‘Sora! Breakfast is done! I made pancakes!’ Chiyo yelled.

‘Yeah, I’ll be right down!’ As I sat down at the breakfast table, Kari and Chiyo eyed me suspiciously.

‘Sora, are you okay?’ Chiyo asked. ‘What’s that band-aid on your neck for?’

‘Oh, I’m fine.’ I lied. ‘I jus grazed my neck when I fell off my bed in the middle of the night. I scraped myself on the edge of one of my text books. I’m okay, though.' We ate breakfast in silence. So much had changed in a single night.

‘So, how was tennis practice yesterday?’ Kari asked while shoveling a mouthful of pancakes.

‘Good, thanks. My coach said I might have a chance at the first-strings in the mid-season tournament.’ I explained with false enthusiasm.

‘That’s great! I knew you could do it!’ Chiyo gave me an encouraging thumbs-up.

‘Yup! But it does mean that I have to train twice as hard if I want that spot!’

‘We’re rooting for you, Sora!’ Kari cheered me on.

‘Thanks, guys. I’d better go. It’s my turn on the roster to set up the classroom today.’ I carried my plate over to the sink.

‘Are you sure that you don’t want me to come along with you? I can give you a hand!’ Chiyo began to wash the dishes.

‘Yeah. It’s okay. I need to get back in routine. I still have work tonight, so I need to get psyched for it!’ I laughed. ‘Anyway, I’d better get going!’ I strapped on my roller blades and waved goodbye to Kari and Chiyo as I sailed through the door.

I saw the familiar blue, towering school gates loom before me. However, something I had not encountered was that the gates were shut. Every morning where I reported to class for setup duty the gate had always be open. How odd. Perhaps the caretaker was late. The more pressing issue was… How was I meant to get into school? My teacher would kill me if she found out that I didn’t set up homeroom. Wait a minute… If the gate was shut, then no-one else must be inside. Now there was definitely something wrong. At least half of the faculty would have usually arrived by the time that I left for school. What was going on? Anyways, I was certain that I wouldn’t discover a way inside by just standing there and waiting for everybody else to come. The only thing I had to figure out was how to get inside? Suddenly, the lock on the gate began to glow. It called my name. It was an epiphany. I removed one of my hair clips and one of my paper clips from my pencil case. I bent them both until they became almost straight. I fished around with my paper clip until I struck something circular and hard. I did the same with the hair pin, moving it to the side until I felt something rectangular. I pushed the paper clip in and moved the hair clip upward. I nudged the gate doors. They swung open. To be honest, I felt quite proud of myself. I had just picked the lock to my school. I strutted throughout the school wearing a smug grin. I didn’t care if there was nobody there. I was going to get my job done. Even if I was alone.

By the time the morning bell had chimed nine times, I began to feel afraid. School began very promptly at 8:30. They did not hesitate to hand out a detention to a tardy child. Hoping that I would be able to shed some light on the oddities, I left the classroom and wandered aimlessly around the school. There was nobody there. Not a soul. No one. Without warning, I felt a familiar stabbing pain close in my bite marks. Images began to speed through my head. I heard voices. Eerie voices of the damned. Calling to me. Taunting me. The dreadful moans continued until I began to scream and run through the corridors of the school. My vision became blurred. My movements had become shaken. It was now impossible to walk in a straight line at all. The world began to fade. Exactly as before, I blacked out.