Before The End

First Encounter

18 months ago

The school bell rang and all of a sudden there was an eruption of mixed voices from the other side of the door. I looked down at my watch. It was 4:00 pm already. Ever since I had gotten a new watch the past week, I had started checking time almost frequently.It was starting to become unusual but I didn't mind. Knowing what time it was gave me a sense of security that I was starting to get used to.

I looked around the room I was sitting in. It was small enough to fit me in if I was sitting without moving around but right then that was all I wanted. The door to this closet was almost hidden and no one would know where it was until you were actually searching for it. And that was exactly why I was there because no one would know.

The class right before had left me in a state where I was ready to burn everything down and I needed to be away from anything that had life.
Friends get on your nerves, yes,that's what they are for but sometimes someone might just go way too far and that day someone did. If Mr.Winston hadn't been explaining to us something about magnetic fields I would have hit him with my chair. And so me, not wanting to make a scene jumped out of class almost unnoticed and decided to stay in the closet. I sat there for almost two classes straight and I could finally hear the bell. I waited till all the voices were gone and awkwardly got up almost falling. When I finally managed to open the door and peek my head out, there was no one.

There would still be people outside the school so I decided to get out through the back entrance and out through the tiny patch of forest behind it. I walked the hallway that was right now empty. For some reason I liked seeing them empty and not filled with people.

Just as I passed by art class I saw a slight shuffle by the window. I went in to check what it was. The only thing that I could find was the shaking bush behind the glass. I could swear I saw a something blue among the green bush. I brushed it off and walked towards the back door. As I had suspected it wasn't locked which meant the janitor was still here.

I hurried out and stared at the fake forest before me. Even though it seemed scary from outside it actually wasn't inside. Sure there were lots of thin creepy looking trees and the constant sound of crickets but that was about it. Me and Liz had managed to go through most of it, 'exploring' through it all. The first time we went in there it was purely on impulse. The school had left early and we had nothing to do. So she had suggested that we go in there and check it out. Later on we went there frequently. We had even found this taller stronger tree which could support the both of us.

The other end of the forest opened up to the city park. If I ended up there I could go back home without being bothered by anyone.

Or so I thought.

The pale blue sky peeked through the tiny patches were the trees hadn't covered them. The trees blocking out most of the light gave the forest just the right amount of light. This was another reason why I loved it. Some things never stop pleasing your eyes.

Out of nowhere I could suddenly hear a faint sound of people's voices. I was pretty close to the park now.

As I walked closer, the voices began making sense and I could understand that two people were having a heated discussion. It eventually became perfectly audible.

'Are u sure?!'

'Um.. no..I don't know.. it seems so impossible. There wasn't even half of a chance of it ever happening but-'

'But what?!'

'But the signs right now..  are not good..'

There was a huge silence. Almost a minute long.

I almost thought they were gone. But then the first guy spoke.

'Shouldn't we be telling everyone? You can't just let them not know anything. They have a right to know!'

'Shh! Shh! I know,I know..but right now we don't have a choice. It would be chaos if they found out.'

'So we just do nothing and let them all just d-'

Let everyone what? What is that even supposed to mean?

A lot of possibilities clouded up in my head preventing me from thinking clearly.

'I don't know okay? I really don't. I shouldn't even be telling you this but there's no other way.'

'There should be. It doesn't make sense.'

Right then a phone started to ring. I could hear muffled up sounds of the guy on the phone and then he spoke again.

'You listen to what I say . Okay? And stay away from it all. That's all I can ask you to do.'

'Bu-'

'I have to leave now. Just do what I say and leave this place.'

Everything I heard till now did not seem even a tad bit right. Every voice in my brain kept shouting at me that something huge was gonna happen. And they knew what.

I could hear footsteps of a man sprinting away and then nothing. I stepped forward closer to the park and saw someone was still there.

His head was lowered hands closed in to fists and I could see his whole body was shaky. I was pretty sure that he was not fine. Whatever that was happening was pretty huge. I stepped a little closer moving away from the tree that was covering me. A blue backpack came in to view , a familiar blue one. A part of me kept on telling me that this was a bad idea. But I couldn't stop. All of a sudden he shot his head back up and our eyes met.

Right then I knew it certainly was a bad idea  I let out a tiny gasp. But immediately regretted it and covered my mouth with my hands. I moved away so that I would be a little bit more hidden. But now there was no point. He had seen me already.

It was Luke staring right back at me.

I still didn't run. I stood there. He didn't move either he was staring at me, his face devoid of almost all emotions. For a second I thought he was going to kill me but he didn't. He just walked away. He didn't say anything to me, not even warn me to not tell anyone. He just went away after a long thought. Almost as if he wanted someone else to know. Maybe he hoped I would tell someone.
But to his disappointment I never did.