T!tle#@:Unkn@#n

Chapter 3

Me and Ryan sneaked around the block as we slipped through fences, cut through backyards, and ran through roads. He questioned why we were acting like ninjas, and I did too, but this was serious. If this "thing" was after us, then we had to be careful.

We were about one block away from the school when we saw a pair of headlights come our way. They twinkled in the night sky, and as the yellow gleam came closer, I began to make out who was in the car.

I squinted my eyes. "Who's there?" Ryan questioned me as I gasped and saw the woman park next to us. She came out the door and I start walking towards the light blue car.

"Luna..!" Ryan whisper-shouted at me to come back into his sight; although I wasn't paying attention. My friend, my only friend came out of the car. Her name was Kate, and she was a senior, although I was a junior.

"Kate?" I whisper to her as she approached me. Ryan came up behind me as I meet with her.

"I didn't bring black clothes, but I guess you can tag along" I chuckle to myself as Kate questioned us.

"WHY are you out here at 8, what are you doing?" She shouted at me. Me and Ryan scrambled to keep her quiet. "Sorry" she whispered in response. "Why are you here?"

"There's something in the school. Couldn't you tell? It's only a weekend ago when half of the lights shattered in the school." I chuckled at myself, recalling the moment. It was only 4th period when most of the high school's ceiling lights and lamps shattered into shards. Luckily, everyone was okay, except for the occasional paper cut.

"Oh come on" Kate said as she squeezed  towards us and kept us company as we scooted over to the dark school. "You're over exaggerating. It was probably sound waves, something like that. It's can't be a ghost. I know you believe in that stuff, but why would a spirit haunt a high school?" I know Kate was scared, she was stuttering throughout her words.

"Kate, it's okay. Me and Ryan have everything planned out. We actually came up with a theory that the force is after someone. We first suspected it was us, so we're coming to the school when no one else is here to test it out"

We made our way over to the back door and tried it. Locked. When we shuffled our way to other doors, I explained our plan to Kate.

"It's a perfect plan if the force is actually after us. We come in the school when no one is here, and do something to make the force recognize us. If it's after us, it will take action and do something" I whispered to Kate. "We'll use Ryan as human bait"

He gave me a pissed-off look as he quickly turned his head. "Im right here, you know!" He whispered at us and I chuckled under my breath. We finally made our way to the front door, which we guessed was opened for janitors. Although it was odd; they would usually have it locked and janitors would get out and re-lock it from outside. The though was creepy, yet I pushed it out of my mind.

We sneaked our way in and sure enough, the few janitors were finishing their job. It was close to 9, as they would soon be leaving.

We quietly made our way upstairs, where there were no janitors and we were finally free to use "inside voices" instead of whispers. It felt good to use my full voice again.

"So, we wait until they leave, right?" Ryan said to me when we were upstairs and well away from any janitors. They were all probably near the exits, since it being 9:45, and they were just about done.

"Yep. We have to take every precaution, it's crucial." I brushed off my clothes and say down against a wall as me two companions joined me. "Are you sure you want to stay with us?"

"Yeah. I'll make it" Kate replied. "I'm not gonna die.. Right?"

There was no response. Me and Ryan had no idea what would come out of this; but we were willing to do it.

"So guys, we have 15 minutes, maybe even more. Do you guys want to explore?"

Their sign of saying 'yes' was to stand up and join me. It was actually pretty cool walking around the school at night. We stopped at the band room, our classrooms, and finally the cafeteria. We made our way into the teachers lounge and explored the place. There was a door leading to the cafeteria and the kitchen. They had huge tables to eat and ice machines, but the things that caught our eyes were the vending machines. They were stocked with diet and non-diet soft drinks, as well as chips and candy bars.

"Hey guys", Ryan chuckled. "Look"

He showed us a hack he got off of the Internet that allowed us to get one of any item without  paying. We all got chips and a soda. After we finished eating, since we didn't have dinner, we made our way back up to the second floor where the middle of the school would be.

"Here we go guys." I said to everyone, Kate being on my right and Ryan on my left. "What do we do?"

"Get its attention"

"We know that"

"Well maybe I was just trying to help"

Kate and Ryan argued further as I walked around areas, trying to find lamps to smash or papers to rip. Something to make noise. That's when, from down the hall, I heard something crack. Something right behind Ryan and Kate.

I walked over to them and see. The end of the hallway's ceiling light had a huge crack down the middle of it, and it was triggering all the other lights to crack too. I quickly got Kate and Ryan's attention just as the first light shattered.

I screamed to them as we all started realizing. The second light shattered.

"Guys come on!" We all shouted to each other as we started running down the hallway. When the lights shattered, the shards came raining down on us like a storm. As we ran faster, they broke faster. They're broke as we ran under them, but we were fast enough to escape.

We turned a sharp right corner, which me and Kate managed to get through. Although Ryan, being the clumsy one he is, fell over.

Kate kept running as I ran back to pick him up. I'm not exaggerating when I say the shards came 5 inches close.

4 inches close.

3 inches.

2.

Until I grabbed him, dragged him to his feet, and we kept running.

We were able to run into the nearest bathroom where the force wouldn't be able to get us. Even though all the lights were off in the hallway, they were still exposed. The lights in the bathrooms were covered by the walls or ceiling; the school had them like that because the students were suspicious of them being cameras.

"Eck. Why did we have to run into the girls bathroom? It smells like chocolate in here." Ryan said, covering his nose. "I hate chocolate"

Kate put her hands on her hips. "All of the girls here on their period eat chocolate. You didn't know that?" She said, chuckling to herself. "And who doesn't like chocolate?"

I walked away from their growing conversation to look out the bathroom windows. I could see the line of shattered glass where we ran away from, and the corner...

Ryan almost died.....

I got snatched out of my thoughts when Kate came over and shook me from my shoulder. "Hey. Ryan went to the boys bathroom to pee. Don't worry, I kept an eye on him" she said to me. This is supposed to make me feel better?

I gave a grunt to her as thoughts raced in my mind.

What is this...
He....
Almost....
Force....
Died.....
Ghosts....

Suddenly, we heard scratches on the walls. We were afraid to turn around. Our body stayed still and stiff as a tree. When the noise finally stopped, it took us a few seconds to turn around.

I turned around.

The wall was plastered with blood.

Words were written with blood.

@..
#..
&..

Tears flowed to my eyes and started pouring out. My face scrunched up and I couldn't hold back from letting the water stream down my eyes. I whimpered.

"R-r-ry-Ryan..?"

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