Through the Gates

We arrived at school without much else of note. Our classmates–the few also insane enough to be here this early–barely gave us a look as they huddled around their laptops and notebooks.

“Is it just me, or does everything feel darker?” Chiyo asked.

It wasn’t just her. Every window has its shades down–the lights from above shining with an unusual dull yellow tint that hadn't been there last time I’d stepped foot in here.

Even our classmates felt dull. Their faces were cast in shadows despite the bright laptops, the white screens fading into the yellow hue of the school.

“Did we suffer a power shortage or something?” I muttered, before immediately throwing out the idea. This was a major Japanese city. The chances of an outage were smaller than the sun going dark.

With another sigh of resentment, I perused the classrooms, entering the first empty one I could find.

As Chiyo leaned back in the first chair she spotted, I went over to the curtains. Everyone else could sulk like vampires. I’d be happy to bask in the sun while the rest of them suffered with skin paler than milk.

Yet, when I went to tug the curtain open, nothing moved

“Dang it, Chiyo, come help me. These curtains are stuck.”

As she waddled over, we both gave a tug together, then another. But, even with both of us, the thin piece of cloth didn’t give a millimeter. Even epoxy didn’t give this much resistance.

“I’ll go get a teacher,” Chiyo said, rushing out of the room. “I'll be back in a second.”

“Chiyo wait–” In typical Chiyo fashion, she was already gone by the time I could speak. For being half my height, dang was she ever fast.

And so I sat in the dull room, listening to the faint hum of the flickering light bulbs seemingly on the last leg. But, since when has the school had bare lightbulbs hanging from the school? And, were any of the windows ever fitted with blinds…

“Not bad, not bad at all,” A creaking voice came over the loudspeaker, something more akin to a chainsaw than human speech. “Normally they take a bit longer to realize something's off.”

“Call me more observant than your average girl.”

“Why of course! Not many people can redeem themselves so completely,” Something told me they didn’t exactly mean that as a compliment. “Your mother told me how much you’ve changed since she passed away. She does miss you so.”

“You don’t speak for her.”

“But I do,” Before I could blink, one of the windows shattered–throwing shards of ice toward every bit of the room. “I know her very well.”

From the glass, the figure stood tall. It wore one of those cultist robes from this morning, red instead of the pale white from before. Golden tassels hung from its sleeves. Yet, all of those were barely footnotes in my mind.

For when it pushed back its hood, a rotting skull looked back into my eyes.

“W-what are you?”

“A friend, and a warning. We wanted to give you a chance to join us in paradise on your own terms, but we can’t stand to see such needless suffering. Don’t make us take action.” From its robes, a ghastly pale had pulled out the same dagger they’d taunted me with barely an hour ago.

“Go to hell.”
“Hell is not a place for us, that's what you can’t understand. You’re already in hell Mari Watanabe. Why do you resist us so much?”

“Because if you think this is hell, you’re living in a different reality than the rest of us!” With that remark, I turned the other way and dashed off.

Shit, I couldn’t help but feel my heart beating a million times a second. This wasn’t a dream. Every bit of this was reality, and I could feel my facade slipping more and more by the second.

“Get her!” its horrid voice rang out in anger, like a woodchipper on its last legs.

I dashed around the corner, heading back the way I’d just come. Any sign of my classmates had disappeared–not even their laptops remaining. Yet in their place, I could see cultist after cultist in their white robes.

And with the red-robed cultist's words, they were all getting up to chase me down.

I could hear the mind-numbing hum from the lightbulbs get louder by the second, several already shattered as I ran past. Even half the classrooms now were shrouded in pure darkness.

“Stop,” one of the cultists screamed. One more step, and we’ll have to take action.”

“Gotta catch me first,” Just a few more steps, a few more minutes until freedom would be in sight.

But they’d read my every move.

A small army stood in my way, all with their creepy hoods up and arms ready to fight. Compared to outside there was at least triple the amount. Hook line and sinker they’d played me.

My only option left was up–suicide–but with nothing else possible I took the stairs three at a time. Something, anything had to be up here.

As I reached the second level, things only got worse for my school. More lightbulbs than not were either missing or piles of glass on the floor. Paint splatters covered the floor. Hell, at some points along the long hallways, there was more paint on the ground than the walls.

The classrooms weren’t different. Several desks had been snapped and half, and even the ones still standing had their wood stripped and finish scratched.

Eventually, though, the hallway ran out. Only a single classroom at the end of the corridor lay ahead.

“Shit shit shit! Where the hell are the stairs? My school was bigger than some football fields, yet any sign of the upper floors had disappeared like they were never there to begin with.

But, if there wasn’t ever a third floor…

“Well, do you give up?” Cultists rushed into the room as I backed myself towards the window. “Heaven calls for you Mari, don’t reject its cries.”

“Tell heaven I’m on an extended break. I don’t think we’ll be seeing each other anytime soon!”
And with that, I turned towards the wall, braced myself, and then jumped through the window.

The glass shattered as my blonde hair flew back–an explosion of light joining the chorus. Exiliration raced through my blood as I fell, further and further.

Until I rolled onto the concrete in a bloody heap.

As I turned around, eyes adjusting to the light, I couldn’t help by raise an eyebrow in surprise.

Behind me was a simple two-story building shoddily slapped together with some brick and cement. Every window was covered with a giant piece of black construction paper.

What kind of magic... The memory of entering my school still was vivid. Yet, this clearly was about as far away from school as a building could get

I could see the head cultist screaming at me from the top floor–too cowardly to make the jump. Cultists were pushing it back, refusing to let the skull-headed cultist reach the light

With a smooth motion, I grabbed another sucker from my bag. I could taste the explosion of watermelon in my mouth as I grinned, turned away, and walked away toward my actual school building.

I’d had enough of these idiots continuing this game. It was time to figure out what idiot made the fatal mistake of messing with me.