Concealed in darkness

A first encounter

After everyone finished eating Athena, Harley, and Toni  took a stroll around the school, talking and looking into rooms that were usually closed along with snooping around the front office looking for anything interesting to fiddle with. After a little while things started to get a little strange. For example they were messing around in a class room when a book randomly fell of its shelf. As they walked passed rooms the lights would occasionally flicker and every so often they caught a horrible scent, almost smelling like rotten flesh—
They continued wandering around school, a little quieter than before. And soon enough everyone started to get drowsy and started walking back to their things. As the girls made their way to their little setup in the commons they couldn't help as to feel they were being watched. Regrettably nobody said anything not wanting to spook the other and went on.
    "Maybe this was a bad idea..." Hayley croaked, as they went on down a very dimly lit hallway.
    "You know for once I agree with Harley, if we get caught we'd be in serious trouble." Toni lisped, rubbing her arms trying to get rid of the goosebumps that had appeared.
Athena was hesitant, they'd already gone through so much just to get into the school.
    "Alright then, maybe we should leave. But before we go I could try and erase the security footage of us..?" Athena said, trying to read the expressions on her friends' faces.
    "Yeah, that would probably be a good idea." Harley agreed.
After a few more seconds of walking they made it to the commons and began gathering their things. Toni was gathering her stuff when she spotted something on the ground.
    "Hey what's this?" Toni pondered reaching down and grabbing a small piece of paper with a rather strange- symbol on it. Athena walked over to examine the piece of paper.

    "I have no idea." Athena questioned
    "maybe a student drew it and accidentally dropped it?" Harley guessed.
Toni shrugged and dropped the piece of paper watching as it floated to the ground. The girls continued packing up their stuff when Harley saw something move in the darkness, she slowly walked down the hallway following it, leaving Athena and Toni by themselves. Athena and Toni were putting their stuff in a pile when they heard a blood curtailing scream. Both girls whipped their heads up and looked around.
    "Where's Harley?!" Toni said, her voice cracking in panic.
The two girls glanced at each other in fear and bolted down the hallway the same direction Harley had gone. They ran down the dark hallway in search of their friend.
    "Harley?!" Toni yelled in desperation
Athena looked down a hallway to their left and could faintly see Her friend's dirty blonde hair. She tugged on Toni's shirt and pointed. Both girls ran to her losing their breath. Harley stood at the tip of the hallway frozen in fear, for at the end of the hall, was a horrible looking creature. An 8 foot tall figure looming in the darkness with black decaying skin and long bony arms. It had sharp claws attached to human-like hands with Glowing red eyes that shined like a ruby's. The creature turned its head with a crack and stared at the girls, it let out a ghastly growl,  like a deep rumbling snarl, it was loud but short yet seemed to ramble in your ears for quite some time. It moved towards the girls slowly making its way to them moving through the dark like a snake slithering across land. Toni and Athena quickly ran the other direction while Harley stayed glued to the floor in fear. unable to move. The two girls made significant ground before realizing that Harley had not ran with them.
    "Harley come'on!" Toni screamed with her hands shaking, and tears threatening to fall. Without thinking twice Toni ran back towards Harley with Athena hot on her tail. They were so close to reaching Harley but, seemingly not close enough... That thing, was almost to her.
"Harley! Run!" Athena screamed, still running towards her friend.
Harley turned around as Athena reached her but all too late. A black like spear,  looking  to be made of the same material as the creature sliced straight into Harley... directly into her heart. Blood splattered on Athenas face as Harley took one last breath and flopped to the ground. The girls stared at her body, unable to phantom what just happened. The tears Toni was attempting to hold back flowed from her eyes, like a dam that had just broke. She tried catching her breath reaching out for Harleys coarse.
Athena grabbed Toni's hand before it reached their now dead friend, Toni looked up at Athena both with tears streaming down their face.
    "We need to go." Athena insisted.
Toni quickly nodded and got up. They ran as fast as they could away from that, thing. They ran into a classroom on the upper level of the school and hid in a corner by a teacher's desk. They were breathing heavily, they knew the creature couldn't be far behind... and they were right. They clasped their hands over their mouths to keep from breathing as loud , it crawled past the classroom door and let out a terrible screech. They flinched at the unholy sound and as a few short minutes passed they removed their hands, each finally catching their breath not knowing what to think. Toni pulled her legs to her chest and began crying into her knees. Athena looked at her friend unable to see her but still feeling what she felt. Toni was a strong girl, she was never big about emotions but always cared very deeply about her friends. And even though they never saw eye to eye Harley and Toni were very close, sure they fought but they had known each other as long as the other could remember.
    "I know this is a stupid question, but is there anything I can do do help?" Athena asked, placing a careful hand on Toni's knee. Toni looked up, wiping the tears from her eyes.
    "no, it's alright." Toni said, trying to hide the pain in her voice. She stiffened and looked toward Athena.
    "We need to get out of here."