A Descent

Chapter 2- Bleeding Through

7:20 am
The time of day that Dan was most familiar with, yet hated the most. Time to get up and ready for college. Dan woke up, hazy and barely conscious, just as he did every college morning. Last night's dream was still in his mind, but it was dissapating in his mind and within mere minutes, most of it was erased from his memory, or rather archived deep within his subconscious. He packed himself a few snacks and a bottle of energy drink to get himself through the day. The thing with Dan is that he doesn't NEED energy drinks to get himself through the day, he merely THINKS that he needs them. The truth of that situation is that he loses track of time every night because he plays video games a lot in his spare time, resulting in late nights and early morning. As such, he simply takes a good hour or two to wake up fully. He arrived at college, walked into his tutor's room and sat down. He entered a state that would be best described as a state of inconceivably deep thought, except he wasn't thinking of anything, yet his mind was never empty. He was thinking of everything and nothing simultaneously, the human brain is the most powerful computer in existence and works in the most insane ways known to man, but maybe Dan's was even more powerful, and many times more insane. The day proceeded as per usual, lectures, rants and moaning. Dan spent his entire college morning the same way he spent his tutor time. Thinking. He didn't even attempt to do any work, he just sat, almost serene. He looked as though he was at peace, as though he was one with the world and the boundaries and dimensions known to man. The truth, as he would soon find out, was the complete opposite.
Break time eventually came and Dan threw on his Olive parka jacket, grabbed his green back and got ready to leave. His teacher, however, had a different idea. "Dan, could you do me a favour and sit back down for a minute, I need to speak with you" his teacher, Mr.Black asked him.
"Wha- oh yeah sure" Dan replied, clearly still not fully awake. "I'm just gonna head down to the canteen to grab a coffee, are you alright to wait here for 2 minutes?" Mr. Black asked him, although this was less of a question and more of a statement.
"Mhmm" is pretty much the only vocal response Dan could manage, although a nod of the head accompanied this answer.
Mr. Black gave Dan a thumbs up and left the room. Dan placed his bag on the chair next to him and sat looking at it. He was thinking about how much his bag reminds him of Joel's from The Last Of Us when the sound of the door closing snapped him out of his video game induced trance. For a split second he thought nothing of it when he realised that Mr. Black had left well over 10 minutes ago now. In fact, he hadn't even seen anyone pass by the classroom, which was only down the hallway from the canteen, he should have seen many students pass by on their way to grab a drink or something. Maybe the classes had to stay a little longer, but EVERY class staying behind? He hadn't heard a single sign of human life for 20 minutes. As a matter of fact, he hadn't even heard the clock ticking, which was notoriously loud. The lights began to flicker, slowly at first, before becoming more rapid. This only lasted a few seconds before they began pulsating and emitting an electrical hum. Dan was sure he'd hear someone complaining about this fault any minute now, as every single light in the corridor suffered the same fate. After a few seconds, the lights began functioning normally again, and yet, still not a single sign of anyone. Dan stood up out of his chair, grabbed his bag and poked his head out of the door, hoping to go grab a snack when he saw Mr. Black walking down the hallway, returning to the classroom. Dan stepped out in the hallway to tell Mr. Black of his plan when he noticed that the teacher was watching him. Like a hawk. Dan sighed when he noticed something unnerving. The teacher's gaze upon him seemed bleak and barren. Dan stepped aside early to let him back in the classroom when he realised that Mr. Black's stare hadn't moved. That's when Dan realised that his teacher wasn't looking AT him, he was looking THROUGH him. Dan didn't have enough time to muse upon this thought, as the lights once again went out, and silence fell around him once again, there were no footsteps, no sign of the door being opened. Now that he came to think about it, he realised that Mr. Black had actually returned empty handed. Dan carried on to the canteen anyway, he needed caffeine and there is no better way to get it than to grab a coffee, he could only hope that the canteen hadn't suffered from a power shortage too. Dan approached the canteen and pushed the door, it didn't budge. "Seriously, it's locked in the middle of break? The lights are on but there's no one in there" he thought. Suddenly, the fire alarm went off and an announcement came over the college's PA system. "This is a fire drill, all students evacuate the the fire assembly point. I repeat, this is a drill, there is no danger, everyone evacuate to the fire assembly point"
Dan laughed at the irony, having not seen a single student since the rest of his class left his last lesson. He proceeded to the fire assembly point anyway, which was at the other end of the college. He was glad to see that the lights were functioning properly again as he made his way through the college, it was convenient to say the least. He rounded the corner to the last corridor before the exit when he couldn't help but cough, a horrible smell was in the air. The smell of burning plastic and burning rubber, yet there was no smoke, and so he wondered if this was a new drill technique made to create a sense of urgency during fire drills. He stopped and started to heave as a new smell begin to fill his nose, worse than the previous smells that caused him to cough, although he wasn't familiar with this new smell. He carried on regardless, wanting to evade the smell and get some fresh air in his lungs when he caught a glimpse of a thin smog seeping from under the door to the assembly hall. "Are they using the smoke machine too? Jesus they've stepped their game up a notch". He spared a moment to look through the window in the door before leaving. As he peered through the window to the hall, he caught his first glimpse of human life for a while.........and human death.
At first, it was hard to see inside as the smoke was thick and intense. All he could see was a pile of liquid containers. He wondered if it had anything to do with the smoke machine. As the room cleared up, he could see that he was looking at a pile of discarded Jerry cans, some with petrol dripping from the nozzle, the slight yet ever so distinct pink tint to the liquid was present. Then his eyes wandered up and he saw two members of staff from the engineering and maintenance department, welding masks on and blowtorches in hand. Then he realised what the putrid smell was. In the middle of the room was a mountain of bodies. His classmates, some already dead, others bleeding and the rest unconscious, all doused and glazed in petrol. The engineers turned their blowtorches towards the pile of pupils, and the horrendous smell resurfaced. Dan heaved again, this time it was due to the sight. So many questions flooded through his mind, but before he could even begin to think of the answers, something, he was crippled by a sense of déjà-vu. The pupil atop the pile, Jack, woke up, still aflame. His eyes met Dan's and his mouth moved. Dan instantly knew what he said, and shed a tear. "Help me". Those were Jack's last words to Dan before he finally died from his injuries. Dan finally entered a hysterical state when the engineers noticed him and lumbered towards him. Dan tried to run but, before he knew it, the engineers had beaten him to the ground and thrown him atop the pile of fresh corpses, before he too was doused in petrol. The engineers looked at him for a few seconds, gelatinous blood seeping from the visors of their rusted masks. One engineer raised his blowtorch, aiming it straight at Dan's face. Dan took his final breath and blinked. As he opened his eyes again, he was standing outside the shop with a cigarette in his mouth, his best friend attempting to light it for him. Her name is Aurora, but Dan called her Rory, unless he was going out of his way to annoy her, then he would call her Aurora in his best "upper class gentleman" accent. She was only a tiny bit shorter than Dan, with shoulder length flicky hair, a balance of blonde at the top and a more brown-ish shade at the bottom.
"Hello, earth to Dan, stop being a knobhead all your life" she said, a cheeky smile spread across her face. Dan blinked himself into obvlivion, his heart was racing and he was extremely disoriented, yet he did his best to hide it. "Sorry, what?" Dan asked her, trying to pass his shocked state off as just being tired. As the cigarette was successfully lit, Aurora questioned him. "Dan, you seem distracted today, what's up?" She asked.
"Just feel more tired than usual today. Either that or I'm brain dead" he answered. "You do realise that you have to have a brain to be brain dead?" Rory giggled at Dan. "Yeah well you suck and also you suck, ya bastard" Dan had cheered up a bit, Aurora had that effect on pretty much everyone, she could probably make Kanye West crack a smile if she wanted to. Which she didn't. The shop door swung open and out stepped a student, it was Jack. "Right, come on then, we'd better head back in, we've got about 10 minutes left of break, plus Mr. Black wants to speak with Dan." At this point, Dan struggled to hide the distraught feelings he held on to right now. "So, uhhhh, Jack. How long have we been outside this shop?" Dan asked.
"Fuck off, I was in there for like 1 minute you haven't been waiting that long"
Aurora chuckled once again.
"Well we'd better go in, Mr. Black isn't happy with you sneaking off while he was in the canteen. Even I'll admit, that's a dick move, he was only in there for 30 seconds, I got a coffee right after he did and then I saw you walking up to here"

The trio headed back into college, Dan spoke with Mr. Black about his distant behaviour and Dan gave him the same excuse he gave Aurora. Mr. Black accepted it and sent Dan on his way.

Later that night, Dan was laying in bed when he re played the events of today in his head when he got that déjà-vu feeling again. He then checked his dream journal, he wrote down his nightmares and dreams because he had so many, when he came across the nightmare he had the previous night. It was a very short description, the shortest in fact. He read the description and what he saw shook him to the core.

"School. Alone. Fire drill. No lights. Engineers. Pile of classmates. Burning bodies."
He then read the last line, and all colour left his body.
"Jack, awake, fire, help me"
Dan slammed the book shut and attempted to get some sleep, hoping he would have a normal sleep tonight.