The school was silent at this hour. Only half the lights were turned on. Classrooms were dark and full of empty seats. The dim lights would flicker every now and then, occasionally going out. All I could hear were our footsteps, echoing the long endless hallways.
We reached the cafeteria and I dropped my softball bag. Jay and I walked to the back of the cafeteria, and into the kitchen where we put everything up after softball practice every evening. We began putting up the water bottles and equipment in storage. The lunch room had a very low light, flickering in the corner of the room. Providing the bare minimum amount of light it took to see in the kitchen. Jay handed me the last of the equipment and I quickly through it in the cabinet. I hurried out of the kitchen and slammed the door leaving Jay behind in there. I pulled a seat from one of the abandoned tables and waited in the lunch room for him to finish.
I began to get more and more aware of the huge cafeteria surrounding me, jumping at every little noise I heard. My heart was thudding. I hated the dark. I was Absolutely petrified of it. Where was jay? Why was it taking him so long? My anxiety began to grow, at a massive rate. Faster and faster, until I couldn't take it. I sat up and walked to the kitchen door. Old brown paint was chipped off to reveal the previous red paint. I stood at the tip of my toes to see through the tiny window positioned at the top of the door. I stretched, I stretched, and then in one last stretch I could see into the kitchen.
I took a large sigh of relief. Nothing. Jay was just being slow, as always. He wasn't afraid of the dark, or of anything. I sat and watched him stack each water bottle perfectly until he stacked the very last one. He stood up, and began to turn around towards me, when he stopped. He stopped everything he was doing, all of his movement... Almost as if he was frozen. He looked strait ahead of himself, standing there motionless, like a robot when it gets shut off... He just stood there. What was he looking at? I glared at him, waited and still.. No movement.
I got off of my toes and began to open the door. It was only to a crack when Almost immediately jay snapped out of it. He began running, no, sprinting towards me. His face was flushed, his eyes wide, his lips thin. For the First time in my life I saw Jay Golhome, afraid. He pushed me out the door screaming "go go go" Forcefully pulling me through the dim, empty cafeteria. We kept running, all the way to the dark side of the school. Until finally he pulled me into the boys locker room. It was pitch black. I couldn't see anything at all. I felt jays hand holding mine tightly. He was trembling, so hard I felt it up my whole arm. He pushed the door closed with his foot.
"Jay! What's wrong?!" I said in confusion.
Jay felt up my arm slowly and found my shoulder, he pulled me close to him. He rapped his arms around me and draped his head over mine.
"Jay" I said in a quiet, but serious whisper "what is going on?!"
He let out a deep breath.
"I.. Saw something" he replied. His voice was shaking, it was quiet. His breath was dry and cold. He began to stroke my hair with his trembling hand.
"Jay what did you see?"
He held me tighter
"Jay! You're scaring me!"
He pulled out of the hug, but still holding my arms in place he sat us down on the cold tile floor.
"Miranda, there was somebody looking in the window" he said quietly.
"They were staring right at me, like they had been there the whole time... Watching me.. Studying me. Their eyes were wide, the look In them was one I have never seen before. Their lips turned slightly at the corners, not quite a smile. Oh Miranda and their skin!" He convinced. "It was white as paper, dry and chapped.. Peeling" Jay was almost in tears, trying to keep himself quiet. "That's all I could see, their face was all that was shown by that tiny window. By god Miranda I don't know who it was. I have never in my life..." His sentence ended early and he began to cry. "it just stood there. Staring me dead in the eye... Never blinking once, eyes stretched wide open. It never moved the slightest bit, until you began to open the door" he took in a deep breath. "Miranda it heard you. Just when you turned the knob, the corners of its mouth stretched up. I sat there terrified of it. Almost paralyzed by its stare, when suddenly it ran, but not away. Not away from the school, not left towards the parking lot, but right." I started to think about the window he was talking about, and the direction that the thing he saw ran in. What was over there? I knew there were some stairs but what did they lead to? He couldn't have just jumped off them because of the railing, I knew that.
"Well.. Where did it run?" I said breaking the silence.
"Towards the entrance door" Jay replied.
