After School II

Ch 17: Ascension

     Priya stared at the scene in front of her. The ghostly man stood, clutching his wounded stomach, remorselessly looking at the ghost nurse's body.

     "How can a dead person die?" Shirley asked, echoing Priya's thoughts. 

     "I wouldn't know. I ain't one." came the reply from Prabhu. He slowly stepped closer to the Ghost, on the lookout for any sudden movements. The ghost man turned, facing them, and Prabhu was surprised to see tears running down his lifeless, grey cheeks. 

    "She....nurse...my wife.." He muttered in explanation. 

    "That crazy nurse was your WIFE?" Priya asked. The Man nodded in reply. 

    "Well... I'm sorry...but we still need to find our friends. We wont disturb you ever again, as long as you help us. Please." Priya begged him. He turned to look at her, his sad yellow eyes regarding her request. A long sigh emanated and his shoulders sagged down, defeated. 

     "We would also like to know what happened to all the previous victims, the ones who've died years ago." Shirley asked hopefully, thinking she could finally find out what happened to Vishal. 

     "Your....friends are dead...Eve.. told the..truth." The man grunted. On hearing this, Prabhu felt his world crashing down around him. He had been forcing himself to believe that this whole incident was fake, that his friends would come out from the corner, laughing at his expression. He would've then punched Karthik in the face, kicked Rohit between the legs, then hugged everyone to death in sheer relief. 

     But no. They were truly gone now. The tears he had been holding back all this while now streamed down his face in sheer despair. Priya and Shirley cried with him. 

    "But... the...other three.. alive." The man said. 

    "Other three? That means Ajay, Anoop and Chris are still alive! Where are they?!" Prabhu asked, feeling a small knot of tension unfold within his stomach. 

_____ _ _____

     Ajay, Anoop, and Chris were, at that very moment, watching the nurse jump out of her hiding spot, right at Aravind. Aravind was too slow to react, and stood frozen in his spot. The Man however, stepped between them and used his arms to block the cleaver, only succeeding in getting a huge chunk of flesh sliced right off his right arm. He howled in pain, steeping back. Ms Eve relentlessly slashed her cleaver again, this time only catching air, as the Man dashed back at the right moment. 

     "Run, boy! Go hide somewhere!", the Man screamed, and Aravind took the hint. Ridden with guilt, he pushed Rahul's head off his lap, and took off running. 

     "I'll stay behind. Go after him!" Anoop shouted to Ajay. 

     Ajay and Chris ran behind Aravind, following him as he made his way to a room that looked like a conference room. just a long table with chairs around it. There was another door inside the room, which when opened, was revealed to be a storage space. A bunch of brooms, and bottles of cleaning liquid adorned the shelves. It was just barely big enough to hide a person. 

    Aravind dashed inside and locked the door from within. Ajay could still hear ragged gasps coming from within, which was Aravind, trying not to break down into tears. 

     Meanwhile, the man was facing a real fight to the death. He was severely wounded, bleeding from virtually every pore of his body, threatening to make him faint out of exhaustion and pain. Ms Eve on the other hand, was completely unharmed, her frenzied slashing only increasing with time.

     She aimed for his head this time, but he ducked, and she went stumbling into the wall, her cleaver's edge buried in a table. Noticing he had an opening, The man threw his arms around her, gripping hard so as to not allow her to move. 

     Screeching in rage, She swung left and right, trying to get out of his grasp, but failing to do so. He pinned her down with his legs, and began pummeling her with punches left and right, all in her face. He grabbed the cleaver and wrenched it free from the table, and with a guttural howl, stabbed it through her chest. 

     She let out a shriek of sheer pain, and lay still after that. The man shuddered as a darkness enveloped his eyes. His wounds were fatal, and he couldn't last an hour further. Grunting and using up the last of his strength, he propped himself up and lifted Ms Eve's lifeless body. Hoisting her on his shoulders, he slowly walked out of the classroom, gritting his teeth in response to the horrible pain. sweat, tears, and blood oozed out from within, bringing forth fresh pain. 

     He somehow made it out of college and began walking into the distance, followed by Anoop, who had witnessed the whole thing. 

     Anoop got a tingling in his chest and looked down. To his surprise, his body was slowly turning translucent. 

     Ajay and Chris, back at the school, also felt the swirling feeling and noticed the change in their bodies. 

     _____ _ _____

     "I... went to...cemetery 8 blocks... away, buried...her.. and also...dropped...dead. She... came back to..life, and...so did...I."

     Shirley noticed a huge flash of light right behind them and turned around. 

     "Uhh...Hey guys." Anoop said. Prabhu ran towards them and all four of the boys shared a group hug, Priya and Shirley standing awkwardly at the side. 

     It was at this moment that Ajay caught sight of the Man, and jumped in fright. 

     "It's okay... He's a friend." Priya said. 

     "We know he's a good guy, He did try his best to help the boys who died long ago." Chris said. On seeing Shirley's confused look, he said, "Well, we saw it in person.", which did nothing to help the confusion.

     After a while of exchanging their experiences, eyes widening over the time travel, and shedding tears over their lost friends, they were all finally on the same page. 

    "There's still one thing that I'm not sure about. What was the room that Aravind hid in? I've never heard of a room like that." Shirley asked.

     "Oh, it's in the same place as our biology lab." Ajay said.

     Prabhu and Priya exchanged looks of surprise. "We were already looking there! Prabhu, your intuition was right!", Priya exclaimed. 

     "I think we know where we're headed now."

_____ _ _____ 

A/N: Whew. This is easily the longest chapter of this story, which is coincidentally very near the end. I liked tying up all the loose ends and burying any plot holes I could find. Hopefully I did a pretty good job! Lemme know what you think in the comments, or leave a vote!