One after Another

Chapter 2- Explore

"Yes, we are!!" Kenneth exclaimed with a bright smile, clasping Natalie's shoulder. And from that, he earned a slap on the face.

"We will be getting into so much trouble," Natalie let out an annoyed sigh, clutching her fist.

"Relax, Nat," Kenneth assured, rubbing the redness off his cheek that had formed after the slap.

"Nat!? How dare you, Kenneth Madom! How would you like it if I called you Ken instead?" Natalie flared, veins popping out of her head. She then was a bit confused about how she remembered Kenneth's full name, but it was probably out of the anger she had.

"Stop quarrelling, you two," Max said, a tinge of excitement in his eyes, getting all geared up. "So this is the plan........."

After hearing about the plan, the lack of precision infuriated her even further, "What kind of plan is that!? There is no way this plan would work."

***

"Now, let's solve this question... " It was a history lesson, which was Natalie's favourite lesson. But she was hardly listening. She could hardly listen. Her mind started to drift away from the lesson being taught.

'Ding Dong!' The bell rang, signalling the end of school. This broke her thoughts suddenly. The raucousness was painful to her eardrums. Unlike Natalie who has been forever dreading this moment, the bell indicated the moment that the gang had been waiting for.

Natalie was packing up her things, taking as much time as possible purposely to drag time out. In her life, never did she think she would be that nervous. When she picked up her bag, and let out a shaky breath, her bag was shaking like how she was. She hated every moment right now. Her palms were sweating and fingers were trembling without noticing. Her face was pale as a ghost and heart was throbbing, beads of sweat forming on her skin and slowly dripping. She felt like she had woken up from a bad dream. But she had to keep her promises she created. There was no turning back from this.

"Come on! Let's go!" Max yelped enthusiastically, rubbing his palms together to attempt to lift everyone's moods up.

"We are all gonna die," Ali sighed in distress.

"Relaxxxx," Max dragged his words out, thinking that would make Ali relaxed, "WE WILL BE LEGENDS!!"

"Keep quiet, you blithering idiot," Natalie hissed with poison in her voice.

They hid in the cabinet, squashed in the humid closed-in area. They all gave each other glances, some excited, some nervous, waiting for all the students to go home. They dared not to make a sound. The clock kept ticking, indicating how long left until they left this warm cabinet. As moments passed by, the last student left the school at last. Noticing the quietness of the hallway in front of them, the gang finally crept out.

The group tiptoed around the large school, hiding quickly whenever they heard high heels clicking near them. They crawled under the windows to avoid getting seen by others. They even climbed onto the lockers when a teacher was visible. Their neck and legs were aching after crawling and climbing for such a long period of time. At last, they had arrived at their destination.

"A-are you su-sure about this?" Joyce stuttered with uncertainty. Pants escaped Kenneth's mouth, having difficulty breathing. Natalie broke into a sweat just at the thought of what she was going to face.

"Come on! It will be fine!" said Max, giving a forced smile, hiding his nervousness beneath the grin.

They all gave the door a mighty push, all of the students' arms shaking. It creaked open, which revealed a dark and empty hallway, the origin of all nightmares and cautions the school had. They went inside, excited and frightened about the unforeseen adventure they were all about to face. As if on cue, the door went shut all a sudden, exterminating their little bit of light in this horrifying and daunting darkness. The closing of the door had trapped them in a four-sided room with no ventilation possible. Soon, an unbearable odour of mould enveloped the hallway.

"Jesus Christ, what is that mouldy smell?"

"No, wait, it smells like there is something else. Other than mould," Natalie frowned, "this scent, I smelled it before," she stated, as she wrinkled her nose. She sniffed and snuffed, attempting to find what the metallic scent was. For a split second, she remembered. The nauseous scent that she could never forget. "It is blood," the idea appalled her. The murmur that came out of Natalie's mouth was very soft but it was loud enough for the others to hear. Her words aroused the fear that was hidden deep inside them from the beginning.

"What should we do now?" Patrick, who Natalie never knew, rarely spoke. He was panicking and looked like he was about to run in circles. Since he hardly spoke, him speaking right now implied that right now, he was in a very terrified state.

"Go back." Natalie tried to keep her voice as steady as possible, "NOW." The gang turned around vigorously, and with incredible velocity, they were trying to escape this place that was worse than hell. They were about to reach the door, it was the moment that they were about to be free.

They heard heels clicking on the other side of the door, destroying their last straw of hope.

"Between hallway and teacher, I will take hallway." Kenneth decided, keeping his voice quiet, but still audible for the others to hear. And so, they carried on their adventure which everyone was reluctant to go on. They lumbered in the absolute darkness, clouded in fear. No one dared to make a sound. The distinctive metallic scent welled up their nostrils, sending shivers down their spine. They plodded deeper and deeper, feeling their way in the spiral of total darkness and quietness.

Without any warning, in this disturbing silence, a thunder-like thud was heard, followed by a clear crunch and a scream of pain. No one knew if they should be happy that the silence that was killing their ears was broken. As their eyes were still adjusting in the darkness, another ear-splitting scream echoed through the hallway. And they finally saw it. It was not the blood that the school was trying to keep away from the students, it was the bones. It was a life-sized skeleton. The dust remained on the horrifying object, rotting parts and bright dark red dried blood. The bones were decaying, signalling the flight of time since its death. The skull rolled several metres away due to Ali's stumble. It hit a wall and finally came to a stop. The group approached the wall, squinting through the darkness. They saw something that made their heart skip a beat.

Author's note: What do you think they saw? Tell me in the comments! Thank you to all of you who read this book. Truly. Don't forget to vote! See you next time! :)