Darkness Bring
By: Daniel Cowan
Copyright 2011 by Daniel Cowan
Smashwords Edition
Chapter 10: Fortification Bringer
Chapter 19: Triangulation Bringer
Chapter 30: Retribution Bringer
Monday, April 14th
7:26 AM
“What a beautiful day!” Darith said to himself sleepily as he stretched his arms up over his head and let out a loud yawn. He gazed into his computer monitor, the screen displaying a bright blue sky filled with a few thin, peacefully floating clouds. “A good day to sit at home and go on an adventure!” He then added, as he brought his arms back down, placing his right hand on his mouse, then his left on his keyboard.
Using the computer mouse, he panned the camera of his screen downward away from the clear virtual sky to reveal his green skinned brutish avatar of the video game he had opened on his computer. His screen revealed a vast, lush world of many medieval styled buildings as well as different strange creatures wearing unique pieces of armor and clothing all around him, hopping around and chatting to one another.
A giant grin grew across Darith's face as he gazed into the virtual world before him on his computer. His hair was blonde, short and messy and he had very bright blue eyes. He was wearing white t-shirt with Iron Man on the front of it and was about 5'9, with a very slim build.
He lifted his hands off of the keyboard and mouse and put the fingers of each of his hands between each other preparing to stretch them out as suddenly there was a bright flash of lightning outside. The power in his house went out turning his bedroom completely dark save for the light coming in the bedroom window from the dimly lit, dark cloudy sky outside.
“Oh cmon!” He shouted angrily, kicking at his computer desk only to stub his toe. “Oww..” He sighed in pain as the power came back on and his computer booted back up.
“Hurry up loser! We're going to be late!” A girl’s voice called from outside of his bedroom.
“Aww, are you kidding me? You expect me to walk to school in this crazy storm?” Darith shouted back, not moving from his computer chair.
“Of course, now stop being lazy you big nerd.” The voice shouted back again. Darith let out an angry sigh in response as he stood up from his computer desk then waded through his bedroom, the floor covered in dirty laundry and the walls covered in different posters of video game and comic book characters.
Exiting his room he met eyes with the person whom was yelling at him. She stared back at him with her bright blue eyes and long brown hair, a blue hair band keeping her bangs out of her face. Her name was Cassie and she was as tall as Darith was, skinny with a flat nose and dark eye liner on. She was wearing small blue earrings, tight blue jeans and a pink tank top underneath her open, thick black rain coat. She also had a black and pink backpack hanging over her right shoulder as she tapped her foot, glaring at her brother.
“Mom says if you miss any more class she's going to take your computer away, so hurry up.” She said to Darith as he quickly looked away from her glare, slowly walking towards her through the central hallway of the house, and then passed his sister and to the front door.
“Did mom also say we should walk to school during dangerous storms that might get us struck by lightning?” Darith grumbled back, though he began to put on his shoes compliantly.
“Stop being such a wimp. Only like 7 people get struck by lightning a year.” His sister replied back.
“Well then after we go outside there will only be 5 more slots open for this year.” Darith replied as he finished putting on his shoes and then threw on a big black rain jacket. He zipped it up and as he did his sister did the same with her jacket and walked towards the door, grabbing a pink umbrella off of the coat rack while they both heard the pitter patter of four paws running across the house down the hall way.
A black Labrador retriever appeared wagging its tail violently with its tongue sticking out, barking at the two of them anxiously.
“Oh, c'mon Phoenix, we're not taking you out for a walk! We're going to school.” Cassie said to the dog using a baby voice. As she said it Phoenix turned to wag her tail at Cassie more ferociously, barking with excitement. “Bah, it's no good, into the cage then.” Cassie sighed as Darith grabbed his black and white plain backpack from near the door, throwing it over his shoulder. Cassie grabbed Phoenix's blue collar and used it to pull her back down the hallway of the house and into the kitchen where a big black metal cage was sitting on the floor beside the counters. Phoenix didn't resist as Cassie led her into the cage and then shut it. The tail wagging quickly stopped and Phoenix laid down on the large dark green pillow that made up the floor of the cage while making a pouting face at Cassie.
“Now who is being slow?” Darith said to her sarcastically.
“Oh shut up.” Cassie snapped back. Just as the two of them were about to open their front door to leave the house there was loud knocking from the outside. It startled both Cassie and Darith, but Cassie then quickly opened the door only to be met by two girls standing outside their house under a single umbrella. The loud downpour of rain quickly filled their ears as the door opened, as did the sound of a violent rolling thunder from the dark skies above.
“Hi hi!” One of the girls said in a high pitched voice. Her name was Kira and had short curly blonde hair with brown eyes, was about 5'6 and was wearing a dark blue raincoat and a light blue backpack with a slim build like Cassie and the girl beside her.
“Kira, Melanie, what are you two doing here?” Cassie said surprised as she glanced between the two girls.
“Mom said that since your mom goes to work so early you'd probably need a ride! So after we picked up Kira we came to get you too.” Melanie said, having long straight black hair with green eyes and a bright yellow raincoat on.
“Is it really okay?” Cassie asked while sounding very grateful.
“Of course! Your brother can come too.” Melanie added.
“Are you sure you want to come today? Seems like a good excuse for you to skip class again and be a nerd.” Kira said coldly, eying Darith.
“Cassie's making me.” Darith sighed.
“Figures.” Kira replied while rolling her eyes. “C’mon, let’s go before we get soaked.” She then said, turning away from the house with Melanie and the two quickly ran towards the car, careful to stay underneath their single umbrella. Cassie then left the house first and opened up her umbrella, Darith quickly getting underneath it as well then closing the door and locking it with a key he then placed in his pocket.
“Jeez it's really raining; it's been like this since last night too.” Cassie commented as she faced the car with her brother at her side, looking up at the very dark ominous sky.
“A storm is a storm. This is why real life sucks.” Darith replied back. “Let's get this over with.” He then said, putting one hand on the umbrella pole that Cassie was holding to pull her along as he began walking towards the car quickly, his feet splashing up water in all directions. They quickly got into the backseat of the dark blue BMW, Cassie sitting in the middle between Darith and Kira with Melanie and her mom upfront.
“Good morning Cassie and Darith.” Melanie's mom said, turning to smile at them. She looked very similar to Melanie with green eyes and long straight black hair, though she was wearing a long black jacket with a white t-shirt underneath and grey sweatpants, giving off the appearance that she just got out of bed to drive them to school and had every intention of going back to bed afterwards.
“Good Morning Mrs Ensan.” Cassie replied back politely.
“Make sure you buckle up!” She said quickly as she turned from them and started driving. They lived in a suburban area with many two story houses all built side by side on their street. The car was built to be sound proof but the sound of the rain hitting the windows could still be heard from inside. As Darith leaned against his passenger side window he saw a lot of water all over the roads and sidewalks, all of it slightly submerged with just the tips of grass blades peeking out of the water on the lawns they drove past.
He didn't think much of it though; he started to daydream about what he would do on his video game when he got home from school that day and quickly drowning out the conversations of Cassie, Kira and Melanie as they started talking about cute boys from the football team.
“Mom watch out!” Melanie suddenly shouted, snapping Darith out of his daydreaming as he was jerked forward. The breaks had been slammed suddenly and Darith looked forward to see they were at an intersection, the road completely underwater despite the efforts of nearby sewer drains. They had just barely missed being hit by a white car passing by in front of them.
“I-is everyone alright? Sorry, the roads are really slippery. I can't believe they haven't cancelled school on a day li-.” Mrs Ensan was saying, but she was interrupted by a very obnoxiously loud crackling thunder. Despite the car being nearly sound proof the thunder was still obnoxiously loud and it startled her as well as the three girls. There was a few seconds of silence afterwards. “Like this... Sheesh.” She finished.
The three girls proceeded to talk about how scary and loud that thunder was, but Darith opted to stay silent and go back to daydreaming.
8:07 AM
“Sorry, sorry! Hurry and don't be late! That drive took a lot longer than usual.” Mrs Ensan said as the BMW stopped in front of their high school in the drop off area.
“Thank you for the ride Mrs Ensan!” Cassie and Kira both said as they quickly got out of the car, Darith staying silent and leaving into the rain as well. He got out of the car opposite of Cassie whom had their umbrella without thinking and within seconds was drenched, and started running towards the schools front doors with the other two girls. Once underneath the rain shelter that hovered over the front entrance of the school, Darith, Kira and Cassie all turned to wait for Melanie as she was still in the car talking to her mom.
Melanie got out a few seconds later then began running towards the school just as a sudden bright flash of lightning lit up the sky, as if the entire dark sky had turned completely yellow for an instant. Following it moments later just as Melanie got under the shelter with them was a horrifically loud thunderous roar, as if the dark clouds of the sky possessed some sort of infuriated demon. It was deafening, easily the loudest thing Darith had ever heard, and this time he was startled just as the three girls were and they went silent once more.
“This storm is crazy! Worst storm ever.” Melanie shouted over the falling rain.
“Cmon, or we'll be late.” Kira then said and the other two nodded, heading inside the building. Darith just sighed to himself and followed in after them.
8:15 AM
“Darith! You actually came today?!” Jacob called to him as he entered the class room.
“Yeah... I had to.” Darith replied while walking towards his desk in the back of the plain class room, but as he walked he was pushed from behind and fell face forward onto the floor.
“Watch it, loser.” Someone yelled at him. Jacob just went silent and watched, looking at Darith lying on the floor and then glaring at the boy who pushed him. He had short spiky blonde hair and was 6'1 with a muscular build. His name was Jason and he had picked up the habit of bullying Darith recently, so Darith just shrugged it off and stood back up, walking over to his desk next to Jacob in the back row.
“Mom's threatening to take away your computer still?” Jacob asked as Darith took off his backpack and jacket then sat down.
“Yeah, it sucks... I can't believe school is still open with this weather.” Darith replied back to him.
“I know what you mean. School buses even got cancelled, but my mom made me come anyway. Drove me herself.” Jacob replied. “Anyway, did you see that new armor that you can forge?” Jacob then said excitedly.
“New armor?” Darith replied, suddenly filled with enthusiasm. Anything about his online game that he played was interesting, so much more than anything in this world around him.
“Yeah man! If you kill Azalia in the Tower of Doom you can get a rare metal that lets you forge the Doom Armor!” Jacob said excitedly as they lowered their voices as to not be heard by their class mates around them. The class was relatively empty though, save for Jason and about 12 other students. It was abnormally low for a usual class of 32, but everyone knew the cause was the weather.
Not long after Jacob and Darith got into a deep conversation about how to climb the Tower of Doom, their teacher entered the classroom. He was wearing a green sweater and had short brown hair and thick glasses, and was short coming in at around 5'6. Students often picked on him about it but he ignored them. Just as he had gotten behind his large brown desk at the front of the classroom the first class bell rang through the halls.
“Not much of a class today, huh? I guess everyone else is afraid of thunder. No point covering new material today or I'll have to just teach it all over again tomorrow to the other half of the class.” Mr Dolf sighed. “Get out your books, let's do some review.” He then said and all of the students in the class listened, quietly shuffling through their bags to take out their books.
9:35 AM
“Man... the only thing worse than first period math is second period gym.” Jacob sighed as he and Darith entered the gymnasium from the boy’s locker room along with the rest of their all male gym class, including Jason and some of his buddies.
The Gymnasium was very large as their high school was bigger than most, it contained two full basketball courts. On one end of the gym stood Darith and his all-male gym class and on the other end was another gym class taking place at the same time, but all female with a female teacher that Darith didn't know the name of.
From out of the many doors lining the gymnasiums walls came their teacher Mr. North. He had short white hair and looked to be in about his 50's, but he was very fit. He was the same height as Darith and was wearing a black t-shirt and shorts with a white string around his neck that had a black whistle hanging on it.
“Alright guys, normally I'd have you out in the field but I'm sure you can figure out why we're just going to be stuck in here for today. To make it worse we've gotta share it with a girls class, but I'm making them take that side of the gym so we have this side all to ourselves. We got floor hockey, dodge ball and basketball on our slates, so what are you all in the mood for?” Mr. North asked, as he eyed the class which was also abnormally small.
Darith always liked Mr. North. He wasn't exactly sure
why, as he didn't like gym particularly.
He always found that Mr.
North tried to make the classes interesting though and seemed like a
really good role model. Darith started daydreaming about why he
thought Mr. North was cool, tuning out the other students for a
moment.
“Floor hockey it is, then. Pick your own teams. To be honest I don't really care what you kids do today.” Mr. North shrugged, and then turned to go get hockey nets out of storage.
“You better not plan on playing, Darith. No one is going to want you on their team.” Jason said rudely.
“Was there really any reason to say that?” Jacob replied back. “You're an idiot you know that?” he then added.
“Why don't you say that to my face?” Jason snapped back at him, quickly stomping toward Jacob and pressing his chest up against Jacob's while glaring into his eyes from just centimetres away.
“I just did, moron.” Jacob shouted back.
“Calm down, just ignore him man.” Darith quickly said, pulling Jacob away.
“This guy’s a retard, I'm not going to just ignore him and let him be retarded. Kids like Jason need special help.” Jacob replied back.
“That's it! I'm tired of you losers.” Jason snapped back at him angrily.
“Calm down, man!” Another male student intervened suddenly and pulled Jason back just before he had managed to swing his fists at Jacob. “Why are you being so hostile towards them?” He then asked. Darith knew this boy all too well, his name was Ryan. He had messy brown hair that went down to his shoulders with dark brown eyes and a muscular build like Jason’s.
“You know why. This guy’s the reason Darith ditched our football team to become some nerd who just plays video games all the time.” Jason shouted angrily while glaring at Jacob.
“He's just doing what he enjoys doing, man. Not everyone likes football.” Ryan replied in a calm voice.
“Whatever, you're just defending him because you've got a thing for his sister.” Jason replied to Ryan. Just then Mr. North entered back into the room with two nets and a bucket filled with plastic hockey sticks.
“You girls playing nice?” Mr. North asked while eyeing them carefully as Ryan let go of Jason. The incident seemed to have ended with that. The teams were quickly made up and both Darith and Jacob had managed to get out of playing all together. They both sat on a bench against one of the walls in their gym uniforms that consisted of a grey shirt and black shorts.
“You should just tell that guy off, I don't get why he's always messing with you.” Jacob said to Darith as they watched the rest of the class play, Mr. North coming in and out of the gym to check up on them once in a while.
“Nah. He's sort of right, I did ditch the team.” Darith replied back hesitantly. “I'll let him be mad.”
“It's not like high school football is being in the army... you found something you liked doing more, right? There aint nothing wrong with being a nerd.” Jacob then said, with a bit of pride in his voice.
“Yeah... I guess.” Darith replied with a slight smile.
“Besides, you're way cooler now. Meat heads are meat heads, but nerds have depth. They play games with their bodies, we play with our minds. And you've got a little bit of both!” Jacob then said, sounding almost as though he admired Darith for a moment.
“Ah! Shit! What the hell man?” Ryan suddenly shouted out from across the gym, quickly getting Darith and Jacob's attention. Ryan was on the ground grabbing at his ankle in pain as Jason and some other guys stood over him.
“It was an accident.” Jason said half-hearted as Mr. North ran towards them from across the gym.
“Are you alright?” Some of the other students asked while leaning down to look at Ryan's right ankle that he was grasping tightly. Darith and Jacob both stood up and quickly walked over to get a better view as Mr. North cleared through the boys.
“What happened?” Mr. North asked as he leaned down and started putting his hands over where Ryan was holding his ankle, the skin was completely red.
“This guy slashed me and made me twist my foot weird.” Ryan said angrily, jerking his head towards Jason.
“It was an accident man, I was trying to get the ball off of you.” Jason replied back quickly, trying to sound sincere but failing.
“Whatever man.” Ryan sighed back.
“Alright, I'll take him to the nurse’s office. Try not to beat each other up anymore while I'm gone.” Mr. North said, half sounding angry half sounding sarcastic as he helped Ryan to his feet, and then helped him limp out of the gym.
“That guys the worst. No wonder you quit dealing with people in real life and started playing online.” Jacob said to Darith while out of earshot range of everyone else.
11:04 AM
“Ah, 3rd period lunch, the best class of the day.” Darith said excited as he sat at an empty table in the large cafeteria. The cafeteria was packed as no one had anywhere else to go for lunch thanks to the weather. Darith and Jacob had luckily found the only empty table remaining and Darith quickly sat down across from Jacob.
“You know, I wish I had a laptop with wifi so I could play. It seems like a waste to just eat and then do nothing for an hour.” Jacob said as he pulled his lunch out of his backpack. It consisted of a sandwich, a banana and a can of coke. “How is this supposed to keep me busy for an hour? I'd have to eat like my mouth was the size of a pin.” Jacob added.
“A laptop would be pretty nice.” Darith replied.
“Hi Nerds.” Kira suddenly said, coming up from behind Darith and sitting beside him to his left at the small beige table.
“Oh, h-hi Kira.” Jacob said, suddenly sitting up straight.
“I hate having a different lunch period than Cassie and Melanie. To make it worse, my other friends didn't even come in today, so I'm going to listen in on your nerd chatter. I'd rather do that then look like a loner.” Kira then said. Darith let out a quiet sigh to himself as she flicked her blond curls away from her eyes and took out her own lunch.
“We'll try not to bore you too much, your highness.” Darith replied back sarcastically. Kira just turned to him and stuck her tongue out at him with a mean glare, then looked back to her lunch and started eating. It then went oddly quiet. Darith noticed that anytime a girl was around Jacob would suddenly lose interest in talking, so he felt obligated to talk in order to stop the situation from getting awkward.
“So wha-” Darith started, but he was interrupted by a very, very loud roar. The entire cafeteria shook and the lights flickered on and off several times. Small bits of dust and plaster fell from the ceiling as the chatter of the cafeteria immediately went silent. It was by far the worst thunder that the storm had called forth thus far. The silence of the cafeteria was only broken by tons of students suddenly shouting 'holy shit, did you hear that?' in excitement, some in fear.
“I can't believe they didn't cancel classes today.” Kira said, looking shook up. Without even realizing it she had wrapped both her arms around Darith's left arm. Darith then turned to look at her and she quickly let go and let out a weird cough while turning away from him.
“I'd rather be at home on my computer.” Darith said as he turned from Kira and eyed the ceiling carefully, then looked at some plaster that had fallen from the roof onto his shoulder and brushed it off.
“Me too.” Jacob said, also eyeing the room carefully.
“S-so, Darith... you really went from complete jock to complete nerd? How'd that even happen? You were so cool before.” Kira asked him nervously. Darith could tell she felt awkward from grabbing his arm and was trying to change the feeling, but it wasn't working.
“I guess I ran out of cool juice.” Darith replied back sarcastically, half ignoring her as he started to worry about the storm. He could accept that it was a nasty storm in the morning, but for it to be able to shake their school, something was definitely strange he thought.
12:30 AM
Darith let out a long drawn out sigh as he entered his history class. Of all of his grade 10 classes, this was his least favourite. The only thing that made it bearable was Helen. He sat at the back of the class room like usual just to the right of the windows in this second story classroom and noticed that Ryan whom usually was in this class with him was missing. He had figured he was still in the nurse's office though, and he felt a bad taste in his mouth as Jason entered the room and sat near the front.
Jacob wasn't in this class with Darith but sitting next to Darith instead was Helen. She was the most beautiful girl Darith had ever seen and he was reminded of this every time he saw her. She had long red curly hair that went down past her shoulders with soft, pure looking skin. Her eyes were bright green and she had the tiniest freckles on her face that accentuated her beauty. She was 5'6 and in perfect shape, wearing blue jeans and a white blouse.
Though Darith had never really spoken to her he found himself looking at her any chance he could get every single day. She was by far the smartest girl in the class and that coupled with her looks made her intimidating for most guys.
Not long after they entered the room the bell rang signalling the start of class. Instead of their regular teacher however, Mr. Dolf entered the room.
“Your History teacher Mrs Moolis couldn't make it in today, so I'll be substituting. Don't think that means you can slack off though.” Mr. Dolf said, eyeing the room of 17 students’ total.
“Today is a complete waste.” Darith mumbled to himself with a long sigh, really regretting coming at all.
“Not a complete waste.” Helen said suddenly, turning to Darith for the first time ever and smiling at him. Darith looked back at her for an instant and quickly looked away, his face going bright red. “Look!” Helen then said, not noticing Darith’s reaction. She pointed past Darith out the window at the dark storm clouds. Darith quickly looked as well to see that the clouds were pitch black but were continuously being lit up by lightning going off almost 10 times a second.
The entire class-room got distracted by this including Mr. Dolf and most of the class got up out of their seats to walk to the windows and stare.
“What the heck is going on?” Jason asked in amazement.
“I've never seen anything like this...” Mr. Dolf commented.
“I'll record it!” Helen said enthusiastically, pulling out her cell phone and pointing the camera lens of it out of the window at the sky.
Suddenly the repeated flashing lightning stopped, then the rain as well, and it went oddly silent. It happened almost instantly, and everyone in the class went completely quiet. Darith half knew what to expect, he had been in a thunderstorm before. After lightning usually comes thunder, but he was not prepared for this.
There was a horrifically loud roar that echoed through his ears, drowning out all other sounds and thoughts. Everyone in the class room threw their hands over their ears as the glass of the windows quickly cracked and shattered to pieces, as did the lights on the ceiling. Darith quickly stood up from his desk but was immediately knocked backward off of his feet by another student trying to run from the breaking glass. His hands were too focused on covering his ears from this terrible, terrible roar that he didn’t bother trying to keep balance and the back of his head slammed against the back wall of the class-room, knocking him out cold.
Day 1
7:20 AM
“Ugh...” Darith groaned as he opened his eyes slowly. His head was pounding painfully and his entire body felt weak. The first thing he noticed was that he was still in the class room. There was glass all over the floor and desks were turned over, but bright sunlight was shining through the open windows. He heard the sounds of strange birds calling from outside.
“I was just left here?” Darith said to himself as he stood up, reaching into his pocket for his cell phone that he had with him, despite barely ever using it. “7:20 AM? Tuesday April 15th... and no service? What the hell! How could everyone just leave me here over night?” Darith said to himself angrily as he struggled to get back to his feet using the wall behind him to keep his balance. He wobbled around a bit before putting his hand on the back of his head to feel where he had hit it. It felt rough, like blood had dried in his hair, only then realizing how badly injured he must've been.
The class-room felt cold and empty, and there wasn't a single sound coming from the hallways. The only sound he heard was birds singing unfamiliar songs outside. He then noticed that students’ backpacks were still in the classroom as well as their rain coats, and Helen's pink cell phone was lying on her desk. He walked over to his desk and eyed it for a second, then looked out the window to see the school grounds, but they were completely empty. The sky was completely clear of all clouds as if the storm from yesterday had never happened.
The sound of the birds felt abnormally loud Darith thought as he stared out the window blankly for a few moments, then turned to the front of the class towards the teacher’s desk to see a strange glistening coming from on top of the desk and the normal teachers belongings that resided it on it scattered all over the floor.
Curiosity got the best of him so Darith slowly walked across the class room towards the desk, crunching shards of glass under his feet with every step. As he got closer to the teachers desk he noticed the glistening was coming from a red liquid spread across the surface of it. Darith concluded immediately that it was blood and slowed his step as his eyes got sight of a figure laying on the ground behind the desk. It was Mr. Dolf lying dead in his own blood covered in stab wounds with his eyes wide open staring up in Darith's direction. Darith quickly stumbled backward, bumping into a desk behind him.
“Holy shit.” Darith said to himself as his breathing got heavy, gasping for air as his eyes stayed open wide, quickly turning away to the wall opposite of the windows only to see smears of blood on it, so instead he quickly turned to look out the window. “Holy shit holy shit... what the fuck...” He said and then started coughing violently as he felt his stomach turn and he moved closer to a window, vomiting out of it as he put one of his hands to his stomach.
“What the hell is going on.” He said to himself, gasping for air. Trying to collect his thoughts and remember everything he could but he just kept drawing a blank after remembering the loud thunder sound. Then he remembered Helen pulling out her cell phone to record the sky and quickly turned to look at the pink device lying innocently on her desk.
Wobbling in his step Darith made his way to the back of the class room. He carefully maneuvered over many tipped over chairs and desks and then grabbed Helen's pink cell phone and turned the screen towards himself. He navigated through the menu of the phone to recordings to see a single entry that was untitled and hit play.
Darith saw himself in the frame for a few seconds as the camera panned past him out the window to catch the rapidly flashing lightning outside just as he remembered it. Then the lightning stopped as well as the rain, and then came the loud thunder. The audio was complete static, the thundering roar from the dark sky outside was too loud for the tiny cell phone to accurately record.
The camera remained panned towards him and the windows. He saw himself fall back and hit his head as the windows and lights all shattered and the other students covered their ears, and the view of the camera spun away from the window and up at the ceiling. Darith assumed this happened because Helen had covered her ears as well. The audio suddenly cut out after too much of the thundering roar.
About 15 seconds passed of the camera being panned at the ceiling it then spun towards Darith laying on the ground. Helen leaned down beside Darith and dropped the phone beside her on the floor, getting a clear view of herself and Darith. She lifted his head in her hands and then pulled her hand away with a panicked expression on her face as she saw blood. She then turned and yelled something, it looked as though she was calling for help. Then her eyes opened wide and she quickly grabbed the phone again, pointing it out of the window.
The dark sky went from cloudy to completely black, then it looked as though there were stars in the sky despite it still being the afternoon. Helen moved closer to the window as did many other students. The black starry sky suddenly formed what looked like some sort of vortex, and out of nowhere powerful winds picked up and all sorts of objects outside began to fly upward toward the sky.
The sky then went from that of a vortex to a sky engulfed in flames, lighting up the entire city and Helen quickly turned away as did the camera, the sudden brightness flaring the lens of the cell phone. The camera pointed now at a student from another class that had just entered the room. Darith didn't recognize him, but he looked strange.
He stood up tall, but his eyes were completely red with blood coming out of his ears and he was holding something sharp in his hand. Then, unprovoked he charged forward across the room at Jason whom was staring at him. The unknown student stabbed Jason in the stomach once, then again, repeatedly. The other students around all suddenly started running away, looks of terror on their faces as Mr. Dolf attempted to intervene, getting stabbed himself. Helen then dropped the camera down and its view panned to her running out of the class-room from on the desk, then the video cut out.
Darith dropped the cell phone back down on Helen's desk and then sat on his own, staring blankly at the floor.
“What the hell...” he mumbled to himself, his eyes opened wide. “It's like something from a video game, there's no way this can be real. I've got to be dreaming or something.” He tried pinching himself on the arm, then slapping himself, but nothing changed. His mind began to race over different possibilities of what was going on, if this could have been reality or not, then a single person came into his mind.
“Cassie...” He whispered to himself, then quickly stood up from his desk and ran out of the classroom, but his nose was met immediately with a horrible stench. The hallway was dark, lit only by what sunlight made it in through the windows of the classrooms that lined it. It was lit enough for Darith to see blood though. Lots of it on the floor, the walls, and Jason's body laying not far into the hallway from the door. Darith immediately coiled backward into the classroom letting out violent coughs as he closed the classroom door once more.
He took a moment to calm his mind, it was racing all over and he was having trouble standing up straight and breathing. More than being mortified, though, he was worried about his older sister. He knew that her third period class usually ended slowly and it was much closer than her fourth period class, just down the hall. If he could make it there he'd know if she was safe or not. Just the thought of her getting hurt made him fill up with anger and he took a deep breath before stepping out into the hallway.
He did his best to look forward and not stare at the body of Jason or several other students that were lying around. It took everything he had to ignore the blood and the sound of flies buzzing around his ears. He knew his stomach wanted to vomit, but at the same time there was nothing in it to throw up. Aside from the sound of the flies around him and his footsteps, there was no other sound in the entire school, which disturbed him further.
Eventually he made it to his sisters 3rd period classroom and he opened the door hesitantly, worried about what he would find. It was unlocked and the room had a scene similar to the room he awoke in. The lights and windows were all shattered and everything was thrown about, but there was no blood anywhere. He closed the classroom door behind him as he entered, then released his breath. He gasped for fresher air then that of the hallway.
It took a few minutes for him to get his breathing back to normal, leaning his back against the closed door as he scanned the room. Once his breathing got quiet and he regained himself he knew the next place to check would be his sisters fourth period class, the gymnasium. As he moved himself off the door and turned his feet on the ground to turn and go back out in the hallway, he heard a very quiet gasping squeak from the direction of the front of the class-room. He jerked his head in that direction immediately.
“Wh-who's there!” Darith shouted in panic, All the time he had just spent calming himself down immediately went to waste as his heart started racing but he did his best to keep his breathing quiet so that he could listen for any more sounds. There was no response, though. “I know you're there.” Darith said, trying to sound confident despite being terrified. After saying this though he heard another squeaking gasp, this time louder.
He could tell it was a female this time and she sounded as terrified as he did, so his curiosity got the best of him and he started walking forward.
“I'm not going to hurt you... I don't even know what is going on.” Darith said cautiously as he put one foot in front of the other, walking slowly towards the front of the classroom towards the teacher’s desk. As he got closer he could see a moving shadow from underneath the teacher’s desk. Though it wasn't possible to see who was underneath from the side he was looking at it from, he knew someone was hiding under it.
Seeing that whoever this person was seemed as terrified as he was, he moved with less fear in his step as he got closer to the front of the classroom. He kept himself against a far wall, as far from the teacher’s desk as possible as he attempted to get a view on whomever it was hiding under it.
“I'm not going to hurt you I promise...” Darith said, his fear was still very obvious in the way he spoke and he slid his back along the wall of the room opposite the windows, inching towards the very front of the room where the blackboards were until he saw the person underneath the desk.
It was a woman he recognized immediately as his sisters third period teacher, Mrs Kindle. Any male student would recognize this teacher as she was young and beautiful, or at least she was normally. As Darith stared at her she glared back at him, her green eyes wide open as she was curled up into a ball underneath the desk, her entire body shaking violently and her breathing heavy. Her long black hair was messy and most of her clothing was ripped. She was covered in cuts and bruises and was wearing no shoes, just a ripped blue, white, and green flower patterned dress.
“Mrs Kindle?” Darith asked cautiously but she didn't reply, she just stared back at him. “Are you alright, what happened?” He then asked but still no response. Darith then caught a glimpse of a small pool of blood that she was sitting in.
“Mrs Kindle you're hurt!” Darith said, worry suddenly filled his mind as he stepped forward towards her but she immediately reacted by cringing away as if trying to get further under the desk, shutting her eyes as she began to shake more violently and breath more heavily. Seeing her react like this Darith immediately halted and pulled back to the wall. He looked at the situation more carefully for a moment, and saw tears slipping out of her closed eyes and rolling down her cheeks.
“I'm not going to hurt you, I promise, I just want to see if you are hurt badly.” Darith said, trying his best to sound calming and peaceful despite him being scared. She didn't reply or move though, she kept her eyes shut while still cringing away from him. He then stepped forward once for the second time, then twice and she didn't react further.
Feeling confident he then pushed the desk from over top of Mrs Kindle but she still didn't react save for a loud gasping squeak sound as the sound of the desk being pushed across the floor stopped.
“Can you stand?” He asked her but got no response, she just remained curled in a ball with her eyes closed. He then leaned down and lifted her up in his arms, putting one hand underneath her curled up legs and the other behind the top of her back. She remained completely still and passive, not even opening her eyes. The only thing she did was breath louder.
Something definitely serious happened to her, why was she acting like this? Darith wondered. She was too heavy for him to carry long though, so Darith quickly put her down on top of the desk. The sunlight from the outside reached her more easily on top of the desk and Darith could get a better look to see if she was hurt badly, but the more he looked the more confused he got, he couldn't see any large cuts of which all that blood she was sitting in could have come from.
“Mrs. Kindle, please talk to me, I don't know what's going on. I promise I won't hurt you.” Darith pleaded. Still no response from her though. Darith let out a sigh and glanced around the class-room, trying to think of what to do or say next. A thought popped into his mind suddenly.
“I'll go to the nurse’s office, okay? Wait here, I'll get some bandages and anti-biotic for all these cuts, and here-” Darith said, taking off his rain coat and then putting it around her shoulders. “Wear this, since your clothes are ripped.” Darith said, then turned and started walking around the desk towards the classroom door, but before he could get far he felt a tug on the back of his iron-man t-shirt.
Darith turned to see Mrs. Kindle's right arm reaching out grabbing his shirt with just her index finger and thumb. Her eyes were open again, and she was staring at him. The tears had stopped coming out and her breathing had calmed down a bit.
“What is it Mrs. Kindle? What's wrong? What's going on?” Darith asked, hopeful to get any sort of response from her, but got nothing. She only turned so that her legs dropped off the side of the desk, then slid herself onto her feet so that she was standing by Darith, holding onto his shirt. He then looked down to see her bare feet had just barely missing stepping on some glass.
“You want to come with me?” Darith asked, and finally got a response from her as she nodded at him ever so slightly. “Where are your shoes?” He then asked, and she turned her head towards the floor just below one of the broken windows. “Okay, I'll get them.” Darith then said. She let go of his shirt and he walked over to grab a pair of blue sandals that looked as though they were thrown against the wall and then handed them to the teacher. She quickly slipped them on then immediately grabbed onto the back of Darith's shirt again.
“Okay. Let's go to the Nurse's office.” Darith said nervously and started walking forward, the room going quiet again save for the sound of the wild birds outside and the glass crunching underneath their feet.
Darith started to feel weird, leading around a teacher when he was so much younger than her, but he didn't think about it too much. He was just happy he wasn't the only one around now. He had a lot he wanted to ask Mrs. Kindle, so he had to help her, he thought.
When they got to the classroom door Darith opened it without thinking, and the foul stench of death filled their nostrils. Mrs. Kindle immediately turned and put her free hand over her mouth, letting out another squeak.
“The nurse’s office isn't far so just try not to look around and it isn't so bad.” Darith suggested, though he once again got the feeling of wanting to vomit. He turned to look at Mrs. Kindle as he lead her into the hallway only to see her eyes sealed shut and her fingers tightly gripping the back of his shirt. He carefully navigated himself and Mrs. Kindle through the hallway to the Nurse's Officer then attempted to open the door only to find that it was locked.
“Damn... it won't open.” Darith said frustrated. But then Mrs. Kindle stepped forward pulling out a ring of keys from one of the side pockets of her dress. She jingled around with them a bit until she found the right key, then put it into the lock and turned it making a clicking sound. She then put the keys back in her pocket and retreated back behind Darith whom then slowly opened the door to the room.
The change of lightning from the dark hallway to the brightly lit rooms took a few moments for his eyes to adjust but as it did Darith saw a figure limping forward towards him with a long object in its hand, the object was then swung at Darith suddenly. He ducked just in time and it hit the door frame to the room and made a metallic clanging sound and Darith then quickly stumbled backward, pushing Mrs Kindle backward as well.
“What the fuck!” Darith shouted in panic trying to get a good view of the person attacking them while preparing himself for another attack, but after hearing Darith's voice the person halted.
“Darith... is that you?” A familiar male voice asked.
“Y-yeah... Ryan?” Darith asked back.
“Get in here quickly, man.” Ryan ordered him with panic in his voice. Darith didn't argue. He quickly got into the nurses officer with Mrs. Kindle behind him. Ryan then closed the door and locked it behind him.
“Man you scared the shit out of me. What the hell is going on?” Darith asked while catching his breath as his heart slowly transitioned from panic mode to calm mode.
“I don't know, something crazy happened during that storm yesterday and everyone started losing their minds. How'd you manage to survive that mass panic that was going on?” Ryan asked as he limped away from Darith and Mrs Kindle towards a chair and sat on it, leaning the metal pole he swung at Darith up against the wall beside him.
“I don't know... there was that loud thunder and then I got knocked out. I woke up and the school was like this.” Darith replied.
“Man, then you know less than I do. I was in here when that loud thunder came because that bastard Jason slashed my ankle. All the lights went out and the windows broke, then something weird happened in the sky and people started screaming in the hallway. Then, get this man... Some girl I didn't recognize came in here and her eyes were bright red, blood coming out of her ears. She stabbed the nurse with a pen or something over and over and so the nurse slammed the girls head against the wall and killed her. I tried to go out in the hallway for help but there was more people running around with red eyes, attacking everyone. The nurse pulled me back in here and locked the door, told me to hide.” Ryan then said, his voice getting a bit hysterical.
“Where's the nurse now?” Darith asked. Ryan didn't reply, he just jerked his head towards one of the beds in the room surrounded by a white curtain. Mrs Kindle stayed back as Darith walked forward towards the white curtain and moved it to the side slightly, only to see both the girl and the nurse Ryan was talking about lying lifelessly on the bed. Darith quickly jerked himself away and put the curtain back where it was.
“She... she told me to keep the door locked and to stay in here. Told me not to try and get help. She... she told me too Darith... so I did it...” Ryan said, mumbling as he started rocking himself back and forth in the chair.
“I can't believe this is really happening. This doesn't make any sense. What the heck is going on?” Darith said to himself. He looked at Ryan as he wobbled back and forth in his chair, then at Mrs Kindle whom was staring at the floor while still shaking.
Day 1
8:31AM
After Darith carefully washed and bandaged up all of Mrs. Kindle's cuts that he could see he sat her down in a chair next to Ryan. Ryan didn't seem to notice at all, but Mrs. Kindle quickly stood back up out of the chair and manoeuvred herself back behind Darith.
“Listen. I need to find my sister. This mess all started during 4th period, so I'm going to check the Gymnasium. You guys should stay here, you both seem badly injured.” Darith said as he eyed the swaying Ryan and his twisted ankle as well as the terrified Mrs. Kindle.
“N-no way man.” Ryan replied, quickly shooting up in the chair. “I'm coming with you, I can't stay in this room any longer or I'll lose it.”
“It's a lot worse out there.” Darith replied hesitantly. “And your ankle...”
“My ankle's fine... Don't leave me in here man.” Ryan replied. Darith then went quiet for a bit.
“Okay.” He finally agreed, and at the same time he felt Mrs. Kindle's tug on the back of his shirt. “Does that mean you are coming too?” Darith asked, turning to see the still beautiful but terrified teacher. She nodded back at him with her eyes still open wide.
“Alright, let’s go then.” Darith said as Ryan grabbed the metal pole, then followed behind Mrs. Kindle as she followed Darith out of the room. All three of them immediately covered their mouths with their hands for the third time the stench entered Darith's nose as well as the sound of buzzing of flies filling his ears.
Darith carefully led the two of them down the hall and down a bloody staircase to the first floor of the school. The first floor was no better than the second. In fact it was worse because of less light. It felt like it took an hour to get through the revolting hallways filled with death, though it was really only a few minutes as they walked slowly and cautiously.
They arrived at a set of double doors that lead into the gymnasium and Darith then opened it up hesitantly, the loud creaking of the doors echoing ominously through the otherwise silent hallways.
The Gym was much worse than the hallways. There were corpses of students in gym uniforms everywhere. The body of the female teacher Darith had seen earlier was lying in the centre of the gym, but she was the only person Darith recognized. He scanned the very large room for Kira, Cassie and Melanie, knowing they all shared the class. Any sign of any of the three of them he knew would break him, so everybody that he looked at caused his heart to skip a beat.
“All male... these are only male students bodies, where’s your sisters class?” Ryan asked, also scanning around the gymnasium for Cassie.
“They're not here... thank god.” Darith said, letting out a slight sigh of relief. “Where would they be then?” Darith then asked as an all new anxiety formed in his mind, until he felt a gentle tugging on the back of his shirt by Mrs Kindle. He turned to see her pointing towards the girls change room door. Darith then nodded at her.
“Ryan, over there.” Darith said, and Ryan nodded at him. The three of them then walked across the large gymnasium, carefully averting their eyes from things they preferred not to stare at for long periods of time until they got to the door of the female change rooms.
With Darith in front, he took a deep breath and swallowed what saliva he could muster in his mouth as he reached out and put his hand on the door handle. He then slowly started to turn it only to find that it was locked. He then let out a sigh and released the door knob. Seconds later he heard a familiar jingling sound as Mrs. Kindle had pulled out her teacher’s key chain again, fiddling around with it to find the right key. Once she did, she slipped the key into the lock and unlocked it, then pulled the key back out slowly and retreated back behind Darith.
Darith then repeated his process of taking a deep breath, slowly turning the knob of the door. It opened this time, and he opened the door slowly only to reveal a pitch black room. He could see absolutely nothing inside as the light from outside that was barely lighting the Gymnasium did not reach inside the change room.
Seeing the room this dark, Darith really did not wish to enter it. He slowly put one foot forward into the darkness of the room as Ryan and Mrs. Kindle watched him intently.
“Stay out, or I will kill you.” A commanding voice shouted immediately, startling Darith and causing him to step backward away from the room. The voice sounded somewhat familiar though.
“W-wait... we don't mean any harm, I'm just looking for my sister.” Darith shouted back.
“Darith?!” Darith heard a girl’s voice shout, then the sound of someone running towards him through the darkness. Moments later his sisters blue hairband became visible, as did her blue eyes swelled up with tears. She jumped forward at Darith and threw her arms around him, wobbling him back a few steps.
Day 1
8:53 AM
“Is that Darith?” He heard another girl’s voice call out as several others started chattering in the darkness. Just as Cassie let go of him he saw Kira and Melanie both peering out of the darkness of the change room, all three of them in gym uniform.
“I'm so glad you are okay!” Cassie said excitedly.
“I'm glad you are okay too.” Darith smiled at her, a huge weight felt as if it had suddenly been lifted off of his shoulders, and a lot of anxiety he had been feeling seemed to fade.
“Mrs. Kindle, are you alright?” The commanding voice from earlier asked as Mr. North also stepped out of the darkness of the change room. Mrs. Kindle didn't reply to him however, she just got closer to Darith.
“She was attacked... she hasn't said anything to me since I found her.” Darith replied to him.
“H-how many people are in that dark room?” Ryan asked nervously as he heard many other voices talking now from inside.