The Day Reading Died

Darkness Waits

Reading is boring.

My teacher is babbling in front of the class about the importance of reading and how it helps our brains. Like he knows anything.

Nobody reads anymore and every time a teacher makes us read, we all just hand-in the notes somebody else wrote. They know it, we know it and almost everyone has given up trying. Everyone but Mr. Beeblo.

He stands up there every day in the same green cardigan sweater with white dress shirt underneath, talking non-stop. We all pretend to pay attention and show interest, but he's an old dinosaur who doesn't get it.

"No way," Veronica whispered.

The soft glow of her phone from underneath her desk had her full attention. It was probably another Vidchat streak she was on, which was a contest she held with Amie in the other English class. They were the most popular girls in our grade and they always competed for top spot.

I looked over to see the glimpse of a darkened window of the other room. I was right.

"...and that's why I want you all to read a book. Or text. Or anything with words. It's for your own health," my teacher droned.

He sounded so whiny the way he talked to us.

"There will be dire circumstances for the generation who stops reading, which is why, starting next week, we will be doing nothing but reading in this class."

We all groaned. None of us want to read and forcing us to read isn't going to help his cause. This is why we all make fun of him.

"No way!" Veronica gasped.

We all looked at her, including Mr. Beeblo... what a weird name.

"Does that appeal to you, Veronica?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure," she replied without looking up from her device.

I glanced over again and saw the image on her phone. It looked like some kind of shadow figure hanging outside the window of Amie's classroom. The window looked really dark in the picture. I wonder if it has something to do with the angle she's taking pictures on her phone.

The bell rang and we all jumped out of our chairs like they were electrified. Hearing those dings is the sweetest sound while in school because it means your pain is about to end.

"Do you think it's real?" Marcus asked Veronica.

Why would Marcus be talking with Veronica? He always sat as far away from her as possible because the two couldn't stand each other. This was new.

"Unless Amie is getting desperate for her streak, she wouldn't blast this on the school channel."

The school channel? It was a special line setup just for the students of this school and while there were different variations of the access code, depending on how popular you were or which crowd you belonged to, the general school channel were special news blasts just for us students.

I whipped out my device and checked it.

The thread was on fire.

There was Amie's picture with some kind of blackened ghost figure with a grey sky in the background. It looked eerie and felt alive just seeing its image.

Below it were countless responses ranging from completely fake to this proves ghosts are real. Everyone was snapping pictures out of the classroom windows to see if they could get the same effect.

I approached Marcus, who was engrossed in his own device. The way his head was tilted showed off his beautiful brown curls. He once told me he hated them and wanted them cutoff forever. I told him they were lovely and he should keep them. I think it boosted his confidence.

"What do you think is going on?" I asked him.

He looked up at me with his round hazel eyes, which I felt had a bit of green in them.

"I think this picture Amie took is legit. My mom used to tell me stories about the three days of darkness and the end times. Today was supposed to be sunny out and it suddenly got dark."

"Oh," I replied.

I didn't know what else to say. I knew his family was religious, but to be superstitious and take all those silly stories seriously wasn't for me. I didn't want to be rude about it, so I tried a different approach.

"Do you think she may have faked it?" I asked.

Marcus looked at me like I just used every swear word in the book against his mother.

"You can't fake Vidchat pictures."

Sure you can, I thought in my head. There are entire video channels out there teaching people how to manipulate their pictures to look a certain way. Before I could tell him this point, he darted off to another classroom.

My hand was vibrating like crazy and when I looked down, I realized this latest thread was going berserk. There were screams coming from the nearest classroom.

I ran in to see everybody crowded at the window, pointing with their devices and snapping pictures as fast as their hands would allow them. As I approached, I could see the darkened sky with small blotches of black peppered onto it. The word demons kept popping out of people's mouths.

I held up my device and zoomed in on one of those spots and my jaw dropped. Those black blotches looked exactly like black robed figures, but my mind refused to believe they were demons. We were all just startled and seeing what we want to see in them, I told myself. Just like people who see shapes in clouds.

The slow pounding of footsteps came from behind. I turned my head to see Mr. Beeblo had followed the crowd in here.

He looked out the window and held his gaze.

"The darkness is coming," he said.