𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬

𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍.

𝑰𝒕 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝑹𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝑶𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑼𝒔
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It was refreshing, stepping into a new school.

Here you learned of science, biology, interesting literature, music and dance, etiquette and history and things that couldn't ever cross your mind before.

Aunt Ellis's homeschooling had been tedious, full of old tomes you didn't understand half of the words of, Bible verses that either bore you to no end or scarred your young mind. She was also convinced that Math was from the devil, for some reason. You now knew for sure that Math was from the devil, but for different reasons than your aunt's heavily religious ones.

Long hallways and tall pillars adorned every day of your life now, the antique Victorian building made everything feel like a fairytale, like part of those mystery novels you could just absorb and devour in mere hours, and everyone was nice, polite, almost too polite. Like they were holding back, afraid.

Everyone played at their own pace. It was hard integrating into a group that was already formed when you had arrived in the middle of the school year, at first you had spent most of the time alone either in the library or building frog houses with little rocks.

Soon, however, you found that there was someone, who was alone like you were. She sat down on the grass, same spot every single day, observing everyone with a perpetual frown in her face. You were sure you had been observed by her at one point, for she watched everyone and everything, her eyes never closed, you didn't know if she ever slept. She was never picked up by any parent or guardian, so you figured she was one of the orphans, confirmed as well by her painfully modest and lightweight dresses, an ugly beige that matched that of the nuns in charge, which she always seemed to want to stain, damage beyond repair out of sheer spite. No one ever talked to her. They were scared.

Everything felt silent when you walked up to her. And it was, only the wind and tye trees spoke, the other kids were silent for it was their turn to watch.

"Hello!" You said, innocent as the child you were, watching her stand and pick up a rock, the same type you used to build homes for bugs and toads, and hurl it towards your head.

Tsk, so hostile and for what.

Cold ran down her spine when she saw you dodge the stone and push her lightly, she lost her balance and was once again sitting on the floor. You didn't even notice the eerie quietness around, seconds that looked like years in which those grey eyes stared at you wide, almost incredulous. You grinned and ran away laughing, and she felt a smile creeping into her features as she got up and chased you, feeling like a kid once again.
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... It called.

That damned building called you, pulled you into its walls, jarring and horrifying like you remembered it from the last day you were there.

It was easier in all accounts to just stay out, to never cross its doors again, to walk back and find another way where you could be with Sebastian and traverse this nightmare at least accompanied, in places that didn't hit home in all the wrong ways. The woods around could be home to many horrors, yet you preferred those than to walk the hallways of your old school.

But it called. Those feelings of self destruction were so alluring in that moment, the wanting to be hurt by those memories of shameful fear and betrayal. As much as it pained your heart, you walked the stone path towards its entrance once again, and felt like you've done something horrible and inhumane to yourself once you crossed those wooden doors.

This place... It felt alien to you now. Although you hated it with your entire being, you could at least say it was pretty in the past. The light walls and wide windows had always given it an elegant and sort of whimsical look, like the castle of a princess you had once thought, although you later realized that princess would've been horribly sheltered and broken, bleeding under her beautiful garments. Now, in the middle of a night whose dawn never came, when you saw it abandoned and dilapidated, inhabited by the Haunted, you saw how terrifying this place could be. You wondered if this was what Eleanor felt while walking through this place at night, after you had left for the day and the lights had been turned off, when there were no comforts of friends or classmates and the covers on the bed provided no safety at all.

After the hallway at the entrance you pushed another door open, one with angels carved onto its rotten wood, you cringed as it creaked loudly, bouncing against the walls of the next room. You've seen enough of this convoluted world to know that you should remain as silent as you could so your heart pounded loudly against your ears, but nothing came yet.

Wind hit you, colder than before, as the distorted view of the room came into sight; it had been almost like a greenhouse, potted plants and gardens that made a labyrinth of paths, stunningly lit by the sun above, yet now the glass that made the ceiling was broken, window to see the blackest of skies, and the plants were nothing but dried, shrivelled up branches that created menacing shadows that confused and terrified you when rounding around a corner.

Up until now you felt like your body was carrying itself, taking you mindlessly where you needed to be, but like something that had taken ahold of you finally let you go, a feeling of despair took over your mind and made you regret your decision of coming inside. You turned back to see if you could come back to the outside yet the door was sealed, now just a cement wall with the cross of Cedar Hill sprayed on it. Every gasp of air you took left your throat feeling raw as you stumbled towards it, touching the place where you were sure you had come from, pounding your fists hard against its stone until your wrists and arms hurt, until the skin on your hands broke and every touch of yours left a print of your own blood. Even in your memories the door had been there, it always had been, you remembered it clearly from years ago when you crossed it every day and detailing it each time, hell, you've seen it minutes ago, you could easily draw it on this wall out of sheer remembrance if you wanted but now it was lost. Tears leaked out of your eyeballs and you let out a sob, feeling the headache, the elaborate breathing and the gorge rising inside your stomach coming, threatening to break into a cry.

But the feeling of eyes on your back kept you from letting out another sound. Turning around, you saw two of those beings, the Haunted, with their eyes glowing in your general direction. Now that your mind fever had subsided for the time being you could hear their steps coming towards you, slow yet steady and hungry for blood.

Painful ringing filled your ears as you rose from your position, bones cracking loud enough that you wondered if you may have been heard. Trembling, sweaty palms grasped around the foregrip of your crossbow, you rose the weapon with incredible effort and nervousness, feeling like even it may turn on you and kill you on a wrong step.

The creature was distracted, but right in your line of view. It was now or never. You aimed at it the best you could, and pulled the trigger. A loud click filled the room.

And nothing.

No bolt was thrown, no attack changed your fate. And now the sound had alerted the Haunted, whose eyes pierced through your very soul.

You quickly scrambled to fix the string in the crossbow, charging the bolt correctly as the creature ran towards you. The commotion had alerted the other one and it too, charged towards you directly behind the other, reaching for your throat and almost close enough to grasp it. You didn't have a second plan, you just aimed again and hoped, prayed to deaf ears as you pressed the trigger.

And it worked, a bolt strong and bright and unbearable pierced through their skulls, sending them a few meters back and lighting up in a fierce explosion that made the walls tremble and glass fall and break around you. You watched as their raspy breathing turned into screeches, before leaving only the sound of their stained hospital gowns rising towards the skies in the shape of cinders.

You dried your silent tears as your breathing became steadier once again, and although every fiber of your body wanted out you still pressed in forward, walking into the next hallway, filled with dilapidated doors that once led to classrooms.

The feeling of being watched by stranger eyes came suddenly, and as you reached deeper into the building, you thought that you heard thousands of steps inside the walls.