It didn’t take long for my classmate’s groans of agony to be heard from outside the closet, although Anna and I weren’t exempt either, I suddenly felt as if my head was being ripped apart while also being squished by some unseen force. I attempted to ignore the pain and tried to think of happy thoughts, but my mind just kept ending up on the fact that someone decided to end the world on a Friday and it ruined my mood.
And that continued for about 15 seconds before I realized that something akin to a computer’s notice screen was clouding my vision. It displayed counter intuitive information at the top left corner like my name and age.
But below that, things like ‘str’, ‘int’ and ‘end’ sat, and next to those letters were some numbers that constantly decreased from what I was assuming was an incredibly high number. The layout reminded me of something akin to a video game, or DnD or something.
Eventually the headache stopped but the screen lingered until the numbers ceased moving, to their final resting places. If I were to describe what I saw it would look like this:
Name: ‘Yuki’ Age: 16 Title N/a
Condition: Near perfect EE: 100
Str: 8 Int: 10
End: 5 Agi: 11
Skills: N/a
The image lingered in my head for another 5 seconds before the ‘screen’ dissipated from my vision and I found myself on the floor. I looked over at Anna, she had the same expression I assume I had: one of shock and distress.
Anna was the first to talk. “I-is it over?” I didn’t respond, hoping that abstaining would stop the issue from continuing.
I sat in place to get my Barings, after a few seconds of calming myself down I dragged myself and Anna out of the closet.
“We aren’t staying in there?”
“I changed my mind...” I looked around the classroom, most of my classmates were still recovering from the headache earlier. I was contemplating leaving the building when I looked out the door to the hallway: it looked different, alien, hellish almost. The vents were oozing a strange substance which was gold in color, which puddled on the floor. The lights were flickering on and Off, I assumed that they’d eventually stay off for good. Below the vents sat small golden pods they were all 3 times the size of my fist. They were disgusting so I decided to look away, unto the rest of the hallway. It was more of the same.
Just when I was about to turn around, the door to a room 3 classes down opened. Out of said room came two people a boy and a girl, although the boy turned around and gave the girl what I could assume to be a really meaningful glare as she quickly walked back into the room and shut the door. The boy took a step forward and looked around the hallway.
Then all of a sudden, the lights flickered off, the only light source for the hallway was now coming from my classroom. I had the urge to the shut door, however, I was curious to see what the boy would do.
I saw his silhouette quickly turn around and attempt to open the door behind him. “Hey what the hell, it’s locked?!” the boy sounded as if a murderer had just walked into the room and killed his dog. “Maria, open the door!” he yelled at the door a little bit more and turned toward the hallway once again, spotting the open door to my class, and me. “Hey, you there, can I hitchhike in your class?”
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My urge to shut the door increased but I didn’t want to be that person, and lock him away from whatever safety we had. He leaned his hand against the wall as he began walking and talking, his hand was going to collide with the golden stuff oozing out of the vents. I abstained from telling him, mostly due to the fact that he should have seen the stuff when he first left the classroom.
When his hand touched the ooze he almost instantly pulled back. “Ow, what now?” he pushed his hand forward, toward the light, but that was a stupid idea, as he just moved his hand back into the ‘danger zone.’ He took a step forward while moving his hand away from in front of him.
The lights suddenly turned on again while he was in the middle of a step, causing him to fall over in surprise. He landed next to a bunch of pods. We made eye contact for about 5 seconds before the two pods closest to him started to violently shake, and crack. The boy began to stand up, however he was too slow. A darkish-golden creature leaped out of the cracked pod thing, unto the boy’s chest.
“What the—” the boy instinctually reached out to grab the monster-ish creature, when he touched it, it looked as if he felt intense pain as he moved his hands back, almost as fast as he put them there. The creature ignored his failed attempt, it began to move, however from where I stood I couldn’t see what it was doing to him. “H-hey get off of me!”
My will to look at this horror was quickly fading, and my irritation was growing at the boy who was screaming for his life. I sighed and slowly began to close the door, the soon to probably be dead man looked at me, with eyes of shock that said: “what the hell are you doing?!”
I ignored his pleas for help and closed the door shut and locked it, but before the deed was done, I noticed something...the other ‘Pods’ were cracking.
I turned around, only to see that several of my classmates were standing behind me, waiting in anticipation in what I was going to say. I shrugged. “don’t unlock the door.” What I had just seen was incredibly disturbing, I needed time to sort out my feelings so, I began to walk back to my desk but was stopped by the uneasy voice of one of my female classmates.
“what about that guy outside, why didn’t you help?” before I could respond she continued to speak. “what did you see out there, why is he screaming?”
I gave her a simple answer: “Something problematic, which can be avoided.”
Another student spoke up. “that’s not an answer.”
I sighed. “well then, go outside and find out for yourself.”
The girl who originally confronted me responded. “B-but you just said to—”
she was cut off, not from anyone in the classroom though, but rather from the silence of the hallway... the guy who was assaulted by those pod monsters finally shut up.
There was silence in the room for a short while, although that silence was ended by a door opening outside the room.
A loud male student broke the dreadful silence. “What the heck was that?!” his outburst caused another student to talk
“I-I think it’s just a-a door.” From there, everyone calmed down a little, and began to talk amongst themselves, although as soon as they started, the teacher shushed them, most likely to hear what was happening outside better.
I too, was curious so I discreetly walked up to the door and put my ear next to it. I couldn’t hear anything so I almost gave up when I heard a muffled voice:
“Whoa!” the voice was male. “what in the— out here”
Another voice responded to him, although it was harder to hear. “— shell thing’s—” the voices grew louder, and easier to hear after this.
The original speaker talked next. “yeah this is strange… wait a sec… I think we found the cause of the screaming everyone.”
A different person continued his thought. “what, happened to him though?” they were quiet for a second, mostly likely looking around the hallway.
The next person to talk was female. “everyone, is it just me or—”
The original speaker cut her off for seemingly no reason. “or what?”
“is that golden stuff moving?” I held my breath, a repeat of earlier was about to happen, and I didn’t really care much to stop it.
The original speaker spoke louder all of a sudden. “You might be right, hmm…” there was a pause. “Is he getting up?” He got slightly louder so I assume he took a step closer. “why were you on the floor, my dude…you alright?”
Another new voice started talking. “I-is there something on his chest?”
The original speaker spoke again. “Yeah... hey, wait, DUDE GET OFF!” I moved my ears away from the door as the calm subdued voices suddenly and quickly turned into screams of panic.
My classmates were freaking out, although I ignored them for my own thoughts, most of them lingered on the fact that I was the cause of this.