Demon Slayer: Modern Age

Chapter 1- Red and Green

I watched my teacher prowl among the rows, waiting to strike at any student caught doing something he deemed treasonous. It was honestly quite a piece of entertainment. A small smile creased my lips as I placed my bookmark into my novel. I had finished my test about ten minutes prior so I had just resigned myself to another class period reading away, but I had grown bored with the scene and had just let my eyes wander until I found the teacher watching students like a predator looking for prey. The mild amusement I found was little more than a distraction from the thoughts that plagued the back of my mind. They reached up, trying to break the wall that was mentally placed there to hold them back.

I watched as a classmate stood and made his way to the podium, placing his finished test onto the small pile of other completed ones. It was then that I heard the first scream. Not the scream you hear in movies, but the kind that's ravaged by true fear and pain. The kind that freezes blood and forces your body to stop. I know this because that's exactly what happened. The teacher froze, his eyes darting to the open door that stood in front of my desk. The student who had just placed his test down stopped moving mid-turn, his arms floating by his sides. And I, who held my breath still as the scream came to a sudden close.

My mind raced to make sense of what had caused it. My first thought was that a gunman had entered the school, but that was not probable. No gunshot had echoed the halls, nor had any followed when her scream was cut short. I wanted to think more about the options that seemed likely, even as I knew this was a moment of action. So instead, I moved. I should have gone to close the door and lock it with the emergency key that hung by a pin next to the door handle, but I was far too dumb for that. Others had most likely had heard the scream and went to investigate. I had to prevent any curious minds from finding the source of that scream.

Whatever danger was present in the building would hurt people, that much was for sure. I knew this by using two distinct reasons. One, that the scream was no doubt one of pain as I knew from years of experience hearing such things. Two, it was cut off by the attacker, for no scream ended so abruptly. I had to ensure anyone inside the building was inside a classroom and under a locked door. So I flew out the door and told the teacher to lock it behind me. I gave him no time to reply as I turned left down the hallway. From what I could tell the scream was coming from the right, but when I glanced behind me nothing but a few teachers heading towards an intersecting hallway was there. I wanted to scream at them to get to their classrooms and hide, but I knew I had to focus on saving the majority rather than a few. That's why I was running to the reception area at the end of the hallway. I made it to the glass-walled alcove that stood as the reception area for the building. Swinging the door open, I told the secretary that there was someone attacking students in the west-wing. She looked at me baffled until more screams filled the halls.

Fear etched itself onto her face as her hands scrambled for the phone that was used for intercom calls. She yelled into the phone and told both teachers and students to secure their classrooms and that we were going into lockdown. She stammered as she said this, also mentioning the last known position of the attacker. Not waiting for her to finish, I just rush back out the door. I grabbed a pair of scissors from her cup of items though. Now what I had in mind wasn't the smartest idea, but something about the situation didn't feel right. There were just too many screams.

Now, this can be played off easily enough with things like multiple attackers or people just being terrified. Though it was not so in this case. First, most of these classrooms are made to house two or three dozen students at a time so even if there were multiple attackers the overwhelming amount of students could just... well... overwhelm them. Especially if the attackers didn't have any firearms. This could be simply played off because fight or flight was a very real thing. Some fought, some froze in fear, or some are being held captive by their own screams. But it seemed like it was a full-on slaughter.