I got into the shower and washed myself then got out. I dried myself off then got dressed into my dress pants from my uniform. I was going to have bad breath tomorrow, they took my toothbrush and toothpaste.
I turned the light out then ran onto the bed and curled up into a ball in the middle of it. I hated sleeping without a blanket, I just couldn’t do it. Looks like another sleepless night.
I kept my eyes closed and tried to stop my imagination from turning the wind from the fan into something it wasn’t. I tried but didn’t succeed. Suddenly, a million pale ghosts were grabbing at me as if something was chasing them and they desperately needed my help. My skin erupted in goose bumps.
The door creaked open, I covered my ears. This was worse than it usually was.
“Laz? Are you alright?” I heard Wild’s voice at the bottom of my bed. I slowly opened my eyes and made sure there were no ghosts. The light from the door didn’t help my fears much, the shadows lengthened.
“I… I’m fine.” I cleared my throat, then stood up and left my room. It was better out in the hallway were the lights were always on. I felt my breath starting to return and my sweat start to dry and I relaxed a little.
Wild came out of my room, eyebrows pulled together and uncertainty in his face. “What was that about?”
“Nothing. It was just cold in there.”
“Okay.” He eyed the drops on my forehead that hadn’t disappeared yet and dropped the subject. “I’m sleeping in the lounge room if you want to come join me. I just came to ask you if you had a spare blanket, but obviously not.”
“Sure. One of the younger boys probably has a spare blanket.” I suggested then teleported into the lounge room and laid in the middle of the couch.
Wild came back a few minutes later with two blankets and gave me one. I put it over me as he turned the light off and laid on the left side of the U couch. I closed my eyes and hid my head under the blanket. It was better sleeping in here, in was less empty.
By the time morning came, I had only gotten four hours sleep. I left the couch and went to my room. I changed into the full uniform and tried to do my hair with my fingers.
I wet my face to try and wake myself up a bit. I had dark circles under my eyes and my skin was pale. I looked horrible.
Daniel and Wild didn’t look to good either but at least they didn’t look miserable.
“How long did you guys sleep for? You all look terrible.” Anthony said as we ate breakfast.
“Four hours.” We said in unison and laughed at the coincidence.
“You’re that excited?” Charles asked.
“No. The couch was uncomfortable to sleep on.” Wild said.
“And I didn’t have a blanket, so I was cold.” Daniel said.
“I still don’t understand where our stuff went.” I said as I lifted a fork full of egg to my mouth. My hands were shaking so hard from all the coffee I had consumed.
The 5 minute warning bell chimed and we all made our way to the hall. I made sure my tie was straight and my clothes weren’t crinkled as Wild, Daniel and I took our assigned seats. There were quite a few seniors graduating, over forty, the only ones from our cohort being me, Wild, Daniel and Zoe. There were a lot of students in the school, the hall was packed to the brim with excited kids who didn’t have to go to class for another hour or two.
Dread settled at the bottom of my stomach. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. I looked to Daniel, who sat one seat away from me. I knew I was the only one feeling this, everybody else smiled and chatted away with the person next to them, except for Zoe who was an extreme introvert.
“Aright everybody! Settle down and take your seats. The ceremony is beginning.” My English teacher said into the microphone.
Ms Lika walked onto the stage. She adjusted the microphone then swept her eyes over her audience. The hall was immediately quite. “Today, we are celebrating the end of the first chapters of these young people’s lives…” she went on for another hour, talking about how we’d have to grow up now and become adults or something like that.
By the time she got to calling people up to the stage, I was bored out of my mind.
“Lazarus Riveheart.” Ms Lika called. I stood and walked up to the stage, shook her hand then stood next to the last person who walked up.
When all the names were called, a photo was taken and we shuffled off the stage and out of the hall. A strange woman with black hair and eyes stood outside the hall waiting for us. Something about her wasn’t right.
She took us to a building I had never seen before and made us stand in a completely metal room that was way too small for the amount of people in it. She locked the door and smiled wickedly through the glass window.
The woman who I now realised was a demon pressed a red button. One by one, people began disappearing from the room, randomly popping out of existence.
“Something about this doesn’t seem right.” Wild said from next to me. I hadn’t even noticed him there until he spoke.
“Well, yeah. That woman is a demon.” I said as more people disappeared.
“How can you tell?” he asked.
“Her eyes are fully black. Can’t you see it?”
“No. Maybe only demons can see other demons.”
“Maybe… Oh god!” I felt my body implode in on its self as I saw Wild’s worried glance. This felt nothing like how I teleported. It was the most pain I remember ever being in. It felt like each of my organs were exploding one by one, then reforming piece by piece until finally, they exploded again.
This continued for a while until it felt my organs stay in place. I opened my eyes, I hadn’t realised I had closed them. I was alone in an interrogation room. An old aircon rattled the one way mirror and the table was covered in claw marks.
The door opened and a guy in a black suit walked in. His eyes were dark like the woman who sent me here. His black hair was parted evenly in the middle and he held a gun in his hand.
He walked to the seat across from me. He slammed the gun on the table but I didn’t flinch, I knew he wanted me to.
The man looked back at the mirror as if he could see through it. In a flurry of movement he threw his chair across the room and pointed the gun at me. Definitely a demon, I thought as I watched speed at which he moved. The door rattled as someone tried to get in, the man had locked it.
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