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What the heck?
Why are the hallways empty? Is today ditch-day or something? How did I not get the message?! What is going on?
Class Clown and School Trickster Leo meandered around the hallways, a confused expression adorning his normally smiling face as he pondered how he of all people could have been ditched on ditch-day?! It was absurd, trust him, he knew!
He sloppily punched in the combo for his locker and tore it open, deciding he may as well go about his day like a normal person (for once) and get to class on time, when a badly folded paper floated into his face. He sputtered, cursing whoever had the audacity to prank him, when he read the message it contained. In the note, sprawled in messy handwriting suggesting panic and urgency, lay an only slightly creepy message:
“Save yourself while you still can.”
He snorted, gliding a hand through his loose curls, getting the message quickly.
Organize a ditch-day, avoid telling Leo about it at all costs, and finally, prank him on said day and watch his confusion spiral. He refused to be part of this, though, and decidedly ignored the mock warning.
He slammed his locker door shut, ignoring how it creaked on its hinges, after he grabbed his physics binder, walked towards Dr. Wallace’s room, and he threw the, now crumpled, note into the nearest trashcan. Leo swung open the door, barely giving a second glance to the familiar posters coating the bland beige walls as he dumped his backpack onto the back of his chair, his own body following suit. He slouched carelessly, having no one to keep up appearances for, since even Dr. Wallace wasn’t in the room then, though Leo dismissed it as him having to use the restroom or something of the like. It’s perfectly normal for a teacher not to be in their classroom at all times; they’re not babysitters, after all, right?
Right?
When several minutes passed and Dr. Wallace still hadn’t made his appearance known, Leo’s mind started to snag on what if’s. His thoughts continuously drifted back to the note in his locker, but he pushed them away just as passionately. An amateur prank shouldn’t be stealing this much of his attention, even if the hallways suddenly felt colder and the walls seemed to press in on him. The nervous churning of his stomach, too, went ignored.
Leo slung his backpack over one shoulder and trotted out of the classroom, brows furrowing at the faint breeze he could’ve sworn he felt ruffling through his hair as he did. In his rush, however, he missed how Janitor Dan had just mopped the floor and slipped. He swore softly in Spanish, his mother tongue, as he did, although he was thankful for the sense of normalcy he got from knowing at least he wasn’t completely alone in the school. Janitor Dan was with him, too—
His heart dropped into the pit of his gut. Janitor Dan was nowhere to be found. The floor wasn’t wetter nor dryer in any one direction, his signature janitorial cart lurking in no corners, and he, as well as the entire school, knew that wherever Janitor Dan was, so was his cart. He couldn’t have moved away so quickly, as the floor was still very much wet, indicating that it was freshly mopped.
The hair on the back of Leo’s neck stood on end as every little sound suddenly felt magnified. The whirring of the ceiling fans sounded louder, their micro-wind, colder, the faint howling on the other side of the hallways now feeling much less faint.
He flinched when the lights all turned off with a sudden pop, save for one, measly bulb. This felt like the start of a horror movie, and Leo was the unfortunate protagonist. This was way too elaborate for a prank. No one could pull this off. He pulled his backpack strap over his other shoulder so it lay balanced on his spine, keeping a white-knuckled grip on it even after it was in place. A feather-soft touch floated down onto the bare skin between his neck and the sleeve of his shirt, right around his collarbone. He glanced down at it. Another poorly folded note lay there. He brought a shaking hand up to take it and unfolded it, breaking its crease. A single word lay there waiting for him, barely legible in the flitting light scarcely breaking through the darkness, its meaning more powerful than ever before:
“Run.”
This time, Leo listened to his gut feeling and followed the advice on the note. He crushed in it his fisted hand as he took off in a sprint down the darkening paths of the hallways as he got further and further from the only light source. He burst through the cafeteria doors as a barely audible, shrill scream rang out between the tightening walls. Disregarding manners completely, Leo leaped over the seat in his way, running on the mercifully flat and long rectangular tables, made to accommodate hundreds of students simultaneously trying to pack themselves into a single room.
Leo risked a glance back right as an axe flew past him and wedged itself into the walls further up. The door closed too quickly for him to see who threw it, but he wasn’t sure he even wanted to know.
The cafeteria door opened on its own, allowing him to pass. Whispers filled his head, rattling around in his skull. He felt they were coming from the school itself. Built-in locks spun wildly on swinging locker doors. Leo thought the screeching would drive him insane. The ground twisted. Hall lights flickered. He drew from a hidden valve of energy to burst off school perimeter just as the ground swallowed it whole. Leo dropped to his knees in utter relief, still panting crazily, and completely thankful for whatever entity found the goodness in itself to warn him of the dangers ahead and spare him from certain death.