horror one-shot

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"Why does it have a pink glow?"

"There's an issue, I guess."

Neon colours fill the halls, lighting them as if they were inside a bar.

Except this is a middle school.

It's fine, he replies.

Somehow, everything is fine.

It is a cloudy and gloomy day outside. Barely anything is visible but the dark grey misty fog that fills the air. The buildings almost disappear into the background, as if someone had lowered the opacity of the cityscape. It's only three o'clock, yet it feels so much like nighttime. Barely anyone fills the usually busy streets as if it is a ghost town. The school, smack in the middle of the town, is nearly isolated from everything else. It's almost as if it is on an island, slowly drifting away from the rest of the city. It's not raining, but it might as well be because no one dares go outside. You can see your own breath although it's technically spring. And all of this is visible from the windows that fill an entire wall of each room.

The windows have a light grey frame. They slide right open but nobody wants to open them today. The fresh air is nice, especially when you are stuck inside for seven hours, but as soon as a sliver of air peeked through the entire class was shivering. It is quite abnormal for this time of year most places, but here, it's the opposite. Weather is unpredictable and the unexpected is always the expected.

The halls are silent. Lockers and doors fill the walls of the hallway, as does any other school. It's dark and the lights are off, but students are still present. Something must have happened to the electricity in the building. The exit signs are still on and are brighter than ever, them being located near three sets of stairs. Of course they are, they probably have a backup battery, especially because they're important in emergencies. What's not normal is the neon pink glow. There is a quite visible neon pink seemingly coming from the lockers. The lockers— not traditional but instead clear with peach-grey frames and half the size of a normal locker, stacked on top of each other— somehow have a glow to them as if there is a pink neon sign behind them. Except there can't be, not possibly, because the length between the lockers and the wall is too slim. No sort of light could fit between that space, especially a neon one. Yet the light is recognizable as some sort of neon glow, even if you've never seen a neon light in real life. And besides, why would a sign like that be placed in a middle school hallway? There's no logical reason for any of this, for such a day in a regular school to be so isolated. Yet here it is, the unexpected being the expected.

No one seems to bat an eye at the obvious displacement of the day. It's so perfectly unusual with it feeling like something's off yet this being the norm. It's just like any other day but it starts to feel like you'll never get home, never feel the warmth of the heater and the smell of home-baked pastries. That obviously doesn't happen every day as soon as you get home, but humans tend to have a false sense of optimism. And that hunger is bound to have an effect. There's no way to make sense of this, but maybe it's just been a long seven hours.

Back in the classroom, it seems as though everyone is busy. Not necessarily with schoolwork, but everyone is engaged in something- signs of a healthy classroom. Students are talking, on their computers, and writing on paper. The professor isn't visible but as long as the community's happy it's fine. Yet there's still a shaking feeling that something isn't right. Abnormal is normal and normal is abnormal and everything is okay, she says in a comforting spirit. It's so obvious yet just speaking feels nauseating, and so it's forgotten. But family is still missed to the point of possible hallucination, of Dad being there, but school isn't even over. Students get louder and the classroom shakes the ears of everyone yet no one seems to care. But suddenly, the loudspeaker announces something and interrupts it all. It sounds like the adults from Peanuts are talking because it's not something a human could possibly understand. Yet everyone rushes to the halls, grabbing their things.

The classroom is so quiet alone. Time seems to freeze and it's easy to take in everything- the leftover smell of students no longer there, how everything is put away yet it still seems like the class could've been in the middle of a lesson, and the quietness of the normally busy space. It's nice to finally relax, to take a deep breath in and release all the pressure. It's almost time to go back. Getting closer to the hall, it seems everyone is done packing and making their way toward the stairs. Another announcement begins to ring, this time even louder, and still it's gibberish. But everyone runs down the halls and the pounding of the heart gets louder and louder like everything is going to explode. A piercing sound seems to run through the veins but still, there's no real emergency. There's nothing that should be making you feel this way but still you rush to grab all your belongings and somehow it's not fast enough. Why not just leave- there's no time to think- and there's a feeling the announcement was incredibly important as nearly all the students have rushed outside. Your hands tremble and now the exit lights have gone off, the mysterious pink glow being the only thing guiding you through the life-threatening scene. There's a need to get out of there as soon as possible but your hands won't move fast enough. You could hear the heavy panting of your breath and everything seems to be moving so fast although there is no movement. You should get out of there as soon as possible, yet you are alone in the familiar hallways with a pink glow that lines the lockers, you realise, and then-