Saint-Akzena

Chapter Two

As the water entered his nose, the teenager woke up, with a horrible sensation of burning inside of him.

His eyes opened and saw in a fuzzy view the darkness that was everywhere. A little light was seen above him. Thus, he crawled his arms towards the surface of the pool and expired his nose filled with water. He looked at the light that showed him a little portion of the edge that he grabbed. He raised himself out the waste of water. 19-3-8 Dripping it all over the ground that he took his flashlight back.

Removing his backpack that was now filled with water. Thus, making everything inside of it useless. Steve cursed at the loss of his phone, his batteries, an extra flashlight, the only book he had on himself.

He looked up at where he came down. Seeing the large and tall windows with their glass broken. The thing wasn't there anymore.

The cold of the place began to go thought his bones. Soaking like a sponge, Steve illuminated the wall far away of the gigantic gymnasium made for aquatic activities. Seeing under the large set of broken windows two doors that were for the changing rooms. With their painting of a man wearing his medieval armour and the one of a woman in her European dress.

He began to walk towards the doors. While being careful not to glide into the pool. As he reached the gate with the warrior. Steve could hear an inhuman scream above him. From where he escaped what surprised him. He turned the handle in half, due to the fact that it was locked.

Looking at his left, where the other locker room was. The prey brought is light on the door that he ran to. Leaving behind the one for the girls.

As he reached the other entrance, Steve couldn't prevent himself from smiling when he turned an unlocked handle. Passing from the pool to a large shower room. With tall walls covered with a white ceramic that reflected his light that was strong in this place. He saw all the dark stuff that came out from the bottom of the shower head. Letting an « ehhhhhh » out of his mouth. Steve changed his location towards the locker room. Which was as disgusting due the washbasins being rusted the edge. And a freeing water on the floor that entered his sneakers.

He walked, feeling the cold in his feet. A port of him that almost made the rest fall. Due that he hooked something that he looked at with his light. He firstly saw his reflection, seeing a man with fear written on is face. Then, it was what looked like a steel pipe that he found. He raised his head towards a ceiling in ruins. Showing the plumbing being half-destroyed by time and erosion.

The pipe was taken. Knowing that looking for his metallic rule deep in the blackness of the pool would be a waste of time and energy. Both things that he needed above everything else.

He inspected the lockers, with their padlock on it.

-So, there were still people here before it got cursed…

He remarked one locker that had a hole on the surface of the narrow door. Placing his pipe inside, Steve forced it to open and broke the little locker in two pieces that fell in the water.

It was a raincoat that could be found. With an open pack back that had in it a few dry clothing that he decided to wear. Instead of the one that the cold of the place began to cover him. Passing by the old and dirty water of the pool next door.

After changing his clothes, Steve took the backpack. He searched for anything useful inside. Excepted for a pencil case, some book on geometry, an agenda and a vintage pack of chewing guns. He didn't find anything that would help him survive.

He took the raincoat that was warm to wear. Checking the pockets that he found a wallet filled with assurance cards, an ID and a few old twenty-dollar papers with the face of Elizabeth Second of her Name.

Disappointed by that, he decided to break all of the lockers. 5-13-14 Hoping to find one that had a knife belonging to a bully that had vanished like the rest. After he had opened almost all of them. In a search that only brought him old money that was useless. Steve stopped.

He turned his light off, facing the same void that he could see with his eyes closed. Listening to the silence filled with the sounds of things that were searching for him. While also screwing around in the emptiness of this deceased foundation.

The flashlight remade its illumination on the last locker. Steve broke the small padlock and find a backpack. He took it and searched for any lot that could be precious. Which it was for once.

He found a long shining knife made for the hunt. This, with a pack full of cigarettes and a little box of matches.

-Thank you, Yahweh, for letting bullies be there on Earth. Said the one that took off is belt to place the case and the knife in it. While having a cigarette pause.

He burned it after a mere minute. -15-3-11 And continued to check inside this locker. Finding an umbrella and a pocket book on the up shelf. He took it, reading the title of The Modern Prometheus on the cover.

The work of Mary Shelley got placed inside the backpack. His pack of cigarettes was put in the pocket closed to his high-dumping heart. And his steel pipe being held like a baseball bat.

Making small waves on the surface of this cold and old water. Steve walked towards the door leading to the exit. He didn't leaved his view on the handle that he illuminated, hoping for the best. Which it was the case when he opened half the gate. He wasn't reassured, as by doing so, he could begin to hear footsteps that were approaching.

Tightening his weapon with his right fist. Steve saw two legs that entered the realm of his light. Then it was followed by a moving body that was in it's entirely the one of a girl his age. With a dark hair on her face made of unreal traits.

It raised the two arms towards the one who smashed her face. Thus, putting it on the ground, as he continued to destroy what was left for this being's head. As the human was controlled by the terror that filled in his veins.

Steve walked above what stayed on the ground of a large floor. As the light, could reach the end of a vast hall.

Listening to what he heard in the emptiness of this place. The light bringer turned on his right. Thinking to himself that somewhere, an exit would exist. As such, he comes to a long wall that continued into the rest of the vast place. Seeing an old, vintage public phone, Steve ran towards it. Even if we both know that it was a ruin, just like this place.

He took the phone to place it against is head and is shoulder. Waiting for any form of call that would be for him. Thus, he heard, in a sea of radio parasites;

-Häçè vrèmwu thtu yacwamèwutu tuwy zésoïwyhäçtu...

He took the phone to hanged it up in a clash that screamed into the echoes of this basement. Knowing the sound that he made, Steve fringed in a fear that transformed his bones into ice. Making the young man at the edge of crying. As he thought that they all knew where he was. But as time passed, only the silence came to him. Nothing more and nothing less.

He turned, returning to the door of the changing room that he entered this place with. Seeing the other one that was locked at the other side where the pool was. Steve decided to take a different path. -15-3-11 Thus, he entered the locker room that had a queen painted on the gate.

It wasn't locked, as he calmly opened and stepped inside where the gender was not tolerated. The floor had a dry surface and the ceiling let some footsteps being heard upside. Running randomly in what could be a classroom or a corridor. He couldn’t know and he mostly didn't want to. As knowing more and more about this hell could bring is sanity into his flames.

Deciding that ideas had to be changed; he began to inspect the lookers, hoping for the best. And as he saw one that didn't have any padlock. Steve opened it and looked at the locker that was empty.

As he raised his arms to break the next paddle. The sounds of bestial screams began to be heard everywhere. The footsteps multiplied and those that were above moved their location. Leaving their class as the sound of a door being clashed on the wall could he felt.

Behind, the sound of the gate being open began. -8-1-18 He turned himself to what entered. Seeing firstly an adult woman. With eyes that were as human as they could be.

-Ah…Hello she said. Being surprised as much than the teenager that stepped back.

She too, had her light. From a little flashlight that she holds with her hand and wrist. Due to the little rope that linked the object to the rest of her arm.

The other hand held a shining kitchen knife. Shaking with the fear that the women too, could fear here. As she lowered her weapon, the teenager said without presenting himself;

-So…Do you know if there's an exit other than locked doors?

She lowered her light and began to run towards him. Grabbing his arms while exceeding where he was. She told him not to

-Stop. Don't f*****g stop running. They're after us!

Thus, he followed the woman. They passed the showers and she opened the door. Returning to the pool that had in is place the screams that echoed in here. From some broken windows above where he was.

Steve heard the small waves on the pool. A piece of the school that in its sleep with the eternal darkness, just got waked up by his escape. He continued to run with the one that didn't release his arms. -4-20-8 And as he made it to the other side. He could see a black, transparent silhouette swimming in the pool, towards their direction.

-Nope!

Being now at the back of the pool and the springboards. The two illuminated the surface of a tall double door that was rusted to the deep of its core. She opened the left side, letting him passing first. He saw with the circle of light what seemed to be aquatic toys. Balloons, noodles, divings, you name it! They were all placed on their respective wooden shelves. In a large room that the end could hardly be seen with all the darkness that is present.

-Wait screamed the women. Do go too far, I need you for this.

Steve turned and saw the women that hold with difficulty what seemed to be a metal bar.

He ran to help her, thus placing the heavy object in the two handles. Barricading the doors.

Steve didn't even say a word that she continued to flee. Running to the end of the place. She made a sound that was the one of a gate being opened and being clashed on the wall.

He rejoined her, continuing his running. His light made him see a door that he passed, leading him to a staircase that ascended. With someone that got an advance on him.

She stopped, illuminating where the stairs began. -5-3-9 He took them as she showed him the path with her light as he saw where to go with is.

-Hey, there's a door here that could lead us above she said. As a flash of light illuminated everything here for a half second. Due to the window at the top of the staircase that showed her the rain and a violent storm. He finally rejoined the one that showed him the single gate that he turned the handle to open it.

Then, after passing from the athletic underground to the first floor. The two could hear a thunder that resonated even here. Deep inside this labyrinth of corridors.

Under them, where the staircase led. Animalistic screams could be heard. The sound of metal being teared echoed to them. As they resumed their escape, with a choice of three paths that were forward and on both sides.

The one on the left, as they could see it with their circles of light. Had a door that was half open. They ran towards the entrance of this classroom, closed the gate and locked the handle. She putted her hands on both is shoulders. Putting the teenager down as he turned off his light. A move she imitated without thinking.

Hidden in the eternal shadow. They closed their eyes, only seeing their own blackness. While hearing an infernal horde burning with an energy that screamed indescribable sounds. It's run to the other side of the door. Making the ground under them shivered from the power of their footsteps.

It calmed down. The roars that could be heard were far away. Then the eternal silence came back.

The two opened their light at the other side of the class. They walked to the end of the wall, away from the door and is window. -13-1-20 They resumed their normal breathing that could be the only thing they heard by themselves.

-Jesus Christ! What the f**k ARE theses things? Said the women to the teenager that answered her to tone down with is free hand.

-I don't know…they are fast, aggressive and it's very noisy. But seriously, what do they have at their face? He responded as he walked towards the office of the teacher.

Steve didn't paid any attention on where his feet went. Thus, he stepped on a few pencils that almost made him fall. He retakes balance by holding himself with the side of another desk.

-Be careful about theses for not falling said the women. As her light made her see on what Steve almost had an accident. At this idea, she resumed;

-No, take them! You could make a trap with.

Listening to this advice, Steve took them with the pencil case that was open at their side. He placed it in a pocket that was on the side of his backpack. Close for him to take it immediately.

The teacher office got searched, and a pack of cigarettes with its box of matches were found. The teenager returned to the adult and gave her the fire starters. Offering a smoke too, he was surprised that she refused.

-I stopped smoking a few years ago. But I still have a weakness in my lungs.

-Well, then, thanks for the prevention said Steve, as he let his cigarette falling on the ground. Crushing it with his foot.

-It's out of the question that I get myself breathless and being dead tired in this shithole!

-Yeah…by the way, I'm Scarlett.

-Ah…me it's Steve. You got an idea how to come out of here.

-No, the doors that lead outside were locked. I was thinking about jumping from a window but because of the height of this building. I think that I would just break my legs and being pulled inside by those things.

-s**t…so if the doors are locked. We will need a rope or something like it to go down…ah we will need to return to the athletic part.

-OK. Do as you please but I need to find Anna.

-Huh?

-Have you seen a little girl? Short, blond hair. She just turned eight years old last month.

-…???

-My daughter, Anna. I hid her in an elevator at the first floor. I had to let her be there in security until I find some help outside. If I ever got caught by one of those things, at least my Anna would have a chance. You didn’t see her right?

-Nope, that mean she still in her hideout.

-Ah! Thank you Lord of keeping an eye on my girl in this hell prayed the mother.

She putted her hand in her pocket and take out the picture of a little girl. With blond hair that was attached like a ponytail. The child had an innocent smile rose on her face. A trait that couldn't be found here.

Scarlet showed the image to the teenager to give him a what seems to be a watch.

-If you ever find her, tell her to come with you to get out and call the police. The army, everything!

Steve took it and inspected it with his light. He surrounded his wrist with what showed the numbers of 12:13.

-I took this picture during her eight birthday. She didn't change at all since. Show her the watch if you ever find her as a proof.

-Hey, don't tell me you wanna split just to be more effective?

-No of course not! It's just in the case that if they catch me. At least my child would have someone to believe in. By the way, we will only have to take down the stairs. They are gone now.

-You know where this elevator is?

-Yes, it's not far to the entrance of the staircase that lead to the gymnasium. It was there that it led to you.

-Excellent…now we

And at the middle of the sentence that Steve would have completed. The ceiling collapsed in a chaotic din. -15-26-13 They looked at a part of the aeration that fell. Making a greyish cloud of debris. Then, an acute scream was made from the mouth of a humanoid thing that came out of the conduct. At their horror, the two could begin to hear the dark howlings that were far away.

They came out of the classroom as other parts of the ceiling collapsed behind. They turned towards the double door with their circles of light that swinged all over the walls.

As they reached the gates towards their new escape. The two could see it opening all by the other side. Filled with dark silhouettes in this blackness that only their light saw the bottom of it. With their legs that began to run towards them.

Scarlett, frozen in a cold fear, got retreated by the back that Steve pulled towards himself.

-9-19-21 The two raised their illuminations on the multiple faces that screamed as light touched what was not made for their own.

She turned to run into the abyss of the corridor behind him. As this one made the same decision. Taken by the instinct, Steve turned and was back in the hallway that lead to the classroom which they were compromised. He could still hear the screams of what was stuck up into the fallen aeration.

His lamp continued into the deep of this corridor. Where he couldn't see anything humanoid in front of him. At the end, where it separated both is sides. There was an open door that he entered. Closing it while he turned off is light.

Steve heard all of theses things running on the ground. Shaking it in a low vibration under his own foots. They screamed and howled in their unreal sounds that were not of this world or any that could exist. As they all chased one thing that he began to cry. Knowing that he left her behind. Alone in the dark and its demons.

-f*****g f**k…he thought as a few of them ran in front of the door. Rejoining the others that were far away.

The silence returned, with its lonely howling that could be heard into the deep of the blackness. With the sounds of the terrible storm outside that trembled the walls with its thunders.

Steve turned on his light, looking at what the classroom had. It was mostly made of a bunch of long desks with their old computer on it. He walked thought them, looking at all this vintage technology that his grandparents would have lived at his age.

-Man…how old are theses…things???

At the end of the classroom. They were a large projection screen that was placed on the wall. With an old film projector on the teacher office right in front of it. Steve searched in it and as always, he finds tools into thesis piles of paperworks.

The first was a near-full bottle made of glass, which contained a vodka made from Russia. As he read the cover that was written on it: 45%.

Thinking he could make a cocktail Molotov with it. Steve put the bottle on the office. Took his knife and cut a piece of the bottom of is sweater. He removed the plug, taking a little drink for the taste and spitted it on the ground. As the concentrated beverage continued to burn the surface of is tongue.

-OK screw this he thought. As he let the idea of having a drink in hell being a thing of the past. Due to the part of his sweater being placed as a kindling.

The second object that he found was a box of batteries. The same that the flashlight would need to guide his holder. He opened it and put them in the pocket of his raincoat.

The third and most important of all, was a bunch of keys. They were a lot of them and each at engraved on it the number of their doors. He looked at the numerals and he knew that he now had access to the entire locked door that had the numbers 3000 to 3060.

-And I'm in the third floor of the school. This staircase wasn't that tall therefore...Heh.

Thanking whoever had brought a bottle of vodka, some batteries and the key in its work office. -13-4-5 Steve respected that unknown person and closed the all the drawers. He walked to the only entrance/exit of the classroom to exit where the loot was actually worth it.

His light made him see on where he walked and what was on the walls at the edge of the circle. He could see a fire extinguisher hooked after the surface of bricks. But he knew that even for an effective weapon. It would be too heavy to carry it with him.

He took his knife out. Pointing the tip of the blade towards the ground. Steve holds it with his left hand as is right directed where its light made him see in the surrounding blackness. He continued into this corridor that never seems to end. As their howlings could always be heard where they sound so far in the different floors, yet so close in those walls.

Steve exceeded many doors that were locked. They all led to the classroom, as he looked at the inside towards their windows and is light. After a while, the walls didn't have any lockers on their sides. He wondered why as his improvised progression continued.

The silence broke as he heard another thunder that roared through the walls and the floors of this school. Having terror that spawned from is a heart to is feet's and hands. Steve froze as some of them screamed as a response towards Mother Nature.

As he comes to the end of the hallway, this one returned into the eternal darkness behind is back.

He saw at his left that one of the lockers was rusted to the red. Contrarily to all the others who were green like the needles of the firs. -18-1-20 Steve approached this mystery and he saw that the colour was in fact liquid due that his light reflected on it. He opened the door, seeing inside filled with a pile of oysters. They all had their mouths overflowing the same reddish substance that the locker had on it.

The teenager retreated, putting his hand on his mouth. Smelling the decaying odour that touched his smelling senses. His heart floated even more and nausea took him to the edge of vomiting.

He returned to the end of this hallway. Letting the darkness behind recovering this anomaly in an unreal school. He saw at his left that another began, if he decided to, this path would only lead him into the deep of the building, with them. At his right, there was a double door that was opened in half. He walked to enter the other side. Where a staircase began to go down as his light showed him the descend.

Steve began to walk downstairs. Knowing that the exit was at the first floor and not the one that he left. Having light in his heart that rose from the darkness of desperation. He quickly had a blackness that counter-attacked when his flashlight showed him a staircase that was destroyed in the middle.

He illuminated the other side that was too far for him to reach. Even if he had the high ground, jumping will only lead to the abyss under where the staircase is destroyed. He didn't want to have broken legs where he really needed them. -20-1-3 The only thing that could help him in this way. Was the large cable that hanged itself, motionless from the darkness over the stairs.

As much of the unknown that laid in the dark where his light cannot even reach the ground.

Returning to where he came while cursing. Steve took the handle and turned it. As he passed from a dead end to the third floor, a gun shot killed the silence for a brief second. It was murdered a second time when they all screamed, laughed and howled their inhuman sounds.

He stood there, looking at the vast hallway that he took. Hearing them all, Steve retreated to the stairs and closed the door slowly. Knowing that his light couldn't be at the other side. As he began to sense the vibration of their footsteps under his own feet's.

He turned towards the broken stairs, illuminating them as he did to the ceiling. Made of ruins and metallic irons that came out of it. Like a stalactite in a scholar cave.

Steve got an idea, as he ran to the cable. Expanding his arm for grabbing what the brought towards his side of the stairs. The chased one forced the cable out of the ceiling. Which was a failure for his arm, but a victory for his security. He retreated as he walked up the stairs, took a deep breath and leap himself over the fallen staircase.

When he was above the other side, being into an empty space, only for having grabbed the cable. Steve released it as he jumped the last stairs that he fell on.

-Ahnnnn…ouch! He said when he raised himself up.

In front of him stood the double door that lead to the second floor. Where those who take the stairs behind him were mostly going at the time (probably). Steve turned, seeing an opportunity to go down the first floor.

Only to see that the stairs were as destroyed as those above his. Cursing a combination of swears, Steve grumbled, returned to the gates and opens them. -11-2-24 Entering the second of the five floors of Saint-Akzena.

As he felt a cold that froze his bones. Steve retreated back at the entrance. Surprised of the winter-like temperature that could be « touched » from every part of his skin.

Seeing a little mist when he expired his fear. The teenager asked to himself how the hell could a floor of a place like this one can have a temperature as colder than Death.

-I should stop asking stupid questions and get the f**k out of here with that child of her…

He continued to walk in this corridor that was like the others. With their lockers and doors leading to classrooms and the offices of the teachers. And of course, just to make all of this even more hellish to his conscience. Other hallways came from nowhere at his sides and continued from left to right and right to the left. Knowing that he was completely lost where they weren't inside those walls. Steve continued to walk, as he still holds his sang froid. Closing the zipper of a raincoat that wasn't enough to kept him warm. The boy saw with his light an open door on his left side. He goes though it and entered as the gate got closed in the glacial silence.

Like a lot of the class he got in, Steve saw a few tables with two places that they each got. All of them had their unique candlestick filled with long old-school candles. He didn't understand their presences here. In a place that as simply become a tomb to itself. Steve walked towards the teacher office, driven by his curiosity.

There were a lot of documents about candles that he found on a student's desk. Some were as big and filled with information than a dictionary. He opened one, looking at long and endless paragraphs with illustrations of how a candle burn with time. The book got closed and it returned on the paperwork. As the reader couldn't understand why a science teacher would teach this torture to young people like him who presumably, didn't give a thing on the outdated subject. So, he decided to inspect the drawers in the teacher office.

Where a corridor locker laid on the table could be found. With a hundred near melted candles recovered its locked door. Steve, with his conscience hurt, looked at the padlock that worked with letters;

C E D U L R

Understanding what the password was. He put his knife aside, turned the little cylinders with his left hand. As the right showed him what letters were put in the good order;

C A N D L E

Finding this puzzle way too easy, the genius took off the unlocked padlock from the locker. Grabbing back his knife (in case of) and he opened the door. At the first sight inside, he could saw an elbow. Steve dropped it as fast as his fear drove him to. He retreated, knowing what was inside. He closed his eyes, seeing only his own blackness. His mouth took a deep breath and his hands returned to the lockers. Filled with an improvised ruthlessness, Steve opened the tomb, here he found a corpse of an old man mummified by his own skin.

His arms protected his chest, while they both hold what seemed to be an old vintage photo album. An object that the teenager took by moving the cold, death arms of the corpse with his left. As the right pointed the neck with the tip of his short blade.

He closed the tomb, putting the padlock back to his place and locked it. He then walked away from the dead and placed the album on a desk where he lighted the candlestick. Thinking about how much he wished to light a Menorah right now.

Steve also took a cigarette out of his pocket. Still feeling the freezing temperature of the floor.

Expiring the smoke from his nose, he wondered why a man wished that his tomb was a locker.

-And how the hell could someone bring a death man upstairs, and covered it with candles, just to show it to its students…Ah f**k me…

The teenager wondered why the man protected this album to his last breath. So, he opened the pages that had in them pictures in their squared Polaroid format. The first that his eyes saw where two teens of his aged in extravagant costumes. The boy had a shirt with a traditional red bow tie. The girl had a beautiful dress that could only be present at an activity as silly than the prom. Which could be seen at the back of the picture. With colourful lighting effects and a set that made the dream come true to a lot of teenage girls. And a dark silhouette that could be seen in the window of a door at the right of the picture. It had two black holes at the height of where eyes could be found and a huge hole that clearly made the mouth of his specter.

Frozen by the cold and the fear. Steve fixed this entity that looked at the two lovers during this unique night. The second picture was one that perfectly framed the edge of the lockers in the corridors. While having his deepness at the middle of the squared photo. Making it more alive than anything he saw. Mostly due to that bench at the left side of the wall. With a girl that was seated on it. While reading a magazine with the name Beatles Monthly written on.

A title that also made all the dark silhouettes down the hallway looking inside. As they all pointed her with their transparent bodies. Steve finished his cigarette and took another one while shaking more of the terror he felt than the frosting temperature of death that began to enter him.

At the bottom of the page, under that haunted picture. There was an article from a newspaper that the flanges were clearly cut with a pair of scissors.

The Newspaper of Saint-Akzena

Saturday, 19 May 1954

It's been two day since the disparities of the Creen family. The autorities are continuing their research in the school of Saint-Akzena. The closest building of the mansion that where the Creen lived.

Their house was found sacked by their daughters with bullet impacts on the walls. The investigation show that the ammunition and the weapon belonged to Nelson Creen. A 52-year-old man that according to authorities didn't have any criminal record.

The commissioner has made a press conference saying that the main suspects were a criminal gang with the age of minors that are possibly frequenting the school of Saint-Akzena. Police officers also affirm that many drug offences were made on the scene of the crimes. As if they were related to the same occult rituals that were discovered theses last months.

The vanishing of the Creen family, which was first reported the 17th may. Are still a mystery and the police forces continued to investigate the case.

He saw at the bottom of the article a picture of the Creen couple, when the two adults were young. Sited behind a table outside, under a summer sky filled with white clouds and a blueish sky. What horrified the teenager, was the resemblance between the young man in the picture and what was dead inside his own tomb beside the boy.

A tomb that made a knock-knock from the inside.

He turned towards the locker, as both his hands shacked. Steve took his knife and stabbed the hell out of the locker door. Piercing the metallic surface that didn’t have anything the other side. Due to the lack of blood that his blade didn't have on his surface when he removed his weapon.

Being now in a whirlwind of questions, Steve opened the door. Seeing that the body wasn’t there to be seen. Having a surface of papers and an old film cylinder on it. He took it, seeing that it was written on it;

Attack on our house

He closed the door of the locker and the 8mm film reel got placed in his backpack. He checked one last time the pictures. Seeing once again the family picture, which this time, had the father pointed the one that saw him. While having a grinning smile dressed on his face. The old man had it, all the way until his image disparate on the picture.

The teenager wanted to scream, with all the terror he had inside his heart. But he simply took the album and throw it at the end of the classroom. He rose up from his chair and ran towards the door. Where he opened it, he saw in front of him a face empty of humanity. With the blackness that made its eyes, it was going to scream. But a knife pierced a neck that bleed darkness. Making it falling on the ground as louder than a tree die collapsing. Steve putted his weapon out of the beast, wiped the black coloured blood with his raincoat and continued the journey.

He walked over it, as he could hear the screams that their sounds raised in the volume. Like the dark orchestra of Death, with Him as the maestro of his life ending symphony. As such a realization, when the howling's became much closer. Steve knew that one of them, far into the hallway, saw him murdering one of his many, many brethren.

He returned into the classroom. Knowing to be in a better security here with a death-old man that laughed in is only tomb. Then outside in the corridors with theses things running's towards where he was. Seeing a table at his side, he pushed it to the only door of the class. Barricading himself for a short period of time.

Steve looked for a way out, as the first footsteps could be heard in the hallway next door. Illuminating everything, he saw an exit as he putted his light on an aeration conduct that was placed on the ceiling. He climbed a table under it, placed his flashlight between are feet's. Just so he could see what he forced his arms to snatch it out. -20-8-5 As they began to punch and scream on the double-locked door.

The teenager took it off, let it fall on the ground and he retake his flashlight. Putting it inside the aeration with his knife, he jumped and raised himself up inside. Where he felt like a rabbit chased by all the hunters in the world. Inside a long and narrow gallery of terriers.

He first realizes they weren't any form of dust in these conducts. They were probably the cleanest aeration he ever saw. Even if it was the first time of his life that he ever been inside one of them.

Feeling like an infiltration agent in his favourite games. Steve breathed normally, like the rest in the school. He didn't realize it before, do that he couldn't have time to think. He didn't have any headache due to some absence of air here. And up here in the ceiling of the second floor, it was warm like any summer night. Contrarily under him, where a winter like temperature could be lived.

As he continued to crawl in the conduct what the little walls shined by his light. Steve saw that the end plunged into the darkness under him. Thinking it was a classroom, he retracted his body, turning on himself and began to crawl backward. Where his feet's and legs quit the ceiling to hang into an empty space. Not knowing what was under where he wanted to go.

Knowing that going into the unknown would probably lead him to what's waiting for us all after death. The teenager climbed himself up into the narrow conduct. Where it simply felt at the middle, crushing the ceiling under him. Due to its heavy weight of equipment and muscles.

What paralyzed him with terror were the sounds of some parts from a fragile ceiling. They didn't fell into the empty corridor or a classroom. The sound they made with the echoes took time to be made. As much than a brick being dropped into the deepest well in our world. Oh! And that must be well pretty large from the inside. Because for Steve, it was large like an auditorium in a cinema.

He took the side of the conduct by putting his hands on it. 3-8-5 Then, he hoisted himself up, as his chest slipped on the ground of what cracked from everything. He finally reached where it was stable to be in. Knowing that a gigantic void wad under him. Thus, he continued forward, trespassing the entrance he made. While still hearing all theses things that were smashing themselves on the door.

Thinking to himself about the risk that he meets one face to face in that aeration. Steve had the idea to pick his knife up, and bite the blade with his teeth's, like a pirate. He was going to take such a strategy and when he came to take is only weapon. He realized it wasn't there anymore, being always held by his right hand.

-f*****g piece of s**t !!! f**k f**k f**k f**k f**k !!!...At least, I still got my light…he thinks, as he knew now that a vital item was now lost into a large void filled with the eternal blackness.

Steve stopped to reflect.

Knowing that at the first aeration trap that will be under him will only lead him back to the second floor. He will need to go down a part of the aeration that simply drop itself into another level of endless, narrows paths.

-Yes, but if I do that, that will mean a big fall. Who knows how much the height of this school is from the outside. Even if it was only two or three matters between here and downsides. That's mean it's going to hurt AND make one hell of a noise. They will know that I'm inside theses conducts and climb themselves in…

OK, screw that!

He continued crawling, knowing that at the first trap he finds. He's going to have to return into the corridors and classrooms. Which he made the decision, when he finally found one into this labyrinth that was inside another.

Steve illuminated the other side, seeing the surface of a few desks. -5-18-14 He putted of the trap beside this exit he made, passed his legs, and let himself falling in the classroom, all without having to kill the silence.

His light showed him walls that were made of old styled bricks. With posters of different countries on the world. He looked at where the office of the teacher was. When it got found, it's drawers got opened. Showing him only tons and tons of corrected homeworks. Empty-handed from that, Steve looked at anything else with his light that illuminated the majority of the place. One that had as a door a double one. He walked between the desks, reached it and he opened the left side. Thus, returning into the corridors of the second floor.

This time, as he began to felt the cold once more. Steve could see his reflection on the tiles. The one of a broken boy, holding the only light here, with a face filled with horror and the same eyes that said, « I'm in hell, please help me ».

He leaned towards himself; touching the mirrored ground due to his slim surface of water.

-What the…How?

Steve walked forward, arriving to an explanation. The ceiling in this part of the school collapsed by itself. Being ruined from the inside by the cancer of time. A few trickles of water came from where it felt. He came close by, touching the water that wasn't cold at the first second it came here. Knowing that what he had contact with came from the outside, at the mere present he was living.

He couldn't resist to drink it. Holding his hand by showing his palm, he drank the rain water. It made him cry, just having something that came from all the life outside, the mountains, the forests, the rivers, the people too. All things we live with, but that could not be with this cold hell made of blackness and its unreal beings.

The corridor wasn't particle anymore. Because the teenager could not reach the other side of where it got blocked. Steve turned back, taking the other direction. When he came by the double door, he checked the number of the class; 2046

-OK so if the first floor is in the 1000. That's mean the numbers of the second are in the 2000. Yeah, I'm an in a floor over. Still, I've got to find a stair and find her…

The hallway, at its end, continued by taking the left. It began to be naked of lockers on both sides of the walls. Where two doors, close to one another, were present. With their paintings of a man in his luxurious kimono and one with a woman in her beautiful Japanese traditional dress.

As such, he entered the toilet for girls. Where none urinals could be found. When he walked inside, the sounds of cracking's were headed. He looked with its light on a ground covered with a mirror broken in an infinite of pieces.

-Seven years of misfortune multiplied by at least a good thousand…Damn!

They were all a part of the gigantic reflection that was once been on the wall. Where only a rectangular frame could be found. He walked towards it, while not carrying on what was under his feet's. Thinking to himself that he had not made any visit to the bathroom today. The teenager opened the door of one of the toilets. Where his light showed firstly a pair of legs, sat in front of the place. They were both having a grey scale on their skin. As such, Steve closed it, turned away and saw the bathroom sinks.

-Hi hi hi hi hi he giggles, as the teenager made what he needed to.

However, even at this, he could stop thinking about what was behind. So, in a deep breath, hoping for not screaming in the silence. With a heart filled with all the horrors. Steve reopened the door and illuminated the deceased girl.

She wore a summer skirt that his grandma would have worn during her old times at his age. With her left hand put on her right arm. -5-1-4. He saw the little needle that she kept in her hand. Knowing that even during the drug trip and in death. You are still and always will be a prisoner of this reality composed of screams and blackness.

He left the toilets, now regretting his curiosity of exploring what's made for girls only. Steve continued to walk into the deep of this corridor. A way that led him to a double door on the wall, with lockers both its sides.

He took the right door, due that it was already open. When he passed to the other side. His white light that he brought began to turn into an orange one. Panicking of the idea of being alone in the dark, without the presence of a living light. Steve took off his backpack and turned off his flashlight. With his sense of touching, he chooses the batteries that he changed by improvising his fingers and being blind her in the eternal shadows.

The artificial light returned reborn. As the phoenix that exorcised the darkness away with his illumination. « Yehi 'or » said the teenager, in a Hebrew that meant « Let there be Light ».

It was another hallway that he was in. Unlike the others, there wasn't any lockers on both sides. And none doors, leading to classrooms or any stairs, could be found of the walls. He crossed it, being after in front of two ways that separated where he was.

He didn't know which side to take. The one on the left or the right. As much he hated to ignore the real answer. Steve improvised his survival as always, thus he turned his trek towards the right. Where the lockers began to re-manifest themselves.

They, like all the others, had padlocks under their handles. He knew that breaking one would simply alert his position. The only one that he actually inspected, was one with a protection that was absent. It wasn't a surprise for him. The door was already bent towards its own inside. He asked to himself what kind of creature could possibly do such damage. It couldn't be one of the things with the same eyes as all the darkness surrounding them. With their faces as whiter than paper.

As he opened the gate, a strong and loud creaking howled itself into the vast silence of the corridor. As such, something screamed back.

A few responded to it. But they continued their pitiful melody filled with death. What called the teenager however, didn't stopped. The roars were getting closer and closer. And loud beams on the lockers in the darkness came where he was.

Knowing that one them was coming, Steve closed his light and opened the rest of the gate, in a cracking sound painful to the ears. A thing that what headed had it clearly.

The teenager hidden inside the empty locker and closed the gate. Turning off his light, as no defence other than escaping where possible. And that's what happened, it walked in front of his hideout. Where he couldn't see a thing with the absence of light. But heard everything into this blackish hell singing the symphony of death. And after what felt like an eternity, the thing continued to wander far away into the deep of silence.

He left his hideout and continued what he began first. Towards the direction of the opposite than what was behind. Where only customized classrooms doors could be found in the walls. Painted by the students for any kind of artistic project.

-At least, they had a rule for not making the same with the door of a stairway…Man they better didn't…

The hallway finished, only to continue on his left. Forwards of him, Steve could see a massive painting composed in the wall, naked of lockers. It's seemed to be one of those Chinatown you had visited in any big cities. With their lights on the wall death, as their Pinying writing unreadable due to the darkness that also lurked in this fictional world. With a sky made of dark clouds that rained on the streets. Steve could at least recognize the silhouettes of some cheerleaders in the district empty of human life. Due that the girls didn't have any iris in their eyes painted only with white.

What they held in their hands was falling towards the ground. Their pom poms, dripping some reddish drops, where dancing to a wind that couldn't be felt. One even hold an unborn infant in her arm. She was the last on them to be seeing in the background. Steve walked towards Her, curious to this little detail and saw the face of the fetus. That had the mouth with the teeth are those of an adult, and eyes replaced with the same.

A phone began to ring, here in a death place. Steve freaked out towards where it came from and he directed his light to where it was.

The old-school public phone continued to sing. As those screaming far away didn't seemed to care about this call from the void. Unlike the one who took it and pull the speaker on his ear.

-…Hello?

- ♫ Every time I lay on the grass, cold of the night’s darkness ♫

I watch the lights among the black veil of the dreams

Knowing that, they all remember me from my presence

From all that I bloomed within their lives

♫ During a time when the oldest of stars were young... ♫

-Sang the trinity of the girls voices.

He hung up to this and as such, he looked and illuminated back the baby, who was chanting it all over again.

He retreated while swearing, turned to where it continued and ran away. Crying instead of screaming all the terror that his heart had. This eternity ended where he found another double door that he entered. Praying to find a place of peace and serenity that he could find here. Instead, he finds himself in front of a few rows of lockers. All in the same vast room that the ceiling was much higher than the corridor behind. And with the cherry on the top of the cake. Dark howling's could be heard in the condensate echoes of this place.

-A labyrinth in a labyrinth…fuck me…

He walked towards the left. Knowing that by going straight ahead, he will simply attract their attention. Thus, the one of the entire « students » population here. Knowing that if a large double door was at his side. Another one would be at the other side, for the people to come here first and to come out the other way and vice versa for each gate.

His circle of light illuminated the ground, not wanting it to escape on the other rows of lockers and being easily spotted on the ceiling. He followed the length of the row, as he heard them at the other side of this room. With the sounds of thunder that reached deep into this cavern filled with demons.

When he reached the end of this endless row, Steve turned his light where a double door should be found in this blackness. However, the sound of a handle being turned rose from the unique silence of this place. He quickly turned off his artificial light and put his hand on his mouth and nose. Blocking any chance of breathing heavily with fear.

It walked, making footsteps that were more and more distant. Rejoining the others, then the sounds of a door being opened far away could be heard. Steve resumed his normal breathing, having the need to have another smoke. He turned on his light and walked in silence towards an open exit. Where in the edge of the circle that showed him the way, he could find a locker without any door.

Guided by his curiosity, Steve looked with his eyes and light at the inside what showed him a chain-hanged 8mm film canister. He took it off the attachment that the metallic link had with a fish hook at the end. He removed the lid and saw a film coil. -19-8-5 He closed it, removed his backpack and placed it in.

He looked back at the locker, seeing if anything other was there. Which it was indeed the case. With a sports bag at the bottom that had the handle of a baseball bat that came out of the zipper. He opened it and took the wooden weapon. Smiling of this discovery, he changed the hand that hold the flashlight and put the end of his new defence on his shoulder.

-Can't wait to smash the hell out of their face…No…I don't want to meet one…

As such, he walked towards where he left the chamber of lockers.

Where screams and howling's were there for an infinity.