God, I don't want to be here.
Arelia was standing in front of the fog-shrouded Midwich Elementary school, staring at a bus with its windows shot out. It was like Silent Hill turned into the epitome of evil in the world when it became dark. Children with guns included.
She climbed the steps to the front doors of the school, the sketchbook page with the writing on it flashing in her mind for a second. To school. It played like a death sentence in her head. She opened the door and stepped inside.
Not bad. It was a nice, clean indoor school. Arelia shut the door behind her and walked through the first room, grabbing the school map on her way through the doors into the main hallway. To her right, the double doors were locked, but next to them was a door leading to the infirmary. She took the medicine bottle, the first-aid kit, and looked at the wound on her forearm. It had stopped bleeding, but still looked like a nasty open laceration. She took her time washing it out and using the first-aid kit to seal the wound. When she was done, Arelia walked to the other end of the hall. There was a reception desk with three books, their pages bloody and thick with gore. She looked at the book farthest to the left.
10:00
"Alchemy Laboratory"
Gold in an old man's palm
The future hidden in his fist
Exchange for sage's water
The next one was just as confusing.
12:00
"A Place With Songs and Sound"
A silver guidepost is
Untapped in lost tongues
Awakening at the ordained order
The Hell? Arelia looked at the third, hoping for some sense in its text.
5:00
"Darkness The Brings The Choking Heat"
Flames render the silence
Awakening the hungry beast
Open time's door to beckon prey
How helpful, she snarled inwardly, bringing forth malice to battle the fear. She wrote down the disturbing and cryptic haikus on the back of the school map, underlining the times and titles. She bit the end of the red pen for a moment while she thought, then put the cap back on it and put both map and pen away.
Behind the desk Arelia found a door. It led to the teacher's lounge. What I wouldn't do for a relaxing smoke in here, she thought, picking up a box of bullets on the table. Bullets in a school. Go figure. Maybe someone's been here before me? She sat down on one of the lounge couches and stretched out, taking a cigarette from her front jacket pocket and igniting the end with her lighter. She puffed it serenely as she put away the lighter.
On the wall was an extraordinarily odd picture of a run-down hallway, its walls full of rot and what appeared to be blood. There was a door at the end of the hall with no knob and no keyhole. Screwy son of a bitch teachers, weren't they? After she had relaxed for a time, Arelia got up, still smoking her cigarette, and left the lounge.
Through the center doors she found the courtyard. The air was less stale than it had been in the school, but there was something putrid about it. She inhaled again and stopped walking. Grass still crunched under something's feet. Radio whistling. And just when this was becoming reasonably enjoyable...
Two zombie children approached her, and she recognized them as the creatures that had "killed" her before. She waited for them to come closer, aiming her gun at the closest. Come and get it, you son of a bitch bastards...
She unloaded three rounds into the first; it fell hard and began to rattle deep in its throat. The third one cut open her right pant leg just below the knee. Arelia kneed it in its mangled face, held her gun to the top of its head, and loaded it with five more rounds. She stomped on the first one's throat until the radio went silent again.
Something made her glance up at the massive clock tower at the far end of the courtyard. 10:00. Gold in an old man's palm...
Arelia crossed the courtyard to the other building, coming through the double doors and into a hallway. Three more zombie children came at her. She disposed of them, reloaded, and headed to the middle doors. In the room they led to, she found a box of handgun bullets, which she took without hesitation. On her way out, she nearly tripped over a small, black ghost child. It screamed indignantly, but did not attack. It went on about its business, crying quietly, it seemed, though it did follow Arelia's movements when she crouched to study it.
Derek's at school now...
She lowered her head, then looked back at the ghost and extended her hand.
"Hello, Derek."
The ghost looked at her, sniffled, and waddled away. Arelia stood up and exhaled smoke through slightly parted lips, keeping the cigarette in her mouth with slight pressure from her teeth. Damn-frickin'-nation. Her stomach was tying itself in knots. She felt cold when near the child. She felt colder knowing it was once a living boy. Someone who was loved. Someone who loved. Someone with parents who he made happy. A happy, playful little boy.
Damn.
Arelia opened the door to leave and looked back at the sad, lonely black ghost.
"Goodbye, Derek," she said quietly as she left.
Once out of that room, she turned right and found the Teacher's Room doors to be locked. All of them. In the bathrooms, appropriately, she found more ammunition. In the boy's room, there seemed to be a sobbing, crying sound coming from the very end stall. When Arelia opened the door, she found nothing. Better than what it could be, I suppose.
She unlocked the door to the main hall from the other side, and headed upstairs.
The first classroom she came to she explored extensively, finding a medicine bottle and frightful drawings on the children's desks. She frowned and looked at the demonic faces for a while, then went on to the second classroom, and then the third.
As she closed the door, she froze. Something was moving around in the darkness of the room. The radio did not go off, but she knew something was there. She crouched low and moved slowly, turning off her flashlight so she wouldn't be detected too early. She stayed low like a kickboxer, holding her gun with both hands, taking aim at the slightly darker shape in front of her.
Steady...
She exhaled her smoke.
Steady... and...
Arelia was blind. She stumbled back, holding her hand up in front of her face to shield herself from the light. She held up her gun and began to squeeze the trigger, cigarette dropping to the floor.
"Hold it!" Arelia put down the gun and blinked several times until her eyes adjusted. Joshua Bishop was shining a flashlight in her face.
"Bishop?"
"What did I tell you about that gun, miss?" he said, reaching to take it away from her. She moved it out of range and batted the flashlight away.
"Dammit, Bishop, what are you doing?" Bishop turned off his flashlight, and she turned on hers.
"Weird stuff going on," he muttered, looking around before looking back at her. "Where have you been?"
"I'm not done asking you questions," she hissed. "Why are you in an elementary school?"
"Ma'am, answer my question first."
"Do you have a gun?"
"I gave you mine."
Arelia aimed her gun at his head. "Good. Then answer my questions." Bishop glared at her, and the warmth, kindness, and happiness upon seeing her vanished. He crossed his arms and cocked his head to one side slightly.
"I was looking around town, and some weird flying thing chased me in here."
"How did you get here? All roads to this school are blocked."
"I went through somebody's yard."
"Your backup got here. Did you know that?"
"They said they'd come."
"They're either MIA or dead. Pick which one makes you feel better." She lowered her gun and smoothed her ponytail absently. "I found their empty cars."
"Where have you been?" Bishop repeated, visibly agitated with her. Arelia put one hand on her hip.
"Roaming around following cryptic clues and killing demons." He raised a brow, and she challenged him with a serious stare. The two stood there glaring at each other for a while before Bishop cleared his throat.
"So, what's going on here?" he asked evenly.
"I don't know. But I'm going to find out." She looked him over. "Are you injured?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Then come with me." She opened the door for him and held it, her face a mask of shadows behind the flashlight. He smiled, the warmth returning.
"Miss me?" Arelia sighed as he walked out.
"You have no idea," she answered and closed the door behind them.