Her Mark
On the next morning, the alarm buzzed loudly as Hitomi's arm moved grimly to turn it off. She sat up and checked her phone. "Today's only Thursday? It's okay Hitomi, only one more day until Friday." She mumbled as she pulled herself out of bed, and set off to get herself ready for school. She sat at her breakfast table with her usual bowl of cereal. As she was eating, she noticed a sharp pain in her wrist. "Ouch!" She said as she turned her wrist to more closely inspect it. She had a deformed blueish mark on her fore wrist. "I must had slept on it weird." She said to herself. "It's not the first time this has happened, I need to be careful." She lightly rubbed the area on her wrist and got up from the table, taking care of her dishes. Later while she was taking the elevator down, she felt a quick vibration in her pocket. She took her phone out to look at the message. The message titled, AMBER ALERT: Missing Female, 19. "I don't know why we keep getting these messages, it's not like they even help." She swiped to delete the message and put her phone back in her pocket. She stood in the elevator alone, silently thinking to herself half asleep. Later on her way to school, she was confronted by Akio with a disappointing smile. "So, you had the nerve to show up today after you totally blew us all off last night." He exclaimed as they walked towards their school's campus. She smirked and replied, "But you know how I'm just sooo busy!" He laughed and replied, "It's okay, we can just do something this weekend. Oh yeah, did you hear about that girl at our school?" She turned her head in interest. "What girl? I don't know what you're talking about." He continued, "You know, that upperclassman who went missing." Hitomi took a second to think and then replied, "I hadn't heard it until now, but I got some weird message earlier alerting me that someone had gone missing, I don't remember if it was talking about that girl." He continued, "Doesn't it make you wonder what happened to her?" His eyes widened and his back hunched. He started tip toeing behind her as to mock her. "Hello there, little pretty." He mocked as he pranced around behind her. "It doesn't really worry me much, considering it's been awhile since the last person went missing from our school and- ouch!" She said again, grabbing her wrist in pain. "Are you okay?" He said, looking at her arm. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just slept on my wrist wrong or something." She said quietly. "Hey, I'll see you later, I'm going to the far side of campus today." He replied. "If I keep walking with you, I'll have to go all the way around." He said. "Oh yeah, okay. See you later!" She said as he trotted off in the other direction. She continued on the way to her class building, but as she walked, she noticed something strange. An octopus-like figure holding a spear could be made out on her wrist. She rubbed her eyes in dismay, as she brought her hand up closer to her eyes for a better look. "Ms. Hitomi." A deep, stern voice said from behind her. She immediately turned around in a blaze to find her teacher, Professor Amayuku, standing in front of her, cold eyes and firm posture. "Oh, good morning Professor, was there something I could help you with?" She said to him timidly. "I wanted to follow up with you about yesterday, I appreciate your concern for my late friend and myself. In light of this, I have decided to cancel class for tomorrow. I thought I would let you know because you were in my vicinity." He told her, respectfully and kindly. She relaxed and replied, "Oh, thank you for telling me professor and it's no problem. I just hope that he had a good life." She replied. "He certainly did, and as a friend, I feel obligated to be there for his final celebration." He replied. "Now, I will be going. I have a class in a few minutes. Have a good weekend." "Thank you, you as well." She said as he waved and walked off." She thought to herself, "Why was he so nice to me? He is usually very bitter." She then looked back to her wrist, and the dark figure was no longer there. "Huh, maybe it was just me. I should really get some glasses." She muttered to herself as she made her way into the school building. As soon as she entered the building, she hurried over to her classroom, 13B. "I'm going to be running late, and I know Professor Janis isn't a fan of late students." Her fearful thoughts caused her to speed up, only in hopes she wouldn't be yelled at. As she made her way to the closed door, she stopped and nervously turned the handle. She softly pushed in on the door, trying her best to make as little noise as possible. Once she was in the room, she immediately noticed something strange. The lights were off and none of the students were in the room. "Huh, this is weird. Maybe class was cancelled? Maybe I'm early?" She checked her phone clock and email, in hopes of finding an answer. "I'm only late by a few minutes and there is no notification telling me that class was rescheduled." She aimlessly wandered around the classroom, looking to see any hint or clue or where everyone might have gone. She spotted a light on in the classroom broom closet. "Isn't that strange, someone forgot to turn a light off." She whispered to herself. She walked briskly over to the door and turned the handle. When she walked inside to turn off the lights, she froze. Her eyes widened and her body went cold. Before her lay Professor Janis, bloody and deformed. Her arms were deeply cut open and torn, her neck was slit, and her legs were mangled and broken. Hitomi covered her mouth, as she became overwhelmed with nausea. Tears built up in her eyes, and fear grew in her heart. She bolted out of the room into the hallway and screamed for help. "HELP! SOMEBODY, SOMETHING HAPPENED TO PROFESSOR!" She screamed. Several boys from the boxing team heard her scream and rushed over. "What happened?" A tall brown haired boy said. "In here... something happened!" She led the three of them into the closet where she had just been. The boys walked in first, unsure of what was ahead. "Why were you screaming for help?" The tall boy questioned. Hitomi walked in, covering her mouth once again. To her dismay, her Professor was no longer lying there. There was no blood or any evidence that would have indicated her being there in the first place. "I swear, she was just lying there." She said stuttering in fear. "Her eyes were filled with death and her body... she was just lying here." She told the boys. The boys looked at each other, puzzled and not sure what to say. "I don't know what you're talking about, maybe you're just imagining things." The tall boy said to her. "We have to go back to training, sorry." She looked around, as for some sign that her professor had indeed been there, bloody and. As the boys walked out, she fell to her feet. "What's happening to me?" She whispered to herself as her face fell into her hands.