The Phantom School 108 Unending Darkness

I carefully continued as those sounds got louder with every step. I trembled as chilling breeze touched my arms. Lightning strikes were oca.s.sionally illuminating the hallway, but it wasn't helping me a lot. I was still lost in the darkness, and the only thing I could trust was my memory of the building's interior layout.

My hands eventually touched something. The texture was similar to wood. It wasn't as cold as the cement walls were. It was... a door. It took me a lot of time to realise. I searched for the doork.n.o.b using my hands, and found it shortly afterwards.

The thumping was going on. My heart was beating very rapidly. If I opened the door now... What would happen? Was it worth the risk?

I held my breath for a few seconds, preparing to open the door.

...

I released my breath. I... I didn't do it. I couldn't. I wouldn't open that door in this darkness. I slowly pulled my hand away from the k.n.o.b and started walking away from the door, without making any noise myself. Just after I went a few meters back, the thumping stopped.

I increased my walking speed.

I heard some footsteps, and the sound of the door opening. I turned around to look, but the only thing I could see was blackness. Even the windows had the darkest shade of gray on them.

Another lightning - this one illuminated a humanoid shape in front of the door, albeit for a very short time.

I turned around again to run away. Yet... it felt like I wasn't even moving. Perhaps the darkness was clouding my sense of speed and distance.

My sixth sense activated. There was... something. Something just behind me. I could feel it. For a reason, I knew it.

I heard someone breathing behind me.

...and I started feeling it on my skin.

There was no use in trying to run anymore. I gave in.

I felt a warmth on my back. A pair of arms wrapped around me, tightly.

I recognised the girl by the sound of her sobs. Being held by her like that... It was frightening, but not really surprising... I would prefer being held like that rather than having a knife penetrating into my body. Expecting such threat, I was involuntarily contracting the muscles all around my body.

I felt a warm wetness on my back. I wanted to do something, but I was afraid of making a wrong move.

Her arms moved up a little bit, and so did my anxiety.

"Save me." she whispered.

I could not say anything for a long time. She held me tighter.

"How?" I asked.

"Come." she said, and started to gently pull me back. I had no idea where we were going, but I didn't resist. As scared and nervous as I was, I was also curious to see what was about to happen.

Her right arm let go of me, and touched my hand.

"Hold it." she was trying to give something to me. I held it. It was some sort of very hard plastic or metal.

Her left arm released me as well.

"Turn around." she said. I did my best to turn a perfect 180 degrees in the dark.

"Kill me."

I didn't believe what I heard the first time. I was about to ask again.

"Wh-"

"Do. Kill me." she repeated.

"No." I said.

"This is the last thing I want." she said. "I want it."

I stepped back, and on something weird. It made a sickening sound. There was something on the floor.

"Why?" she asked.

"I should ask the same." I replied.

"We are one step away." she said. "Let me find peace. Let US find peace."

"I still fail to understand you and your motives." I said. "And I won't be doing anything."

I heard her moving around. I suddenly heard my breath behind me.

"Sit." she said. I slowly sat down in the darkness, landing on a chair that was apparently behind me.

"I love how the darkness obscures all bad things there are." she said as she kept walking around.

A strong wind started howling loudly, pus.h.i.+ng the windows. Another lightning... I was in a cla.s.sroom, and she was sitting on a chair in front of me. That was all the detail I could gather in that short time.

"So... you are a man." she said.

"Yes." I said. What did it have to do with anything?

"People are so different."

"They... are." I answered. I couldn't see what she was getting at.

"Do you like people?" she asked.

"W-well..." I paused. "I can't give the same answer for all people."

"I hate all of them." she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"They are monsters." she said.

"What makes you think that?"

"Most of them are greedy, selfish... They have no consideration for others." she said.

"There are a lot of good people too." I said.

"...or they end up being weak, miserable psycopaths." she continued, totally ignoring me.

"If you look for negative things in life, you are guaranteed to find more." I said. "Maybe you should change your point of view."

Yet, another lightning... The rain intensified.

"But there are worse..." she continued. She wasn't even listening to me. "I can understand people who become evil for their own benefits, to a point... But I can't understand those who do it for momentary pleasures."

"I... That boy I saw before, the one that you attacked, had told me about-"

"It is not him." she interrupted me.

I wanted to say something, but I couldn't.

"A man with strong desires is an animal. A monster." she said. "A man who lost control of himself..."

I remained silent. She sighed.

"The grown up men who I trusted from the bottom of my heart... once..."