A/N: Hello friends! Welcome to the second chapter! This one gets a little more exciting. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, they are owned by a Ms. Kelley Armstrong.
Compared to the many other schools that I had been to (and when I say many, I mean many), this one wasn't so bad. This school had a major focus on performing arts, so while there were kids who were snotty based on their parents social standing, a lot of others had something in common to talk about and enjoyed sharing their interests. Because of my average appearance, and my below average height, I was hardly noticed in the school, par for the two or three friends that I occasionally hung out with. Even then, I made sure not to draw too much attention with them.
My first few classes I had by myself, so I usually didn't see them until about lunch, which, to be honest, I was glad for. They were nice people, but sometimes I felt highly awkward around them.
I'm not used to such…. lively people.
I gave a wry smile to myself as I made my way to class, stumbling and trying to stay out of others' ways. I gave a sigh of relief as I stepped into the classroom, no longer fearing being trampled to death. I made my way to my seat in the middle. Not too far in the back, but not too close to the front either. Perfectly normal student.
The bell rang as the rest of the students shuffled into their seats, talking about last night's assignment…. Who said what… the normal gossip. As soon as the teacher walked in, everyone sat quietly and listened, while I took out my notes and prepared for just another day.
It was around third period when something felt…. Off. Way off. My stomach was hurting, everything felt too bright, and my mood was starting to drop. It was when I felt like I had peed my pants that I stood from my seat, grabbed my jacket, and rushed out of the classroom squeaking a quick "B-bathroom" to my teacher. I must have looked as weird as I felt, because the teacher just turned back to the board and continued the lesson, refraining from any comments.
As soon as I had made it to the bathroom, I quickly made it into the stall and slammed the door shut. The noise made me wince, but that was less dire than the thought of just peeing myself in class.
I soon discovered, that I had in fact not peed my pants. Lucky me.
If anyone had been watching me (thank goodness no one was, living or dead), they would have been concerned for my mental well being. I was smiling down at my now reddish underwear, happy for the fact that this marked me as a woman, as cliche and silly as that sounds. But come on! I was sixteen and still hadn't had my first period! I knew of kids who started when they were twelve, for crying out loud! I was starting to worry!
I rolled up some toilet paper and made due, walking out of the stall to wash my hands and return to class. As happy as I was though, I didn't really appreciate the massive headache and the too-bright lights. I sighed quietly as I approached my classroom door.
Just as I was about to touch the handle, I froze. That off feeling came again. My head gave a bit of an extra stab of pain, while my stomach decided on doing all it could to make me uncomfortable. All in all, it felt a bit foreboding. Shaking my head and chalking it up to my period and the possibility of a ghost nearby, I went back to opening the door and walking back to my seat. After sitting for about ten minutes, the pain became a bit worse. I laid my head on the table, enjoying the cool feeling of the desk for about a minute before the teacher decided to comment about my behavior.
"Ms. Saunders, is my lesson that boring to you?" A few giggles erupted through the classroom as I slowly raised my head. I smiled as politely as I could, my face slowly turning red from the attention.
"N-no ma'am. J-just a h-h-h…." as I struggled through the last word, my eyes caught something oozing out of one of the ceiling tiles. As I stared, the black ooze slowly dripped down onto the floor.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
"Ms. Saunders, we only have about thirty minutes left of class. If you're not feeling well, see the nurse during passing period." My attention snapped back to her.
"O-of course, sorry for i-interrupting." She nodded and continued reading from the book in front of her to the class. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself before trying to turn back to the lesson.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
My eyes drifted from my notes back to where the leak was in the front corner of the room, only a few feet from the teacher. The black ooze had formed an inky puddle on the ground, growing with each drip. Judging by the lack of comments, I figured it was something that no one could see. Which was strange, even for me. Usually, the ghosts just came as they were, face and all, well, all that was left really. I couldn't say that I had witnessed ghost ooze before. For some strange reason, I couldn't look away. It just kept dripping, and soon the sound of each drop falling drowned out any other noise, echoing each time a new drop hit the puddle.
I was able to turn my gaze back to the teacher for ten more minutes before I noticed that the it wasn't just drops anymore. The ooze had started just spilling onto the floor, sliding past my teacher's shoes and approaching the first row of the class. This was wrong. Something was wrong. My stomach twisted, and my headache throbbed even more. I had to place my head in my hands, closing my eyes tightly and trying to ignore the sound of the spilling from the ceiling. I only moved to jump as I heard a soft thump from somewhere in the room.
No, not from the room… from the ceiling.
I looked around the room quickly, seeing if anyone had heard anything. No one had moved, just focusing on their work, scribbling down notes quickly and raising their hands for questions. The thumping continued slowly, and sounded as if it was moving towards the corner where the slime and first started dripping.
Thump. Scratch. Thump. Thump.
This wasn't normal.
I started shaking slightly, looking up to the ceiling toward where the thumping sounded. Then, suddenly, it stopped right above me.
Not good. Not good. Not good. My mind chanted. I tried taking deep breaths, but nothing seemed to work. The lights flickered above us, and I managed to hear some students murmuring something about a storm going on outside. In that instant, the ooze stopped and my headache receded. I took a quick breath of relief, my nerves relaxing as I felt the presence leave. I told myself that it was just some jerk of a ghost trying to get a reaction out of me, like the janitor who sometimes roamed the hallways. I sat back in my chair and checked the clock. Only eight more minutes until the bell rang. I looked to where our teacher was writing the next assignment on the board when I heard a large creak from above me. I jumped and looked up, the hairs on the back of my neck rising as a chill settled deep into my bones.
One long, pale and dirty finger slid from the crack, then another, then another, and curled around the edge, pushing the tile further down. A head slowly peered out, looking around the room slowly. I couldn't take my eyes off of this… this… thing. It looked as if its skin was too tight for its own skeleton, looking as if the skin would rip at any second. Its neck looked too long, stretching out to look at everyone in the classroom. The thing must have felt my eyes, because all of a sudden its head whipped around and met my gaze. I opened my mouth to scream, but all that I could force out was a quiet whimper. My breath felt frozen in my chest, and I felt ready to vomit at any moment. I could feel my body shaking, moving the desk along with me. My hands clutched the desk for dear life.
Slowly, the thing slid from the ceiling tile to the floor in front of me, never breaking eye contact. His eyes…. Oh God help me…. Where his eyes should have been… were sunken in and completely black, with a little white light shining through the middle of each hole. He had no mouth, no nose, just stretched skin over his face.
I forgot where I was, and who all was around me. I vaguely heard the teacher asking if I was alright, but I couldn't move to answer her. My eyes and my body were frozen stiff.
The creature brought its legs up to stand and kneel on my desk in front of me. As it moved closer, I couldn't help but let out a sob. Its eyes quickly moved to my mouth then back to my eyes. Slowly, the skin around the middle part of its face slowly ripped apart, the skin snapping like old rubber bands to show what resembled a smile. My breath came out in small gasps, unable to get any air into my lungs.
"Liiittttttllllleeee Giiirrrrrrrrlllllllllll….." It crackled slowly. I couldn't stop from openly crying now, I tried to move my hands, my legs, my fingers, anything, but I couldn't. All I could do was shake and cry.
"Liiiittttttlllleeee Giiiirrrllllllllll…. I ssseeeeee yooouuuuu nooowwww….." All of a sudden, it threw its head back and let out a high pitch maniac- like laugh as it grabbed my hands and cut along the inside of my wrists with its thumb. The feeling of warm blood on my wrist was enough to snap me out of my frozen state. I screamed and pulled my hands away as fast as I could, only making the cuts go across my palms. I slid and tumbled out of my desk as quickly as I could, pushing past anyone that had stood up during my outburst. I pulled open the door and saw in my peripheral the thing snap its head toward me and start to get up. I didn't wait a second longer to run out into the hall, still screaming.
"No no nonononono! Go away! GO AWAY!" I screamed as I made it to the end of the hall. I could see classroom doors slamming open to see what was going on, but I couldn't stop to ask for help. No one could see this thing, this thing that was at the end of the hallway, slowly following me and cackling that horrible high pitched laugh. I stopped looking behind me and quickly tried to figure a way out of here. I couldn't go to the first floor, the stairs were near that thing. I quickly made a decision and headed toward one of the windows. We were on the second floor, so the fall would hurt, but it was my only option in getting out of here. I slid and crashed into the window, pushing back and quickly opening it. As soon as I had one foot out of the window, the thing screeched.
"No! No leave! Little Girl! Can't eat little girl outside!" Absently, I heard the other teachers yelling and running, making their way over here. I quickly pulled my other foot over the window and jumped right in time, feeling one of the things fingers tear a part off my shirt. I was able to land on my feet, but my knees immediately buckled and my head fell forward and hit one of the big rocks in the yard. My vision went blurry, and I was barely able to push myself to the side before I saw black, the last thing I heard was the screeching of that creature.
