A moonlit hallway greeted me during the dark of night, which caked the shadows in a deep, inky black. I stood, shocked at my surroundings.
This was my school, and what I saw at the end of that hallway was my fate. A hare in the maw of a wolf, neck snapped, gnawing on my sticky flesh, crimson caking the hallway floor.
And then I woke up.
That was the dream I had this morning.
My name is Gael, Gael Driskoll. I was born on September 16th, 2006. I'm reaching the end of my years in High School, one more year until Senior Year. I'm 18 now, secluded amongst my peers. But... y'know, maybe being by your lonesome is preferable? Even if people's perception of me is inaccurate, it's better than having a misunderstanding, communication issue, or some other misallaneous problem every so often, right?
It was exhausting dealing with people. I admit, I liked those times, and I regret how it ended, and... yeah, it's a bit exhausting being seen as the bad guy cause of a false perception of me, but if that happened because I cared, wouldn't it be better to just stay as it is? To not talk to people, to not interact. It's not like I'm completely alone, y'know? I still have Jordan, a close friend of mine, back at school, who sticks to her guns as a science major.
It's lonely but... do I have a choice?
I'm just bullshitting to myself I think. Honestly, if it were just the school itself, I wouldn't have minded much, but it spread to my family as well. Now I'm alone in this house full of people. Who could've thought?
I can't help but keep loving my family. I sometimes hate that I do when they don't love me back over a simple misunderstanding.
A situation cleared up so long ago, yet I'm still seen as a monster to this day.
I just wish my sister would still call out my name like she used to.
Sorry for bringing down the mood.
I'm decently tall, and people often misunderstand me in a lot of ways. Some find me intimidating, some find me creepy, some just think I'm normal. Very inconsistent opinions, really, but I get why people would be put off by my appearance in some way. Long, Light-Brown hair, my bangs hang over my eyes, and my hair is tied tightly against the back of my head. I have peculiar, sharp eyes, consisting of hazel due to it being a mix of colors, but the colors are this unidentifiable blue and green color that mix to almost make teal.
I wouldn't exactly say I'm bad-looking, I'm decent for who I am, I don't wear the highest fashion though, typically just the most comfortable clothes I could find, along with a long checkered dress-shirt that I always like to wear under my school uniform for some semblence of style, but other than that, I'm pretty casual with what I wear.
I've been rambling, let's talk about more interesting things.
The town we're in is surrounded by a massive stretch of forestry, and due to the town's history, the number of buildings that were made was... well, to put it simply there was a lot of infastructure built in response to a sudden influx of tourists in the 90s leading to a sparse yet frequent interspersing of abandoned buildings from those times. A couple of the buildings still have the lights on, like one of the old malls, but other than that, there is just an absurd amount of abandoned ruins that you could search through for any sort of odd relic of some sort.
During my off days, from time to time-- especially when I don't particularly want to go to school one day, I often wander around these abandoned places listening to music. It helps me relax, and it's a little exciting since all of the old stuff that they used to have when they decommissioned everything in the early 2000s. I was alive during that time, so I got to see a bit of these old structures when they were still in use. It's a bit nostalgic.
Am I afraid of ghosts? No, I don't believe in the Supernatural. Am I afraid that some homeless guy is gonna jump me and try to kill me? No, we don't have to be concerned about those things here. Honestly, the town is close-knit enough that, if someone did go homeless, everyone would know immediately. Luckily, we don't have to concern ourselves with such things due to how the economic state of the town is handled.
The Mayor is very particular about those sorts of things.
It isn't perfect, but I'd say that being in this town alone gives you the label of "privileged" amongst other folk, and I can't blame them cause it's the truth. The problem is that nobody knows where to look for the real issues of this place, and always blows things out of proportion that seem menial at first glance, everywhere else.
Jordan is much more spiritually minded than I am, so she always spouts concerns about my invasion of these abandoned structures scattered about town.
"The hell are you gonna do to a ghost, Gael?"
We had this discussion later in the day, about mid-afternoon. I was slumped in a chair, lounging at her clubroom, visiting for the day, and she brought up the conversation earlier since she knew I skipped classes earlier to participate in my amazing hobby.
"Like, what if a ghost, or somethin' comes around and pounces on ya! Then, you go and get possessed and stuff!"
"That stuff doesn't happen, girl."
Jordan froze up, trying to think of ways to convince me not to go. She didn't believe in some of her bullshit since her excuses for why I shouldn't go have been feeble words at best. She's stumbling over herself. "What if you find a murderer?"
"When was the last time we've had a death that wasn't from natural causes here?"
Jordan was a decently tall girl with dark-brown hair that rolled down her shoulders, glasses sat atop the bridge of her nose, and on top of that, she was surprisingly well-endowed. I'm not checking her out, by the way, I'm just stating the facts to give a visual profile, y'know? "You never know, man. I mean it this time, you gotta be more cautious about that shit."
"I'll be fine, I know how to fight after all." I flex, shooting a smug grin in Jordan's direction.
"Knives don't care if you're experienced with fighting, doubly so if it's a gun. Don't want my friend ending up on the news for trespassing."
"Alright, hold on~! What I'm doing isn't illegal!"
"Doesn't change the fact that my friend could end up on the news after one unlucky day!"
"I'm glad you're concerned, but I've been doing this for... since uh... I think elementary school? So you don't gotta worry, okay?"
I should've been worried.
Have you ever had Deja Vu?
Sometimes, apart from the mall, and such, I find myself often wandering the school during after-hours. There's a very specific time when the Security leaves, allowing anyone to just sorta squeeze their way onto campus while nobody is there, unwatched, unable to be caught. I forgot my dream, of course.
That dream in that moonlit hallway on campus. I was there again-- no, rather, I found myself here, finally. I wanted to wander the empty school on my lonesome on this day in particular; dumb decision if I had to say so myself.
It's that feeling, that guttural pull, that nauseating feeling that something is wrong.
The heart races, breath becomes rapid, the senses focus themselves in an alert response to the environment around it, almost as if I were prey amongst a forest being hunted by a predator.
Everything was eerily still.
It was always like this at night, but it felt bizarre in comparison to how it is typically. This was odd-- should've expected it.
I made my way across campus, cautiously watching my back before making my way back to the front entrance, thoroughly having my fill of the place until a sickening crack could be heard from the rightmost buildings sat out on a decently sized stretch of grass with interspersed sections of black-top for any sport like Basketball and the like. It wasn't the gym, no, it was one of the sub-buildings that sat right beside the gym.
Curiosity, no... an unknown force of will pulled me to the location of this horrible, wet cracking that flooded my ears. Once I got close enough, the stench of iron followed, wafting into my nostrils, forcing me to cover my nose in reaction. That was blood... I've smelled it before, I'm not dumb, I'm not naive, that's blood, that permeating stench.
I carefully stepped toward the door of the building, peaking inside only to be met with a deep black void, no light piercing through.
I always have equipment with me for night expeditions, so I slip a flashlight out from my bag, flicking it on. Its circled frame lit up parts of the room that I pointed it toward, scanning what I could before getting specks of maroon to block my vision, glistening in response to the light. I dragged it up, slowly to the frame of whoever caused this trail of bodily fluids to end up here.
A student, like me, the hook end of a hammer dug deep into their skull.
My heart violently thumped into my chest, and I took a step back, taking careful consideration of what I should do next. Honestly, the best move would be to just leave and forget this ever happened. Fuck, I'm gonna be sick.
I needed to leave. The murderer was still here, and that sound was absurdly recent. I need to find a way to escape because whoever it is had the jump on me.
CRACK!
I whip my head around back to the girl's corpse to see it rising from the floor in a stilted, almost robotic manner, snapping into place to look at me, hammer still impaled into its skull.
I spun around on the balls of my feet and sprinted as quickly as I could.
I made my way to the entrance, suddenly interrupted by the sudden appearance of what looked to be another walking corpse, knuckles wrapped around the wall of the entrance as they pulled themselves over to me.
I made a snap turn back into the building, closing the door behind what could only be described as "zombies", smacking limply against the glass entrance of the school.
"I'll do you a favor." A voice spoke to me from above, a creature of sorts standing there wearing what looked to be Magician's Attire, tipping their hat to me. "I will tell you that your fate has already been decided. There isn't an option for you to get out of this. You're lucky my master hasn't seen you yet as well."
"W-What the fuck are you!?"
"I'm a cadaver. Pray... pray that my master does not see your face, or else, you're doomed. I'll do you another favor. Cover your face, they could be anywhere, not that it'd matter."
One of the zombies broke through the glass, the sharp edges digging into their flesh, a deep red pouring from the inner wrist like oil, or some sort of anomalous sludge. "Thanks for the advice, asshole!"
I booked it away from the scrambling creatures, and it spoke to me one last time before fading into the shadows of the ceiling, "This is the Bane of Alakazam, fret not, the death may be painful, but the conversion after death is so much more!"
My head throbbed as I ran through the school's halls.
Something, a form of something growing, appeared inside my mind. I couldn't recognize what it was or why I had the thought at the time, due to my concentrating on surviving, but I saw it, a distinct form for almost like some sort of larva or embryo growing into something, a creature of sorts.
With each exit I attempted to find, it was cut off once more, over and over by more and more living corpses shambling their way to me, gasps and groans exiting their throats as a reaction to the unnatural movements occurring all at once within their bodies.
I've never seen anything like this in my entire life.
I've fought plenty of times, and I've almost died once, but something like this barely even compares. It's downright unrealistic, outside the bounds of what reality had taught me.
I holed myself up in a classroom, blocking the doors behind me to give me a moment of respite as I spat up my insides from exhaustion.
The first thing that I looked for was a mode of escape, Fortunately, there was a clear way out, unfortunately, though, it was a good 30 meters off the ground, about 4 floors up, making a rough estimate there. I could probably attempt to make my way down, but there was no way I could pull off a feat like this, not under so much pressure.
Fuck! No weapons, nothing, what the hell am I gonna do? Breaking the windows wouldn't work either... damnit! I thought to myself, panicked and confused.
Those zombies began breaking into the room, one of them shambling through the windows of the classroom, a trail of blood following them.
They got closer and closer, at this point, I had no other choice but to ready my fists for action. If I were gonna die, then I'd be going down fighting, I'd use anything to my advantage, and I did, grabbing a nearby chair and chucking it into the creature. The thrown object had much more force compared to what I could do normally, which shocked me at first, but I couldn't linger on it as more of the undead began flooding the room.
"Fuck! What the hell am I supposed to do about this!? I'm not some sort of martial savant, damnit!"
One stumbled uncomfortably close to me, and I attempted to fend it off the best I could with any nearby objects I could find. Eventually feeling hopeless, I did the only the I could and socked it straight in the jaw, causing its neck to snap to the side.
"Back off!"
I need more force, put more of a rotation into it. I snapped my fist out again in a desperate attempt to fend for myself, digging into the ribcage of the monster in front of me. It was then that I saw it, something that had appeared on the back of my hand, looking almost like an arrow.
The creature flew back into the others behind them, and I stumbled onto the table leading to the window showing what could've been possibly my escape if I was deft enough.
A rabbit, mechanical clad in armor, appeared before me, arrows lining its body.
"W-What is this...? What...?"
I never believed in the supernatural, yet... everything that had happened to me spoke to the contrary, as if God themself was screaming at me to get a hint.
I don't know what this rabbit is, but I'm using it to my advantage. This was my path to victory, this was how I was going to survive.