The sun blazed vengefully, as if it had been attacked and was now throwing its almighty retribution upon those who have aggrieved it. Jack Smith was sitting in English, a blank page with his name scrawled in the margin. He leaned back, swinging in the treacle heat, every movement stifled by the exhaustive heat. His head craned back and gazed at the neon lights, the luminosity blinding him. Jack stared on. "Mr Smith? Everything okay?" Mr Reynam asked, the sickly sarcastic tone evident in his reedy voice. "As always, sir, as always," Jack replied, deadpan. He didn't move, the secreted giggles of his class mates and the tired sigh escaping the weary heart of his teacher signal enough that he had finished the conversation. He thought about last night, about Robyn. Robyn was Jack's bestfriend for years. He appreciated that. She was chill, honest, a good laugh, smart, and as Jack has begun to notice, attractive. A shameful thought, that was his best friend, how could he? Through the slits in the window blinds Jack could feel the seeping heat of Sol. It glared angrily upon the Earth. He melted gracefully in the warmth. But in a crescendo of light, a magnificent final display of the finest orchestra in the history of ever, something that if truly witnessed could force an emotionless vessel to his knees and weep for the beauty of everything in that very moment, of the poetic dance of the atoms in the air and land, the sun stopped being. The desks and chairs in the classroom collectively shook as the students shivered. It wasn't cold, but it was so damn cold. The class blackened infinitely. It drowned the noise and buried it like a dead pet in the backyard. Mr Reynam, who was stood at the window seemed to spill away onto another layer of reality.

The classroom was stunned. People looked at one another, but nothing was exchanged. A kid sat next to him in the drowning black spoke. "What in the fucking fuck..." he asked. Jack turned around despite the fact that no-one could see in the dark. "Nerds," Jack said affectionately. "What's happening?" A nasaly voice in the corner replied. "It's an eclipse, but Jack, there's not supposed to be another eclipse for, well shit, a while. Is there any signal on your phone?" the voice asked. Jack pulled his phone out. No signal. "Nope." The voice remained quiet. Another voice spoke up though. "Sun flare with an eclipse? But why aren't the phones out...?" it pondered. Jack stood up. "Wait here a minute."

Jack bumped his way to the door and opened it. It was just as dark out here. Doors creaked open. "Guys!" he shouted into the depths. "One person out the door at a time, light the hallway with your phone. Come meet me at Mr Reynam's class," he said, the worries vibes of the students reaching Jack. People scampered up to him, a group of five or six sheepishly standing around. "Congratulations, amigos, you're all the designated leaders of each of your classes. Now, does anyone have any fucking clue what in the name of shit is going on? I need answers, and help, and this is not going well."

Valerie wasn't entirely sure what was happening.

Everything was plodding along like normal, less than five minutes ago. Valerie had been sat in chemistry class, absently messing with the Bunsen burner flame in front of her as her lab partner rattled of the next step of the experiment they were supposed to be doing. Her partner, Angela, was nice enough, but the word 'interesting' certainly did not apply to her. Valerie nodded politely and carried out the method read out to her, wondering how long till the end of the lesson. She was gazing absently at the clock, its hands as slow as if ticking through treacle... when It happened.

If only she knew what 'It' was.

Her world plunged into darkness, and she felt the ground shake violently as though the earth was roaring. And the noise...something spectacular was happening but she, sat in this insignificantly classroom with her back to the window, wasn't able to bear witness to it. The flames of Bunsen burners all blinked out almost instantaneously and a frantic chatter broke out. Valerie nearly toppled off her chair as she fumbled for the edge of her desk to stop herself from losing her balance entirely. Angela was murmuring wildly, her tone fluctuating rapidly as she tried to work out what was happening and Valerie merely blinked, forcing her eyes to adjust to the lack of light. She felt herself shiver and then realised it was from the cold that had unfolded silently in the absence of the light.

"What happened? I can't see anything! It's freezing!"
"Mrs Rodgers...she was helping me f-f-ix my solution...she just vanished! Like, literally! Flashed out of existence!"
"Oh, shit! I just dropped my phone in the hydrochloric acid!"

Valerie, her feet itching with adrenaline, leapt off her chair and headed towards the doorway. She needed to move. Something freaky had happened and no way was she simply going to sit and wait for someone - she was a get-up-and-go type of person. A few others had a similar idea and she had to squeeze past them out the doorway. The corridor beyond them didn't illuminate the situation. Literally; the lights were out there too and she had to squint to see what was going on.

It only occurred to her to use her phone as light when she saw other doing it to. Grinning at her idiocy - for how else can you react in a situation as bizarre as this? - she slipped the cool, metallic object out her pocket and held it out in front of herself like a lantern. Kids streamed past her, their faces frozen in mirrored expressions of confusion, irritation and fear. She saw someone yelling at the end of the corridor and made a beeline for them, relieved that some sort of order was beginning to form amidst the chaos. Maybe a teacher had shown up to shed some sort of light on what exactly was happening.

But it appeared the source was no older than her - a guy, yelling orders about designated leaders, or something. Unthinkingly, she glided forward, determined to be involved in whatever was happening. She hated this sickening disorientation of having such a familiar routine destroyed without even a shred of an answer to how, why, what or who. And the whole thing seemed way too elaborate - too large, too real - to be a prank. She pushed her way forward.

"This is just crazy - where are the teachers? And why is it so cold?" she felt herself babble as much to herself as anyone else, trembling both from the cold and fear of the unknown.

1:27 PM. That's what Cecil's watch said, the dots between the hours and minutes flickering with each painful second. Almost an hour left of class, and Cecil was already fighting sleep. He cradled his jaw in his palm and cast his eyes at the sheaf of lined paper below him, trying to hide his bowing eyelids - the topmost page, naked of any ink, reflected his thoughts. This is how he often spent his time in English 40. There was nothing to learn that interested him. He didn't care about variables or aestheticism. Telling a story was dead simple, you just did it. And everyone else either liked it or they didn't - it didn't matter to him.

His head snapped back up and he realized he had drifted off. For how long? He checked his watch.

1:29

Cecil sighed quietly and snagged the bottle of water from in front of him. He closed his eyes, tipping his chin, bottle and chair back in equal measure - then something hit him, hit his spine like a bolt of lightning. His muscles convulsed in a wrenching shiver, sending his chair over sideways, and he fell back into the corner of the room.

Regret instantly filled him, flush with the pang of embarrassment. It took him a moment to realize his world was dark, and panic washed away all else. I'm blind. Oh fuck, I'm blind. What the fuck did I do?

It was only when he heard the other voices that his frantic mind quieted.

"...can't see..."
"...what happened..."
"...some kind of eclipse..."

Fragments of disembodied speech filled the room. Cecil stood, feeling his way up the wall behind him. If it was an eclipse, the light would return momentarily, and he only had to wait. Hopefully it hid his wipeout, too. Only one thing was curious to him: Mrs. Foster, the short, plump and talkative English teacher was strangely absent from the calls of the others. Maybe she's having a panic attack, Cecil thought, a slight wry smile touching his lips.

It was then he heard the calls from the hallway. A male student's voice bounced between the walls, quieting the others. "One person out the door at a time, light the hallway with your phone." There was an air of realization, and then a dozen faint lights began to dance in the air of the classroom, drawing silhouettes of young men and women before him.

Cecil smirked once again. Not everyone has a phone. He included himself on the list; sadly, it left him at a disadvantage in that situation. The ambient blue glow from the other students was enough to light his way, however, and he quietly shuffled through the doorway and into the looming dark beyond.

The source of the voice became apparent: Jack Smith, a loud-mouthed kid he'd seen around the school. He always seemed to be the centre of attention, talking over the quieter students with a self-satisfied light in his eyes. Cecil never liked the way he spoke, and his next words were all but appropriate to how Cecil discerned his character.

"Congratulations, amigos, you're all the designated leaders of each of your classes," Jack said in his smug tone. "Now, does anyone have any fucking clue what in the name of shit is going on? I need answers, and help, and this is not going well."

Once again, Cecil thought, standing still in the shadows two rooms down from Jack. A kid who thinks he's the most important thing on the planet. He contended himself with observing the influx of students, only one thing rousing him from his cynical stare. Where are the teachers?

It was a rather boring day in Independent Study in the library. Well, boring to most of the students, with laptops and books open and telephones snuck into their laps, and maddening for the gentle girl who was in charge of Peer Tutoring for this period.

“Aria, come do my conjugations for me!” one boy said, pushing his computer away in exasperation. Jared, that was his name, a kid in Latin 1.
“You do them yourself, Jared, or you’ll have to have me do them all the time!” Aria said, looking up from her own AP Latin essay that was to be written on Vergil… in Latin. “I have the charts written on the board; you need to actually try to memorize them. And quit snapchatting your girlfriend, would you please?” Sighing she went back to her own homework.

“Aria, fix my equation! I got one point four nine seven five three six two times ten to the minus fifty and I’m reasonably sure that’s not a valid answer.” Said another girl, Emily was her name. Sighing to herself, Aria went and helped her with the problem, and had scarcely gotten back to her seat when another boy Andrew called out, “Aria what do I get when I combine potassium and oxygen?”

“An explosion,” she muttered, getting up again and going to help him balance the equation. When she was halfway across the room, headed back to her desk, the lights suddenly flared, then went out. Ms. Galloway, the librarian, had been shelving books by the window, and she’d just… vanished. Her stack of books tumbled to the floor with a clatter.

Instantly several of the kids started shouting.

“Calm down, please.” Aria said, not audible over the commotion. Grumbling, she stumbled over to the antique chalkboard on the wall and scraped her fingers down it. Within seconds the room was quiet. “Please stay calm. All of you cluster around one computer for light and turn your telephones and things off.”

“Why should we listen to you?”
“Yeah, you’re only like fourteen.”
“You’re a baby. You know nothing.”

Aria bit her lip, tears springing to her eyes at the implications of that comment but said nothing until she could make a harsh retort. “Okay, then, waste all the batteries and then be cowering in the darkness for a while. I’m going to go find some other kids and see what is going on.” With that she fled the library, only her dumb trackfone to light her way. The tears at their remarks beaded on her cheeks. She was always kind to them and helped them with their homework, always, and this was how they repaid her.
As she walked into the other hall she heard a boy talking, and recognized the voice. Jack Smith. He’d asked her for an English paper yesterday that she’d only half-finished. Usually she never did kids’ homework but Jack had kind of taken her under his wing when she’d switched back to public school in seventh grade, and he’d kept a good number of kids from beating on her. A few papers and difficult worksheets was the least she could do for him.

She trotted down the hall to meet him and the other kids surrounding him, their cell-phones giving their faces eerie blue casts. “Jack? I’m sorry I didn’t quite finish the English paper, the tutoring kids didn’t give me any time to finish my own homework, much less start on anyone else’s. Any idea what’s going on? I’m thinking a solar flare except it didn’t wipe our laptops or our phones… the librarian was at the window and she just disappeared. The lights got really bright and then went out, maybe like they just burned themselves out. But the electricity's down, because all the wired computers just like shut off.” She shivered. “Gosh, but it’s cold.”
@The Scotsman

"Alright, everyone run a mile!" Robyn smiled as once again their class got in trouble. Most of the people thought she was crazy for loving to run, but for some reason, she absolutely loved to do it. She took off at a sprint around the outside of the track, easily surpassing the people that started before her. She nodded to her friends and glared at her enemies and easily made it to the finish line before even the front person made their third lap. She smiled at the P.E. teacher and he rolled his eyes.

"Get inside Capuche, and go take a shower. We're done for the day after this. I don't understand why the rest of the students can't be like you." She smiled at this comment as well and took off at a jog toward the school. She loved the feel of her heart beating rapidly in her chest and the losing of strength in her legs. She didn't know why, but she loved it all. She yanked the door to the gym open and headed for the locker rooms. On the way, she passed a few of the students and she smiled and nodded to them. They smiled back, though they had no idea who she even was.

Robyn dodged into one of the girls' locker rooms and immediately headed for the shower, stripping off her clothing as she did. She left them on the side, placing newer, fresher clothing down next to the shower. She pulled the curtain closed and stepped into the soothing cold water. The freezing, almost ice water ran down over her back and sent shivers down her spine, but it soothed her sore muscles perfectly. She grabbed her shampoo and massaged at her hair, feeling a slight headache coming on. She quickly rinsed it out and was about to put on her condition when suddenly, a jet of ice cold water shot out at her before shutting completely off. The lights above her sputtered and flared out before completely going into darkness.

She looked around confusedly and heard some of the students in the hallway freaking out. She peered out around the curtain to the shower and looked into the locker room. There was no one else in there, as far as she could tell, but it was pitch black. She quickly grabbed her towel, dried herself off, and slipped into her new clothes, not bothering to pull on any shoes. She walked out of the locker room and saw that it was pitch black there too. What was going on?

Someone ran by her, crying and sobbing, whispering, "He disappeared! He just disappeared! Mr. Riley is gone! An eclipse happened and he was gone!" Mr. Riley was the gym teacher. What did the student mean by he just disappeared?!

Suddenly, she heard Jack's loud voice down the hallway and she was filled with relief. At least her childhood friend was safe. She immediately ran down the hallway, heading toward his voice. Because it was pitch black, though, she ran directly into one of the water fountains. She let out a gasp of pain and moved out from around the drinking fountain, massaging her now bruised thigh. She sighed and kept limping toward Jack's voice. There were about five or six kids around him at the time and she couldn't help herself. She shoved passed them all and grabbed Jack in a huge hug. "Thank God you're alright."

Avi was sitting in the music room alone, his electric guitar lying flat on his lap. On the guitar sat a paper, and in his right hand Avi was holding a pen. On the paper was written in messy handwriting:



Avi smiled. Finally, he had finished writing the first part of his first song. He already had the tune ready, so he stood up, put the paper and pen on the chair and took the guitar into his hands. He started playing the music, his fingers running like water over the guitar strings, every note landing with perfect timing. He sang the words, feeling the excitement rising to his chest. This sounds really good.

He reached the last line and closed his eyes, feeling the music and words enter his heart. His pick fell on the guitar strings for the last chord. But instead of hearing the Em chord as expected, all he heard was a loud crackle and then utter silence. He opened his eyes, but to no avail. All was pitch black. The next thing he noticed was the chill in the air. What the hell?

He could hear people starting to shout outside the room, so putting the guitar down he managed to somehow reach the door without tripping over anything. He opened the door and looked out. All he could see was little flashes of light. It took him a moment to realize the flashes were phones that people were using for light. Why didn't I think of that.

He took out his phone, and started walking down the corridor until he reached an intersection. Turn right or keep going straight? The teachers room was right, so he decided to go in that direction. Maybe the teachers would know what was going on. He turned, and almost immediately heard a voice coming from further down the hallway.

"One person out the door at a time, light the hallway with your phone. Come meet me at Mr Reynam's class."

Jack Smith. Avi didn't know him too well, but he remembered getting into a discussion with him once about music, and Avi tried to explain to him the genius behind the science of music. Jack didn't get it. But other than that Avi knew Jack to be a good person, so he decided to follow his orders. It was nice having someone in-charge in a time of complete disorientation.

"Congratulations, amigos, you're all the designated leaders of each of your classes. Now, does anyone have any fucking clue what in the name of shit is going on? I need answers, and help, and this is not going well."

Avi certainly did not have any answers, but he did have many questions. Like why was Jack giving directions? Where did the teachers disappear to? Why is there no light? Why was it suddenly so cold? What the fuck?

Jack stood in the centre of the bubbling crowd. It had started off as one person from each classroom but others from different corridors and classes had left theirs and wandered until they were attracted to the phones like a moth to a flame. He was worried he had made the wrong choice. He wasn't particularly intelligent, like many of the people here who could sort this problem out by the end of the day and be home by supper. He wasn't stupid, he was smart in a technical, practical way, but this wasn't something you could unscrew and replace the battery. But you can't think like that when you're faced with what you're faced with. He was on good terms with almost everyone, which could make problem solving and mediating easier, he was good with people which would make crowd control simpler, he had some other, outside skills too, which could be handy. Jack repeated these things to himself in his head, over and over and over again until he might've believed it if the recurring question 'What's going on, Jack?' was a question he knew the answer to.

"Alriiiight, one at a time people, one a time. This is tricky, bare with me," Jack said over the anxious chatter of the crowd. "Number one, I do not know what is going on. One of the science nerds said it was an eclipse, and he's currently brainstorming with the others. If anything comes of that, I will let you know," he said, over-pronouncing the last phrase of the sentence. The crowd were not best pleased by his response. Like it or not, that's what you're goddamn getting, he thought. "Number two, I do not know where the teachers have gone. They're just gone. Does anyone know if any teachers are left? At all? Alright, can someone go check all the classrooms for me? Report back once you've checked every room in the building, clear?" Jack ordered into the darkness, and was sent back a high-pitched young boys voice then the rapid patter of footsteps. Some little kid who wanted to help the big kids. "Number three, I do not know why it's so cold. It's looking like everyone got the shiver at exactly the same time. It's a... mass thing, I suppose, something that affected everyone. That's all we can figure out," he replied to the questions cawing out in the dark like crows trying to communicate.

As the crowd quieted, and intelligent conversation started to take place begging the question of what?, Aria ran forth from the black velvet. A young kid who was crazy smart, Jack liked her a lot. When she first came to the school, she was bullied quite badly. He stepped in and said that it wouldn't be a good idea to continue on their current course (thankfully backed up by some jocks, because there was no way Jack could take on that crowd himself). They helped each other out now, like symbiosis, where he ensured she got everything she needed and she did the odd piece of homework for him. She spoke to him about the paper, laughably, and mentioned the computers. "Hey, look, don't worry about the homework right now. That's something to sort out when we figure this out, but the computers thing is interesting, as is the solar flare. So you're saying that the only electronics still working are ones that weren't plugged in?" Jack half-asked, half-pondered. It was interesting. Maybe they could plug something in and see if it stopped working. If not, maybe it was just the breakers and that needed resetting? "Alright, Aria, listen to me carefully. You remember when you first got here and those assholes would bully you, yeah? Fuck 'em. You're a fully fledged badass now. I need you to be the voice of me for a while, and I need you to go to the library and take them to the auditorium. You tell them I sent you. You get them to the auditorium, and then you come find me," Jack said. The authority growing in his voice felt comfortable, like it was a pet cat who had been lying still until you stroked it and it started purring, appreciating the comfort.

When he finished speaking to Aria, a familiar voice broke the black. Robyn was alright. She collided with him and sent him stumbling back, but he held his footing. "I'm glad you're okay too. Listen, I want you to tell me everything you know so far, but first we have to sort these kids out. Tell the leaders here to get their classes to the auditorium, and to wait there. Get them seated, and get them quiet. Wait there for me, and be careful. I heard you smash your damn hip from over here," Jack joked, grinning to himself in the darkness.

Jack turned his flashlight to outside of the circle and saw two pale shades hanging in the air like smudges on the inky black canvas. "You and you, come here," he said as he snuck closer, extremely worried that some kind of angry ghost would leap out from its cover and attack him. But it wasn't. A sullen kid he didn't recognise who looked at Jack distrustfully, and Avi, a musician who Jack had spoke to a few times. "Avi, good to see you. Anything to tell from up your way?" Jack asked but he carried on before he could answer. Formalities, in this situation. "Look, we're getting all the students in the auditorium to keep track of them. Robyn is organising all the leaders the now, but can you go with her? Once you get to the auditorium, just, I don't know, occupy them. You're good with a guitar, think of something, would you please? I'd be eternally grateful, buddy," Jack said. He really wasn't asking, to be fair. This wasn't the time nor circumstance to be asking for a favour. It was a time where order had to be restored quickly so that the situation could be dealt with in a manner that allowed efficiency. And what everyone needed now was some order and efficiency.

Jack turned to the other boy slinking in the shadows. "You, kid, you're being deputised. I'm going to need your help. Do you have a phone? We need to go around the school and clear the classrooms, and then bring them down to the auditorium. We gotta keep them close and quiet and chilled out, understand?" Jack asked, wondering why he looked at Jack like he was Pol Pot.

Jack turned on his heel. The entire school had gotten quiet, not the students but the creaking of the structure and sound of the floors and doors had stopped. Pipes no longer had water running through them. Heating had turned off. The situation had gone flashing red button bad. And when the silence of the world had reached a crushing point where eardrums wanted to implode, a shriek sounded through the air, like a banshee, the omen of death. The cry wasn't one of terror or sadness, but it was angry and hateful and full of anguish, something that could only be made by searching the depths of a soul to find everything wrong with it. The cry whimpered and Jack's heart felt weak, like he had lost something important to him. and all he wanted to do was curl up and weep until his skin dried up and cracked and his bones crunched under footsteps. And at the moment when you thought the cry of evil would quieten to nothing, a thousand more voices joined its symphony and his body just wanted to tear itself apart to stop the heartache killing him first. The chorus softened until it had disappeared and Jack sat for a moment, simply wondering how anyone could live after that and want to keep on surviving when he remembered he had people to save, not that he felt it was worth it at all. Jack stood, knees weak, heart empty, soul vacant. "Let's go," he said feebly to the other boy.

Robyn didn't know whether to be grateful or horrified that Jack was in charge, but when he asked her to take all of the students to the auditorium, she did not argue, though she did give a small smile to him making fun of her for hurting herself a little ways down the hallway. Grabbing the hair tie from around her wrist, she quickly pulled her hair up into a high ponytail. At that moment, Jack was talking to an unusual lad named Avi, telling him to follow her down to the auditorium and distract everyone from what is going on. She placed her two pinky fingers in her mouth and let out a high pitched whistle, yelling, "Everyone, follow me!" Doing the smart thing this time, she grabbed her phone and flipped it on, flipping to the flashlight app on her phone. She held it up to where people could see her and that's when the cry started.

She looked around, staring into the blackness to see if she could see anything, or at least figure out where the cry was coming from. She couldn't and she saw Jack fall to his knees. She wanted to reach out to him, but she was frozen in her spot. It was as if nails had been shoved through the top of her feet, pinning her down to the ground. The cries sent chills down her spine and she squeezed her eyes shut, turning her face away from the darkness as a flood of horrid memories washed over her.

Blood. Blood everywhere. On the trees, across the tents, in the flowers on the bushes. She stumbled her way through the camp, grabbing at things that had been knocked over, grabbing her small bunny rabbit plushie that was now drenched with blood. She looked around, wondering what had caused this, hoping that the only thing hurt was her mother's finger or a small animal.

But then she came across the fire pit. Across it lay her mother, still bleeding from a wound in her neck, though she was already dead. Her skull was crushed inward, probably crushing her brain. Her eyes were wide and lifeless. Robyn did not cry. A few feet away, she saw her father, the same way, but with his arm completely missing and his head half torn off his body. Yet she still did not cry. Instead, she sat between her two parents, taking their hands in each of hers, and waited for the police. She only cried when the morgue people took them away from her. Why didn't she cry any other time?

Robyn let out a gasp and blinked, looking around as the cry faded. Pain punctured her heart and she turned around to see a few of the students staring at her. They all looked alone and fearful as well. She clutched her chest, tears starting to well up in her eyes, and murmured, "Let's go."

Not seeing if anyone was following her, she began walked toward the auditorium. She looked around, still wondering where those horrific cries came from, but she could not find the source. She led all of them down the hallway and to the right, straight toward the auditorium. Holding the door open for each of them, she began yelling, "Stay with your classes! Keep calm. Leaders! Make sure everyone is here and no one runs off, got it?!" She heard a few murmurs and looked back toward the direction where Jack was. What the hell is going on?!

The noise - Cecil couldn't call it a scream, it was completely inhuman - rattled inside his skull, causing him to flinch back, eyes wide. His head flailed, trying to find the source, but he could not see beyond the infinite and unnatural darkness in the halls. Fear gripped his heart like an icy hand, squeezing him dry of anything else.

When it finally ended, Cecil forced himself to breathe again, drawing up as straight as he could stand. There was nothing else, until Jack spoke again.

"Let's go," he said, igniting a wildfire of fearful whimpers and whispers from the other students.

Cecil chuckled passively, a sound almost lost in the din of worry. He had donned his armour of indifference, the only thing he could do to prevent himself from panicking like the rest. "Pretty sure anyone here can find their own way to the auditorium," he said, stepping towards Jack. Cecil stood nearly a hand's length taller, and he declined his head to meet the other student's eyes. "Shouldn't we try to turn the lights on? Or maybe figure out what the fuck that sound was?" There must be something in the basement they could do, until the sun came out of hiding.

Valerie hung back as the kid - Jack - began giving orders. It sounded like no one knew, exactly, what was going on and she trembled again, as the cold permeated further into her t-shirt and jeans. Her arms ached from holding up her phone and when he began talking about leading kids into the auditorium and giving specific people jobs, she slunk back into her chemistry class. Chaos had erupted.

"Alrighty, guys", she said loudly, clearing her throat, "Looks like we're having a whole school meeting in the auditorium"

Almost immediately, chatter broke out as a barrage of questions were flung at her by students, desperate for answers to what was happening. Feeling pressured under the glow of several, glaring, white tiny screens, she held her hands up in mock surrender, squinting at them. People were asking what was happening, whether a teacher had told them about the auditorium, why the lights had gone out.

"Look, I don't know!" she insisted, raising her voice as her annoyance grew "Nobody knows! I think somebody said something about an eclipse but you'd have to ask them, not me! Now get moving!"

Grumbling, most of them obliged and she was jostled out of the way as people rushed to the door. Pushed back against a table as the tide of students disregarded, she felt her pain shoot up her arm. Ouch - that was definitely going to bruise, she thought as she rubbed her elbow, frowning. She made her way back out into the corridor and was just beginning to head in the direction of the auditorium herself when she heard a huge shrieking, causing her hands to shoot to her ears. It was like nothing she had ever heard before...but then again, none of this was. It seemed to pulsate with emotion and she found that her face was contorting into a grimace, as it cried out. After an eternity when it finally stopped, she discovered was shaking. She saw the leader kid - Jack - visibly reeling from he noise and another girl nearby in an equally as horrified state. At least she knew it wasn't just her.

She noticed another kid talking to Jack, seeming amazingly unfazed by the whole ordeal. He was suggesting something about turning to lights on and discovering the source of the sound and even though she hadn't been addressed by anyone, she felt compelled to say something.

"I agree," Valerie commented, trying to push back her own fear and approaching the two "I'll volunteer to go in search of some kind of back-up generator for the lighting, or monster hunting, or whatever you need - I hate just waiting around. I'm Val, by the way."

Even though introduction seemed painfully inadequate in such a serious situations, it felt somehow odd offering her help without finishing it with a name.

The girl had been sitting alone in the old music room; it had been abandoned as a storage room for all the sheet music, broken instruments and those that weren't being currently used when the extension of the school had been built the year Vanessa had first come here and she'd been using it as a get away ever since. She'd dragged a soft beanbag chair into the room last week and was now lounging in it reading a large bool - titled The Historian actually. The lights were off, a soft reading light attached to the top of her book while she read by it itself of the harsh lights of the main room. Her phone(s), portable gaming systems, ipod, portable batteries and tablet were all plugged into the power bar beside her, charging while the girl skipped her third period class and avoided the teachers that prowled the hallways looking for a reason to give a student detention. Mr. Saika had given her a key several years ago, allowing her to come and go as she pleased; the young teacher was barely twenty four and had favored her since she'd first gone to his music class.

Her reached up a hand to brush a lock of purple-black hair out of her face, thin fingers moving it expertly around the headphones that sat on her ears and blasted music from her ipod into her ears and kept her from hearing the students moving between classes and talking like they always had. Her eyes followed the lines of the page easily, soft, stormy grey framed by long, thick and curved lashes and high cheekbones that set off her angular and elegant features. She would normally have gotten quite a bit of attention from the male students of the school, if she had not always come across as unapproachable or uncaring when someone else spoke to her. So far the only one who had managed to stick around long enough to see the damaged girl without her usual sweater was Cecil and even then she hadn't told him her story either. Along the line of her sweater sleeve was a fresh bandage wrapped around her wrist as well, peering out just where the soft grey fabric wouldn't reach when she moved. If she got up of course she would have left her hands crammed into her pockets.

Her knees were bent some, cradling the book in her lap while she flipped through the pages that rest between the hard covers with the spine settled between her thighs. The jeans she wore were a deep black, contrasting greatly with her alabaster skin, purple socks on her feet as they were pulled up onto the soft seat with her while she curled up in the chair. Her high tops lay discarded on the carpet floor not too far from her, easily within reach while she twirled a lock of straight hair between her fingers silently. The song softened slightly while she read; the lyrics to Save Me From Myself, by Blacklisted Me playing as she slid over to the following page. It was a song that made her feel as if there was someone else out there who understood how she felt on a level that not one person she had ever met would be able to comprehend. She sighed, soft lips parting for a moment to allow the warm air to pass between her lips as she closed the book and yawned quietly. It had been a while since she last slept peacefully through the night, often her sleep disrupted by terrible nightmares and constant waking dreams that permeated the air around her as well; soft purple spots under her eyes were barely concealed by the cover-up she'd put on them this morning, hiding how little she had slept the night before. If only she could nap here without the risk of waking up screaming.

Tucked around the corner, between two high stacks of filing cabinets with the wall behind her she hadn't seen the power go out or the lights shut off; nor the eclipse that was happening outside right then with the curtains heavy and drawn closed to leave the room in total darkness apart from the small light that was still on in her lap, casting a shadow over her book and legs that looked as if to be shaped like a pair of eyes that watched from the shadows if one looked at it hard enough. The shiver that sudden ran up her spine was alarming for the paranoid girl though and as her muscles seized in her back she struggled to flick open the blade of the knife she kept in her pocket and touched it to the inside of her palm to calm her beating heat. She turned off her music and let the headphones fall down around her thin neck; her jugular was nearly visible through her partially translucent skin as well. She looked over at her devices and checked them all, none were charging but thankfully they had all reached full charge before the power had gone out. The power bar itself had turned off when the power did to avoid harming the electronic that were plugged into it from any real damage from the electrical surge that preceded the power outage.

Slowly she unplugged each of them and tied up the cords before fitting everything neatly in her satchel and standing again where she had before originally sitting down. Turning off her book light she let her eyes adjust to the darkness of the room and slipped her shoes on while sliding the strap of the satchel over her shoulder and touching a hand to the row of cabinets beside her. It wasn't the first time she had been locked inside of a dark room and it didn't frighten her nearly as much as it had when it had been her father keeping her there, tied to the bed so that she couldn't get away from him. One the plus side she had gotten very good at untying knots and finding her way around a dark space. Vanessa blinked once, just to be sure her eyes had adjusted as much as they would be and made her way to the door of the classroom. It took her a moment to find the lock though not long afterward she twisted the key and opened the door to an empty hallway though she could hear the panic of the students echoing through the corridors.

The girl turned toward the noise, her injured hands fingers grazing against the painted stone wall of the old hall and followed it until she came to a juncture between the old part of the school and the new part where the new auditorium and music rooms were. Her shoes were the only sound for a little while until she heard an familiar voice above the silence of the other students. It looked like the entire school was surrounding him, the glow of cell phones lighting up the area though she held back in the shadows to listen to them. She wasn't one for group work and never had been before, honestly with little initiative to share any information she may have, though she hadn't known it was much more than a power outage. When she heard someone mention teachers vanishing into thin air she looked around, hoping to see some sign of Mr. Saika though she didn't see any right away. She waited until most of the students had started moving and orders had been handed out before she had taken a step toward Jack Smith.

That was when the screaming started. Her first reaction was the lift the headphones back up over her ears to dull some of the sound when the voice was joined by others, all of it seeming to be coming from outside the school walls. Lowering her head she pressed the muffling set of headphones against her ears but it didn't stop the vibrations from settling into her very bones and she doubled over as several cuts on her arms and torso tore open in response to the strain it was putting on her body just to withstand the agonizing sound that rumbled deeply inside her body. She heard a growl in response to her and knew it wasn't real; the sound was just in her head, calling to be let out though she couldn't with the hinged coming undone. She would have hurt someone if the screaming hadn't stopped right then, leavign most of the students drained of energy and hope.

Vanessa watched for a moment, her heart pounding as blood blossomed on the bandages beneath her her clothing and hidden from the view of the others around. Adrenaline pumping through her system, her pupils dilated and taking in all available light to help her see, the junior student stepped forward without certainty though she didn't make much noise as she stepped lightly through the shadows toward Jack. He was alone, with all the others moving on already and when she had stopped moving herself it was because she was standing a few feet away from the boy, still half hidden by the shadows cast by the retreating glow.

"Jack."

She had only said his first name while she watched him, her headphones around her neck again and her hand inside of her pockets with the knife that had been since folded back in on itself to hide the sharp edge from the fragile flesh of humanity. Her eyes, dark and wide in the dark, framed by shadows cast upon her delicate features and following the lines of her graceful jawline and cheekbones. She linked, long lashes casting a soft undertone over her eyes, making the little colour in them shine more silver than their natural grey though she didn't seem to know the effect of the darkness on herself.

Aria turned to the newcomer Cecil. He towered over her, being she was small for her age and probably five years younger than him. “Unless you know where we can find about a hundred fluorescent tube lights and at least a thousand circuit breakers, and someone with enough knowledge and technical awareness, not to mention awareness of the layout of the school, to repair them in the pitch-black, we won’t be able to turn the lights on. Didn’t you just hear me say that all the devices that were plugged in got fried? Also, everyone is freaking out right about now. They’ll welcome a sense of order.”

She grinned at Jack’s comment about “fully-fledged badass” and nodded, her pale skin glowing with the light from the phones. “Of course, Jack. I’ll get them there. I won’t let you down.” She turned and melted back into the blackness, using only the dim display on her phone as a light source. She got back to the library to find the kids huddled around a laptop, looking un-amused.

“Okay, everyone. We’re all to assemble in the auditorium and Jack will help sort us out from there. Jack Smith? He’s in charge, and it’s under his authority that I’m telling you this. So shut down the computers, all of them. We need to save as much of their battery life as we can. All of you except Jared, shut down your phones.” When they raised their voices she held her phone in the air, and they quieted. “Just shush, all of you, and follow me to the auditorium. If we’re going to figure out what’s going on you all need to be there, so everyone’s on the same page and so Jack only has to explain things once.” When they hesitated she snapped, “Hurry and shut off the laptops, or they’ll waste all their batteries and then we’ll truly be screwed.”

They followed her orders, finally, and formed into a ragged line behind her. She held her phone up. “Jared, go to the back of the line and hold your phone up.” He obeyed, thankfully.

They’d just gotten into the hallway when the scream started, a loud unending keening wail that sounded like heartbreak and terror personified. Aria stumbled, the blackness suddenly confining, suddenly feeling like she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. Her knees buckled and she fell on the floor gasping, overwhelmed by pain like she had been five years previously.
“You’re a freak, Aria.”
“A stuck-up goody-two-shoes who goes crying to her mommy whenever anything goes wrong.”
“Always thinking you’re better than us.” A kick to the ribs that left a broken one or two.
“Always trying to turn our friends against us.”
“Buttering up the teachers so they fail us.” She was picked up and slammed into a wall.
“You don’t deserve to live.” They started ripping the clothes off of her in the dark. She shied away but they were always there, on every side of her, leaving her no way to escape.
“S-Stop, please! P-p-please leave me alone.”
“Why, darling? So that you can go back to the principal and report us?”
“Just know that if you do, your reputation will be shredded. No one will trust you ever again as a tutor or as a teacher.” The one behind her put his arms around her now-bare shoulders, running his fingers down her chest.
“J-just l-l-leave me a-alone and I’ll n-n-never bother y-you ag-again.” She was sobbing in terror, clawing at them, trying to fight through them. But to no avail, for she was just a little thing and they were all much bigger and older.
~~~
Hated and feared. Impure, unwanted, unloved. A freak. The words went through her head, every one leaving an emotional gouge on her heart and a very physical one on her forearms. A suck-up. An outcast. Belonging nowhere, always desiring friendships that were impossible to have.
A scream worked its way out of her throat, a broken, truly hopeless sound, and there was a pounding on the door, and then the light burst into the dark room and with it her mother, sobbing, and then a whirlwind, and finally blackness and silence.

“Aria? Aria. ARIA.” A voice in her ear, a hand on her arm. She hissed as the scars on her forearms twinged in a memory of pain. “Aria, it’s okay. Come on, on your feet.” She placed the voice with the name; Connor. One of the other tutors who must have been on the way to the library when the lights went out.
“Aria, Adam,” he mentioned his twin, “took your group to the auditorium. You had them all freaking out. What happened?”
“It was nothing.” The lie felt heavy on her tongue.
Connor sighed, but didn’t question it. “Do you want to go to the auditorium?”
Aria shook her head. “No, I’ve got to go find Jack. I was supposed to help him figure out what the bleep was going on, but I don’t think that’ll happen now. And I need to walk down there myself… Go join the rest of the kids in the auditorium and have most of them turn off their phones. We need all the battery life we can save.”
“Alright… Are you sure you can find him alright?” Connor asked, clearly nonplussed at the idea of sending an emotionally unstable girl off into the dark school.
“I’ll be fine, Connor, but thank you.” She said, making a shoo-ing motion with her hands. Finally he turned to go back down the hall.

Aria hurried back in the direction she had come, trying to keep her breathing even against the darkness that threatened to overwhelm her again. “Jack?”

She heard another girl say his name at exactly the same time. Vanessa. That was her name. They’d been in a couple of AP classes together, and had been rather acquaintances throughout the school year. “Hey, Vanessa. Jack, you’ll have two students from the tutoring room unaccounted for, Connor and Adam Anderson, because they were headed to the library for their shift at proctoring and they took my group down to the auditorium. I kind of…” She bit her lip uncertainly. “Freaked out at the scream.” She shook her head to clear the lingering terror. “Also, would it be alright if I took a couple kids and went to check the offices? I’m thinking I’ll check the front office to see if there is any info, like a scheduled power outage or something. Not that I’m thinking there will be, but… Yeah. Then I’ll go to the computer lab and see how many laptops we have. We don’t have internet, because it was plugged into the main computer system and got fried, but they’ll work as light sources. Vanessa, I was wondering… You did a bit of medical school. If you’d come with me, we could take a tally of what all we have as far as pain killers, antibiotics, antiseptics, and that sort of thing. Then you could go to the auditorium and see if anyone got hurt in the rush of people?” She looked at Jack uncertainly. “If that’s okay with you, anyway, Jack. I don’t want to undermine your authority in any way.”

“As far as me, after we tally medicine, I’d like to inventory our food supplies in the kitchen. After that at some point I’d like a crew of seniors, maybe four or five, to go through all the supply cupboards and everyone’s lockers with me. We’ll need to see if we have running water, and if not we’ll have to get the Craftsmanship seniors and juniors onto it.” She probably wasn’t making sense but she just wanted to get all her ideas out into the air for Jack to hear.

“Oh, and for the elementary and middle school kids. I can maybe take them to the gym and give them something to do, like I may be able to rig something so that they can entertain themselves with finger puppets. They’re probably all freaking out in their classrooms right now. I know most of them will be scared of the dark; I certainly was at that age. In fact, if you send a group down there to get them, I can go find a way to entertain them once we figure out the food and the medicine. I think that’s the most important thing, that and figuring out if our water fountains work and making them work if they don’t.” She bit her lip, trying to figure out if she had forgotten to say anything. “Oh, and flashlights. The computers will work for now but I’d feel a whole lot better if we had half a dozen flashlights or so. And so would the other students, I’m sure.” She looked to Jack for confirmation, hoping he wouldn't take her piles of suggestions the wrong way. She couldn't help that her mind was overactive, or that she tried to blurt out all those thoughts at once. "Sorry, Jack. I'm not trying to tell you what to do, I swear to God. I just... I think too much and if I don't say whatever I'm thinking I go mad trying to keep it all hushed." She rubbed her temples at the dull headache that formed like it always did when she thought too hard.

Cecil let the small girl ramble on. She had very ostensibly moved on from the topic of electricity, but he was still irritated at her rebuke, and he cut in sharply.

"Yes, little girl," Cecil said, glaring at her sideways. "I'm fairly certain the school would have circuit breakers and spare bulbs laying around. They do their own maintenance, you know, especially with the constant threat of an E.M.P., which you shouldn't rule out." Cecil thought about the country's state of affairs. He did not want to believe in the terrorist threats he had been witness to, bubbling out of every news station on television, but in that moment he had no other choice.

He sighed, his indignation leaving him, leaving him with only shame at having snapped at the younger student. "Anyway, I think we can check out the emergency evacuation plans," Cecil said, pointing to a small, detailed diagram on the wall beside him. "And get a good layout of the building for what we need. Should be some in the basement, too."

In his rant, he did not notice a familiar face creep up nearby to speak with Jack. Vanessa. Quiet as a mouse, as always. He smiled gently at her back before turning again to the short student in front of him.

The kid arguing with him, at a time like this, flared Jack's anger beyond belief. Jack wasn't exceptionally tall, but he was a strong guy, with broad shoulders and in great shape. He was a swimmer for the school and had dabbled in football, mixed martial arts, rowing among other things. He could back almost everything he stood for. "Listen here, you fuck. It ain't about taking them by the hand, but they still don't know what's happened yet. They're still in shock. Their teacher has disappeared and they're sitting in pitch black. So we get them, keep them calm, and bring them down here. When they're down here, safe and secure, we get the lights on. Despite what you may think," Jack said, stressing the last five words, "lights are not a priority at this moment. Keeping everyone safe is. The sound came from outside, I would bet money on it. And even if it weren't, keeping everyone in the hall would maximise security. Is Your Highness happy with that answer?" Jack asked, the sarcasm dribbling from his tongue like sugar coated honey.

Jack listened to this new girl, another addition to this crowd that was beginning to form right after he got rid of the last one. "Hi Val, thanks, but we have a plan first. I don't know what the state of the electric grid is like for the school so I don't want anyone touching it yet. Could crisp you up," he replied to her statement that, despite being on the side of the other kids, was coherent and non-aggressive. "I want some of the Grease Monkeys," the colloquial term for the Craftsmanship folk who would venture into metal and vehicles if they had the chance, and Auto Shop people who helped them when they could, "to go with the Physics Nerds and see what's going on with it, but we have to organise them first once they're in the auditorium. You can however go and see if there is a disconnected generator and some heavy duty lights. Come find me as soon as you get back, I want to make sure everyone is safe. Take this fucker with you," Jack said, still standing toe to toe with the tall cynical boy. I'll remember you. Don't you try anything, because I'll come down on you like a rickety house. He wasn't particularly keen on letting them go into the dark themselves, with no protection. Jack was still completely with Aria on the matter, but he had to get people doing something, and getting that boy out of his way. The things that made those screams could be prowling the halls the now, waiting for someone to slow down and lag where they'd have their spine ripped from their back and their skull crus-

"Don't worry, girl. I did too. Some people didn't seem to be bothered by it though. Strange. Are they good kids though? The ones who are unaccounted for? Y'know, won't do anything stupid?" Jack asked, a maternal instinct warming his chest. They were his wards, for now, until he died or someone better took charge. But Aria continued to ramble on, something on her mind which drove her to do something. The Shriek must have messed with her badly. It seemed like she was almost running from something. Jack turned around as he noticed eyes flickering over his shoulder. A pale girl stood in the dark, shoulders hunched, shying away from people. Vanessa, if he remembered correctly. He couldn't remember, but Jack reckoned she was being bullied or something at some point. Maybe Robyn mentioned her. He had no idea, so it was unusual that he remembered her name out of the 5000 students currently attending the school. He gently nodded towards her, a soft sign of greeting before turning around to respond to Aria. He did, however notice the sign language action. He remembered now. She was one of the few kids in the school, besides Jack, who could speak sign language. It seemed important. "Yeah, sure, go ahead. Take Vanessa with you too. It's looking like she needs occupation as much as the rest of us. One job at a time though, and report back to Robyn in the auditorium. If we don't cross paths for a while, I need to know you're safe. And when you're in the office, look for a registration sheet, something with everyone's name who should be in school. We can mark off from there who was definitely here today at some point or not. Be safe. See you in a while," he said, scared for her. Aria was tough when she wanted to be, incredibly smart and self-driven, but she was small, timid, and not many of the other kids could see what he saw in her.

Jack turned back to the Moody One when he started speaking. Jack lunged forward, grabbing the neckline of the boys shirt and dragging him down to Jack's shoulder level. He tensed his stomach and clenched his thighs, anticipating a violent reaction. If he were prepared for the impact of a punch it wouldn't be as bad, and would allow Jack to rain down hell upon him. "You speak to her with respect, dipshit," he spat. "We will get around to sorting the lights, but not now. Not until everyone is safe. You will go with Val. You will do what Val says. You will obey Val when she tells you what to do. If Val finds a map of the school, you can carry it up to me. You will do as instructed until I have deemed it safe for you to do what you want. Am I making myself clear?" Jack asked quietly. He did not scream, he did not shout, he spoke to him with command and authority. If you were reading the conversation on paper it would seem meek, but in the darkness closing in like a tidal wave held at bay, it had formed into a living being representing control.

Jack let go. Walking back along the now deserted corridor where once hundreds of feet trampled not two minutes ago, he muttered to himself, "I'll just go do it myself." He reached the far end of the English corridor. To the right was the music department and to the left were stairs which took you up to the art department. He went left. Two people had already just came from the music corridor, so he assumed not many people would be left there without them noticing. The stairs were soft with dust and dirt from shoes creating a mostly frictionless surface. No footsteps echoed in the building. He reach the bend where the stairs folded back on themselves to reach the next level. As many times as he had walked these steps in his life, Jack did not lift his foot high enough on the first step off the landing and tripped. His arm shot out and careened off at a bad angle on the slidy step. His arm grazed along the edge and collided with hard stone, and then his deltoid landed on the hard edge of the stair. Jack groaned and lay for a minute, feeling sleepy in the dark, like he was laying in bed with the covers pulled tight over his head, except the blanket had so many holes in it and someone was blowing arctic air right onto his sleeping body. He rolled over and stood up, hand putting pressure on the bruised delt. This time, he succeeded in climbing the stairs without any more grievous injuries. The hallway was long from what he remembered, so he started on the right side and entered the first classroom.

Screams. So much screaming. The students erupted into hysterics when Jack entered. Maybe I should have knocked. Jack pointed the phone light at his face and yelled for them to be quiet. "Guys, guys, guys, GUYS, guys! It's me! Shut up for a minute!" he screamed, getting really tired of all the shit today. The class stopped yelling after a little while. "Good. Alright. I know everything is not okay right now, but this is happening everywhere. What I need you to do is to be calm. We're going to collect everyone who has not been collected yet and go to the auditorium where we will discuss things. Capiche?" Jack asked, the question highly rhetorical. They would follow or be stranded. The class collected itself well, quietly and quickly. Jack could feel a hell of a headache brewing behind his eyes. It pounded away at his skull, desperate to break free. When standing before him, bags and jackets attached to bodies, Jack spoke to them again. "First of all, that scream some of you may heard," a statement which received whimpers, "was outside. Don't run away from anything unless I tell you. It's gonna be cramped for a while, but don't be stupid. It's pitch black out in the halls so turn your phone screens on or a flashlight app and use it as a flashlight. Do not lag behind the group. Do not run. Do not mess around. Do not get too loud. You're safe, just follow me to get you back with the others." With that done, they left, the phones of the students creating a halo around the band of weary... survivors? Is that what they were now?

As Jack reached each classroom, he recited the same speech. Each classroom screamed as the first did. His head pounded and his body ached and young kids squealed questions at him while older kids were mad they didn't have the balls to become leader first. "Jack! Jack! Why's it so dark? Where's Mrs Hemington?" "Dude, why are you in charge? I am so much stronger/smarter/better looking." These did not get to him for Jack was ignoring them. If he listened he would be over-whelmed and that could possibly lead to crying.

By the time Jack had finished going around the entire school, he had a flock of well over 3000 students, closer to 4000 if anything. And yet the only sounds Jack could hear were those if clapping shoes against the floor. They were exhausted. Shock had drained them. Today had only been a few hours long, but damned if it wasn't the longest day Jack had ever lived to see. He reached the corner of the building to turn left when he heard a soft weeping in the corner, just below a window peering out to the courtyard. As he neared the darkened silhouette he saw it was a young kid. The same one who he sent to look for teachers, Jack was guessing. Jack kneeled and talked to him, comforting him, assuring him that whatever made the Shriek was definitely outside. The child wiped away his tears and stood up, where Jack then told him that what he did was a good thing which helped a lot of people. A lie, but he seemed to enjoy hearing it none the less. It was then the walls erupted with the screams of nearly 4000 students.

Jack turned around and saw rows upon rows of eyes wide, not like a saucer, but more like a buffet plate, with terror. They gaped directly above Jack outside the window. He grabbed the boy close and held his head tightly to Jack's chest and looked outside of the window. Standing before him, mere centimetres away from the glass, was a crooked mixture of a person and a creature from the next dimension. It's face was twisted into a look of pure anguish like it had been tortured since time began and will continue to be until the end of time, and was feeling this pain all at one moment, every moment. Its eyes were gouged out and all that was left were black pits with tears of blood running down the scars left on its face. The front of his body looked like necrotic flesh but the back had erupted to bulbous, pulsing, alive tumors which resembled a whale's brain. It stood hunchbacked, and placed its dead, elongated claws on the window. Jack didn't turn away from the walking horror show before him, but screamed at his loudest. "Get to the auditorium! NOW!"

The students were in crying hysterics as they flooded past Jack, but the creature never stopped staring at him. Jack stared back, pure unfiltered terror in his chest but he had to know what it did. He had to know how it reacted to anything. It took nearly five minutes for every teenager to leave the hallway, and their crying continued to echo around the school. Jack had to watch. Five more minutes passed, then ten. It still stared. Hand still on pane. Jack let the kid go and warned him to not turn around, which he obeyed. Another five minutes. Jack placed his hand on the window, touching the creatures had it not been for the glass. It stared. Jack stared. It stared. Jack stared. And then it left. Retracted it's hand and walked away into the shroud which hid anything further than about four feet away, Jack noticed.

As Jack walked to the auditorium, he thought about the creature. Not any hypothesis or theories, just the creature. It was everything awful encapsulated into one body. He reached the closed doors to the auditorium, preparing to talk to the people he deemed as those who would be his voice and hand to the people. His most trusted confidants. Jack opened the door and stepped through, witnessing 5000 people in one room. The sound was deafening as he silently stood at the entrance, waiting to see what people did. How they reacted to anything.

The girl had pulled her hood back up over her head while the male yanked on another collar, a boy she recognized and knew fairly well from classes and lunch times that she hadn't spent locked away in the same music room she had been in this afternoon when everything that had happened today had actually happened. The hood hid her further in the shade as she stepped away, carefully hiding the small smile toward Cecil after he had been set down again. She had expected Jack to be giving orders as well though she had wanted to speak with him for a few moments before she would go off on her own again to find a place to whole up where she wouldn't be surrounded by the other students. Her dark eyes followed the swimmers movements as he turned between the three gathered around him, speaking while she and the others listened in near silence. He was brave to take charge, though she knew many wouldn't appreciate being told what to do by someone like him. Her gaze passed over them all again while she stepped away from the group, her back to them as she walked further down the hall, seemingly back the way she had come though she was simply allowing them the space that they required to do their own and work things out themselves.

Her footsteps were next to silent while she moved, wishing that she had worn her combat boots instead of her high tops, though she rather enjoyed the way the black she wore blended into darkness that had become their world. The light they made hurt her eyes after allowing them to adjust as much as they could to help her see in the dark as good as was possible for the human girl who spent her days avoiding the sunlight. When she stopped walking, her feet settled in place again while she turned around to watch them interacting again. People were something that she was never going to miss, the interactions with them had always left her feeling less than human herself and more of the beast that the voice always told her she was. She'd lifted her gaze again just in time to see the man nod to her, to say he had heard her speak though he didn't have time right then for the introvert to talk to him about what had happened and to see if she had heard or seen anything more than he had; understandable though she couldn't help hearing how his small friend had gone on rambling about medicine and helping any injured student though Vanessa herself wasn't a huge supporter of helping others like that. Solitary and away from the crowd was fine with her, though in the auditorium it would be difficult for her to concentrate on helping with the sheer amount of people around her that would stand or sit just without touching distance.

Just before the man looked away from her again she held up a hand - one of her flashlights in the other to illuminate, regardless of how much it hurt her eyes -, asking if they could talk later in sign language. It wasn't a secret that the boy was partially deaf and her cousin hadn't been able to hear since his ear drums were popped in a fight at school so she had had to learn it to be able to talk to him again; she silently wondered if he had 'vanished' as well, or if he was safe somewhere, holed up in his basement apartment. Her mouth was held in a soft line, neither a frown nor a smile as she stared, seeing if he had seen what she had attempted to say to him while the other girl finished speaking again. He would eventually run out of things to do at one point or another and Vanessa is generally a very patient girl unless it comes down to a new book coming out in one of her favourite series.

Afterward she had turned off the flashlight and tucked it into the satchel that still hung from one of her thin shoulders and shoved both of her hands back into her pockets, watching all of their movements intently as her eyes adjusted once again to the darkness around them, her pupils huge afterward so that she was able to see fairly well in the near total darkness, her dark grey eyes taking o a silver hue while she waited again for the end of the confrontation. males were always the first to fight she remembered, having watched them enough inside and outside of school, the fighting only getting worse in collage though sometime it was over a girls affection there.

'Monsters like the dark. Just like you~' The girl whirled around in the shadows, her eyes searching for the owner of the voice who had said this though she knew she wouldn't be able to see him at first, not until she was terrified of him would he show himself. Vanessa scanned the shadows once more, slowly searching for him before turning back around to face the others, standing nearly twenty feet from the group as they had begun to disperse on their own separate paths. Her eyes had gone to the girl, Aria, though just as her gaze settled on her an image flickered into her vision and she stumbled back a few steps as he settled in place again. His red eyes shone in the dark and Vanessa couldn't stop herself from staring as adrenaline started pumping through her and fear made her hands shake in her pockets.

"Go away James."

She whispered, fumbling in her satchel she pulled out a container of prescription drugs and dropped a few into one of her shaking hands. She took them dry and refused to look at the boy as he flickered out of being again, his voice echoing in her head. 'You know that won't happen Sweetheart.' Vanessa shook her head and looked at Aria, careful yo calm her breathing before taking any steps toward her and still only approaching enough for the girl to be able to see her while she held out one of her flashlights to her, a small and hesitant smile on her face though it was forced and unnatural after seeing the boy again. It had been a while and the book under her arm grounded her and helped her remember what reality was, though she hated not always knowing anything what was real or not whenever she looked at something.

"It's probably better than your phone."

After Valerie had offered to help, the kid who'd originally suggested to find light, had snapped something at the younger girl, who was clearly in the middle of some kind of internal turmoil following the shriek - or whatever that horrific noise was. She felt a prickle of sympathy. This freak event was clearly affecting some people more than others (whether that fear and confusion was manifesting obviously, or as anger) and she, herself, allowed herself to bask in a few seconds of relief that it had not penetrated her sanity yet. She still felt reasonably calm and collected. Though chillingly, it seemed it was only a matter of time. When she glanced down at her white hands, she saw they were trembling.

When Jack - who somehow appeared to have the title leader thrust upon him and had accepted it, with a maturity that surpassed many of the idiots at this school - spoke up and addressed her, she jumped a little, skittering on the cheap lino of the corridors. It seemed odd to hear her name in the foreign new world that had formed less than half an hour ago, full of the terrifying and downright bizarre. She blinked, regarding him with her attention as she edged forward slightly to hear what he was saying. Kids shuffled across to allow her forward.

"Hi Val, thanks, but we have a plan first. I don't know what the state of the electric grid is like for the school so I don't want anyone touching it yet. Could crisp you up," he replied to her statement and she grimaced at the visual image, realising he was probably right. Whilst this new, shadowy, teacherless environment was unappealing, death by electrocution was even less so. For now, at least. She ran a nervous, trembling hand through her hair, as the dangers of this unknown environment seemed to hit her like she'd been dowsed in ice water. She recoiled slightly, visibly.

"You can however go and see if there is a disconnected generator and some heavy duty lights. Come find me as soon as you get back, I want to make sure everyone is safe. Take this fucker with you," Jack said and Val's eyes widened to saucer-like proportions as she realised she was being actually tasked to do something that was vaguely necessary. She was the background type - people didn't usually trust her with things, not even the teachers, and the feeling of responsibility made her both nervous and excited she could finally do something useful. Gulping, she nodded eagerly and glanced across at the aforementioned boy, opening her mouth to introduce herself (she didn't remember him from any of her classes). Before she could say anything, Jack had already stepped forward and yanked the kid in a startlingly quick motion that caused Valerie to totter back slightly, not wanting to get caught up in anything violent.

"You speak to her with respect, dipshit," he spat, referring to the sweet-looking girl the kid had snapped at and when she caught snippets of the rest of what he was saying; Jack, ordering the other kid to listen to Val's, her, instructions - her, of all people! - she nearly blurted her surprise out loud, but managed to swallow back whatever sentiment she'd been about to voice at the last moment. She opened and closed her mouth twice, as complaints and doubts surged through her thoughts but eventually, they sank back into the depths of her mind as she realised it was more important to stay focused, at the present. Disconnected generator, map of the school it was, she thought determinedly and forced herself to step forward again, her phone still lighting her immediate aura and offered a smile to the guy when Jack released him.

"Guess we'd better get going, before the banshee - or whatever - strikes again, and so we can regroup in the auditorium. I'm Val, by the way" she said, trying to project a calm, collected image but her tone still wavered slightly. She nodded down the corridor in the direction that looked the most promising, as a bearing for their course of action

She heard the screams long before she saw the children running down the hallway. She turned to see a horde of the young children sprinting toward her, much older teens at their head. They get all of the younger children into the auditorium first. "What happened? What's going on?" No one would answer her. They all panicked into the auditorium. Finally, getting frustrated with the lack of an answer, she grabbed the last oldest teen out of the line and spun him toward her. She glared at him furiously and said slowly, "What in the hell just happened?"

"M-monsters. Demons. Something outside the window. Jack. Jack was there!" The student's rambling made no sense, but Robyn caught the words monster and Jack and that was all she needed to hear. She grabbed the kid by his collar and yanked him toward her, her dark eyes becoming wide and scary.

"Pull your fucking self together, dude," she growled at him in a low tone. Immediately, his sad whimpering stopped. "I need you to get in there and take care of those kids. Once we figure out what the hell is going on, then you will be the first to know. Now, pull yourself together and try not to freak the other children out. Calm them down. I'm going to go find Jack." He nodded slowly, his eyes still a little red from unshed tears of terror, but she didn't care. She needed to find her friend. She shoved him into the auditorium and propped the door open, looking around. She retraced in her mind where those children had come from and took off in that direction.

She knew that she shouldn't have left the teens alone in the auditorium, but she needed to find Jack. If something happened to him, she would only blame herself because she wasn't with him. She walked down the hallway, holding up her phone for light. She took a left turn and started walking down that hallway. Everything was deathly quiet. She couldn't even hear the students anymore. She walked a little further until suddenly, her phone light flickered and went out, plunging her into deep darkness. She scowled at her phone, hitting it on the side of her palm. The light flickered for a moment before her phone died completely.

"Well, shit," she swore under her breath, looking around for a form of light source. She couldn't see anything. She sighed and began walking again, holding out her hands in front of her. She felt around for a locker or a wall so she could figure out where she was. Her fingers tips just barely brushed over a wall when suddenly she felt cold. Very cold. A chill ran down her spine and suddenly, in the darkness, she could see her white breath in front of her. Why did it get so cold suddenly?

They didn't have to die, you know, a murmur told her. It was a fading whisper, as if someone was brushing passed her and continued walking. She shivered as she felt another chill run down her spine. You could have saved them, but no. You decided to be selfish and have fun instead. You could've caught their killer.

"W-what?" Robyn stuttered out, whipping around. She swallowed hard, trying to hold back her panic and fear. She took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes. "Who are you?"

A deep chuckle echoed through the hallway and she whipped around, looking for the source. You don't remember me? Ah, such a shame, one so young had to live this long. There was another chuckle and Robyn spun around again. Panic rose in her chest and clogged her throat. She wished she had some form of weapon. That would make her feel so much better.

"Where the fuck are you?!" she screamed at the darkness.

I am always with you, Robyn. Come on, you remember me. The smooth deep bass voice echoed down the hallway. I remember it all. The rush of blood as it poured out onto the ground. The satisfying crack of your mother's skull. Ripping your father's head almost off his body with just my bare teeth. The voice sounded almost gleeful. Robyn felt sick to her stomach, realization dawning on her on who this is.

"You're him," she murmured, her ponytail whipping across her face as she looked for this man. "You're the man who killed my parents."

"Ding ding ding! We've got a winner," a now solidified voice said from behind her. She turned around quickly and saw a young man standing behind her. He looked... normal. He had short brown hair and darkened blue eyes. He smiled kindly at her, but behind the smile, she saw malice and disgusting lust for blood. He began walking toward her and she backed up rapidly. "Oh, come now, Robyn. You don't remember me. Close your eyes and think hard now." He talked to her like she was still a young child. That voice... How he talked sounded familiar.

"Come on now, Robyn," one of the police officers said, his cap pulled low over his face. "I need you to tell me if you saw anything sweetie. Maybe a man?"

She had shaken her head. "No, I didn't see anyone." She noticed him smile, but hadn't thought of it at the time.

Her head flew up and she stared at him. Sure enough, her mind put him in a uniform. He was the exact same guy. "You were the police officer who took my statement!" He laughed loudly. "But you can't be here! How are you--" Suddenly, she saw a light flare up in the distance. She squinted at it and noticed it was toward the end of the hallway. She whipped around to look for the man, but he was gone. There was no trace of him ever being there. She looked around for a good five minutes, hoping to find him, but he wasn't there.

Maybe it was my imagination she thought to herself, tapping her phone to see if she could get it to turn on. It did and it once again lit up the hallway. But it felt so real. How is that possible? Shaking her head, she began walking again. She managed to make it down the hallway and into another hallway where she saw Jack making his way back to the auditorium. "Jack!" she yelled and ran after him. She slid to a stop next to him and grabbed his arm. "Some of the other students told me about those... things. Are you alright?" She looked at him worriedly, but she couldn't help the cold tingle that ran down her back after seeing her parents' killer.

((Weird double post thing that happened... I have no idea what happened. Ignore this.))

Jack turned and stalked away, and Cecil let out a laugh. A loud laugh, filling the halls and drowning out all other noise, it held both anger and mockery. It followed Jack down the hall before dispersing into echoes, fading into the dark. Jacky-boy, Cecil thought. You're lucky I don't hit children.

Cecil realized a newcomer was speaking to him. He thought she seemed embarrassed at having witnessed the display of male ego, and he felt himself sharing the feeling. Despite her apparent age - at least a couple years younger than him - she made him feel like a child whining in petty argument. Cecil let her finish and began to walk in tandem with her as they made their way down the indicated hall.

"I'm Val, by the way," she said with a pleasant smile.

"Cecil," he returned, unable to meet her eyes. "Uh, I'm sorry you had to see that." Cecil looked up, frustrated thoughts still swirling in his head. "That kid is a dictator. Someone should tell him he needs to listen to other people before we wind up with a real problem. There is a line between tyranny and leadership, and he doesn't see it. Anyway, there aren't any ranks right now, so I'll listen to you if you listen to me. Deal?" Cecil held out a large hand to shake, doing his best to make eye contact with Val.

It all happened so fast. This day started off like any other; same boring classes in the morning with History and Auto Shop to brighten and finish the day. He was working on a transmission when the lights went out. The sound of metal clinging could be heard throughout the room as wrenches, screwdrivers, and drills fell to the floor, followed closely by outbursts of annoyed students. The teacher, Mr. Randy didn't say anything and when one student asked for an explanation; silence was returned.

"Alright guys," Braden began in his loud, country drawl," turn on your flashlights if you got 'em." He shined his own pocket flashlight around the room while exclaiming, "Mr. Randy, you in here?" The lights bounced off exposed engines, tool racks, and worried faces, however, Mr. Randy was no where to be found. Damn, where did he go? "Someone check his office," Braden ordered. He could tell through the wondws at the top of the garage doors that it was dark outside as well. What the hell?

A cold chill soon descended on the classroom. Well that doesn't help much, he thought while rubbing his arms. A classmate came back from the office with less-than-stellar news. "Well, shit," he muttered to himself. Soon after, however, another student opened the door to the autoshop explaining what he could and telling everyone to go to the auditorium. What the hell? Disappearing teachers, an eclipse, and no lights? What is this; the end of the world? Either way going to the auditorium seems to be the best idea right now.

"Well you heard the man, everyone to the auditorium, let's go," Braden exclaimed.

"Hey Braden, who put in charge," came a voice from somewhere in the dark.

"Really bro? You;re gonna be that guy? Look, if you got a better idea, by all means come forward, but if not then shut the hell up. You can stand in the dark by yourself if you want, but you've seen the horror movies. You You know what happens to assholes that follow their own rules. So I'll ask you, you got a better idea?" Silence was the answer. " I thought so, Now everyone, get moving and watch your step!" Braden made his way to the door and allowed everyone else to exit first before he followed.

As he passed the threshold, an excruciating screech had Braden drop his flashlight and put him on his knees.

That man was a coward!

He left us to die!

He's the scum of the Earth

I'm glad he was shot in the back!

"No, no! Shut up, shut up!" Braden exclaimed. The voices and screech finally subsided and Braden found himself lying in the fetal position, clenching the dogtags around his neck. He looked around and saw his flashlight next to him, shining a light down the hall. Nothing was moving. He slowly gathered himself up, grabbed his light source, and started jogging down the hall towards the auditorium. Hopefully he could catch up to everyone else.

He rounded several hallways before coming one that led to his destination. Audible shouts and whimpers could be heard beyond the hallway, but then it's hard to muffle the sound of 5000 teenagers. He saw dots of light through the open door with two people standing in the doorway; a female, Robyn was it? and a male, Jack, I think. He couldn't tell exactly from the little bit of light there was. "Hey, don't forget about me!" Braden finished the job to the duo, and as he reached them, their own light began spilling onto him, showing his toned build, sun-tanned skin, and grease-covered overalls. "Is everything ok? Well, as ok as we can get?"