Nightmare in the Dark

Inside the 3-A Classroom, the voice of the teacher droning could be heard while the students are trying their hardest to focus on the boring lesson. However, some students gave up on listening and was zoning out instead. They may be star students, but star students can get tired from studying too.

Mira stifled a yawn before sighing. All she could think of while trying to listen is WHY? Even though she returned to the past, it seems like she cannot escape this dull thing called lectures.

She looked around her. Jamie was writting something on her notebook. Mira peeked a little to see if she was really taking notes.

???

She saw her name, Eugine's name along with other names in different pairs. There were some slashes on some letters. She saw the word FLAMES and HOPE but they didn't make sense to her.

Jamie saw her looking and grinned at her. When the teacher passed them, they both acted as if they were listening.

The bell suddenly rang.

As if they heard something really really interesting, the students straightened up on their seats started looking energetic again. It was something they've been waiting for every hour -- the sound of the bell that tells both students and teachers that their allotted time for their subject was up. It prevents the teacher from extending the class and affecting the next subject.

The teacher watched the students' reaction, expressionless. It was something that he was used to since it seems that every students likes that bell sound, even the star class seems no different to that.

Before leaving, he stopped by the door and looked on the students. "You can do what you want in this period. Your next teacher called in sick." he said before leaving.

He had taken only three steps when the jubilant sounds from the students erupted from the classroom he just left. It soon went down so he didn't bother to scold them.

Students are students it seems.

During the free period, Mira found Kang Jun and Jamie staring dazedly outsider the window.

"What are you thinking?" She asked them after sitting beside them.

"The match." They both answered at the same time.

Ah. The match.

Mira realized that they were talking about the volleyball match against the volleyball team yesterday. She winced when she remembered what happened.

They lost the second set.

Jamie turned around to look at Eugine.

"Hey Eugine. Do you have something to do after class?"

Eugine who was busy writing something paused. "Why?"

"We need to teach you how to be a man. Let's play sports after class." It was Kang Jun who answered.

Justin snickered when he heard that.

"10 points. They took ten points just from you. Even I was wondering if Kazu has some kind of grudge with you because he kept on aiming at you." Jamie said.

Eugine winced.

Well, it's true that they lost the match because of him. Although it was just an activity in PE, the others cant just forget it. It seems that four out of the seven of them are sore losers.

For Jamie, Kang Jun, Luigi and Justin, losing in a sports was unacceptable.

"Err.. Maybe some other time," Eugine declined temporarily. "I have a shift in the library after class."

"Oh. Okay. Make sure to inform us when you're free." with that, their topic of conversation changed into something else.

After class, they all went to their separate ways. The others going to their own after school club activities.

Their classes starts at 9:00 am and ends at 5:00 pm. The school stays open until 7:00 pm for students to participate in the clubs, after that they must go home whether they like it of not.

Mira found Eugine waiting for her outside the classroom.

She stared at him in surprise. He must have seen the confusion in her eyes.

"We both have a shift in the library. Let's go together." He quietly said before walking without waiting for her answer.

Mira watched him but eventually followed, though she kept a little distance.

They arrived at the library and greeted their librarian.

"Oh. You're here. Would you mind helping to put these newly donated books into shelves?"

Mira and I Eugine looked at the bundled books and gulped. There's a lot. Like, a lot.

The librarian saw their expressions and laughed. "No. No. You don't have to put them all. Just put what you can and then go home. There would be no students that would come to study since I put an announcement that the library is temporarily closed."

"Okay Ma'am."

"Good. Then I'll go first since we have a meeting. Do not worry about the library. The caretaker will close it."

Both Mira and Eugine nodded and watched as the librarian leave.

Once they were alone, they both just stood awkwardly there. Mira became aware of just how fast her heart was beating.

"Then let's start?" Mira said.

Eugine nodded.

After that, Mira took a cart full of books and went to the farthest bookshelf, the one at the back. She wanted to get away as far as she can.

Eugine watched Mira scurry away before letting out a disappointed sigh. He then started to work.

Without them noticing, time went by fast. With both of them so occupied with their own thoughts, they didn't realize that the clock had already pointed to seven.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of explosion from outside the school. A moment after that, all the lights in the school and the nearby places went out.

Darkness.

All Mira can see is the darkness around her. She can't even make out the shape of the bookshelf in front of her even though she knows it's there.

A deafening silence.

It was so quiet that it felt deafening, to the point that she's hearing the nonexistent ringing. The library was already a closed off space to avoid the noises outside, however in this moment, that silence became a noose around her neck, choking her.

She didn't realize it, but she was slowly losing her calm. Aside from the silence, she became aware of her heartbeat.

Mira tried to regulate her breathing and gather her wits.

Right. She must check what happened. The first thing she thought of is to get her cellphone which is inside her bag--in the librarian's counter.

While taking a deep breath, she cautiously held out her hand to touch the bookshelf. While touching the bookshelf as a guide, she started walking using the shelf as a support.

But while she was doing that, her memory threatened to pull her into a nightmare. Her hands and back cold, her breath started quickening.

A memory her mind tried to forget started to swallow her which caused Mira to unconsciously quicken her pace.

Bam!

A sharp pain on her side, Mira found herself tripping over something after she bumped at what she assumed the table. The sound of things crashing on the floor temporarily shattered the silence. She found herself sprawled on the floor, groaning in pain while clutching her side.

She immediately sat up despite the pain, slowly backing away until her back hit something. She pulled her knees closed and hugged her body while trembling.

The nightmare had already swallowed her.

Near the end of the life in the past that she knew, that was when Mira was captured by the people who caused her death.

They put her in basement with no window or anything, nothing but cold walls on the four sides. It was a place of absolute darkness and silence, where not even the sounds of insects could be heard.

Mira didn't know how long she was in that basement. She lost her sense of time while inside that room, she would only see a light whenever they would give her food which is seldom.

In the darkness, there was nothing that could distract her from hunger and her thoughts.

Perhaps others would never know how scary and taxing it was to stay inside a completely dark and silent room in very long period of time. It was the kind of place where a person's deepest fears seems to come out.

Inside that place and with no sense of time, Mira found herself hallucinating. At times, she felt as if someone is with her in the darkness, other times she felt as if someone was calling her name when there was no one else in the basement with her. That's when she realized she was slowly losing her mind.

That's why the next time someone brought a food to her, she took what's the only weapon available to her at that time--a spoon and used her remaining strength to stab the watcher in the eye

She did her best to escape that room, despite knowing that she might die before she can get away. She accepted that fate, she would rather die than go back in the basement and slowly lose her mind. 16 days. She was locked in that place for sixteen days.

Two days after she escaped that basement, she died by jumping off the cliff.

But now, the same darkness.

The same deafening silence.

The girl found herself alone in the dark again.

Complete forgetting where she was, Mira hugged her trembling body in despair. Until a gentle voice called to her.

"Mira?"