A mystery story
Written by -ashthxtic-
"Who's phone is ringing?"
You look up, as Mrs Gates, your maths teacher stands menacingly over your class.
"Well? Who is it?"
She walks up to you, and you look confused at first, until you realise that the ringing is coming from your bag. You sigh, and unzip your bag, to retrieve your phone.
"Phone. Now," she says to you, and you reluctantly oblige. She takes and pockets your phone, while also informing you that you (as expected) have an after-school detention.
The lesson continues for about half an hour as normal, until Mrs Gates loudly clears her throat. You glance up again, to see your best friend Alex texting someone.
Mrs Gates approaches them, and Alex sighs and rolls their eyes, but hands their phone over as well.
"Detention for you too. Does anyone else want to have a detention after school today?" Mrs Gates rolls her eyes, and turns back to her lesson.
Behind her back, Alex winks at you, and you can't help but grin. Ever since you both started at the school, it's always been just the two of you. You and Alex, best friends. It's exactly what Alex would do — get a detention just to join you — and you try to hide a laugh.
***
The rest of the day goes by as usual, and soon, you're walking with Alex to the detention room. You notice that something about your friend seems off — they're more distracted, more quiet — but you don't press it.
The teacher who is scheduled to run the detention today, Mr Fletcher, walks in, and you internally groan. Although Mr Fletcher is a nice teacher, he is notorious for coming up with creative but boring detention tasks, and today is no exception.
"Hello, delightful delinquents! As your wonderful reward today for misbehaving..."
"Oh no..." someone mutters.
"...you will be cleaning the school!"
"WHAT!"
"You heard me. The cleaners are getting the night off today, and their replacement is you. You have a list of tasks to complete as a group, and once you are finished, report back to me here," Mr Fletcher says.
He digs around in his pocket, and fishes out a piece of paper. He chucks it at Alex, who fumbles with it, and unfolds it. Alex's shoulders slump as they read it, and you take the paper.
______
DETENTION TO-DO LIST:
- Dust library shelves
- Stack library books
- Empty bins
- Clean classroom desks
- Clean science labs
- Make sure all windows and doors are locked
______
"But sir, there's so many things here. This will take ages!" one student, Joel, complains.
"Well that's the point! You can't really expect me to let you off scot-free, can you? You did get detention after all, Joel," Mr Fletcher says, and Joel rolls his eyes.
After a pause of silence, you jump when Mr Fletcher claps his hands loudly.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Better start now! Hurry up!!"
Everyone in the room scatters, and heads off in different directions. As you leave, you can hear Mr Fletcher quietly say, "I love organising detentions."
***
You decide to head to the library. It's always been your comfort place after all. When you arrive, you notice how creepy the library is in the dark, and you hurry to turn a light on. You walk over to the stack of books on the librarian's desk, and start reshelving them.
After around fifteen minutes, you notice that it is oddly quiet. Too quiet, in fact. The science labs are next to the library, and for the past ten minutes, you could hear two boys cleaning the lab. But the past five minutes were filled with no noise.
You leave the library, to check the labs, and you let out an ear-piercing scream. Joel's body is lying on the floor, and blood is pouring out of his stomach. He was stabbed by a glass shard. You drop down to check for a pulse, but in your heart, you know that it is in vain. Joel is dead.
Alex soon runs in, and stops. Your friend looks around and sees you, distraught and panicked on the floor, and Alex wraps their arms around you, comforting you.
"What happened?" Alex whispers to you, but all you can do is hopelessly shrug. "Did you see who did it?" Alex asks, but again you shrug.
Soon, a few more people begin to enter the room, most likely after hearing your scream from earlier, and their reactions range from anger, to worry, to sadness.
The questions soon start. A rapid-fire of them, all directed at you. An overwhelming sense of panic starts to engulf you, and Alex can clearly see this. They squeeze your hand gently, and whisper to you to take deep breaths.
As soon as you are less overwhelmed, you begin to explain what happened. How you were just cleaning the library. The strange absence of any sounds. How you went to check, and saw Joel dead.
"Hang on, didn't someone else go with Joel?" Alex points out.
"I- yeah. But I went to get some more whiteboard cleaner, as the one here is empty," someone says. Marcus, you recall, is his name.
"Interesting..." someone muses, and Marcus raises his hands in a surrendering gesture.
"Hey, don't accuse me. I wouldn't kill Joel. Why would I?"
"How did you not hear anything though?"
"Well I didn't either, and I was in the library," you say trying to defend Marcus.
As all the accusing gazes swing toward you, you realise the flaw in your statement.
"Wait I didn't mean it like that-" you start and Alex smiles at you reassuringly.
"Okay, but there's no clear proof that anyone did anything. So there's not much we can do now. I think that we should keep an eye out for anything suspicious, and stick together," someone else interjects.
Everyone agrees with this, and you all leave again. You decide to stick with Alex, but you soon split up, as they say that they have to do something quickly. You wonder if this is suspicious, but decide to brush it off.
***
You finish cleaning the library without any more disturbances, yet you are constantly thinking about Joel's death. Who did it? How? And most importantly, why?
Once you have stacked the last of the books, you start heading back to the other classrooms, to see if anyone else needs help. As you are arriving, another student who you recognize, Sam, barrels down the corridor and crashes into you.
"Woah, calm down! What happened, Sam?" you ask.
"I- I- Marie and Louis are dead!" they exclaim, breaking down.
You awkwardly try to comfort Sam, but at the same time, are furiously thinking. Who did it?
Eventually, Sam leaves, to go spread the word for people to be alert, and you decide to have a look around the classrooms, in case there is anything suspicious.
As you walk, you come across an English classroom. At first, it seems normal, but then you notice a shadow moving around the room. Silently you slip into the room, and crouch in a corner.
Suddenly, a muffled scream is cut off with a loud thud, and you flinch. You hurriedly duck behind a desk as two people exit the room, and your eyes widen. There are two killers?! In your panic and shock at this new revelation, you accidentally knock over a chair, and the two people freeze.
They slowly approach your direction, and you can't see any way out. You're trapped in a classroom, and two people, both most likely armed, are heading toward you.
You're going to die. You can feel it. You've always wondered what death would feel like. What your death would be like. You'd always wondered what would happen, but never in your wildest dreams did it happen like this. Trapped in a classroom, with two of your peers heading toward you, to kill you.
"Come out! We know you're in here!" they call out to you, but you don't take the bait.
The footsteps get closer... closer... closer...
BANG!
Suddenly the door is flung open, and someone stands in the doorway. You can't see their face, but clearly it's not someone the killers want to see, as you hear one of them quietly swear, and they both duck down.
The new arrival looks around briefly, and soon leaves, apparently not seeing anyone. As soon as they have left, the killers emerge again, and start searching for you.
As they approach, you are suddenly hyper-aware of everything. The way your skin feels cold all of a sudden. Your heartbeat, which now seems too loud. Surely the killers would be able to hear it — it sounds like a bass drum to you. And the footsteps, gradually getting louder.
You look around frantically, trying to find a last resort – something, anything that can save you from death. As you hurriedly search the floor, you spot a pencil – it's probably not going to work, but it's all that you can do now – and throw it across the room.
The pencil makes a surprisingly loud sound, and the two other people in the room immediately turn toward the sound. Trying to stay as inconspicuous as you can in the dark room, you creep toward the exit, and manage to slip out the door just as the people inside realise that you had tricked them.
"Get. Back. Here. Now."
You shiver at the ominous tone, and sprint away from the room as fast as you can. You can distantly hear footsteps behind you, but you still push on, despite wanting to just collapse. As you run, you wonder who the killers are. And why. What is their motive?
You run for what feels like hours, but is probably only minutes, hoping to run into someone familiar. It appears as if everyone is just gone. Suddenly, a figure appears in front of you. You squint, hoping to be able to see who it is, but when you can't identify them, back away slowly. They start to approach you, and as the light briefly shines into their face, you can see, with an immense sense of relief, that it is Alex.
As you approach, you realise that you have to tell them about the new information you found out – that there's two killers, not just one – and you start to run toward them.
As you start to tell Alex about the killers, you are momentarily confused by their reaction to this. Instead of being worried or confused, like you expected, Alex is oddly calm, and simply smiles.
You reach Alex, and they grins at you, and too late, you can see the maliciousness in their eyes. Alex leans in, as if they are hugging you, but instead, whispers something in your ear.
"Oh, I already know. Because I'm one of them."
When you hear this, you try to quickly back away, but it's too late. Alex has already stabbed you, and you can tell that the blade has reached your heart.
"Alex... why..." is all you manage to choke out, but they simply laugh in reply, and head down the corridor.
Your vision dims, and slowly fades to black, as your life slowly drains from your body.
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