The Initials | Nanowrimo 2023

3| The Awakening

Several students simultaneously collapse onto their desks with no rhyme or reason.

They go thump and don’t wake up.

But how?

He can still track their breathing, noting how odd it is that they all just suddenly passed out, originally considering a sniper or some sort of biochemical threat.

Cloud accidentally brushes a pen off the edge of his desk, reaching down to retrieve it, only to hesitate once a pair of feet in black heels walks past.

He follows the older woman with his eyes as she retrieves the pens from the fallen students instead of checking if they're okay before returning to her seat up front.

The others must have seen what happened too but when Cloud peers over his shoulder they seem just as uninterested as she does.

"This is batshit crazy." He whispers to himself, subconsciously rubbing his fingers over the silver shapes engraved into the body of the pen, flinching every now and again when another student passes out.

He keeps his eyes trained on his paper to avoid locking eyes with anyone else, especially the elderly lady, but that's when he notices something strange about the way the words look on page.

They feel foreign to him and yet he can read every word, as if whatever language this was is being translated into English and implanted inside his brain.

However, Cloud doesn't get the chance to overthink it as he feels a sharp, numbing, stabbing pain on the left side of his head.

"For those of you who haven't, please pick up your pens." she commands, her voice sounding like nails being dragged against a chalkboard.

Cloud rubs his eyes, wondering if it was just a trick of the light or if he actually saw the elderly woman's eyes start glowing white like two little marbles.

"Why should we?" Cloud asks, speaking in a calm tone even when his body betrays him.

"Excuse me?"

"Why should we?" he repeats, firmly slapping the oddly thick pen squarely on the desk, his eyelids feeling heavy as his eyes meet her harsh blue ones. "What are you doing?"

"Pick up the pen." she repeats, giving Cloud a second chance to confirm that her eyes do glow but with her attention now completely focused on him, Cloud can feel the influence of her words as his right hand begins to tremble.

To rid himself of her gaze, Cloud acts without thinking, kicking against the desk and tipping his chair back.

Recoiling from the pain running up his back, he grits his teeth and gets off the dusty ground.

He recovers quickly, grabbing his bag on his way out the door, checking the first exit to his right but finding it locked.

After rattling the handlebars in frustration, even kicking it with the base of his shoe, he starts sprinting down the corridors.

He can hear the old lady's heel aggressively tapping against the floor behind him but doesn't spare any time checking how close she is.

Instead, Cloud turns the final corner and uses his elbow to smash the glass covering the fire alarm, manually triggering them to go off all around the school.

His mind immediately goes back to the promise he barely made over an hour ago to his mother. "She can kill me later." he decides, backing away from the alarm just as the old lady catches up.

She has a pair of hired guards accompanying her, except these two aren't like the others, dressed in suit and tie and somehow looking even more menacing than the first pair.