by Anonymous
The streets were filled with a peaceful emptiness as I walked in the afternoon heat. It was the beginning of fall, but the hot and heavy air of the summer would remain for a few weeks. Zola Street was bathed in a mix of yellow and orange light as the sun began its descent towards the west. I was not phased by the absence of sound as I continued to walk towards the school. The silence created a contented atmosphere, in which one’s inside thoughts seem to be the center of everything.
This serene emotion began to slip away when the school came into view. I was returning for a textbook in my locker; I needed to study. The campus was illuminated by the setting sun, yet seemed strangely dark and uninviting. Passing the front gate, the diminishing feeling of calmness was pushed aside by uncertainty. I had assumed, despite school ending hours before, that there would still be faculty about. The campus was as empty as the streets, but it was a different, ominous kind of empty.
I made my way past the front office. The doors were closed, the windows black. No one seemed to be inside. The quad was empty as well, with its shadows growing longer as the sun continued to fall lower into the sky. Despite the light and warmth beginning to disappear with the sun, I felt a hot and uninviting feeling overtake me. I began sweating like crazy. I needed to get my book and leave ASAP. Quickening my pace, I turned toward the 300 building. Like the rest of the school, it too seemed abandoned. Similar to the main office, all doors were closed and the windows dark. There was absolutely no activity within any of the classrooms. Cautiously walking by the stairs, I approached the door leading to the hallway of lockers. I grabbed the handle to pull it open. It was cold as ice.
The door was locked but I was relieved. My restriction of access meant that I could go home. There was something weird about the campus today. By then the sun had disappeared behind the buildings, leaving the sky and clouds ablaze with a fading glow. The quad was dark and full of shadows. It seemed as if they were moving but I couldn’t tell in the approaching dark. Turning away from the door I had tried to open, the sound of them being flung open suddenly echoed through the school. I quickly glanced behind me only to see them closed and unmoving. Panic began bubbling within the pit of my stomach.The hot feeling of dread turned into a burning desire to leave as I began running back towards the office. Shadows danced in the blur of my surroundings as I sprinted through the faculty parking lot. The safety of the sidewalk was only a few feet away yet I felt as if something was ready to drag me back in before I could escape.
Passing through those gates felt relieving. The sinister silence and whatever else was chasing me off that campus, was immediately replaced with the peaceful chirp of crickets in the night. The burning disappeared, but I was left empty-handed.
“I wasn’t able to study that night, so that’s why I bombed your test, Mr. Richard.”
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