A warm and humid afternoon in the suburbs of *static* was the same as any other day. Light traffic, kids all lined up at the ice cream store, elderly folk hanging out at the town square, and families strolling through the park. Over by the only middle school in the area, in classroom 1-B, the students are all in their own little worlds as the teacher struggles to get their attention as she signals the end of class. It wasn't even past 3 pm when the they dismissed us and sent all the students home. My two friends and I exited *static* Middle School and walked side by side as we shared stories about our crushes and debated which teacher had the shortest skirt. There was Alex, Kieran, and me, Blyth Alaric. Together, we walked home from school while taking a few detours here and there given that we got off school pretty early.
"Ms. Lucy was as beautiful as ever today, and she seemed so mature. That's actually a turn-on for me."
My buddy Alex went on and on about these weird topics but Kieran and I were used to it. We would even join in on the game of 'Which teacher/classmate is the hottest,' the usual boy talk, I assumed. We ate at our usual spot, the rooftop opposite the local hospital right next to the train station, in case we needed a quick getaway. Because who would let three middle school boys on an abandoned decrepit rooftop that just screamed ACCIDENT.
"Hey Blyth, wanna walk on the edge and see who can last longer without chickening out?" Alex dared me with a confident smirk.
I wasn't one to back out of a challenge, but we were both so scared that we ended up chickening out before we got too close to the edge.
"WAH!" Kieran let out a shriek that made Alex and I jump as we were pretty terrified with how high up we were to begin with. We end up with our asses on the floor while looking up at Kieran laughing at us.
"Blyth?" Alex turned to me and I immediately knew what he had planned. We both stood up and walked towards Kieran trying to look as menacing as we could.
"He-hey, guys it was only a j-joke… hehe." Kieran scratched and tried to reason with us before sprinting around the rooftop trying to get away from us.
It took some time, Kieran was the nimble one so he started climbing up platforms and squeezing through cracks, but we had the numbers so we eventually caught him and tickled him into submission. After a few minutes of playing and pretending to do homework, we laid down on the ground, extremely exhausted, and watched the sky as it changed to an orange hue.
"I wanna be a pilot, soar across the sky, and maybe do a spin or two."
The mood turned serious all of a sudden when Kieran started to talk about his dreams. Alex lightly jabbed Kieran on his shoulder.
"Bet you just wanna take your girl for a ride on a plane, if you know what I'm saying." Alex responded in a sleazy tone.
We all laughed, but what followed was this intense silence. We're gonna be high school students next year. I could tell that the thought of graduating middle school was all we were thinking. Because it meant less of what we had now as we began our transition into adulthood. None of us were prepared for that.
"Hey Alex, what do you wanna be?" I asked, trying to break the awkward silence.
"To be honest I don't really know, but I saw this cute nurse at the hospital once and⎯"
Feeling annoyed, I cut him off, "Take this seriously Alex. C'mon what do you really want?"
"Let me finish dude, I saw this cute nurse then I followed her right? Turns out she was with this noisy kid who wouldn't stop crying. Wanted to shut that kid up myself, but then the nurse just got up and talked to the kid. The little girl was apparently worried about her mom and the nurse comforted her and eventually, the kid stopped crying.."
Kieran and I sat there, completely bewildered by the fact that Alex of all people could actually take something seriously.
"WHAT'S WITH THOSE FACES! YOU SAID BE SERIOUS!"
Kieran and I started to burst out laughing, Alex joined in too.
"I wanna work in a hospital, maybe be a doctor, a nurse, I don't know. That warm feeling from that nurse, it was so warm and calming, I wanna give that feeling to other people too."
As the sun started to set just behind the hospital, we could barely see it, Alex and Kieran turned to me to ask a question. I felt uncertain of what to answer after hearing theirs. Even so, I pushed myself to face the question. I turned to them and they whispered into my ear.
"Hey, Blyth...
…why did you kill us?"
"My eyes widened at what I was looking at. Alex... ? Kieran…? Who were these two?"
I looked at them again and was sure of one thing.
"No, they're Alex and Kieran, I'm sure but…"
I trail off as I carefully look at each one of the figures in front of me.
"Alex... his eyes, they weren't there. Only blood, oozing from the sockets."
"Kieran, his face, half of it burned. Almost unrecognizable."
There were maggots that crawled from the wounds and holes of their body. I covered my nose as the smell of rot and decay spread all throughout the rooftop.
"Rooftop?" I asked myself while realizing how the environment had changed from what it looked like earlier.
The surroundings have gone dark. Only these two, my friends, were approaching me, repeating the same question...
"WHY DID YOU KILL US BLYTH?!"
"No, stay back, please STAY BACK! IT'S NOT MY FAULT! IT'S NOT MY FAULT!"
I ran but Alex had caught my leg and Kieran had pinned me down. Again, they repeated the question...
"WHY DID YOU KILL US?!"
Finally, they both whispered into my ear.
"We didn't' deserve this, she… she didn't deserve this"
I scream, scream with pain and agony.
Those words, they... they...
"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!"
"I NEVER WANTED THIS TO HAPPEN!"
I screamed again, as loud as I could, yet no voice came out. My entire body went numb as I became engulfed in the darkness.
Then, a flash. I'm awake... I'm alive…
"NO! NO! STOP! STOOOP!"
I woke up.