I laid on the floor for a short while after everyone took a turn asking me if I was okay. My neck and throat burnt from the things grasp. My head ached and swollen from the floor. Anthony and Cody both took to seats against the wall closest to me, staring into the ceiling. The girls remained where they were, but moved from seats to the floor. My backpack sat close to Anthony against the wall, but I wasn't afraid of him seeing the contents. I wasn't afraid of anyone finding the weapon. All my fear was concentrated, focused on the darkness beyond the ceiling tiles.
"I think we should try leaving now." Cody didn't blink, he only studied the ceiling.
"Those tiles are in the hallway too, their everywhere." Anthony sunk a little lower to the floor.
"So?"
"So, what's stopping that thing from just crawling down from up there and just slaughter us all at once." Anthony blinked his dry eyes for the first time in minutes.
"I think your giving that thing too much credit, we don't even know what it is."
"Then how do we know what limits it has? How far that thing will go to get us? Maybe your not giving it enough credit."
"Maybe." Cody blinked multiple times to moisten his eyes.
"What about the windows?" I asked from my spot, laying on my back. Everyone looked at me then the windows. Anthony crawled on his hands and knees past my head, past my bag, past the girls, right up to the middle window. He crouched still, but was able to grab the windows latch. He struggled for a short time, then moved unsuccessfully to the other windows. Sighing, he crawled back past my head to his seat next to Cody.
"Latches are stuck." He grunted sadly, almost like he thought we couldn't tell he was struggling to where he almost begun to sweat.
"What if we crawled through the hallways quickly and quietly outside?" One of the girls near Bethany spoke up gently.
"Again, it could just climb down and kill us all together." Anthony tilted his head at her.
"And again you don't know that for sure. What's stopping it from coming down here now? Maybe it's killing us one at a time because it knows it's outnumbered." Cody looked towards Anthony, who's face changed from frustration to a more blank canvas. I sat up and faced him. Anthony was motionless.
"It's a possibility." I moved to a crouched position and glided gently towards the door, doing my best to keep distance away from me and the ceiling. Cody moved behind me, girls behind him, and Anthony tailing the group. I clicked the doors lock open. A low growl emerged from above us. We all darted our eyes to the vibrating tiles. It was warning us, we could all see that. I grabbed the door nob and twisted it left slowly. The growl grew shrill quickly. One of the girls, I didn't see who, squealed quietly with terror. I pulled the door towards myself quickly, not expecting the loud creak. The growl stopped and we all stood still. I looked at everyone. Cody was staring at the tile above him. The two girls, that remained nameless to me, seemed to be staring above Cody. Anthony was monitoring the room behind him, watching to see if something climbed down after us. Bethany wasn't looking at the ceiling. Bethany was looking at me. Her eyes were lit with fear and filled with tears. She just wanted to leave like the rest of us. It was like I read her mind through her eyes. I nodded in agreement to the one sided conversation I had with her, promising her and myself I would see this through. Suddenly the door nob left my hand and the door slammed shut, too quickly to even remotely mimic the previous creak it released. I jumped back and looked up at the tile above. A black smoke covered the top of the door, pinning it against the wall. Cody grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back to our original spots in the back of the room. Half way back, I tried to run on my own rather than be dragged, but Cody seemed overly determined not to let go. I slid close to my backpack, almost forgetting my secret. I turned my head back towards the door. Four tiles moved and exposed the abyss above, all clustered around the door. The shadowy mist seemed to droop close to the floor. I watched as a figure manifested in the darkness. More accurately, the darkness manifested into a figure itself. It looked like a man standing on the ceiling. Its entire body was black smoke, a shadow. I could hear sobbing and turned to see the girls covering their faces. Bethany wasn't crying though. She had cried enough over lost friends today. Now it felt like terror was expected of every action we took. I could see she felt the same way. Her eyes were wet and her mouth wasn't yet a frown, but showed no sign of happiness ever existing. I turned and followed her gaze towards the fake man on the ceiling. Its leg slowly kicked outward, and stepped down lightly onto the ceiling tiles. Soon it's other leg repeated. It moved slowly towards us. We all began to scatter cautiously against the back wall. The figure reached the center of the room and stopped. Its body dropped to the floor, going limp on contact. It's featureless form lay mangled in the center of the room. Silence. A full second of silence. The girls muffled sobs stopped in terror. Silence. Than it's arm shot upward, palm towards the sky. It slammed the floor hard, all fingers pointed towards the back of the room. It's other arm shot at the sky and hit the ground the same. Then a leg, then the other. It raised its body into a crab like position. It slid its shadowy existence creepily over the body of Mrs. Creath. It lowered its head into the center of her chest. It pushed its face deep and then followed her neck to her mouth. It looked like it was trying to manage a kiss. Her mouth was open, mangled by death. Her head twisted to the movement of the shadow. Suddenly the head of the man disappeared, neck flowing into her mouth. It's hand raised to the corpses lips and slid in. The other hand followed and it's arms seemed to easily slide in. Shoulders, chest, naval, waist. The creature was soon completely consumed by the lifeless body. I grabbed my bag and nudged Cody out of his state of terror. He nodded and got the others attention. The body didn't move as we slid close to the walls, moving towards the door. I grabbed the door nob again, looking upward into the abyss above, past the missing tiles. No smoke, just darkness. I turned the nob gently. I looked at everyone, then past them at the body. I pulled the door open, letting out a louder creak than before. I held the door still, and kept my eyes on the body. Cody slid past me through the door. Then the girls and Anthony crept past to their freedom in the hallway. Soon I was alone holding the door for myself, staring at the lifeless body, expecting something to happen. I gripped my bag and swung it onto my back. I clicked the door nobs lock again. That's when the body sat up. I quickly reacted, slamming the door shut and stumbling backwards into the empty hall. I stood and peered through the glass, trying to see the reanimated teacher on the floor, but it had vanished. I turned around to see my silent group. No celebration. Only fear. The halls were lined with bodies, pooled with blood. Up and down every side a corpse sat against a wall, eyes wild, still, and dripping with blood. It was like they were waiting for something. Waiting for us.