Cairo:
Yo, what was that sound? You just ran into the air or somethin'?
Nami:
Man, shut up! The air hit me!
She's rubbing her forehead, pissed off, tryna look tough but you could tell that hurt.
I walk closer, squintin' at the space she smacked into.
It's there.
Can't see it… but the rain slidin' down over nothin'. Like it hittin' glass.
Me (Renji):
Nah, nah, this ain't normal.
Something's off.
I put my hand up slow, press it against the air
and boom, same thing. Ripple.
Like water trapped in the sky.
Cairo:
Yo, yo, don't touch that! You don't know what that is.
Might fry your hand off or transport you to Mars, bro.
Me:
If it was gonna fry me, it woulda done it already. Chill.
Nami:
Wait look.
She points up.
Lightning flashes across the sky.
For one split second we see it.
The whole school covered in some kinda energy dome.
Cairo (muttering):
Yo… we in a freakin' snow globe.
Me:
Not snow, bro.
A trap.
We back up a bit, staring at the edge of the dome.
The sound of rain hittin' the barrier goes plop… plop… plop like someone knockin' from the other side.
Cairo:
Ayo, this gotta be a prank, right?
Like one of them hidden camera YouTube things?
Nami:
At seven p.m.? In the middle of nowhere? With no power?
Cairo:
...Damn, you right.
We stand there in silence for a sec.
The air feel heavy.
Then I hear it that whisper again.
Gu… gu… ga… ga…
Real quiet, but close. Like right behind my neck.
Me:
Y'all heard that?
Nami:
Heard what?
Cairo:
Yo, stop playin', Renji. You always on that ghost talk.
Me:
I ain't playin', bro. That was the same sound from the tunnel last night.
Cairo goes quiet.
He ain't jokin' no more.
We all look around the hallways dark, lights flickerin'.
Then bang! a classroom door down the hall slams open by itself.
Nami:
Nah… nope… not today.
She starts steppin' back.
Me:
Hold up, wait
Cairo:
Man, hell nah! You better not say "let's check it out."
Me (grinning):
...Let's check it out.
Cairo:
BROOO
Nami:
Oh my god, y'all crazy.
We grab our phonelights, the rain still hittin' that invisible dome above us.
And like that we walk toward the classroom.
Every step echoing louder than it should.
Something moved inside.
Shadow cr
awlin' up the wall.
Laughin'.
We walkin' slow.
Class 2C, door half open like it's waitin' for us to die first.
Rain tappin' the windows, wind hummin' some creepy tune.
I look at Cairo dude's tryna act chill but his face sayin' nah.
I cough, try to change the topic,
"Yo, you uh… you find that phone yet or you still phoneless?"
Nami:
"For real, Renji? You tryna talk about phones right now? Focus up, man! We might die, not chat about gadgets!"
Cairo:
"Okay, okay, fine… so who's openin' the door?"
Nami:
"Alright rock, paper, scissors. Let fate decide who dies first."
We all put our hands up.
"Three, two, one GO!"
Rock.
Rock.
Rock.
Again.
Scissors.
Scissors.
Scissors.
Bro, we kept drawin' like the universe didn't even wanna pick a victim.
Cairo:
"Yo, this ain't normal. I feel like the ghosts are playin' too!"
One last round.
Boom.
Cairo throws paper.
Me and Nami? Scissors.
Cairo:
"Man, hell nah! Why me? Y'all got scissors, go cut the problem yourselves!"
Still, he creeps forward anyway phone flashlight shakin' in his hand.
He bends low, movin' like a baby ninja, breathin' hard.
He grips the handle and slowly cracks the door open.
Creeeeeak
The sound echo through the whole hallway.
Nami:
(lowers her voice) "Okay, okay… hold up."
She opens her bag, pullin' out pepper spray like she's about to fight a burglar.
Renji (me):
"Pepper spray? Against a ghost baby? Are you dumb or dedicated?"
Cairo:
"Yo, less talk, more thinkin' my hand's literally still on the damn door!"
Before we could even argue,
That sound came back low, wet, and wrong:
"Gu… gu… ga… ga…"
The fog rolled in outta nowhere, thick like milk.
It crawled through the hallway, through our shoes, through our breath.
We couldn't see nothin'.
I blinked once
and boom.
We were inside the classroom.
Same class… but not the same.
The colors off.
The air heavy.
Every desk had somethin' sittin' on it dark, squirmy shapes that weren't there before.
Cairo:
"Yo, nah… hold up. We were just outside! How the hell we sittin' now?!"
Nami:
"This is crazy… a second ago, we hadn't even opened the door!"
Cairo:
"Yeah, bro, this just went from weird to WHAT THE"
Then we heard it again.
That baby voice but louder.
Like it had a microphone now.
"Gu… gu… ga… ga… Students… PAY ATTENTION."
We froze.
Then it stepped out from behind the teacher's desk.
A giant ghost baby, dressed like a damn preschool professor
tight white suit, belly wide open with a mouth in the middle, teeth glintin'.
It held a cane in one hand and a book in the other.
Its head tilted, eyes rollin' like marbles.
"Today," it said,
"I am your teacher."
Then it slammed the cane on the floor BOOM!
and dragged the chalkboard toward us,
the screech echoing through the fog like nails on bone.