Decaying in School

PROLOGUE

Allen was scared. His worst nightmare was going to the new residential school. His grandmother had told him stories about them, as she had gone to one. Now, knowing his fate, he entered the school. 

It was shiny and polished to the maximum, with nuns running around. There was one in particular that caught his attention. She looked really pale, with almost full white skin. She looked scared, but why would a torturer look like she had been tortured herself?

The first class of the semester was really hard. Allen had gotten thirteen questions wrong, which sent him to the torture chamber. The torture chamber’s entrance was in a room, room number four to be specific.

The lock clicked, and the wall opened, revealing a staircase. Allen stepped down and down, until he reached the chamber. This didn’t look like a place for torture. It was quite nice, with paintings and carpets. Suddenly, he felt a hand. He looked down, and saw a hand had gone through his chest. Everything went black.

Everywhere in the school the next day, everyone wondered where Allen and the pale nun had gone. They were never to be seen again.

CHAPTER ONE: GOING TO SCHOOL

Back in 1978, there was a residential school in Oshawa. People always claimed it was haunted, but no one believed them. But this was until the newest batch of students were sent to the school. Now, among these students was Evan Oh, who was admitted to Harvard University. He was on the bus to the airport when it suddenly veered of course onto a dirt road. Evan was confused. He was certain that this was not the road to the airport, as he had dropped his mom off to the airport a couple of days ago. Either way, he assumed that this was a shortcut and dozed off.

When he came to, they had just stopped in front of a residential school. Evan was now scared, as he had heard stories of this school, hidden away deep in the woods, but he had never believed them. Now he was wondering “what if the legends were real?” As he looked out the window, he saw twenty nuns coming to meet the bus. He decided he would just go with the flow.

CHAPTER TWO: REALIZATION

When he got out of the bus, the first thing that he noticed was that everything seemed to be dark. The trees looked like they were black. He couldn’t see the sky. It all gave him a claustrophobic feeling. Suddenly, he felt an eerie presence, making him get goosebumps. He looked around but saw nothing. Weird, he thought.

The group entered the school, and almost immediately the doors slammed shut. They all jumped and looked behind them, but there was no one there. Everybody started to get the feeling that this place was not what it seemed to be.

When Evan got to his room, he noticed three other boys in the room. They all stared at him like he was a stranger, but they shouldn’t. He had ridden with them and they had chatted about how amazing Harvard was going to be. Now, they looked like they had been brainwashed. 

So the first night went well. The second day started, but they were not prepared. When they woke up, a hissing sound filled the room. Evan and one other boy looked down and saw a coral snake on the room’s floor. The other boy hissed to Evan, “Don’t move.” He took a knife from his backpack and with one fluid motion, stabbed the snake in the heart. Snake blood spattered all over the floor as it seeped out of the snake’s body.

CHAPTER THREE: CLASSES

Their first class of the day was cleaning. They started cleaning, but they heard something rumbling in the vents. Evan’s first thought was “It’s the imposter!” But no, it was a bunch of cockroaches. There was a stampede to get out of the room, but there was one fatality. Luckily, Evan was not the one who had died, and when he got to his room, he flopped down on his bed and stared and wondered. 

He was scared, too scared to think even. He was feeling that eerie presence that he had felt when he stepped off the bus. The snake, the cockroaches, it all just made no sense. It was just like some supernatural entity was controlling them. He realized that he had been so immersed in his thoughts that he had not seen his roommates flop down on their beds. 

Evan had not realized he had dozed off until he felt his roommate shaking him awake. It was the same kid who had killed the snake that previous day. Immediately, he was awake and asking if anything was wrong. No, he responded. It’s just that you’ve been in a coma for five months now.

“What?,” Evan asked. How was that possible? He noticed the smile on his roommate’s face and realized that it was all a joke. “Oh, I haven’t introduced myself, have I? My name is Bakar.” Evan was still annoyed by the prank, but then he felt an earthquake. They ran out of the room, just to find that it was because of students running in the hallways. There were no smiles, though. It was all fear that was on their faces. What were they running from, Evan wondered. It all became clear when they heard a bear. Evan and Bakar went into their dorm and locked the door. As soon as the lock clicked, a wall in their dorm slid open, revealing a staircase going down. 

CHAPTER FOUR: ENTERING THE TOMB

In unspoken agreement, Bakar and Evan climbed down the stairs, and they heard more footsteps. It turned out that it was their other two roommates, whose names were Meta and Dennis. They were both curious and started going down alongside Bakar and Evan. When they reached the bottom, they smelled a foul odor. As soon as their eyes adjusted to the dim light, they saw paintings, beautiful and elegant. The only thing wrong with them was that they all depicted a scene straight out of a horror movie, with one thing in common; they all showed a nun killing students.

This gruesome scene made Evan wonder, “is this what’s killing students?” He decided to keep on moving, but there was nothing to move on to. Instead, he noticed all of his “friends” staring at a singular spot. Evan looked there too, and he saw a gravestone. It was dusty, and the room was dark. Whipping out his flashlight, he turned it on. The gravestone was instantly illuminated, and after a quick blow, they managed to read what was carved into the stone. It read, “Turbate me, et ego occidam te.” Evan had no idea what this meant, but luckily Bakar knew latin. From the moment Evan looked at Bakar’s face, he knew something was terribly wrong.

“Bakar, what’s wrong?,”asked Evan. Bakar hesitated, then said, “The inscription, it isn’t clear, but I think it says disturb me, and I will kill you.” At that very moment, Meta decided to touch the gravestone. Bakar shouted out, but it was too late. Something burst out of the earth, severing Meta’s hand off, nearly killing Evan, and striking Dennis in the head. At that moment, everything went black.

CHAPTER FIVE: DISAPPEARANCE

When he came to, Evan saw blood everywhere. Momentarily confused, he looked around. Once he spotted the gravestone, it all came rushing back to him. Crawling towards Meta, he noticed that his friend was groaning. Tearing off a piece of cloth from his shirt, Evan covered the place where Meta’s hand had been ripped off. He applied CPR, and eventually Meta’s eyes opened. Knowing that Meta was good, Evan went to where Dennis was lying. Checking his pulse, he understood that Dennis was alive, but where was Bakar?

The next day, classes started again. This time, they were actual classes, not cleaning. Evan was not ready for them, though. Walking through the hallway, he went over everything he knew about the current situation. The school was haunted, that was for sure. An evil nun? Evan pondered on this for a little while. Although they had seen a dark figure shoot out of the grave, it wasn’t clear if that was a snake or an arm. And where had Bakar gone? It wasn’t like he could disappear or something.

Starting his first class of the day, they were learning math. All of this was review to everyone, so they aced the class. The second class, though, was almost impossible, even for Evan. They were learning how to be obedient. This meant that they had to torture themselves, and do everything the nuns told them to do. At the end of the day, every student in the school was covered in scratches and bruises, not to mention some very nasty cuts. Evan had seen Meta and Dennis in class, but no Bakar. He was dumbfounded by this, but was tired and wanted to go to bed. 

CHAPTER SIX: DEATH OF A FRIEND

As soon as he pulled the covers over himself, he heard a bloodcurdling scream. Evan rushed outside, wanting to see what all the commotion was about, but taking the first step out the door he stepped on something soft and fleshy. He aimed his flashlight at it, and nearly fainted. He had stepped on a dead body that looked like its insides had been ripped out, but that wasn’t the reason Evan nearly fainted. The clothes on the body were those of Bakar’s, the skin tone was the same as Bakar’s, and the head, well it belonged to Bakar as well. This explained Bakar’s sudden disappearance, but why wait until today to kill him? Why did his murderer decide on this day?

CHAPTER SEVEN: PICTURES

Waking Meta and Dennis up, Evan explained what had befallen Bakar and his plan. Although hesitant at first, they both agreed to Evan’s plan and set it in action. Dennis went over to the door and locked it, revealing the stairway. Then they all went down to the gravestone, and the date of the killing made sense. Every picture in the room had a date on it, and they were all the same. The first picture said, “October 31st, 1898.” The second picture was the year after on the 31st. This pattern continued, until they reached the last painting. The inscription said “October 31st, 1978” and it showed Bakar being killed by the same nun in all the other paintings.

It all was starting to come together. Evan realized that it would make sense that a murder would happen on Halloween, the creepiest night of the year. But why Bakar, Evan wondered. 

CHAPTER EIGHT: DEMONS IN CLASS

The next day, they were doing math when their teacher’s eyes suddenly rolled upwards and fell out of her head. They then heard an unhuman breathing pattern, and another nun emerged from their teacher, who fell down, dead. Evan, Dennis and Meta all had sudden flashbacks on what had happened the day that they had found the gravestone. The thing that shot out of the ground was an arm. An arm that belonged to the new nun. A demon’s hand. 

Everyone in the class was petrified, and one kid even had a panic attack. Evan tried to run, but the door was locked. The demon nun reached its slimy arm out to grab Evan, but Dennis sliced its arm off. Howling in rage, the demon took its good arm and slashed Dennis in the face, causing slimy goo and blood to cover his face. 

Evan didn’t notice Meta until he saw a silver glint in the demon’s chest, a split second before he heard a shriek of pain and fury, a cry of war. The glint belonged to a knife, Meta’s knife. A second passed, then the demon disappeared.

CHAPTER NINE: OCCURRENCES

Meta stood there, breathing heavily. His face was a painting of rage and fury, but it slowly transitioned into satisfaction. “Did I kill it?” he asked. No reply. Evan knew the answer but didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to ruin Meta’s mood but Meta knew the answer immediately. “We’ll have to keep killing this damned thing until it dies.”

The rest of the students ran out of the room, leaving the three roommates alone in the classroom. Evan had no idea how to kill the demon, as you can’t kill the dead. Dennis suddenly broke the silence. “I think I know how to kill it,” he said. “We’ll have to take it back to its coffin.” “Obviously, but how the flip do you plan to do that?”

In their room, once again the three went down the staircase. “My theory is that if we manage to find the gravestone, there’ll be a hidden message on it.” As they descended, Dennis’s scream filled the air. 

“HELP!”

CHAPTER TEN: DENNIS IS GONE

Dennis was nowhere to be seen. He was behind them a little while ago, now he was nowhere. “HELP!” came the scream, weaker this time. In unison, both boys ran down and down, towards the sound. Reaching their destination, Evan and Meta turned on their flashlights and aimed it at the gravestone. It was no longer old, but new. And there was a new inscription on it, too. It said, “Here lies Dennis Graphs, born December 19th, 1958, died November 1st, 1978” This wasn’t the creepiest part, though. “Turbate me, et ego occidam te” was no longer there. Now, it read “We live, we love, we die”

Back in their room, both Evan and Meta were depressed. The nun first took Bakar, but taking Dennis took the horror to a whole other level. Evan decided to run for his life. Sprinting down the dark hallway, he ran face first into a shadowy figure. Slimy, ew, he thought. Slimy… DEMON!

CHAPTER ELEVEN: ENCOUNTER

Back in the dorm, Meta was just starting to relax when he heard a scream. He thought he was hallucinating, as all the events of the afternoon had him shooken up, but looking to his side he saw that Evan wasn’t there. He realized the scream was coming from Evan.

In a flash, Meta got out of bed, ran down the hall and saw Evan. Evan was hanging from the wall, blood trickling out of his fingernails and eyes. Meta prayed that he was alive, feeling Evan’s pulse. It was weak, but Meta could feel it.

Evan heard someone calling his name. He was exhausted, but opened his eyes. Big mistake. He felt something hot gushing down his cheek. Feeling it, he saw it and shut that eye. It was blood. Evan also spotted Meta. Meta was just standing there, doing nothing but looking relieved. 

Meta summoned all his strength and heaved Evan off the wall where he was hanging. As Meta moved Evan, he noticed that his friend hadn’t been hanging, but rather levitating. Deciding to ask about this later, they both walked down the dark hallway back to their dorm, Evan telling his story as they went. It seemed as if the Nun had been doing something on the wall when Evan ran into it.

The first step into the dorm sent cold chills down Evan’s spine. The door was wide open, and the wall that led to the stairs was open too. There was slime all over the walls, dripping down from the ceiling, stuck to the floor. The demon had definitely been there. 

Meta was curious so he started to go inside, but he was stopped by Evan. Meta argued that he should go alone, but Evan insisted on going with him. They both ended up going together, and got to the grave. Again did the flashlights shine, and again they saw the stone. There was also a bump, one that he had never noticed before. There was another bump, and another. 

Seeing this, they shone their flashlights on them and realized that they were gravestones. There were fifty bumps, forty-nine paintings. Each bump was a gravestone. In each grave was a dead child. 

CHAPTER TWELVE: EVERY PERSON FOR THEMSELVES

The school was in panic. It was every person for themselves, and it was all because of Meta and Evan. It was good being in a panic, because the next death was happening in 24 hours. Kids were running out of the building, climbing out of the windows, jumping off the roof. People were getting hurt, but they kept on running.

Meta and Evan were the first ones to run out of the building. They ran directly along the trail, with their eyes glued to their cellphones. They could not get any signal, so they continued running. At last, they reached the main road. They had wifi, so they called a taxi to take them home. 

At home, Evan went straight to bed. He was relieved to be home, a refuge, a safe place. Making sure no one was around, he pressed a hidden button in his bed and dropped down to his safe place, which he called the hacker’s safe house. 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: HACKING

Logging on to his computer, Evan went straight to the main hacking terminal. He hacked into the residential schools network, otherwise known as the RSN. Surfing the web, he found the one that he had gone to. Its name was “George Hallen Residential School”, and it was known for deaths. This matched the data that Evan had collected while at the school.

Then he called Meta. Meta was safe at home, which was a relief. When he finished talking, Evan started playing games. He heard a creak but assumed that it was his cat, Mango. There was another creak, and something dripped on Evan’s head. Again, Evan assumed that it was just water. Then realization hit him. Mango had gone with his mom. The water was shut off for the day.

Evan saw the substance and froze. Slimy… DEMON!