No More Hiding In The Shadows

My breath rose into the air like smoke as I walked to school that cold November morning. It reminded me of my sister; she took great joy from pretending to be a dragon on these wintry days. A smile crept onto my numb face. The air was just slightly too cold, and every breath sent a spike of pain into my chest. I didn't care though; it was just like every other morning in this miserable country. I hugged my folders harder to my chest, hoping to retain the last tiny bit of body heat I had, but to no avail.

My phone beeped softly in my pocket. Tranferring all my folders precariously to my left hand, I fumbled and struggled with my gloved hands to get to my phone. I could have just stopped and put my folders down, but I'm not terribly bright in the morning.

An orange window had popped up on the small screen:

Jess: Tell Mrs A tht my stick insect died or summat, nt walking to schl in THIS!

I chuckled quietly to myself and keyed out a quick reply;

I'll just tell her you're being a lazy arsehole, then? Gettup yer fat toad. Almost immediatley her reply came back;

JEESE yes Mother. C u in hell!

I carried on walking, but as I turned the corner into the park, a sudden wave of nausea and dizziness came over me and I collapsed in a heap on a nearby bench. Something just wasn't right and whatever it was, I didn't like it at all...

The cars! It suddenly became clear. There weren't any cars.

Strange, I thought, normally this road is packed... Is it a bank holiday or something?

I picked up my phone and dialled Jess' number. She picked up almost immediatley.

"A'rite?" she yawned down the phone, evidently still eating breakfast, judging by the crunching sounds coming down the phone.

"Hey, listen, is it a bank holiday?" I asked, looking up and down the street. Not a soul to be seen. Come to think of it, I hadn't seen anyone all morning. Although the absence of my parents wasn't anything new; they went to work every morning before I woke.

"Not even a 'Good morning'? Fuckin' hell mate."

"Sorry. Good morning. Now, is it a bank holiday?"

More crunching. "What? No, why?"

I picked up my folders and carried on walking the last few hundred yards to school.

"That's weird..."

"What's weird?"

"There aren't any cars about."

I heard her obnoxious hyena laugh down the phone. "That's what you rung me about? You're a freak."

"Shut up! I'm serious, its starting to scare me a little bit... Wait. No, all the car are in their driveways. That's really weird."

She laughed again. "You wanna know what's truly distressing? My mum already left, like, before I woke up! Bad parenting right there, she didn't even make me breakfast. No! I had to pour my own milk!"

Now it was my turn to laugh. "You jammy fucker!" I giggled as I turned the corner into school. "Anyway, I'm at school now, so get your butt down here."

"Already? Gurl, you is too eager. Alright, I'll be down in ten."

"Wait." I approached the door carefully, suddenly feeling too scared to actually enter.

The lights weren't on, and I'd always hated the dark with a passion. Ever since I was a small child, I'd seen horrors I knew weren't there. Nevertheless, I would stay there, huddled under my covers, wide awake and terrified, until the light came again. The light was my friend. It slew all the monsters and it protected me. That's one of the reasons I detested winter so much. It was always dark, and I would always see awful creatures everywhere. Every dark corner, every nook and cranny, every alleyway would have clawed hands reaching out to try and rip me to pieces. I would hear growls and hisses that would haunt me for the rest of the night, but never even happened... I knew it was just my eyes playing cruel tricks on me or my brain going into overdrive, but it didn't stop me being immobilised in fear everytime something went bump in the night...

"The lights aren't on. Jess, there's no-one here..." I breathed, tentatively reaching my hand out to touch the door and retracting it almost immediately, feeling the intense cold behind it.

How can a wooden door be that cold?

"Go on in then; turn the lights on. The cleaners obviously haven't got to that part of school yet."

"I dunno..." I looked around the door, inspecting every last inch. "Something just doesn't seem right..."

"I'll be down there in five," she chuckled. "But you're making a massive fuss over nothing. Wait for me in the cold if you really want."

"I'd rather."

"Fine. Freak!" She laughed before disconnecting.

I sighed in frustration and lowered the phone. I went back to peering through the window with childlike curiosity, my face so close to the window that my breath was clouding up the glass. The shadows seemed darker, thicker, more sinister than normal shadows. But - above all -what was making me most uneasy, was that the shadows were *throbbing*. Definitely moving. It was as though they were breathing.

Alive. 

In and out. In and out.

I blinked, unable to comprehend what I was seeing. A trick of the light, surely. But still the shadows continued to steadily wrap themselves around the room. Suddenly a firm hand grabbed my shoulder. I spun around with a yelp. I was greeted by a laugh and thankfully, a familiar face.

"God, you nearly jumped a foot in the bloody air. What's up with you?" she giggled, arms crossed.

I laughed nervously, breathing on my hands and rubbing them together. She shivered, stomping her feet to stop them going numb. She looked over at the door, a wicked smirk on her face.

"So how about we go in?"

"Jess, I--"

"God, you're a wimp sometimes, Charlie... Where's your sense of adventure?"

She grinned widely at me, trying to pressure me into going in. I snorted in contempt, trying to avert my gaze, but it was no good. She left the silence hanging, piling in the pit of my stomach like rocks, until I could stand it no longer. I tried a different tack. Anything to avoid going in there.

"Look, Jess, I saw something in there. Something... Something bad. I can't explain it, but just trust me. We do NOT wanna go in there."

She studied my face hard, for the first time stopping to think. "If this is a plot to get out of school, I--"

"It's not. I promise you that."

"Are you sure? 'Cause if it is, I can't help you. I've already had three black marks this term and the next one is a suspension."

"Trust me. There-- there's this shadow thing in there. Look for yourself. It's not normal."

Jess did as I asked, strolling slowly over to the window and looking inside. "And the door! The door, it's cold, like, almost too cold to touch. But it's wooden, Jess. Wood doesn't get that cold."

She ran her hands lightly down the door, shuddering slightly.

"You're right," She said breathlessly, staring dumbfoundedly at the door. "What do we do?" She looked back at me, her grin gone.

"Fuck. I dunno. Overnight, everyone's disappeared and there are weird breathing shadow things in our school."

She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing.

“We don't know what this is, right? There must be a scientific explanation for all of this... We gotta go in.” She looked back at me for approval.

“Are you crazy?” I gaped at her. I knew she looked for trouble, but this was way beyond that. “We don't know what it is. That's the whole point. Have you never seen a horror movie? You don't go into the spooky house. You don't.”

 “This is real life. There's no-one else around. C'mon, what else are we meant to do?”

I sighed deeply. Like always, she had twisted it so that she was right. I walked over to the door and closed my fingers around it.

“If we die, I'm going to kill you.” I swung the door open, beckoning her to follow, and we went in.