Well, before you continue reading i want you to know, this is real not just some silly fantasy story that you talk about in some book club in a library after hours with snacks and drinks. Real. Now some may not belive it is, but to the few that do belive it, I hope you don't take it for granted.

I was young, maybe 14 or something around that age, so well, not technically super super young, but younger than now. I was what people called an outcast in some places. Not that I did it on purpose! I wanted friends, honest! It was just harder to make them as I grew older. My dark hair got curlier and looked messy, my brownish black eyes always looked dead tired no matter how much sleep I got, and just overall, people thought I didn't look approachable or something like that. Not sure.

Either way, I had just gotten to school for the day and waited in my classroom for class to begin just so I could get it done and over with. Mrs Hermis was already at her desk waiting for students to slowly trickle in one by one. Her brown and blonde hair hung right above her shoulders and her bangs stayed right above her brown eyes that always seemed so full of life and so positive. She was probably in her late 30s but she had the spirit and energy of a young girl still. Each time one of her students walked in she would greet them with a smile and a "Good morning" or a "Hello how are you this morning kiddo" or something else along those lines. She would always call us kiddo or hun in a motherly tone, so it wasn't anything new to us. For half of us she was like another mom for us, and she didn't mind the idea one bit from what I've heard. She wore a flowy colourful flower dress that reached her knees as well as wore tenni-shoes rather than some fancy dress shoes. She said it made her feel closer to earth.

It didn't take her long to notice me and my mess of hair before she made her way over and crouched infront of my desk so we'd be closer to eye level. "Are you going to participate today or would you rather do something else? I have some small errands dealing with some other teachers if you'd rather get out of the class for a bit." She said with a genuinely concerned look on her face as her eyes seemed to try to pry through my thick hair to match my eyes. "Yeah. I mean- yeah can I leave. If thats okay. I can stay after school too to finish any work I missed." I said stumbling over my words a bit. My voice was horse from lack of use too which probably didn't make the situation any better. I mean, you're voice would be dead too if you didn't talk much. "Alright hun, I have some papers that need to be brought to Mr Cruze, then you can go to the cafeteria and tell the lunch lady that Mrs Hermis sent you, they'll know what to do from then." She spoke with a smile on her face as she ruffled my hair and stood to her feet making her way over to her desk.

She grabbed a small stack of papers as well as a folder before carefully placing it on my desk "Take your time, Quin" she said with a soft smile as she went back up to the front of the room to continue welcoming the students and finally begin the lesson. She was one of the few teachers who seemed to genuinely care about her students and that made school much less unbearable at times. I grabbed the papers(And totally didn't sneak a peak) before heading to the door of the classroom and into the hallways. Right, I guess I forgot to fully introduce myself, my name is Quin McCain I'm 13, and my life is about to get much more hectic. Once I stepped into the hall one of the students in my class shut the door behind me, muffling any sounds that might've come from inside. By now the hallways were mostly empty and quiet due to most people being in their classrooms. Oddly enough, the hallways felt eerieier than normal for a Tuesday morning. Normally the occasional person is still in the halls but there wasn't a soul. After just a bit of walking I made it to Mr Cruze's door.

I could almost hear the class get quiet on the other side of the door as I knocked. It didn't take long for the door to swing open and was immediately replaced with a tall man. Mr Cruze Was thin and tall, with a dark completion and black hair. His hair was slick back neat, his mustash was neatly combed(And kinda looked like a black caterpillar stuck under his nose), he also wore neat clothes and had a serious look as his dark eyes squinted at me through the glasses that rested on the bridge of his nose. Mr Cruze usually taught 11th grade as well as some of the smarter kids in the school who took the advanced classes. "Can I help you, boy?" He said voice cold and almost harsh, a complete contrast compared to Mrs Hermis who always sounded kind and caring. "Papers from Mrs Hermis" I said trying not to stress out from the cold stare down I was receiving, and instead I just kept my eyes on this guys pet caterpillar as I held out the papers that I was sent to give him. "Right. Mrs Hermis. Hm, fine then, get back to class now or you'll be written up like the trouble maker I'm sure you are." And with that, he shut the door with a click, leaving me to stand right outside his door. Trouble maker? Okay sure I've been around a few things- like the toilet busting, or the bats that got into the cafeteria, or when the fire alarm was pulled near my desk- but I swear I didn't do those! Honest! Even if I really wanted to leave this place I wouldn't be that desperate to get kicked out. I'm pretty sure its someone else whose just messing with me or trying to get me expelled- or something. I'm actually not all too sure myself.

Regardless, I soon left and went on my way to the cafeteria. The walk was longer still, and there was still that eerie feeling for some reason. Like something was just holding its breath, watching, waiting, for something to happen. But nothing did happen. It was weird. About halfway to the cafeteria I noticed a glass display case hung on the wall, sure I've passed it plenty of times, but I never actually took the time to look at everything. There were photos from different sports meets, different classes, and even some newspaper cutouts that featured some of the students. At the top of the frame it read "Clawston High News" in big letters. People actually use this? Talk about school spirit. Due to the display case being glass though, I could see my reflection. I wore an old slightly oversized grey jacket with faded designs of what I assumed was a band of some sort, a plain blue t-shirt, a necklace with and oval locket charm(what my mom gave it to me dont judge). My hair was an absolute mess and it was probably knotted too. I lifted my hand and pushed back my hair out of my face which immediately revealed my seemingly tired eyes as well as a bandaid on one side of my forehead. I would explain, but thats a story for another day.

Staring at my reflection like this was weird. My mom had always told me I looked like my dad when I didn't want to smile, she said he was a huge stick in the mud at times, but I couldn't see the resemblance. Oh and before you start wondering if I never met my dad, or if my dads a jerk, nah, I met him when I was younger but he left when I was like 6. My mom says it was on good terms but I cant remember much to be sure. Suddenly, from the reflection behind me I saw something odd. A reflection of something ghostly, nearly inhuman, watching over my shoulders. Its face was distorted, but as inhuman as the figure was, its smokey reflection of a face had some strangely human attributes. I immediately spun around in panic to try to spot who could be messing with be this early in the morning. But, no one was there. I checked back in the reflection to see if it was just something I seen wrong. There wasn't anything there either. Am I seriously loosing my mind? With a sigh, I rubbed my eyes and let my hair fall back into place before continuing down the hallways to the cafeteria.

Finally making it to the cafeteria I still felt a bit on edge due to that weird thing I saw, as well as the same eerie feeling of the school today, but I tried to shake it off as I spotted the head lunch lady. "Hey there peach fuzz, do you need something kid?" She said as she looked me over. She called a lot of the boys here stuff like peach fuzz or at least something similar. She was an older lady with an accent I could never fully place. She was bigger than me and could honestly probably throw me if she really wanted to. She had brown hair that was littered with grey and was put up into one of those hair net things cooks wear. She wore a dirty apron that was almost a yellow colour due to how many times its been worn. "Oh uh- Mrs Hermis sent me, she said you know what that means." I said confusion probably obvious in my voice dispite how hard I tried to hide it. "Oh yes! Head on into the kitchen and wait for me there. I won't be long." She said before hurrying out of the cafeteria, where she was going I had no clue. The cafeteria wasn't completely empty, a few students were sitting at some of the tables, some were working in groups while some were just napping on their own. Most of the people who stayed here used the cafeteria as a sort of study hall since we didn't exactly have a proper building for that, plus the library was usually pretty loud dispite it being a library of all things.

Making my way into the kitchen part of the cafeteria there were only a few other lunch people here, all of who were cooking and getting ready for lunch later in the day. Most of them didn't pay me any mind but one gave me a shore smile before going back to work. I've been in the kitchen here a few times already so it wasn't anything super new, rather, the kitchen itself was old with certain things barely in working order. Granted most of the schools money from what I've heard goes into the sport, but thats just what I've heard, I'm not one to be big on sports. I'm more of a video game type of guy. Either way, dispite the cooking conditions they all still made pretty good food. My attention however was soon pulled away from the cooks and gravitated towards some weird ticking sound. It didn't sound like a clock or anything, it sounded like metal bouncing off something else. I couldn't help but grow more and more curious. The other people in the room didn't seem to hear the strange noise but it sounded like it was getting louder and louder. Did no one else hear that? Soon my eyes landed on an oven which would seem to jolt with each tick sound I could hear, adding more noise. What was going on? Why didn't anyone seem to mind this near as much as I did?

Stepping closer to the jolting oven I reached out to touch the handle. Working myself up to open it and look inside to figure out what could be making all this noise, but just as my hand grabbed the handle everything stopped. The noise. The movement. It all stopped. As if someone just clicked pause. Suddely instead of a ticking noise, I could hear the popping sound of bones from behind me, causing me to slowly turn only to be met with all of the cooks staring at me, but that wasn't the concerning thing. What unsettled me the most was that they all were still faced the opposite direction while their necks twisted around like owls. Their faces were all sunk in now and their eyes seemed more ghostly and dead. "He has it." One said "Our queen must feast on this one." Another said as their bodies turned around to match the direction their faces were facing. I could hear more cracking sounds as their bodies became more unhuman, their arms grew more lanky and their bodies bent unusually with wings sprouting on their backs. Their nails were long and their faces became less and less human as they sunk in and almost looked like skeletons with leathery skin stuck close to the bone. "Come here little boy" another one said as they continued inching closer and closer. Every thought in my mind was screaming at me to run, but I just couldn't. I couldn't move a muscle. It was as if my feet were stuck to the ground.

The oven began to bustle to live yet again, this time more violent than before. Suddenly a crack could be heard, then the kitchen lit up as the oven practically exploded and sent me and the creatures flying across the room. "Seriously..as if things weren't already bad." I mumbled as I sat up trying to shake off the pain in my back from hitting the wall, laying at my side was a small dagger and what looked like an arrowhead, but it didn't have the back part- what is that part called? Its like the wooden part. Whatever, what I mean is, it's literally just the point part of the arrow. I carefully picked up both just now noticing the black inky substance that covers the points of both. The dagger was light and easy to move in my hand, but at the same time, it felt so light it my end up flying out of my hand at any moment. The arrowhead was a bit useless at the moment though- "You killed her! You filthy boy, we'll serve you as our main dish for dinner" one of the creatures(?) screeched out and it was only then that I noticed on of them had completely vanished and now there was a large puddle of that inky black stuff was laying in the middle of the kitchen. Killed her? What is even happening? I feel like I'm going crazy the more of this I see or hear. Then again, I feel like that's the least of my concerns right now, rather, I feel like I should figure out how to get out of this situation alive and preferably not end up in someone's chicken noodle soup.

I just did the first thing I could think of and lifted the dagger to point at the remaining..people? Whatever they are. "If you come any closer I'll cut you up like your sister!" Yeah that was probably really stupid for long term since they'll probably hold that grudge, but at least it got them to stop their advance. I slowly began to make my way to the door that lead out of the kitchen. Once I got close to the exit one of them seemed to get more angry that I would get away "Get back here boy!" She said and not even a second later she began to charge at me making me yet again freeze up. Think think think. The arrow head. I took out the arrow head from my pocket and looked around immediately noticing a gas pipe to my left. Okay, this will probably be one of the stupidest disisions I've ever made, but I immediately chucked the arrow head at the pipe with all my strength(which wasn't much). The creature momentarily paused its charge and looked at the arrowhead confused, but that confusion was short lived as gas immediately shot out of the pipe causing the fire from the previous explosion to catch it and immediately engulf the room in fire with another fire explosion that blasted me back out of the kitchen and back into the cafeteria. The kids that were previously studying or sleeping were now wide awake and screaming as they scramble to get away from the fire. Right now thats the least of my concerns, im not sure if those things are fire resistant or not I just knew that I had to get out of here quick. I immediately got up dispite the screaming pain in my body from being thrown around so much today. I made a bolt for the door that lead outside, running down the hall before bursting out of the doors.

I didn't stop running even after I made it outside. I kept running, down the street with cars occasionally driving by probably wondering what I was doing or why I'd be in such a rush. Hearing the sounds of police sirens in the distance just made me pick up the pace even more. It didn't take long before I made it to a familiar house and immediately rushed inside, slamming the wooden door behind me. The shut door muffled any sound of sirens and just left me alone in a silent house. "Mom!" I called only just now taking note of the state of the house. The living room was an absolute mess, glass shattered, books thrown all around, pillows and fluff from inside were all of the place. The lights were off allowing only the light from the windows to illuminate the room. What happened here?