In front of Seaside High, students streamed through the gates, clutching books, bags, and phones as they chatted.
"Hey, did you hear about the red rain in Country A?" a fifteen-year-old boy asked, eyes glued to his phone.
"Yeah, they went into lockdown," a girl replied, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
"Do you think it's serious this time? I remember a few years back when adults were raving about strange rain in the Middle East." Another boy struggled under a stack of books piled to his chin.
A girl relieved him of half the load. "I doubt it. It's becoming common in recent years, though our country hasn't experienced it yet."
The boy with dyed blue hair smirked. "You've never watched horror movies? Weird phenomena always mean something bad. I bet something's about to go down."
The others rolled their eyes. Talking to him was pointless—he lived in fantasy.
"No wonder you're failing classes," the girl with glasses muttered.
He pouted in response.
*Ring, ring, ring!*
Hearing the bell, they rushed towards their classrooms after waving each other off.
___
Grade 12, Class One. Twenty students bent over their work, the teacher's voice steady, sunlight spilling across the room, dust motes drifting lazily in the air.
Two hours later, the bell rang, indicating recess. Four girls walked out, their body language awkward, as this was their first time meeting.
"Hello, my name is June Bartel, and I am happy to be working with you all!" The blonde-haired girl introduced herself with a sweet smile.
"I'm Sierra Lee, 만나서 반가워요," The brown-haired girl nodded slightly in greeting.
"Hayley Anne, everyone knows who I am." The ginger-haired girl arrogantly introduced herself and flashed an arrogant smile.
The three girls looked at Hayley but added nothing, as her statement was not wrong. They then looked at their last classmate.
"Susan Foxington." The black-haired girl boldly added.
"Shall we head for the canteen?" June gracefully asked.
The three nodded and made towards the canteen.
Looking around, they quickly found a table and made their way towards it.
"I heard a student from the Gifted class is joining us," June said, her blue eyes calm.
"Yes, and another from Class Two," Sierra replied, opening her lunch box.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's nice and all, but isn't anyone gonna question Susan's last name?" Hayley pointed at Susan, her face crumpling in confusion.
Susan answered, "Your last name could be somebody's first name, do you see me complaining? " She sipped her juice, eyebrow raised. "Plus, pointing is rude.
"Okay, calm down." Siera chuckled a bit at their banter..
"You can't tell me to calm down unless you're Saylor Twist, via song!" Hayley said as she crossed her arms.
The three burst out laughing, the tension broken.
As they ate, Hayley spoke again. "Country A has joined the lockdown."
"Scientists still don't know the reason," Susan said, sipping her juice. "They advise avoiding the rain at all costs."
"I bet most won't listen," Sierra joked.
"Yep," Hayley said.
"Yep," June echoed.
"Yep," Susan agreed.
"I heard one of our schoolmates' parents is stuck there," Hayley poked one of the apple slices, bringing it close to her mouth. "I feel sorry for that poor ki-" Before she could continue a loud voice rang out in the canteen.
"Oh, you feel sorry?"
Annoyed by the faint mocking in the tone, Hayley stood up, chair scraping. "Is there a problem?!" Her light blue eyes locked on a dark-haired boy.
The students backed away from Hayley and the boy, as if trying to avoid a war zone.
"Hayley calm down, just ignore him." June got up from her seat and walked to Hayley's side. She then looked at the dark-haired boy and slowly added. "This is our project partner from Class 2, we need him if we don't want to fail our project," June whispered the last half to her.
Seeing her unresponsive, June slowly backed away, not wanting to get hit in the mix. She hadn't known Hayley for long, so there wasn't much she could do to ease the situation, especially since she seemed to have a short temper…
Sensing the tense atmosphere, the students broke out in cold sweat as they tried to hold their breath.
An indifferent voice rang out breaking the tense atmosphere. "What happened here?"
Before anyone could answer the sound of rain could be heard.
The students sighed slightly as the voice and the rain toned down the tense atmosphere.
"Why is it raining?" Susan frowned at her smartwatch. "It said sunny all day."
Suddenly a student yelled—
"Wait look outside!!"
The yell frightened everyone.
"Red!" One exclaimed.
As they rushed towards the window Susan couldn't help but shout, "Stop, don't get close to the window!!"
No surprise needed, they didn't listen, and as soon as a few students touched the window, it broke, rain spilt inside, staining the floor red. The muffled sound of rain became clear and the panicked screams of the students hit by the rain and glass echoed in the canteen.
"Idiots!" Susan's face flashed in frustration, making her dark brown skin slightly reddish.
A few facility members and teachers hurriedly ran into the canteen, drawn by the screams, and were greeted by this scene.
As everyone panicked and moved away from the window with the scolding of the teachers, the television automatically turned on, showing the news on its 16-inch screen.
[Breaking news! A World-class phenomenon has started in Country Y, making it the 30 Country to experience this. Research scientists plead with the public to refrain from going outside at all costs, as side effects are still being studied. If one gets in contact with the rain, wash immediately. If you do not have the resources to do so, please enter a quarantine zone immediately…]
As everyone listened to the news in a daze, a scream was heard from outside, waking everyone, but before they could process what was happening, a loud bang was heard from the canteen door.
Students could be seen running, pushing, pulling and crying.
A cold voice rang out, "Lock the doors!"
A group of students ran towards the door and locked it.
The group of students outside noticed this and tried to push their way in. All had a desperate expression, but seeing no one moving to help, their faces morphed into spite and anger; their mouths rapidly moving.
"What should we do?!!" A student asked in panic as he looked at the students who were trying to open the door.
Other students voiced out words like:
"Will we die?!!"
"The world is ending!!",
"I want to go home!!!"
The five listened to everyone complain about headaches, then an indifferent voice rang out behind them, scaring them into jumping away from their chairs.
"Project partner. Nice to meet you."
They were stunned for a minute looking at the girl in front of them, she was tall, and her hair seemed pitch black and her eyes so dark they were indistinguishable, giving her a mysterious vibe.
Siera was pushed forward by the rest, as she was closer to the girl. Feeling betrade she glared at them before she replied with a stutter, "Y-yes, nice t-to - me- me- me (cough) meet you."
"Hmm."
"Pardon me, but what Class are you from?" June asked hesitantly, looking the girl up and down.
"Gifted."
"First name," Susan asked as her amber brown eyes flashed with excitement.
"January." She answered with a twitch.
"Last name." Hayley joined, forgetting about the boy.
"King." January continued as if not noticing their excitement. Though her voice was faint, everyone in the canteen stopped talking when January's last word dropped. A few seconds later, the group of five couldn't even see a shadow of January.
The students surrounded her, as they tried to get her autograph.
"Can somebody tell me what is going on?" Jaxon asked with a blank face for confusion.
"She is the January King everyone knows her, she is more famous than I am!" Hayley answered with disdain evident in her light blue eyes.
Jaxon: "..."
Jaxon blankly looked at Hayley.
"Oh come on, are you mentally challenged? Do you need your 'baba' to understand what I'm saying?"Hayley moked.
After that sentence that the two broke out into a fight.
"Are you two babies?!" June yelled at them, but they couldn't hear due to the excessive noise from the students.
June and Siera tried breaking the two apart, adding to the chaos.
Holding her head, she looked back at the students trapped outside, and her eyes flew wide open.
''Guys?!"
Seeing no one pay her mind, Susan stepped on one of the tables, placing both hands on the sides of her mouth in a tunnel shape.
"GUYS!!"
Everyone turned towards her.
Seeing all attention on her, Susan pointed towards the door, expression grim.
When they turned they saw something they would never forget for the rest of their lives. (Well if they made it out alive.)
At first, at least twenty students were banging on the door, but as everyone looked back, they were greeted by the sight of a puddle of red, seeping from outside into the canteen through the glass door and the panicked movement of some of the students backing away from the door.
Their actions revealed a few students jumping at each other and tearing their skin off and eating it.
Staring at their fellow students eating the bodies (of those who did not survive) on the ground, the weak-minded fainted right away, while the strong ones became pale and vomited all over the canteen.
Seeing everyone distracted, January swiftly manoeuvred towards her bag at a corner.
"We have to leave!" January simply stated as she took her bag.
"What?" Siera wiped her mouth, still shaken by the sight. Her eyes filled with tears.
"If you wanna die, stay here. I'm leaving, only warned you because we're supposed to be project partners." January answered smoothly and left through the back door, not looking back once.
Watching her leave filled them with unfounded terror, they gave each other glances before following after her.
They quickly grabbed their stuff and ran after her, not having time to call after their mates.
As soon as they passed through the door, January's voice rang out, "Lock the doors."
All: "What?"
The five looked back at the incoming figure. All faces pale.
"The others will need to use this exit too." June's face was terribly pale as she looked at January who had walked back to them.
She repeated, "Lock the doors."
Siera stuttered out. "B-but the others."
January did not talk, just stared at them.
Feeling unnerved, Jaxon yelled, "Why should we follow what you say? You aren't the leader of this group."
January retorted, "I never claimed to be the leader. I just gave you a friendly reminder, and you followed. You chose to follow, so some words of mine, must be taken into account. If you don't the want to hear them, you may leave." Each retort was logical and calm. A stark was contrast to Jaxon's, making him waver.
Hayley took in a deep breath and walked towards the door, pulled it in and locked it. Her hands shook as she completed her actions, As soon as she locked it, th,e sound of glass breaking and screaming made all five shiver in fright, each breaking out in colthat d sweat.
January had walked off long before Hayley turned the lock. They quickly followed her, still shaking.
"Will they really make it out of here?!" Susan breathlessly questioned. Her eyes were red from unshed tears. June looked at January's back while Hayley and Siera tried to calm their rapid breathing.
The hallway should d have been filled with students rushing back to their classes. But it was empty, and the usual bright blue sky was grey, with flashes of red pouring down and hitting the windows, engulfing the school in a gloom.
Jaxon looked at the girls and hesitantly talked:
"We all just n-need some Ice cream, and maybe a week of no school," He licked his dry lips, voice still shaken from fear. "… how about it?" Ice cream?" He joked.
The four girls stopped walking and turned to glare at Jaxon, while January still walked on, indifferent to their mental turmoil.
"What!?" Hayley's roar echoed through the desolate hallway. "We just saw our own school mates get eaten, and you still have an appetite?!! What is wrong with you?!" Tears flowed down her face.
The others silently sobbed.
Jaxon's face tightened as his eyes quickly filled with tears, but he wipped his eyes, refusing to cry. "I just wanted to ease the tension, it might have seemed inconsiderate, but what eles could I do? We can't change the choice weve made." His voice choked a repressed sob.
The others knew that, but they couldn't help but push blame on him. They wanted anyone, anyone to blame. But they couldn't. And he willing put himself in front of them, wanting to make things better. But they knew it wouldn't get better.
"If you wish to end up like you mates back there, keep talking." January said. At some point she had stopped walking and watched the five break down. Her dark eyes coldly watched.
Seeing they no longer made noise, she continued walking.
They stared at her back in shock, disbelief even. How was she so heartless?!
Hayley glared at her. "How could you be so heartless!? People died back there, and you moke us with it?!"
January stopped. Then threw her head back and laughed—hysterical, echoing through the desolate hallway.