The gym was too loud, too crowded. It was hot in there. It was impossible to move without trodding on one person's toes and elbowing another sharply in the ribs. The polished wood floor of a basketball court was slick with sweat and fresh wax. The group of students had been in there for hours already. They'd been herded inside the foot smelling gymnasium not even thirty minutes after they had arrived at the school building.
Confusion had given her the cover she had needed to slip away. After slowly working her way to the back of the gym, determined to not attract attention from their teachers, she'd managed to reach the door. She just needed a distraction. Before she could think of one, a miracle presented itself in the disguise of Sophie Darwin.
Sophie Darwin, a brunette with a soft smile and innocent eyes, approached one of the teachers and spoke loudly, "I saw a group of students leave the gym! They were heading for the front door!"
This was all it took to whip the five teachers in the gymnasium into a frenzy. One teacher, overweight and balding, waddled angrily to the doors on the opposite side of the room. The other four teachers made a point of trying to get to the doors before the balding Mr. Bellingham reached them.
She slipped out of the gymnasium, closing the door quietly behind her. This feat was short lived as she found herself confronted by darkness. The only source of light was coming from the small crack under the door leading back into the gym, yet even that was becoming dim. It was as if the darkness was sapping the light out from under the door and putting it out. She felt her feet move on their own. Thinking nothing of this, as she knew these halls like the palm of her hand, she allowed her feet to lead her somewhere else. She only wanted the quiet, the silence. A nice place to lie down and take a nap without the blinding, deafening noise and gibbering of her brain-dead classmates as they yelled to have a pointless conversation of no value. The only sound she wished to hear was her own, the sound of her combat boots hitting the tiles as she dashed through the darkened halls of the school.
Never once did she stop to ponder why the lights were so dark. Never once did she notice the change in the air, the chill that bit right through her leather jacket and fishnet leggings. Never once did she feel odd or out of place in the silence of her own company.
Until she came upon a hallway she had never before seen in her school. The tile flooring was a bright electric blue instead of the alternating white and greys speckled with black. The walls were smooth, not a crack or crevice on the shiny white surface. The lights of this strange corridor were lit just so that it gave the hallway an ethereal feel, as if another world was swallowing her. Alyss looked over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't followed before dashing down the corridor herself.
The further down she went, Alyss found the hallway taking on a greenish hue. The light seemed to be coming from within the walls rather than the fixtures in ceiling. In fact, as Alyss examined those light fixtures, she distinctly heard nothing. There was none of the annoying buzzing that the school lights seemed to emanate.
Alyss suddenly found herself at a fork in the hallway. Both directions were equally as intriguing but Alyss hated decisions. She just wanted to go straight. That way, she wouldn't have to remember what turns she took so that she could return at the end of the day. Sighing, Alyss sat herself down, leaning against the wall that blocked her straight path. The minute the back of her head hit the wall, however, she found she was swallowed by it.
The windowless room she found herself in was occupied. The man who occupied it was strange looking and impossibly tall. He stood at eight feet at least, probably taller. The outfit he wore was something that looked like it belonged to the eighteenth century. His hair was as black as ink and his eyes glowed. They actually glowed. The irises were a bright purple hue and once Alyss focused on it, the rest of the room seemed to vanish.
