*Now playing: Bulletproof Heart by My Chemical Romance*
The sound echoes faintly from a jagged speaker in the corner, the driving drum beat clashing with the lazy afternoon humidity.
It was lunchtime, the hour when the school hung suspended between the morning's fatigue and the afternoon's heat. Ophelia was, as usual, isolating herself in the corner of the classroom. She wasn't an outcast, she was far from that, but today, the gravity of existence felt particularly heavy. She was drained, and the sheer effort of socializing felt like it will consume her energy more.
Across the room, the air buzzed with electric distortion. Her classmates were huddled around amps and tangled cords, tuning their electric guitars for the upcoming school festival. The screech of feedback and the thrum of power chords should have been annoying, but to Ophelia, it was just white noise, a lullaby of teenage angst that drifted over her as she rested her head on her crossed arms.
"May I excuse Ophelia?"
The polite voice cut through the guitar riffs. Dev stood at the doorway, flashing a charming, apologetic smile to the guitarists. One of Ophelia's classmates, a tall boy with a bass guitar strapped to his chest, walked over and nudged her shoulder. "Oi, Lia. Your boy is here."
But nothing, there's no response. Ophelia remained motionless, breathing rhythmically like she was hibernating. The classmate poked her again, harder. Then he shook her. It was like trying to wake a stone statue.
Dev sighed, stepping into the room. "Step aside, amateur." He marched up to her desk, rolled up his sleeve, and delivered a solid, resounding whack to her back.
"Oh shi—!" Dev hissed, shaking his hand instantly. It felt like he'd slapped a bag of cement.
Ophelia shot up like a spring-loaded trap, eyes wild. "What the heck is wrong with you?!" she shrieked, twisting to massage the stinging spot between her shoulder blades.
"S-sorry! I didn't thought it'll be too strong!" Dev yelped, grabbing her wrist before she could retaliate. "Anyway, let's talk. We're moving."
"No. I need to sleep. I am recovering from exhaustion," she grunted, planting her feet firmly on the ground.
"With your current demeanor, you look like a Victorian orphan who hasn't eaten in three days," Dev retorted, not letting go.
"I've already eaten," she lied, her stomach traitorously silent.
"Liar. You're coming with me."
He dragged her, like literally dragged her, her heels scuffing against the linoleum, out of the room and down the corridor. By the time they reached their friend's classroom, Ophelia had given up fighting and gone limp, letting Dev haul her like a sack of potatoes.
They flopped down next to Johanne, the third point of their triangle. Johanne looked up from his notebook, adjusting his glasses.
"You didn't get her to stand up lightly, did you?" Johanne asked, a chuckle rumbling in his chest.
"I can't help it," Dev wiped sweat from his forehead. "She looks pitiful in that room. Like a wilted houseplant."
"Shut up," Ophelia mumbled, burying her face in her arms on the new desk. "I did what you wanted. I got dragged here. My payment is a nap. Wake me up when the festival starts... or when September ends."
"Deal," Johanne smiled softly.
But luck was not on her side today. She had barely drifted into the deep slumber of rest when their surroundings violently shook, making her instantly on alert.
*BOOOOOOMM!!*
The sound wasn't just heard, it was felt deep inside their bones. The shockwave rattled the teeth in Ophelia's skull. Windows blew inward, showering the floor with shards of glass. Visible, spiderweb-like cracks shot up the concrete walls with a sickening crunch.
Ophelia stood up quickly, heart hammering against her ribs. "What... what was that?"
"I'm not sure," Johanne said, his voice tight. He and Dev were already on their feet just in front of Ophelia, shielding her from possible harm, instincts overriding confusion. "Let's go."
They moved into the hallway, which had transformed into a river of panicked students. They were screaming, shoving, sprinting toward the exits. Dev reached out, yanking a terrified sophomore by the collar of his uniform.
"Hey! What's going on up there?" Dev asked.
The boy was trembling, eyes wide and unseeing. "M-monsters! There are... There are monsters! You guys better run—!" He screamed the warning, and the moment Dev let go, he bolted. He stumbled in his panic, hitting the ground hard, but scrambled back up instantly to keep running.
*CRAacCK-BOOoOomM!*
The building rocked with another explosion, much closer than the last. The lights failed, and darkness flooded the corridor. They dropped to a crouch as one—Dev and Johanne covering their heads and reaching out to shield Ophelia from the shower of plaster and dust.
"Monsters?" Ophelia whispered. She lowered her hands, the word sounding absurd even as she said it. "Like... crazy guys in mascot suits?"
"It's a terrorist attack," Johanne said, trying to rationalize it. He gripped their arms, pulling them toward the safety of the classroom. "That kid was probably seeing things from gas fumes. We need to hide before we get shot."
"Right," Dev stammered, his face pale. "We just wait for the police. SWAT. Just... someone with the firepower to put them down."
"But we can't just hide," Ophelia said, digging her heels in. The panic was fading, replaced by a cold, dangerous curiosity. "What if he wasn't hallucinating? What if they really are monsters?"
"Lia, get back here," Johanne snapped, reaching out to snag her arm again.
She was stubborn— she always had been. Ophelia tore her arm from Johanne's grip and strode out into the open corridor. Curiosity got the best of her as she leaned over the dusty balcony railing to look down at the courtyard below, and then, a sudden, cold pressure squeezed the air from her lungs. "Oh sh!t," she breathed, the terror turning her blood to ice as she finally processed what the sight below was.
There were two of them.
Their forms mirrored the human shape in outline alone, reaching upward with an impossible, lanky leanness. They moved as silhouettes of pure ebony, like living shadows torn violently from the fabric of the universe. Wreathed in a swirling mist of spores and grey ash, their bodies drifted between dissolution and knitting back together amidst a shifting shroud of ash. There were no features upon those dark heads, no mouth to scream, no nose to breathe— defined only by their eyes, two burning white spheres that glowed with a cold, predatory hunger and utterly hollow of humanity.
Ophelia confirmed it with a single, sickening realization. They were not terrorists nor crazy men in mascot costumes. These were monsters... Real monsters.
As if sensing the sudden spike of her fear, one of the entities snapped its head up. The twin white circular hollow lights instantly locked onto her. Ophelia froze. An instinct of a prey, her brain screaming Don't move, paralyzed her feet where she stood.
The monster began to move. It didn't just run, it flowed, approaching the vertical concrete wall beneath her. Its movement defied physics. It started to climb, its long, skeletal fingers plunging into the concrete with sickening ease, like hot knives through soft butter. Step by step, it ascended, closing the distance between them.
"LIA! OPHELIA!" Dev and Johanne's voices merged into a ragged, panicked cry that echoed off the cold, industrial tiles.
Ophelia was frozen, her gaze locked on the grotesque monstrosity unfolding inches from her. The creature, all elongated limbs and wet, slick muscle, finally crested the curved concrete balustrade. Its enormous bulk scraped against the rough stone, making a sickening grinding sound that momentarily drowned out Lia's frantic heartbeat.
It heaved itself fully onto their floor, the impact shuddering through the structure beneath their feet. For a heart-stopping moment, the monster remained hunched, its silhouette a terrifying, broken line against the weak emergency lights. Then, it slowly, deliberately straightened, its segmented body twitching and settling into a disturbing stillness.
"Come here! Don't just stand there, Lia, MOVE!" Johanne shrieked, her voice cracking with strain, urging Ophelia back toward the safety of the corridor, back toward them.
The sound of Johanne's desperate command was the force that shattered Lia's fear paralysis. Her muscles seized back control, and she spun on a dime, pumping her legs hard across the dusty floor.
But the monster didn't immediately give chase. It stood motionless, its oblong, featureless head tilting, first to the left, then sharply to the right. It was as if it were studying them. The motion was eerily peculiar— precise, almost like it was forming a thought. It was observing the three of them, pinned and exposed, like a cold, calculating scientist observing lab rats in a freshly opened cage.
"Why isn't it moving?" Dev whispered, his hand instinctively gripping Johanne's arm, his knuckles white.
"I don't know, I don't care! Get ready to run!" Johanne hissed back, her eyes fixed on Lia, who was closing the distance. "Hurry up, Lia! Don't stop!"
The silence stretched, charged with the monster's predatory focus, and the terrified trio knew that its observation was reaching its urge to chase them and satiate its hunger.
"Let's go... now!" Dev hissed, his voice raw with suppressed terror, his fingers digging painfully into Ophelia's wrist. "Don't look at it. Don't stop. Just run!"
The air around the monstrous humanoid felt heavy and toxic, warping the light of the emergency exit sign. They didn't wait for it to move even further. They began to back away slowly, a shared, primal instinct screaming at them to keep their eyes fixed on the thing, until Dev yanked her into motion.
They turned and bolted down the desolate, echoing high school hallway.
The moment their feet pounded the ceramic floor, the predator instinct triggered in the darkness behind them. The creature was closing the distance. It sprang into action, a blur of black smoke and pure kinetic energy, moving with a horrifying, silent speed that defied the laws of physics.
"It's catching up, Dev, it's right there!" Ophelia gasped, her lungs already burning. Her legs felt impossibly heavy, like she was running through deep, sucking water. The sudden, exhausting surge of fear compounded the fatigue she felt minutes ago, turning her muscles to freeze.
"Just push! Keep moving!" Dev shouted, pulling her along, his own breath ragged.
"AAHH!" Ophelia screamed as something cold, hard, and terrifyingly sharp snagged the delicate hem of her uniform skirt. The force was instant and violent, yanking her body backward off her feet. She skidded; the soles of her heels were useless against the sudden, crushing pull.
Thud.