The Last One (Incomplete)

Chapter 8

We had just finished Literature class, today we treated the contributions of some historical writers from the early Renaissance period on forms of poetic writing. Literature class as always was going great for me so I was kind of sad when our flamboyant teacher mister Thompson ended the lesson for the day. Still it was a good way to end classes for the day and with no projects too.

We were exiting class and heading for the cafeteria when Mister Thompson called me back.

“I need you to help me put away some props from the Hamlet play. The play was a master piece, but I’m afraid clean up duty isn’t as glamorous.” He was a good teacher even though he seemed awkward, I couldn’t just say no to him. Plus I was really interested in the course. If this was a way to gain any form of recognition I was definitely taking it.

“Sure thing sir. Where do you want it?” I responded enthusiastically.

I was in the storage room on the second floor of the left wing of the school which was linked to the computer room or to be precise inside the computer room. It was a small storage space with barely enough room to move about and it was so far off from the cafeteria which irked me because of the long walk back. But there was no choice in where to put the props since the other much more convenient storage room was already packed full.

Mister Thompson had requested them to be put away in the main storage room, but when I had gotten there, it was packed so full I couldn’t even find room to put the single box I was with away. The Literature department really needed to do some major sorting work which I definitely wasn’t going to volunteer for.

So here I was, far off into the second floor of the left wing, most people had already gone for lunch so the building was basically deserted. I had just walked into the room to put the things away when the door slammed shut behind me, well that was odd…I quickly put the box away and went to open the door because even if I’m not cluster phobic I was not into small spaces and was not about to test my love for it.

Hmm that was stranger, I tried the handle but the door wouldn’t give way. Okay so now I was worried, I jiggled it a few more times and it still didn’t give way. Okay not to worry I kept telling myself, I wasn’t out of air and someone would find me any moment, students did visit the computer lab after class for research and if they heard anything they would check it out. I pounded on the door just in case anyone happened to be passing by, no luck.

“Okay be calm, these things can take time”. I kept telling myself…wait something wasn’t right here. I sniffed the air and just to make sure I wasn’t being paranoid I sniffed again. Was that…smoke! Okay now I was totally freaked out, I didn’t know where the smell was coming from, probably one of the labs on the ground floor, but I wasn’t going to risk it getting to me.

“Help! Is anyone out there, please let me out”. I felt a sob coming on but I had to hold back my tears I shouldn’t be breaking down now, I had to think of a way to escape. It felt like I had been in there for hours but in reality it must have been a scant number of minutes. There was a small glass pane on the top side of the door so I stretched to peek out and see if there was anybody there maybe they just couldn’t hear me but they would surely see me.

It occurred to me that I could break the glass, so I looked around for a cloth. Luckily it was the prop room, I grabbed a frilly shirt and wrapped it round my hand like I see them do in movies, then I pulled a stool forward to get a better position to break the glass. Unfortunately it didn’t occur to me that I was not strong and the glass was not weak so it took more than one try to even give it a hairline fracture.

I was already short of breath and before I could even think of finding a sturdier item to break the glass, I began to feel dizzy. I couldn’t tell why, I hadn’t been in there long enough, but I was choking. I looked through the glass and I felt my breath leave me there was a fire, right there in the computer lab, and it was spreading…straight to me. I was already out of breath and now I knew why, smoke, a lot of it even more than I thought of at first, and I was choking on it. Being calm or reasonable was the last thing on my mind right now.