The Phantom School

The building had been designed as a prison many decades ago with little concerns of safety, so we didn"t have a lot of alternate escape routes; we would simply run downstairs using the nearest stairwell and head to the exit. Even after being converted into a school, there were no emergency exits, and the hallways were pretty narrow. This design flaw would cause a confluence in the exit and the hallways in no time.

This flaw had good and bad sides. The obvious bad side was the increased time of evacuation and the risks to people"s lives, but it would also help us catch up with the crowd before the building was mostly evacuated. We just had to be with the crowd to avoid getting trapped in here.

Idil and Melis were running in front of me. My other cla.s.smates and Mr. Kenan were following us as we rushed through the hallways. We arrived at the stairwell near the closer end of the hallway, and ran downstairs. We saw a few other students on our way, running around in panic.

We came to the bottom floor and started running towards the exit. We had to make a left turn and catch up with the crowd before everyone was evacuated.

While we were running, I started to smell something burning. The fire must"ve been close.

We took a left turn to reach the exit. But the hallway was covered in a thick, opaque black fume. The smoke was coming from one of the doors on the left side of the hallway. The explosion had happened in the chemistry laboratory.

The black cloud of smoke was in our way to the exit. We could get around that smoke by going back to the upper floor and coming down again from the other side of the hallway. Unfortunately, if we tried to bypa.s.s the cloud, it would take way too much time.

All of the thinking and risk a.s.sessment had happened in just under a few seconds, and I decided to try going through the cloud of smoke. No one knew what I could run into, but I had no time to hesitate. I kept running.

As I was entering the black cloud, I slowed down a bit in case I hit something. The black fume smelled... exotic. It wasn"t a very sharp smell, but I felt ailing. At that moment, I heard Mr. Kenan shouting from behind.

"Don"t inhale!"

A typical warning for unknown chemical substances. Unfortunately, I wasn"t exactly in the right condition to think about it, and it was a little too late for me. I couldn"t go back now. I tried to cover my nose and mouth using a part my uniform, and kept running to reach the other end of the cloud as soon as possible. I just had to run blindly for a while.

While I was running, I saw a figure in the smoke, directly ahead. It appeared for a fraction of a second and disappeared again. I couldn"t make anything out, but I had to stop in order not to run into whatever it was. I slightly altered my path and kept going.

Idil and Melis had been running in front of me the whole time, and I thought that they could"ve made it out of the building already. I shouted at them to get a response and estimate my distance to the exit.

"Idil! Melis!"

I got no response. It was possible that they didn"t hear me in the heat of the moment. I kept running and running, but it felt like the hallway was going on forever, and I would never reach the exit.

I was starting to feel dizzy. I must have been affected by the burning chemicals, I thought. Inhaling such ga.s.ses like carbon monoxide at high concentrations could easily be fatal. I had to reach the exit as soon as possible.

I was almost out of energy when I heard something. A dreamy voice echoed through the hallway, but I couldn"t understand who it was, or what it was saying.

Maybe no one had even said anything. With the effect of the chemicals, combined with the fear and paranoia I recently started suffering from... It was only normal for me to be hallucinating and making things up.

Suddenly, instead of black, I started to see everything white. I must"ve gotten closer to the exit, I though. I just had to keep going for a few more meters. But I could no longer run. I was trying to slowly walk to the exit using the last bits of my energy. It was too hard for me just to stay conscious, let alone walk or run.

My dizziness was unbearable, and I dropped on my knees. I felt someone run past me in the white fog. I wanted to call for help, but I couldn"t do it. I tried to drag my knees on the ground and crawl forwards, but I couldn"t do that either.

"Welcome back, my children!"

I heard the familiar voice of the old woman echo through the hallway.

I was making things up because of the chemicals. That must"ve been it. I was going crazy.

I could no longer try to move, and I still had no idea how much distance there was to the exit. I unwillingly let myself lay down. The only thing I could feel was the coldness of the floor. Slowly, everything went dark again. I wasn"t sure if I could no longer see, or the place really was pitch black.

I managed to roll on the ground to lay on my back.

I suddenly felt a force on my arms. It felt like my arms were going to break apart from the rest of my body. Someone was trying to drag me on the ground. I could not do anything, and I was simply an observer at that point.

Unfortunately, my observer status wouldn"t last too long. The last thing I could remember was the pain of being dragged by my arms on the cold floor.