“Jordan? Jordan?!”
“Present Mrs. Calloway!”, I gasped, looking up from my journal where I was writing. Laughter echoed around me as my friends tease me for drifting off again.
And why shouldn’t I write or daydream? Afterall, don’t they keep asking us to be creative and imaginative? I loved to walk around my own little world where I could build or create whatever I wanted. It was my happy place.
“Try not to fall asleep in my class, Jordan. Tom Sawyer isn’t that boring.”, Mrs. Calloway said dryly.
“Yes Mrs. Calloway.”, I muttered, rolling my eyes at the handout of the book being passed around.
“Once upon a bye, there was a mischievous boy named Tom Sawyer, who was always getting into trouble, getting off on danger.”
I immediately began writing as she began reading.
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“Well, that was boring. I thought she was never going to let us leave!”, James moaned as he stuffed the reading materials back into the locker.
“I swear! What do we care about Tom and his fences?”, I replied, shoving in my own belongings as I pulled out my gym bag.
“Man don’t even. You were half gone during the whole period.”, Chris, my other friend chimed in, shoving me jokingly.
“Hey! I paid attention for five whole minutes! That’s a lot of attention for Mrs. Calloway’s class.”, I argued defensively.
We pushed and fought each other mockingly as we headed off towards the gym.
James, Chris, and I had been friends since preschool. Our families lived in the same neighborhood. We were practically brothers, we got into fights, ditched classes, and watched out for each other.
I couldn’t imagine getting by without them.
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I hate running.
I hate running pointlessly during gym class. Why should we? I mean why does anyone like to sweat for no reason. We have an air-conditioned gym. Why not play dodgeball like normal humans?
Huffing, sweating, and out of breath, I glared at Chris. He was one of those lucky assholes who could run for miles and make it look like a breeze. I on the other hand got breathless after one sit up. James on the other hand, pretty much did the bare minimum to get a passing grade. Like right now he was power walking his way to the finish line. His modus operandi was, “Why struggle, when there is an easier way to do it?”
God, I hated them both.
Crawling towards the finish line. I lay sprawled on the grass, gasping. Pride? What pride?
The coach snorted at me derisively. I couldn’t be bothered to give a single shit.
Chris galloped towards me like an overgrown racehorse. “Come on that wasn’t so bad. You actually made it all the way towards the end.”
“Shut up”, I croaked.
“He will make it to his end if the coach asks us for another lap.”, James chuckled, ambling towards us.
I couldn’t be bothered to reply to that, I just glared at them.
“That’s enough slacking! Drag your sorry asses to the showers!”, coach yelled as he grumbled under his breath about our inability to become star athletes in a day.
Chris and James yanked me from my fetal position and shoved me towards the showers.
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Packing my gym bag, I head towards the door waiting for Chris and James. We were planning to hit the arcade on our way back home. That was the only worthwhile thing on this otherwise most hated day of the week.
James walked out first, shouldering his bag.
“Chris got held up again.”, he said, gesturing with his shoulder towards the coach who was talking to Chris.
“Probably asking him to break a Guinness record.”, we chuckled as Chris glared at us.
“Shut up you two.”, he muttered as he finally made his way towards us.
“What not going to run another mile?”, James laughed and ducked out of the way as Chris tried to hit him. Laughing we walked towards the main doors.
“Wait!”, I called out.
“What?”, they asked.
“Our bags? We left them in the locker, remember?”, I answered.
“So? We can get them tomorrow.”, Chris replied.
“No! Are you insane? Did you forget we have a book report due tomorrow?”, I cried out.
“Crap! I completely forgot.”, James moaned pulling at his hair in frustration.
“Come on it’ll only take a minute. No way I am spending a detention with Mrs. Calloway.”, I replied firmly.
“Ok I agree with that.”, Chris replied.
We turned around and started walking back towards the lockers.
“Man, how is this place already empty?”, Chris asked, his voice echoing slightly in the silence.
“Well Mr. I Hate Sweat here took forever in the shower and then you took forever with the coach, so what do you expect? Everyone normal already left home.”, James replied as he nudged my shoulder.
“Shut up. You can be as stinky as you like!”, I replied hotly.
Laughing we continued to walk for a while in silence.
“You guys ever heard the story?”, Chris asked after a while.
“Which story?”, we asked.
“Well apparently a while back, I am not sure about the dates, a couple of kids were hanging around after school and mysteriously disappeared. No one knows what happened to them. They just found their stuff lying around.”
“Must be a rumor. Where would they go?”, I asked.
“Maybe the coach’s bad breath scared them away.”, James joked.
“I thought I was the one who imagined stuff.”, I laughed as we teased Chris.
“Shut up”, he huffed.
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“Got everything?”, I asked while closing my locker.
“Yep.”, they replied in unison.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.”, I said.
We made our way towards the door. James was walking ahead of me and pulled on the handle of the door. It shook but didn’t open.
“What the hell?”, he muttered and pulled on it harder.
“Dudes it’s locked!”, he cried out in surprise.
“What? Are you serious?”
“No way!”
“Yes! Look for yourselves!”, he said, moving out of the way.
Me and Chris tried pulling on the door in unison to no avail. It was locked. We tried other exits; they were all locked too.
“Guys what are we going to do?”, I asked, worried.
“The janitor!”, Chris cried out suddenly.
“What?”, asked James, looking lost.
“No man, the janitors’ room, there should be some spare keys, right?”, he explained.
Having no other options, we decided to go with it. We stuck close and made our way towards the janitors’ office. It was unlocked. Feeling relieved at the stroke of luck we quickly started looking around for the keys. We found none.
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James sunk to the floor exhausted and annoyed. “Guys lets’ just find a phone or someway to contact our parents. I’d rather be grounded than waste my day here.”
“Dude my mum will kill me!”, Chris whined.
“Don’t worry. The phone isn’t working.”, I said quietly, holding up the receiver which had no dial tone.
“Is this for real?”, James asked, looking uneasy for the first time.
“Come on. We’ll find a way. We can try the administration building. They have computers and phones and shit. Something must be definitely working there”, I said, swallowing my own panic.
That’s when we heard it. I couldn’t make it out at first. I shushed James as he started freaking out. It sounded like someone was whistling a tune.
“Guys? Guys what the hell?”, James whispered. The sound started getting closer. We started backing away from the door. Chris in a stroke of bravery locked the door just in time as our whistling stranger came to a stop outside it.
We waited, with bated breaths, we waited.
Nothing.
“Who’s there”, I called out, hoping it was someone who came to help us.
Then suddenly, a knock, then two more. The stranger didn’t speak. Just knocked.
We stood there frozen, clutching on to each other. James looked so pale. Chris stood in front of us trying to seem calm. I shook with fear.
It definitely wasn’t the janitor. Or anyone we wanted to meet.
The knock repeated twice more, the door handle turned slowly. Locked. In that moment, I thanked all forces for granting Chris the strength to lock the door in time.
The whistling began again. It sounded so wrong. I wanted to cry.
We stood listening, in few minutes it faded. We looked at each other and burst into motion.
We checked the windows, exits. Nothing. We felt trapped. It made no sense.
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We sat huddled together near the desk trying to come up with ideas. Some seemed sensible, some were shot down, all we knew was, none of us wanted to open the door.
“Let’s just break the windows! I mean who cares at this point?!”, Chris cried out, looking frustrated.
It began again, the whistling. This time it seemed louder.
That’s when I realized, it’s not the fear that gets you. It’s the silence. In the absolute quiet, everything seems bigger, louder. Like the space around you is shrinking and whatever it is that you are afraid of, is getting closer.
The knocking began but this time it escalated to banging, as though whoever or whatever was outside, wanted to get in.
James started to shake and back away.
I stood there watching the handle, as it rattled furiously, our whistling stranger was getting impatient. We understood, there wasn’t going to be a third chance.
It stopped again.
This was it. The whistling began to fade.
Panic overtook me. I broke into action, grabbing a chair and throwing it at the window. It just bounced back, almost hitting Chris who yelped and got out of the way.
“Dammit!”, I yelled and pulled on my hair in frustration.
“We need to leave now, we don’t have time.”, James whispered as he stared at the door.
Looking at one another, we moved in tandem towards the door. Chris unlocked it and the door swung open.
Nothing.
Not wanting to push our luck, we rushed out, making a mad dash to nowhere.
“Where do we go?”, I asked as I panted, squinting as we rushed through a dark corridor.
“The gym! We can head into the grounds and cut through the bleachers!”, Chris yelled back.
Then it began, the whistling. How?! It seemed as though it was everywhere. Echoing.
“No, no, no, guys it’s near me! I can feel it!”, James cried, stumbling as he ran.
“James don’t! Keep running!”, we yelled. James yelled as he rushed past us in the wrong direction.
“James!”, we cried out as we chased him, through the corridors, up the stairs, in a steady state of panic. We finally found him.
He was crouching at the end of a corridor, gasping and shivering.
“James? James?!”, I called out.
“I want to go home.”, he whispered.
“We will man. We will.”, Chris replied resolutely.
This time the whistling was accompanied by steady thumps, as whatever it was, started getting closer. Chris spoke too soon.
We started moving backwards. James started crying.
“Guys let’s just run!”, I yelled as I rushed forward in anger and fear. I felt something cold – fingers? – brush past me.
I ran blindly for a few seconds. That’s it. A few seconds. That’s all it took for everything to crumble.
I watched it in slow motion as turned to look back. Just silhouettes. James, stumbling, Chris trying to save him, tripping, and finally falling over the stairs.
There was a yell, a thud, a sickening crunch and finally silence.
Funny thing was, I didn’t see anything else around them. What were we running from?
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I don’t even remember what happened after that. Everything was a blur. I could only recall James’s sobbing, repeating over and over again how sorry he was.
I remembered crouching next to Chris’s mangled body, unable to comprehend.
I think we stayed there till morning, maybe it was morning already?
We were running for so long.
There was a crowd, I think.
Our parents pulled us away. There were so many questions. Neither of us had answers. All we said was, we went to get our homework.
James kept shooting me looks, as though he felt I was going to blame him.
I didn’t.
The school brushed it off as a freak accident. We didn’t argue it.
What could we say? We were chased by sounds and shadows?
We weren’t complete idiots.
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I soon understood it wasn’t just Chris who left that day.
Me and James drifted apart too. James couldn’t look at me without feeling guilt and I couldn’t look at him without feeling lost.
Lost at how to make this go away.
Soon there was a void between us.
Eventually we let it swallow us.
James moved schools in a week, unable to set foot in that place again.
I continued to go there, I just never lingered for long.
But somehow, I felt that thing was content for now, in a way Chris saved us.
I still don’t know what happened that day. All I knew was, it was the only place I felt an echo of happiness. I wasn’t ready to let go of us yet.
I saw James now and then, he always waved awkwardly and walked away. Soon even that stopped.
We went from brothers, to acquaintances, to strangers.
Somehow it felt natural.
And to think I started my first entry here with, It was a good day………
