Graffiti was painted over the school’s name. Whatever it was called before, now it was called Hell School. Henry was out in front of us. He had his bat ready as he went and checked the door. He pushed it open and prepared to swing. Nothing came.

“All clear guys. I know nothing good is going to come from in there but being out here with the static is really starting to get to me.”

The rest of us looked at each other and then moved into the school. The main hall we walked into had memorabilia in a glass case. There was some sort of mascot in the case also but it was torn apart. I couldn’t tell what it was meant to be. Some animal probably but now it was just remains. Henry and Jessie took a left and went down the hall. Jenny stayed behind with me. There was a school infirmary that reminded me a lot of the security office from Crown Hill. When I walked in I couldn’t help but envision the security screens. I also kept thinking about the horde of ghouls that had attacked me there. I kept forgetting that Jenny was behind me. She wasn’t just silent when it came to talking. She also moved like a ghost. I didn’t hear her steps and she avoided touching things as she moved. Wherever she had come she had learned to not be heard. She had learned how to run and hide. We went into an office nestled in the back of the infirmary. I stopped just past the door. Jenny stopped and looked over my shoulder.

The office was covered in papers. Papers were covering the walls, all pinned into place with tacks. There was chair behind the desk that was covered in blood. Something awful had happened in this room. We walked to the walls and began reading the papers. Each paper had a single word on it. Eye, nose, teeth, hair, the list went on. Jenny placed her hand on a paper. I walked over to see what she had found. The paper in front of her said hand.

“Hand,” Jenny said.

It was the first thing I had heard her say. She ran her fingers over the paper and then gripped it. She pulled the paper off the wall to reveal a hand drawn onto the wall.

“Why would someone do all this?” I asked.

She put her hand on the wall and matched it up with the drawn hand. Her face grew scared once she did.

“What is it?”

“It’s warm.”

The hand on the wall moved off the wall. The fingers closed, intertwining with her fingers. She screamed as she pulled against the hand. I grabbed onto it and starting pulling. The strength was immense. We both struggled against the hand in the wall. It let go and disappeared into the wall. We fell backwards and onto the ground. The papers around us began to move. They were all struggling to get off the wall. The tacks were loosening then flying off. One by one the papers flew from the wall and revealed more pictures of body parts. The eye’s on the walls blinked and glared at us. The hair moved and grew down the wall. The teeth chomped. The pictures all began to moved together to create one image. The image of a man, or something that resembled a man. The last two pictures were the legs that completed the man. The right leg took a step off the wall and towards us. I got up and helped her to her feet. We were out of the room in a hurry.

We sprinted down the hall. We saw the others up ahead.

“Hey! We’ve got company!” I said.

“What? What are we up against?” Jessie asked.

Henry pointed his bat down the hall behind us. Down the hall was a man made of shadows. The only bright sports were his eyes and his teeth. They were both dead white. His teeth were locked together. They started chomping, making a loud clashing sound that echoed down the hall.

“So what are we going to do? Are we here to fight that thing or run from it?” Jessie said.

“I’ve seen worse. I’m going to take this thing out,” Henry said.

Henry walked towards the shadow man with his bat ready. I had fought to survive. I’m sure he had done the same at one point. But now he was ready to fight to win. He had seen worse. I guess when I really thought about it I had also. I had faced the demons before. But I don’t think I had ever thought about running head first at them like this. Henry was the youngest of the group. He was also the most fearless. I admired that about him.

He galloped forward and swung at the shadow man. The shadow disappeared downward into the floor. The hallway filled with the sound of breathing. We all looked around trying to see where the shadow would come from next. It appeared in the wall next to Jessie and reached out and grabbed her. She propped her foot against the wall and try to push against it. He leg was pulled into the wall. I ran over and grabbed her shoulders. Henry was there to deliver a hard strike to the shadowy arms. They rescinded back into the wall. I was able to pull her out and away from the wall. We all moved to the center of the hall, staying away from the walls. Henry was still at the front his bat at the ready.

“Where are you?!”

Everything went silent. We all watched and waited for the next attack to come.

“Come on you bastard,” Henry said.

A breath came from below him. He looked down and saw a giant row of teeth. The two white eyes were trained on him. Henry jumped to the side just as the teeth opened. The face took a bite of air as it moved out of the ground. It was no long a shadow man now but instead a giant floating pair of eyes and teeth. They were looking right at us. Henry’s bat connected with the eyes from behind. They flew through the air and hit the wall, dissolving into nothing as they did. The teeth turned and tried to bite off Henry’s arm. He backed away. The teeth started to chomp wildly at him while moving towards him. They began to grow bigger with each bite. He turned and ran down the hall towards the entrance. The teeth were right behind him. Henry stopped and turned right as the teeth were about to get to him. He threw all his weight into his swing. The momentum the teeth had did the rest. His bat broke through the teeth, shattering them and sending pieces of them everywhere. They all dissolved as they hit the floor. Silence filled the hall again. Henry walked back over to us breathing hard. He looked emotionally and physically exhausted.

“Next time one of you gets to deal with whatever the hell comes after us.”

A door creaked opened at the end of the hall. We all looked at it and then walked together towards it. We walked into a classroom. There were 4 desks set up. On the chalk board in front of us a message was written.

“PLEASE TAKE YOUR SEATS.”

“There’s no way in hell I’m sitting in one of those desks,” Jessie said.

“If we don’t then we are all going to be stuck here forever. This isn’t our world. They want to play with us, and the longer we play, the longer we live,” Henry said.

Henry walked over and sat down. I felt the same as Jessie, but I also didn’t have a better option. I followed and sat down. Jenny was the next one. She looked at the chalk board and then to the desks. She sat down and watched the chalk board with intent.

“This is all insane. So god damn insane.”

Jessie walked over and sat down at the last desk. The writing on the chalk board erased itself. Then a new message appeared.

“CLASS IS IN SESSION. PLEASE TRY NOT TO SCREAM. SCREAMING ONLY MAKES IT MOVE FASTER.”

We all noticed at once that our ankles and wrists were now chained to the desks. The shackles had appeared instantly. We also noticed that we weren’t alone in the room. Our focus moved to the corner of the classroom. Something was standing in the corner. It had a dirty grungy mascot outfit on. It had worms and roaches crawling and falling out of the costume. It was looking right at us. Jessie was the first to break the rules. Her scream filled the classroom and drew the mascot towards her.