Biting The Bullet

Chapter 3

One by one they squeezed out of the hole and found themselves on a steep roof. The metal shingles sounded at every move they made in order to accommodate everyone on the roof. They tried to sink their fingers into the gaps between the tiles but only succeeded in grinding their pretty fingernails.

A clement breeze gently flicked their hair back, grazing flyaway hair. Whisking off the odour which had clung onto them, it smoothed the creases on their clothes like an iron. A flock of birds swooped past them from above, their melodic chirps pleasing to the ear, adding a sense of serenity to the environment.

Kassidy tilted her head back to face the blue sky and took a deep breath of the delicious air. It travelled through her body like a stream of crystal-clear water, washing over uncertainty and purifying her mind.

She felt a burst of energy. She felt refreshed, awakened.

Looking around them, they directed their gazes simultaneously towards the school. Its decrepitude caused them to grimace.

"Is that the one?" Evangeline asked Kassidy, even though she knew the answer — which she got unduly, but it only extinguished the tiny spark of hope left.

"My plan is for us to roll down the roof and jump over there," said Kassidy, pointing. The roof they were on stopped close to the second floor of the school building.

"Are you out of your mind?" said Richard. "That's impossible!"

"Would you rather be kidnapped?"

"Yes, if the alternative is death!"

"Listen, if you do this properly you won't die. Just make sure your timing's right." Kassidy proceeded to slide down on her bottom, halt abruptly at the end, leap off and land steadily in the middle of the corridor. 

Exclamations of awe erupted and she twirled around triumphantly. "I'll catch you!" she called.

Commenced was a kerfuffle where the roof occupants pointed at one another, not wanting to be the next one to attempt the feat. As Kassidy tapped her feet, George emerged from the disordered group and leapt next to her, wobbling as his feet touched the floor. 

The rest stopped and looked at him with enlarged eyes. After many premonitions and a bit of wailing as usual from Beatrix and Evangeline, they all managed to get into the school without much scathing, although a few of them had landed in rather unfortunate places — one smacked the wall, one grazed their hip, one crashed onto the balustrade and very nearly fell off... Beatrix, unlike the 'youths' as she liked to call them, was more vulnerable to injuries and complained of an internal fracture. But considering there weren't any casualties, it was a success.

On one side was a row of classrooms. A scene where the materials pushed against each other for a desperate breath of air could be imagined from the cracks on the wall present besides fading paint. Crude desks and chairs dotted the shabby classroom, where a few pieces of yellowed paper hung loosely on the bulletin board. Some broken pencils lay scattered on the floor, abandoned by their owners. The owners seemed to have left quite abruptly too since there was a pile of workbooks on the teacher's desk and a red pen that had fallen off the desk. 

It was more or less the same for the other classrooms. 

Richard sucked a breath theatrically. "I have heard stories of forgotten souls haunting tumbledown schools, murmuring their misfortune like low-key banshees."

Kassidy, the only girl unmoved, shook her head at the other girls' gullibility. She didn't believe in the supernatural of any sort.

Just then, Violet piped up, "I would like to go to the lavatory."

"It's dangerous for a young lady to be on her own. I'll go with you," said Beatrix, and Evangeline said she also had the need.

"Me too," said Richard. Realising the others were staring at him, he blushed. "I'll go to the gents, obviously."

Kassidy wanted to tell them that right now, escaping was their top priority, but she understood that in emergencies rules had to be bent. She and George, being the only ones left, came to a staircase with a heavily coated handrail. When she brushed her finger on it, a trail revealing its true colour was left distinctively, as if she had painted a line of brown on a white background. The coating was dust. While they made their way down the stairs, the floorboards shuddered and groaned out plumes of dust. They couldn't help scratching their skin.

The place looked like it had been deserted for years.

On the ground floor was a playground with a carpet of amber-brown leaves, crunching under their feet. They arrived at the reception, near the main entrance, the door of which was wide open and allowed a zephyr in.

Freedom.

The two looked at each other with excitement. Soon they would be able to flee to home. All they had to do was wait for the others—

"AAAHH!" There came two screams.

Evangeline was flailing her arms as she sped towards them, her face white, with Beatrix in tow. The two wheezed rapidly, "There... there was a ghost in the bathroom!"

"What?"

"There was a strange, low voice. It was mourning its death and vowed to avenge itself on humans!" They shivered. 

"Let's leave right this moment!"

Kassidy caught Evangeline's sleeve as she was about to step outside. "No, we have to wait for the others. Where's Violet?"

Her face went even paler. "She really needed to go so she didn't leave immediately, unlike us."

***

Violet trembled on the toilet seat, trying in vain to shut out the eerie mourns from the unknown persisting voice. 

"Oooo... eeee... I don't deserve to die, oooo... eeee..."

She shut her eyes but was unable to cry; instead, the voice seemed to be approaching closer. "I will take revenge on humanity, oooo..."

The sharp coldness of the toilet seat gnawed at her bare skin and she shivered. Opening her eyes in delirium, she tore off some toilet paper and hurriedly flushed the toilet, wetted her hands casually and fled from the lavatory.

The mourns cracked and stopped once she left.

***

When Violet finally turned up, she looked as if her soul had been wrenched out. She stared ahead blankly. "I guess they've told you what happened?"

They nodded.

She flopped down onto the floor, her body shaking violently as she buried her head in her hands, prostrate with shock. She sobbed for a moment and accepted Evangeline's hug graciously. The two squeezed each other for comfort and talked of how frightening the forgotten soul was.

Richard soon arrived and the females jabbered about their experience. "We had the fright of our lives!"

Kassidy arched an eyebrow at him. "You'll make an exceptional Gothic writer."

A look of bewilderment crossed his face. "What prompted you to say that?"

"Forgotten souls. Low-key banshees. See your influence on them."

His face paled. "What, didn't you hear it? It was in the gents too."

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A/N:

I wrote this chapter twice; the first time I realised halfway through that it wasn't going as planned (casually makes it seem not my problem).