the man.

"So there's another hidden room in the school?" muttered Caden.

"Most of us were still unconscious, but I was already awake, It felt like I spent an eternity there." said the man. "After a while, scientists came rushing in. I heard someone say 'finally, it's complete' then they cut our heads open and injected us with a syringe with purple liquid inside. That's as far as I could remember."

"Purple liquid!? Now I understand what happened." exclaimed Caden.

"You know something?" asked Gerald.

"When I was hiding from the scientists, I saw them inject purple liquid into the students." said Caden. "When they failed, the students went crazy and died shortly after, but when they succeeded, they were able to control the student like a puppet. That's probably the reason why Mr. William acted like that, he was being controlled."

"Controlled!? What's in the purple liquid anyway?" asked Avery.

"A virus." answered Caden. He pointed to the stitched-up cut near the man's hairline. "They injected the purple liquid directly into their brains, and that's probably how they're being controlled. But.. how did they do it so fast? I heard that they needed to report back to their headquarters first before they did anything else."

"Maybe it's really close by." said Josef.

"Then who's controlling them." asked Matt.

"It probably has something to do with the principal." said Josef. "But wait, who is the principal?"

Gerald laughed, "I can't believe you've forgotten the principal, we all know he's... umm, who was he again?"

"Now that you've mentioned it, I can't seem to remember." said Avery.

"It's because the principal hasn't shown up yet, it's always the secretary that does the talking." said Josh.

"I have worked for over a decade at this school. I have seen the principal participate in a few speeches and ceremonies in the school, but since the last time he did it was a long time ago, and I could only get glimpses of him since I'm always busy cleaning, I can't remember who he is or what he looked like." said the man.

"That principal is looking more and more suspicious the more we bring him up." said Caden. "Do you know anything else, Josef?" he asked as he lightly elbowed him.

"Wait.. Josef!? You're Josef!?" exclaimed the man. "I.. I remember now, you're the...AAAHHHH!" The man twitched in pain, he was still tied up, but now he was collapsed on the floor, screaming his heart out, yelling in pain.

"Mr. William, what's wrong!?" asked Avery.

"I will... I will.." the man became silent and muttered something under his breath. Avery crouched closer to the man, attempting to catch what he's saying. Suddenly, the man faced Avery and leapt out at her with an agape mouth, attempting to bite her face off. In the nick of time, Josef was able to grab Avery's shoulder and push her out of the man's range.

"What happened, Mr. William!?" asked Avery.

"I'll kill you all! I'll spill your blood all over the floor and mop it up! I'll chop up your bodies into tiny pieces and stuff them in a garbage bag!" said the man maniacally.

"It's the virus!" said Caden. "It must have malfunctioned when I kicked him, but now it's in effect again."

"Please come back, Mr. William!" said Avery.

"I'll kill you all!" The man continued with his threats until suddenly he became quiet. He had become still, his eyes faced forward as he sat back up into a proper seating position, much like a student who is listening to a teacher in class. "Mr... Principal..."

"The principal!?" exclaimed Matt. "Where is he?"

"Yes, Mr. Principal, I shall follow your orders, whatever they may be." said the janitor.

"What the hell is happening?" said Josef.

"Yes, I shall do it, anything for you." said the janitor.

"Mr. William?" said Avery. Suddenly, the man leaned forward and bashed his head on the cold concrete floor. He raised his head back up and smashed it again. He repeated the process again and again.

Avery and Caden rushed to the man and tried to stop him. They held his arms and pulled him backwards in order to stop him from lunging forward.

"I shall follow the principal! Don't stop me!" exclaimed the man. He opened his mouth wide. Caden thought that the man was going to try and bite them, but the man bit something else. He slammed his teeth shut, and a small, slippery object plopped on the ground, followed by a fountain of blood. It was the man's tongue. Avery and Caden were both surprised and loosened their grip on the man. Seeing the opportunity, the man lunged out and bashed his head again on the floor. A loud crack echoed across the room, followed by silence. The man was still, his head faced the ground.

"Mr. William?" Avery crouched and touched the man's back. No response. She rolled the man over until he faced up. His eyes were wide open, his forehead was red as a tomato, and his body was still as a rock. The man had died.

"Mr. William! No! Please wake up!" screamed Avery. Her knees gave in, and she sat on the ground. "You were always there when I needed someone to talk to, you were always kind and supportive of us even though you were only a janitor. Please! Please wake up!" Avery sobbed on the man's chest. Josef sat next to her and silently hugged Avery, pushing her face against his chest while stroking her on the back, she continued to weep there.

"That's it! We need to get out of here this instant! I don't want to see any more death! exclaimed Serenity.

"Yes… Let's go, everyone." said Avery as she calmed down from the loss of an important figure in her school life. Avery and Josef stood up with Josef's arm still latched on to her.

"Let's go." Said Josef. The group walked out of the room but quickly turned around and faced the inside once again. They lowered their heads and bowed.

"We're sorry we couldn't save you, Mr. William.. everyone. We hope you rest in peace." said Avery. "Goodbye."