School Days - Schedule 2

Their feet squeezed at the sound of splashing pools of blood as we walked anxiously. Night has befallen, the campus is now a perfect hunting ground. The hallways were dark as an abyss but small ray of the moon’s light illuminates the dangerous passage of the academy. Nervousness and the atmosphere of murderous intent devastated and left the three of them no choice but to walk to the path of their death, almost digging their grave. Crunches of rotting bones rattle beneath their feet, squeezes of human flesh stroked their ankles and every eerie sound of it sends chills to their spine and every screams for help and noise of slashes and fire of guns make the chills in their spine into hard, cold, ice. The disturbing air is usually at its normal warmth but these past few days, it had been strangely cold instead. The once annoying chuckles and happy chatters of random students vanished in an instant and turned into bloody screams and bloodcurdling shots of guns and slices of sharp blades. Bloodlust started when the Hidden Gem was born.

  

What have become of their peaceful days?

Damn it, Justin thought in a trembling pace while his face looked very manly indeed, occasionally making up students of monstrous proportions suddenly stumble in front of them and separate their necks from their head. Paranoia, is it? You would surely understand quite well when you’re in a life-or-death situation. What the f**k happened?! How did it come to this?!

There is only one conclusion. The so-called entertaining and pleasing game of the Search for the Hidden Gem became a blood-spattered and brutal survival game.

His ears twitched at the sounds of hurrying footsteps coming their way and it hasted his adrenaline rush. He took casual guesses and gestured at Anicka and Jacob to cover inside the room at their side. As he was performing, the thought of dozens of killers inside the room that might be waiting for an accurate ambush inside too bugged him. Or so he hoped he guessed wrong. The two of them nodded and tiptoed their way inside the dark and murky place for cover. Justin acted as the scout to identify the personas and find a way to sidetrack them from getting any closer to them and might kill them somehow.

He slapped his back quietly on the wall, hiding in the darkness it brings. He caught his breath and opened his handy knife that he had been carrying for a long time now. They haven’t encountered any serious killer problems and unbelievably survived by covering and hiding but this might be the time where their chances of living are cut.

The footsteps rumbled as they came quickly. Justin had a theory that there are only the two of them, no more other unwanted existence. So far. His hearing skills are quite accurate and it did come in handy.

A pair of footstep halted from afar and it made Justin press his back at the wall he was stuck onto. “Are you sure that it’s him?” a feminine voice said in a doubting voice, her voice echoed throughout the hallway. Justin smirked. Better luck living, your shout will surely attract someone, or everyone, he thought in a confident stance. Back into focus, he calmed himself down and peeked at them.

He immediately recognized them after they stepped on the light reflecting from the windows. A hazel-haired girl and a black-haired boy wearing a pair of glasses. Justin inspected them more clearly, trying to find a method to somehow shoo them away. The boy was holding a baseball bat smeared with dark red blood, dried. It must have hit or killed someone a really while ago. The girl had none on her palms, she looked terrified and is barely even standing from shakes of fear. She does not count as perilous. This just means that the enemy is only one yet one could be powerful enough to kill the three of them. They haven’t slaughtered anyone for these past few days and all they did was hide like cowards.    

“There’s no other weird guy around here,” he answered and roamed his eyes around. Justin once again pressed himself into the darkness.

“But what if we kill him and he wasn’t the one?!” the girl argued. Her voice was terribly trembling, and the rapid movement of her lips say so.

Justin’s knife shone in the darkness without his knowing. The boy stared onto his direction for a long moment, Justin’s heart was thumping like crazy it could explode anytime, the fear of dying is really intimidating.

The boy’s eyes narrowed. Justin realized that he knew where he was. His mind was racking with exchanging thoughts of cruel doings. What if he kills him? What if he regrets it later? What if he couldn’t do it? What if he dies?

“Is something wrong?” the girl pulled his shirt, and her face clearly states that she doesn’t want his expression a while ago.

“Wait here,” he muttered and pushed the girl’s hand away from him and started walking towards Justin. He gulped. A killer, holding a weapon twice the size of his. On top of that, that very particular boy had already experienced the thrill of killing another, and he hasn’t. Quite unfair. Justin readied his arm to shove it anytime once he gets closer, every step of the killer made his mind break and his body shivered from head to toe. The sound of suspense footsteps and spatters of blood were extremely taunting him, somehow stopping him.

The boy stopped right in front of him. Justin gulped and his eyes widened. It could be his chance to kill him. After all, the guy looked weak. The baseball bat was still distracting him though.

As he was about to strike his knife, the room in front opened loudly. It caught the boy’s attention. He shifted his attention to the door and found two persons.

Anicka, Jacob, what the heck are you doing?! Justin stopped and hid in the darkness again. His attack could be risky anyways.

Sweat dropping, and hair standing, he watched what he was going to do.

Jacob defended Anicka. The boy only grinned while gripping his baseball bat tight.

“Oh… What do we have here, a couple?” he teased.

Jacob gritted his teeth and Justin couldn’t attack yet. It would be too much risky if he does.

If I attack right now and start a struggle between me and that f*cking boy, Anicka would surely scream based on her carefree attitude and that eardrum-destroying scream could echo through all corners of this academy, if that happens, a lot of students will come running like mobs, and it will really be big helluva mess. I don’t want that.

These thoughts were examined thoroughly by him and it really did restrain him.

But what if I don’t act now, surely he would kill-

His unending chain of thoughts was broken by a swift movement that slid in front of him. It stunned him for awhile and he was static for a moment. He broke into reality and scoured for the object that slid past him. It was really black to see even a part of the scene. A loud sound of some object hitting flesh, not just only hit but probably had stabbed. A moist liquid splattered on his face all of a sudden carrying a strong stench of odor.  Curious and scared by the notion that it could be Anicka or Jacob or both of them got hit, he moved closer to the light.  A scene of a long silver chain pierced into the boy’s heart. The chain was held by a person, but was in the fall of darkness. Sharp-edged blades were attached at the end of the chain weapon that enabled a simple weapon to strike right through the lad’s heart, it pierced right through his bones and out to his back. Drained in red blood, the chain loosened, revealing bit by bit a familiar figure that came even closer, a physique of a girl. For a limited time of seconds, the chain tightened up again, pulling it backwards. A large chunk of flesh slapped down on the floor, falling with a splat. Anicka shrieked but Justin knew that Jacob might’ve covered her loud mouth, she’s pretty scared after all. He sighed in relief. They’re fine. But he’s awfully not. He also felt a rush of frightening chills that could freeze anytime now.

The boy whined and moaned in pain, eventually trying to scream for help. He managed to scream a name of a girl, obviously the companion he was with. But there was no slightest response to his request and that would mean only one thing. He was begging for his life. Looking at the flesh that had dropped on the floor and the horrible condition of the boy, Justin concluded that he would fall lifeless any moment now.

Finally, he coughed huge amount of blood, a sign that he’s really gonna be dead now. Probably.

The chain clinked again and light footsteps moved closer to the half-dead person. “You held your baseball bat incorrectly, the grip of your palms was very fragile it could be penetrated by a single blow on your hand,”

The baseball bat was picked up by the girl, and it clang on the floor as it was held high. The floor was drenched in blood, it reached Justin’s side. He backed away, not to get caught by her sight.

“Let me show you,” she added. Justin readied his eyes to see what was going to happen next, he glanced at the place of Anicka and Jacob but they were too far from the reach of the light he could even barely see, he did not sense anyone other than the boy who got hit.

“This is how you do it so you could easily slay someone,” she muttered again. She took two steps in front of the poor lad, kneeling on the verge of his death.

He stayed still, suffocating from the tense of the atmosphere around him. His hands jerked, noticing his knife again and so he clenched his palms, readying to grab it anytime he feels in danger.

The girl raised the bat. The boy shouted his last words until his head got banged from the sharp blow of the bat. Cracked in two, large amount of blood dripped down from his head down to his still terrified face, mouth gaping open. A disgusting view.

“See?” the girl mumbled in a soft voice and threw the bat at him, which made him lay drop on the floor.

A large light flashed on the window near the scene and it completely lit the hallway that was once a bottomless pit.

Justin had a clear view of the vicious girl.

Wearing a long sleeved blouse underneath a black butler’s bolero though her clothes were drenched in blood, a long purple sheered skirt that flows behind her, a pair of knee sock and white rubber shoes, she looked really a brutal killer especially with the black eyepatch that covered her left eye, it made her even more mysterious and dangerous. Looking at her pitch-black eye that looked more like void and empty, similar to that of a serial killer, Justin did not feel any bad vibes from her, he was rather entranced. Her pale white skin emphasized her raven black hair that reached down her shoulders. Her body was slender and really slim almost like that of a figure model. Her beauty is outstanding. Despite all of her stunning characteristics, it cannot change the actual fact that she killed that boy or maybe a hundred of students that suffered the same fate as him. Her white blouse was hardly even white by the horrible blood soaked on it.

“You,” she mumbled and it made Justin twitch, it could be him that she refers to. He only remained silent. “I will spare your life,” she finally ended. Her words made his heart race in panic and he gulped to restrain it but as well, he felt a deep relief inside him. The silence was enough to hear the loud thumps of his heart that’s why he has to calm down or else. Kill him? So she would also kill him? And was it meant for him? Or is there someone other than him?

She’s not a killer. She’s a monster. A vicious, severe, insane monster.

Finally, she was gone from their sight with undetectable movements. Amazing yet frightening at the same very time.

Two figures moved around from the creak of the door. “Justin? Justin, where are you? Are you there?” Jacob whispered very softly.

Justin was still static from everything he had seen just now. It was unbelievable. One day they were studying like any ordinary kids and then the next day, he realized they’re all killing each other.

Unbelievable in a terrifying way.

“Justin?!” it was Anicka’s voice this time, panicky, and Justin knew that if he won’t answer they’ll surely be in trouble.

“Hey dimwits, I’m fine from head to toe,” he whispered back. The two of them let out a deep breath of relief.

“You’re alive?!” Anicka squeaked.

“No. I’m a talking dead,” he said in a sarcastic manner. He then walked towards them, he skipped the body like the log he hated during obstacle courses in P.E period. He smiled at the thought of Mrs. Berkinsler yelling at him for failing her class always, he would then be sent to detention or if worse, to the principal. That jolly time, everything was almost perfect, everything understands everything. Now, it’s far from the usual. And the end of this might be also far from anyone’s reach. Or there may be no stop to this unless all of them breathe their last breath. Even though they don’t die from their schoolmate’s hands, there is a one hundred percent chance missiles will diminish all of them if they are not successful in finding that damn gem.

There are only two ends to this tragedy: One could find the gem and be free or all of them be killed.

It’s a two optioned game.

“Justin, we need to get out of here and quick,” Jacob suggested, tapping him on the shoulders. His serious and mature face stirred the annoyance inside Justin’s heart. He admired him for being the man he wanted. He was jealous because he was the one he wanted to be. Justin always thought of himself to be rather childish and frail, and the strong-type Jacob is the prince to the rescue to the damsel on distress. Justin could play the role of the prince’s horse. It suits him better.

Justin shoved his hands away. “Did you see what happened there? Do you think I’m not thinking about it? I’m hurrying my thoughts that I’m f*cking going insane right now, goddamn it, I couldn’t come up with a frigging plan, every corners of this school are filled of dead s**t, do you think we could just walk through them and say ‘hi, please don’t kill us’ to the person killing them? There are dozens, hundreds, thousands of them around this a*****e Area 13 and we wouldn’t know if a knife magically appears in front of us and scoop our eyes out,”

He did not want to talk like that especially to Jacob, who had served as his older brother but the pressure of the situation and the annoyance he feels towards Jacob related to Anicka made him steam everything that pops in his mind.

Jacob did not suddenly reacted. “I understand, we could go around the school gym if you want to, I think it’s our last option, Anicka’s panicking, we should go tomorrow when it’s bright, right now, it’s really dangerous to walk around,”

“Even if we walk around the school gym tomorrow, that doesn’t stop the killers, and even if we do succeed, we still can’t get out if we wouldn’t find that gem, it’s all useless, we can’t get out of Area 13, we’ll just end up dead,”

“We’ve come this far, Justin, we shouldn’t give up now, that gem will be on our hands,” Justin did not answer, he was thinking really deep and all Jacob could do was sympathize with him for all the dreadful experiences they had encountered the past few days. Students. Real students killing each other. Maybe it was just better if the situation was a zombie apocalypse, it would be reasonable to kill each other. But now, just for a gem that no one knows if it even exists, all dreams and hopes are crushed in an instant. Despicable persons, they are. “Justin . . .”

“What the heck do you still need?! Go back to Anicka, she needs you, leave me alone,”

“Justin you forgot that only one will be able to live,”

Justin did not have any whereabouts of his thoughts. The fact about the gem is that only one will be able to live, just only one will survive. It hurts and terrible to realize that it might not be anyone from them who will be able to get out of the dwelling place of killers or also known as Area 13. It's devastating to see your friends, your lover and all your loved ones pass away in front of you. It hurts to know that you need to kill them too. And for Justin, to die for the girl he loves seemed simple to him.  

The government had promised a bright future for delinquents and b*****s as they say. They promised to ensure and hone the talents and skills of the students and give them the ideal livelihood once they reached their adult days. They promised for the greater good.

But what is the greater good now?

“We will make it out ALIVE,” he said in a sturdy voice "I promise," .

I will make sure of that, he thought though there were second thoughts in his mind he keeps on insisting to not acknowledge but even so, he cannot still hide that truth that will soon come true. Or sooner.

We will gonna live or we will die trying. 

------- 

Meanwhile, on the rooftop of the famous and elite neighboring school of Southeastern Academy, the Western Academy, among the darkness of the night and the loneliness of the air stands a figure, a lone figure. A figure of that a killer, probably spying. 

It grinned in a twisted manner, and laughed with that of an eerie sound, the silhouette kept on laughing while its long hair flowed like wild curtains being aired behind her back as she muttered “Found you~” and then she went away, holding an object fairly similar to that of a sniper rifle.

--------

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts" 

                                                                                                                      -Winston Churchill 

  

Author's Note

Please Enjoy :)