Chapter 1
My eyes sweep over the classroom, and I make sure to not pause on him. I just want a quick glance.
He was goofing off with his friends, talking about some anime or something. Jason, I think his name was, jumps on the boy’s desk and yells.
“I am Grey, allow me to strip!”
I try to control my laughter, but double over, successfully wacking my head against my desk. Feeling his eyes on me, I don’t dare raise my head.
“Hey, you alright?”
Crap. After quickly waving him off, he turns back to his friends. I feel like screaming. Let me die let me die let me die. So stupid.
Thinking about it, he’s had plenty girlfriends before, so he’s probably seen worse things from girls. I always ignored them, but it’s getting hard now. The other day I saw him with a women and became super jealous, only to realize it’s our elderly drama teacher. I suddenly feel like apologising for that misconception, but it was a pretty funny thing.
Laughter bubbles up my throat into melodic giggles. It’s so cringy, oh my gosh. And gag worthy.
Something drips onto my desk, and I realize it’s blood. Quickly reaching for my nose, my hands dye red. Well shit.
A loud bang sounds behind me. What the heck? As I turn around I find a corpse. Wait, he’s breathing. I run over to Damien while holding my nose.
“Is he okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just that he faints at the sight of blood.” Jason responds all too cheerfully.
“I have to go to the nurse anyhow, might as bring him too.”
Another boy grabs Damien’s limp body, and we head off. The teacher attempts to stop us as he walks in, but jumps back at all the blood.
Once we reach the clinic I’m sat down by the nurse while Damien is placed on the bed.
“How’d this happen?”
“I was thinking impure thoughts and got a nose bleed. He doesn’t exactly have an excuse though.”
She shook her head and set about fixing up my nose. I hear shrieking behind me, but ignore it. Everyone here’s too crazy for it to be much.
“Let me go check that. If he wakes up have him ice his head, take ibuprofen, and drink Gatorade. Good luck then.”
The nurse walks straight out while I gawk at her back. Is this allowed?
Shrieks turn into full blown blood curdling screams. Words over the PA system I never wanted to hear spew out in crackling finality.
There’s an armed man in the building.
I run about shutting the lights off and locking the door. We need to hide. Not knowing what to do, I run over to Damien’s body. A few shakes won’t resolve anything, and I can’t yell. With a groan of frustration, I slap him across the face.
“What the hell?”
“Shhhhh”
“Did you kidnap me?”
With that I draw the curtain surrounding the bed and pull him under it with me.
“There’s a guy with a gun or something in here.”
His eyes widen as the mental fog clears up to expose cold, steely reality. We could die today. I quickly reach for my phone and pull it out of my bra. He gives me a weird look, but I just roll my eyes.
I set about turning the brightness down and checking my texts.
10 texts Chelsea
2 texts Shane
1 missed call
They all go from chipper “Good morning” to “I can’t stop crying” in five minutes. Obviously I don’t risk a phone call, but I text back. I all but forget Damien until he grabs my shoulder.
“What’s going on?”
“I haven’t found anything new yet, but I’m asking around.”
He stills then starts to shake. I wrap my arms around him and continue texting over his shoulder. Tears wet my chest, but I pay it no mind.
Trying to reassure my friends, I got little out of them.
Apparently a man entered the building from the east wing. Not far from his first step, he starts screaming at everyone. What exactly he yelled varies from person to person, but the general idea is:
“It’s your fault! Go *** die!”
Then he charged at the nearby tardy students, who’s priority a second ago was to get in before the bell, with more than their record at stake now.
What is he going on about that for? Who wronged him? Questions I wouldn’t consider if he hadn’t run in here to kill us.
Arms tighten around my waist. I glance down to notice it wasn’t out of fear, but only to comfort me. His tear stained cheeks and round red eyes physically hurt me. Curling until my lips are at his ear, I whisper quietly.
“We’re getting out of here, got that? There’s no way I’m letting anything happen to you.”
The weak nod of his head tells me he understands. Or at the very least confirms that he’s listening.
“Your name’s Eri, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well Eri, I’ll keep you safe. We’ve got each other’s backs.”
I offer a strained smile, though I doubt he can see me in the dark.
The unmistakable sound of a gunshot resonates throughout the school. Tears slip down my face. Sudden shouts, screams, thundering footsteps and gunshots fight for dominance, each louder than the former.
My mind is far behind my body as I pull out my phone and dial 911. Someone most likely did this already, but maybe I can provide some intel from my position.
“Hello, 911. What is your-”
“There’s a shooter in the Brownstown Highschool. I think he’s getting closer.” I whisper as clearly as I can.
“Please stay on the line, the authorities are already on their way.”
“I lost count, but bullets have been fired. My current position is on the west wing. He’s coming. I can hear him. He’s coming.”
“Alright. Where exactly are you located?”
“The nurse’s station. We can see a brick house from our position. It’s the one with the fleet of dwarfs in the yard.”
“Is someone else there with you?”
“Just my classmate Damien.”
“Okay. Do you hear sirens?”
“Yes, they sound close!”
The door nob rattles, and it takes everything in me not to scream. I close my eyes, tears seeping through and sliding down my face.
Rattle rattle
Bang
Peeking under the curtain, I notice blood on the floor, its potency making me gag. Pounding on the door causes me to vomit.
“It’s the police, open up!”
Are they really? How can I be sure?
I numbly crawl out from under the bed, nearly falling back onto the ground. Each footstep pounds in my head.
My shaking hand hovers over the door nob, fingers fumble too much to undo the lock. A hand reaches over from behind and unlocks the door.
On the others side the sounds are much louder, I can’t make out what the man’s saying. I don’t get it, why is he in a S.W.A.T uniform? Oh, that’s not a cop. Stumbling forward, the man catches me. Damien and I are guided to the exit, not that far from the room. Was it really that close?
Once we’re outside, I vomit again. I notice my white converse are splashed red. Who’s blood was that anyhow?
At the parking lot we’re swarmed by parents, students, school staff, ambulances, police cars, S.W.A.T. vehicles, news crews. How long were we in there?
Once I find my mom, she holds me tightly.
“My baby girl.” She breaks down in sobs.
I look over her shoulder. Chelsea and Jason are in the ambulances. Why is there so much blood? Oh... they’re-
Everything becomes black as my legs give out.
