evewritesstuff

[evewritesstuff]

crimson under a midnight sky (short story, open ending)

“Delilah!” Natalie harshly whispered, holding a  fluorescent flashlight in one hand “Come on, what’s taking you so long?”. “Just wait a minute!!” Delilah answered from the bathroom. Nico and Maxon sighed, both growing impatient. After a few minutes they heard the bathroom door unlock and open, a bright yellow light escaping through the gap before Delilah walked out. She was a short, fair skinned girl with long wavy black hair that was in a bun most of the time and had dark eyes like the void. She jogged over to the group, apologizing. 

They all discussed their scattered plan before finally leaving the house, whispering, trying to keep each other quiet until they finally reached the fence.

Nico wasn’t fond of the idea of jumping over the fence since he was short and he kept going on about the “dangers” but the others ignored him and his critics.  “Come on Nico, what kind of dangers even are there jumping over a fence?!” Maxon said frustrated. “Well, first of all you could get stuck-“ , Maxon interrupted him “It was a rhetorical question for Christ's sake!”.

After finally escaping the grounds, they ran down the yellow street lamp lined streets, over the rough pavement, under the dark midnight sky and bright white shining moon, giggling and laughing. The roads were eerily empty, only empty parked cars in sight, letting the group not have to worry about cars passing by.

After a few left and right turns, running across roundabouts and a few extra kilometers, they finally arrived at the gate of the school. A wide, tall,  cream colored building filled with windows and wearing a red- tiled roof. The group panted, sweating, trying to catch their breath, after all they weren’t exactly the most athletic teenagers. Delilah spoke up “Ok..” she took a deep breath “Nico, how do we get in?”. Silence. Nico rubbed his eyes in frustration before asking “Again?? I already explained this to you guys like 100 times!” Silence filled the air .He looked at them, their faces just proved they had no idea and were completely clueless. Nico with almost no hope, sighed before giving in and explaining the plan again, this time very slowly. “Got it?” He asked as he finished explaining. “I think so” “Yeah” “Mhm” they answered hesitantly. 

“Woah” whispered Natalie, her voice slightly echoing through the empty, navy coloured hall “This place is creepy as hell at night”. “It was already creepy during winter” Maxon replied “Teachers roaming down the halls, kids staring at you and whispering to each other and god forbid Ms. Alden and her death stares when we forgot our homework “ he added dramatically. Delilah laughed at his comments. Nico added, impersonating Ms. Alden in a high pitched voice “Never in my 32 years of teaching have I seen such irresponsible children!” They all laughed,  trying not be too loud. The group continued to walk down the halls, looking for a room to set up camp in, making  fun of and impersonating teachers and students until they finally reached a certain dark green door. Nico stopped them “Guys wait!!” he said excitedly “this is the science room!” Natalie  look over his shoulder and asked “wait like the shitty small one thing with all the sticky floors or the huge one with all the laptops?” Nico turned his head to her “I’m gonna let you take long hard guess on that one” he replied. Natalie looked confused. Nico whispered angrily, frustrated by Natalie's stupidity “Of course its the huge one why the hell would I get excited about the other- Ok whatever, my point is..” he paused, the others looking intrigued as the reached over to the door knob “this..” he said as he unlocked the door “is the perfect room to stay in” he pushed open the door. The group looked at each other, excitement reading on their faces “Yessssssss” they half-whispered happily, running into the room, practically shoving each other in. 

They set their bags down next to the door, admiring the amount of space that they had in the room. Maxon sniffed repeatedly before asking “Does anybody smell that?” The rest of the group sniffed before answering with confused "Yeah"'s and what is that"'s. It was a smell they had never smelt before, something so unusual and weird. “Room probably hasn't been cleaned for a while" Delilah concluded " Maybe we can just open a window, air out the room a bit” she suggested. Natalie answered “Yeah good idea I’ll go do that” before searching the walls with her eyes, looking for a window. She spotted one behind a few boxes piled up in the corner and walked over while humming a tune. As she got closer to the boxes, she realized the smell had gotten worse, stronger, more pungent. Ignoring the smell, Natalie reached her hands over the boxes , standing on her toes before finally turning the handle, though right as she did, her balance gave up and she tripped over into the boxes, most of them falling over. Delilah, Nico and Maxon  quickly turned their attention to her, seeing her lying on the boxes, a few knocked over on the floor beside her. “Shit, Natalie” Maxon laughed as they ran over to her. Natalie pulled herself up, Delilah and Nico pulling her up by her hands until she stood on the ground. But as the three of them laughed and Natalie fixed her hair, Maxon couldn’t believe what he saw, he stood silent, completely frozen like a statue made of ice frozen underneath the earth for years. “I’m sure it’s not what I think right?” The thought ringing in his ears, the sound of his friends laughing fading out. His hands were sweating, he felt his heart drop to his stomach, it’s like the feeling you get as you drop on a rollercoaster, the feeling you get right before you present something in class. Pure anxiety. And what was it he saw? What was causing this pure anxiety and detach from reality ?A leg. A leg hidden under the boxes.

"Maxon?” Delilah asked, a worried look on her face “What’s wrong?” Natalie and Nico turned their attention to Maxon to see what she was talking about. Delilah started to walk over to the Maxon, who was breathing heavily, eyes wide and stood completely still. Still completely frozen. He managed to utter the words “underneath the boxes”. The others paused, looking at each-other confused. Nico interrupted the silence “What do you mean, dude?” slightly chuckling, trying to lighten the atmosphere. Both Nico and Natalie started walking towards him , standing next to Delilah. Maxon, too in shock to speak, pointed at the pile of boxes. The atmosphere in the room only became more serious, eerie and slightly terrifying. “Dude what what fuck are you talking about” Natalie asked, a hint of fear in her voice as she walked frustrated over to the boxes, sick of the anticipation and started removing them one by one. “He’s probably just pulling a prank or something” Delilah pointed out, looking for some sort of explanation.  Natalie removed a box, revealing something so gut wrenching, horrifying and unbelievable. Something that made them all regret ever even thinking of coming here. A head. Its eyes were shut, dark red blood was running down the sides and it’s short hair was covered in so much blood you could barely recognize the blonde color of it. They had found a dead body.

AN: hi, this is my first time posting a story! i'm pretty new to writing so any feedback is greatly appreciated <3