Velumophobia
08:07The sun blared down in a vehement manner, destroying whatever tiny organism that tried to pull through and struggle to live. Sweat would run down a person's temples, dampening his or her skin with salty fluid.
Enslin was perched by the school gates, seeming distant as he stared into the infinite horizon, watching absent-mindedly as his peers shuffled past, walking in an endless line as one by one walked by.
Since his mind had dissolved into subconsciousness, it took quite a handful of time for the Disciplinary teacher to grab a hold of his attention. "Enslin!" the dreaded old woman called, pronouncing his name with an obvious hint of disgust, a glint of hatred and a slight tint of mockery. New students should not be shown mercy, for he or she needs to know what to expect - that was her motto, her vision and her number one rule in life.
Enslin was in such a rush that he almost walked into the metal-barred gate. His heart thumped like a vigorous drummer pounding on the leather surface of his instrument, producing claps of synthetic thunder echoes. Sweat trickled down the crown of his skull and neck, implying that the temperature had just risen by a couple of degrees or so.
The unbearable heat made it worse for the newcomer, besides the horrible welcomes by the other students and the heart pounding encounter with the Disciplinary teacher. Besides that, he was left with no other option than to attend school. What could possibly go wrong? It was already a mistake in so many ways. Following the first ring of the Godforsaken bell, Enslin advanced for his first class (which was thankfully English.) Upon entering, he said a silent prayer to himself, hoping desperately for nicer classmates and a more... pleasant teacher.
As he sat down in the third row from the front, his eyes were locked onto an unfamiliar looking woman, who seemed only a couple of years ahead of him. She stood by the chalkboard, adjusting her vintage, floral blouse which complimented her fair complexion and olive green eyes. "Hello, class. Good to see your faces again," she said in an enticing way, drawing all eyes onto her. Such charisma was flaunted when she began talking, explaining explicit details about a poem by the infamous Edgar Alan Poe.
"Truthfully, I never liked this poem," she would later say, slipping the phrase in from time to time to remind her students of what she felt towards the depressing piece. "I never even liked him." Since he found English intensely boring and somewhat long-winded, he cradled his head in his rough hands. A sigh escaped his thin, rosy lips. He then swept a few trails of sweat off his forehead, drawing his eyes down upon the scarred wooden table that now belonged to him. He pursed his lip, finding himself in an uneasy situation upon discovering a disturbing message in a small corner, just before reaching the edge of the thick, wide board. The message bore the words "You're next", and just those two words alone sent chills down his spine.
Thinking it was a prank pulled by his classmates, he decided to dissolve his thoughts into his mind and try to pay as much attention to his lovely teacher, who had recently called for him. Much to her dismay, he did not even offer any form of response to her calls. "Excuse me, are you back now?" she scoffed out of displeasure, feeling offended by her student's lack of presence during her lesson.
"Young man, would you mind telling the whole class a little about yourself?" He stared at her, his mind almost empty and his feelings blurred by the sudden shock he had received earlier. After blinking several times, he came to his senses and stammered a reply, which was really random words that were put together.
"Enslin Michaels- I'm Enslin Michaels. You can call me Enslin," he breathed, glancing around the classroom to avoid eye contact. "Th-... There's a message carved into my desk; it's not funny. Not at all," he murmured all of a sudden, sending all of his peers into a vortex of confusion. "Okay, Enslin, I think that'll do. Please, take your seat," the young teacher interrupted some time later, driving away the awkwardness that was starting to overwhelm the atmosphere.
During lunch time, Enslin, of course, sat alone in a lonely corner of the mildly-clean cafeteria, chewing his tasteless food with a poker-face masking his emotions. Just as he was about to tear the milk carton open, a redheaded girl parked herself right on the chair across from his. She pushed her black-framed glasses up the bridge of her pudgy nose and leaned forward against the table, examining him from head to chest.
"So, you're the new kid everyone's been talking about huh?" she asked at random, ultimately breaking the ice for him. "Yes," he quickly said, and ripped his milk carton after that. He took one heavy chug at his drink, and was left with no choice but to answer another question; "So, you're Enslin Michaels, right? Why'd you mention the desk in the third row? What happened?"
Her questions made him wonder. How on Earth did she know that he was sitting in the third row, whereas he never mentioned anything about finding the message in the third row.
"For your information," she said, even before he could come up with an answer, "the third row really does have some issues, particularly involving the seat in the middle. I believe you're sitting there now." The redhead sighed, as if she were disappointed in him for failing to pick a good seat in class. "There's more to this school than what it appears to be," she informed him just a little later, leaning in closely, "I've been doing some research, and whatever info I've gathered pointed to only two things; blindness and experimental homicide." Her voice lowered down to nothing more than a whisper towards the end of the sentence, making it seem official and highly classified. "You're crazy," Enslin said in simplicity, just before rising onto his feet.
"What do you know, new boy? You just got here."
Later that day, Enslin walked home, despite the fact that he lived more than five blocks away from school. His mind wasn't about to erase his thoughts of the disheartening message he discovered earlier. Within twenty minutes, he was standing out on the lawn of his house, clutching at the strap of his messenger bag. He brushed his hair back, letting the smooth strands of chocolate brown threads tickle the slits between his long fingers. "You're next... huh.." he repeated the message verbally, finding himself trapped inside yet another uneasy situation. Shaking his head, he decided to leave behind whatever memory he had of the incident and get on with his daily routine; have dinner with his single father, mess around with his guitar and then shut himself away from the rest of the world.
The following day, he woke up just as the sun was about to rise, washed his face and found himself thinking about the Godforsaken message again. He struck the polished porcelain sink with the hardened palm of his hand, cursing himself for having picked such a horrible seat. Finally, he decided to get things over with by coming up with a not-so-excellent idea: investigate. It was probably going to put his life at stake, but what more could possibly satisfy his curiosity and internal depression?
In school, he desperately searched for the redheaded girl he met the day before, hoping that she could feed him with constructive answers that would give him a lead on the whole mystery thing. However, he failed to meet up with her.
Just as he was about to give up on everything, she popped out of nowhere, giving him the shock of his life. As he gasped for air, he looked at her intently, finding it odd that her eyes was no longer green (it was green the day before). But he didn't let that bother him, since he had so much more to worry about. "You need answers. You're looking for me. Well, new boy, I'm guessing that you've learned yout lesson. I know you're gonna need me someday," she chirpped quite mockingly, snickering at his state of desperation. "Well, lucky you. Here I am."
Enslin rolled his eyes out of annoyance, finding her presence both soothing and troubling at the same time. "Right... so, tell me about this school," he muttered, walking alongside of her as she headed for her class. "Well, for now, all I can tell you is that this school was once a children's hospital known by the name 'Saint Maria's Hospital for Children' and that every kid who was admitted to this hospital were not sick and did not need any medical attention," she whispered, stressing on the part where she mentioned the word 'not'. Before he could sound out another question, she vanished through the classroom door, leaving him in a state of chasm.
During lunch time, Enslin, together with the random girl, sat together on one of the benches that was built directly beneath an old red maple tree. She was talking the whole time, and judging by the look on the new boy's face, he was fascinated by her long, factual tale. It all seemed too impossible, yet he dared not to open his mouth and speak his thoughts out. "So... they actually... do that? I mean, gouging kids' eyeballs out for the sake of their experiments?" he questioned in disbelief as soon as she was done. Ending her story with barely any breath left to catch, she could only afford to nod in agreement. He gazed down at the green grass he was stepping on, engrossed by his thoughts and all the possibilities of what she had just explained to him. After school on the exact same day, the duo sneaked into the school's basement, which looked as if it hadn't been getting many visitors lately.
Equipped with only flashlights respectively, the two of them began to scavenge about in the dark, damp substructure, keeping their eyes peeled for any helpful clues. As the pair prowled about amidst the shadows, they shone their flashlights onto various things surrounding them, finding a lot of papers and torn out wallpaper lying on the floor, creating a huge mess.
It was at the brink of giving up when they discovered something - well, when Enslin discovered something. He had tripped over something; something small, yet had its own particular weight. If it were light, he would've kicked it over ages ago, so that was pretty logical he supposed. He grunted at the fact that his knees stung from the sudden fall, but got up anyway since he was too hyped up about uncovering something that could help them with their investigation. The exhilaration disappeared from his being, however, when he discovered that what he had stumbled upon was the skeleton of a long gone child. He turned around to call for his companion, but was even more shocked to find her missing. Figuring that she had something to do, he left too, but was emotionally and mentally scarred by his discovery.
What the Hell was the remains of a child doing beneath his school?
Since the following day was a weekend, Enslin decided to pay his new school a visit anyway. He had spent a lot of time pondering about what she had told him before, but ended up feeling puzzled when he realized that she hadn't mentioned anything about the third row or the message. He held his flashlight close to his side, and this time, he was armed with a baseball bat. You know, just in case.
Stealthily, he ran past the watchdog and headed straight for the basement where he had fallen over the skeleton. According to his guts, he had some unfinished business to settle, especially with the redheaded girl. While he was busy thinking of what he was going to ask her, he hadn't noticed that he was actually off course. Instead of walking towards the basement entrance, he ended up arriving at a different building that seemingly had been disconnected from the main building. Out of curiosity and because of his stupidity, he disappeared through the hollow doorway and entered a whole new dimension.
He clicked the blue button located at the side of his flashlight to turn it on and rose his armed hand just a little above groin-level as an act of taking caution. He flashed the beam of light around, finding pretty odd things present at that moment. And by odd, I meant really odd; there was a clutter of old hospital beds in one dark corner, and in another corner, there was a pile of heavily abused stuffed animals that had been patched up at least a hundred times. "I'm guessing that this is the other part of the hospital-" he mumbled, stopping midway throughout his sentence. A piercing cold breeze froze him in place, allowing him only to shudder and wonder what was coming his way.
Suddenly, out of the blue, a figure flashed through the beam of light shining from Enslin's flashlight. He gasped in disbelief, resulting in him tumbling backwards. "Who's there?" he said aloud, widening his eyes as he slowly raised his abdomen from the moldy floor.
Equipped with only flashlights respectively, the two of them began to scavenge about in the dark, damp substructure, keeping their eyes peeled for any helpful clues. As the pair prowled about amidst the shadows, they shone their flashlights onto various things surrounding them, finding a lot of papers and torn out wallpaper lying on the floor, creating a huge mess.
It was at the brink of giving up when they discovered something - well, when Enslin discovered something. He had tripped over something; something small, yet had its own particular weight. If it were light, he would've kicked it over ages ago, so that was pretty logical he supposed. He grunted at the fact that his knees stung from the sudden fall, but got up anyway since he was too hyped up about uncovering something that could help them with their investigation. The exhilaration disappeared from his being, however, when he discovered that what he had stumbled upon was the skeleton of a long gone child. He turned around to call for his companion, but was even more shocked to find her missing. Figuring that she had something to do, he left too, but was emotionally and mentally scarred by his discovery.
What the Hell was the remains of a child doing beneath his school?
Since the following day was a weekend, Enslin decided to pay his new school a visit anyway. He had spent a lot of time pondering about what she had told him before, but ended up feeling puzzled when he realized that she hadn't mentioned anything about the third row or the message. He held his flashlight close to his side, and this time, he was armed with a baseball bat. You know, just in case.
Stealthily, he ran past the watchdog and headed straight for the basement where he had fallen over the skeleton. According to his guts, he had some unfinished business to settle, especially with the redheaded girl. While he was busy thinking of what he was going to ask her, he hadn't noticed that he was actually off course. Instead of walking towards the basement entrance, he ended up arriving at a different building that seemingly had been disconnected from the main building. Out of curiosity and because of his stupidity, he disappeared through the hollow doorway and entered a whole new dimension.
He clicked the blue button located at the side of his flashlight to turn it on and rose his armed hand just a little above groin-level as an act of taking caution. He flashed the beam of light around, finding pretty odd things present at that moment. And by odd, I meant really odd; there was a clutter of old hospital beds in one dark corner, and in another corner, there was a pile of heavily abused stuffed animals that had been patched up at least a hundred times. "I'm guessing that this is the other part of the hospital-" he mumbled, stopping midway throughout his sentence. A piercing cold breeze froze him in place, allowing him only to shudder and wonder what was coming his way.
Suddenly, out of the blue, a figure flashed through the beam of light shining from Enslin's flashlight. He gasped in disbelief, resulting in him tumbling backwards. "Who's there?" he said aloud, widening his eyes as he slowly raised his abdomen from the moldy floor.