Before recess
The first period went by pretty much normal, as it was the last day of school. What we were doing was interaction among ourselves and sometimes in between the teacher requested us to keep it down as other classrooms still had classes going on.
No one came in the second period, probably the physics ma'am thought it was useless to go today, we won't be anymore interested in Newton's first law or the gravitational pull. Vivaan, was unusually calm today, I noticed even though it is the last day everyone is more or less seated, silent, as if someone has drawn the life out of them or corrupted them with lifelessness. Their faces, especially Arushi's, looked as if it was made of porcelain, no movement at all, as if she wasn't here at all.
I questioned Vivaan, "what had happened to him?" to which he answered, nothing that he didn't have a proper sleep last night. My mind began racing, maybe it's all a nightmare still, maybe we all had a collective nightmare because it was the last day of school, maybe we all thought we had some time before life was thrown at us.
Yesterday must have added to it because we were discussing the Himachal trip that didn't go as planned and how horrible it was for everyone. Yes, this trip was supposed to be our farewell trip that we took last year with our juniors and this trip was full of moments that none of us will remember consciously. The physics teacher started showing us the photographs of the trip, yesterday, requesting us to at least remember a trip with friends gone bad. But it wasn't bad, it was scary for reasons I won't tell you now because this is not the part where you should know about it, nor I am gonna tell you yet what happened after the photographs were shown to us yet but all you need to know is at this point, I think it was the consequences of those photos that I was experiencing nightmares and I thought everyone was dull also because of it.
I was so wrong at that time, and messed up because of the nightmares of yesterday night that I vomited the two uneven pieces of that cream bun on Vivaan. It was all gray, laced with traces of blood. My mouth, throat and whole of the food pipe felt as if a snake, which is filled with small thrones slithered out of my mouth, for a moment I thought that it was that only. I heard Vivaan jumping out of his seat screaming, like everyone else because the vomit smells as if it was rotting in me for days.
When it stopped, I saw small, dead and grayish worms in my vomit. For a brief moment I thought they were slithering out of my mouth and dying when hitting the ground. I understood now why Vivaan was screaming more than others.
When I stopped and looked around, I saw the horrified faces of everyone filled with disgust, except Arushi's, she was sitting in the first bench, it seemed like she didn't even flinch. Ronit who sat just behind me offered to take me to the nurse's room on the ground floor and I accepted it because I was in no condition to deny it and I wanted to get out of everyone's faces as soon as possible.
The weird part is Ronit himself was shocked that I expected his offer because if it would have been any other day, I would have given him some mean snarky reply to offer me to help because I don't take help from anyone, never consciously.
Ronit was one of the lucky ones because he was absent yesterday. He reported that he was sick but we all knew he went to watch that football match out of the city. Ronit is a regular absentee but the teacher and even the school principal let it slide because he is a good performer and he is also the topper of the class.
But all of these things don't matter right now, do they? I don't know why I keep deviating into the side details. All that matter right now was I could still feel the worms slithering inside me, slithering up my food pipe, slithering around my mouth but in fact it wasn't there, it was just sensation at least that's what the nurse said when I complained to her, she enquired what I ate in the breakfast to which I replied a cream bun from the canteen.
She looked at me in shock with a face of utter devastation. She replied that whatever I ate cannot be from the canteen as the canteen was sealed because of yesterday' s incident. I wasn't able to figure out what incident. She must have concluded that I was suffering with some illness and ordered me to lie down and close my eyes, in the meantime she inserted an IV in my hands complaining how thin I look as if I haven't eaten in years. She went on and on and finally I heard her complaining about how there has been a signal problem in the school building and how she is not able to contact the principal. She left the room complaining about leaving myself alone with Ronit.
When she left, Ronit with concern asked me what had happened and how I was feeling? I didn't know what to answer to both of his questions so I stayed silent but he continued, asking why does everyone look sick? Before I could say anything his faces started getting distorted and him screaming in pain, with his whole body, ribs, hands, legs twisted in different directions. I tried to get up to run but fell on my back because my wrist was still latched to the IV, with his screams getting so loud as a banshee the glasses of the cabinets shattered and so did the half-closed windows. I quickly covered my ears as an involuntary response but to my bad luck shadows filled my eyes and again the sensation of the worms crawling out of my mouth, slithering across my face.
I was so scared that I pissed myself, I was so scared that I didn't even dare to touch my face to remove those worms. I tried to scream but wasn't able to as if I had been paralyzed again like yesterday night unable to move, but unlike the last time, which seemed like a nightmare, this was all real, I knew it in my very bones it was real. I was sure of it that I am haunted, that today I am not getting out of this in any way, that I will have to live this nightmare till the end. I let it consume me now, be fully engulfed in it, gave up, because I knew the only way out was to be saved by someone.
The screams stopped and I heard Ronit's body dropping to the floor, it was followed by a familiar voice, laughing and shrieking in pain. In all that the darkness consumed me, I can hear noises of struggle, noises of eating and crying. As if someone was very scared and trembling.
At this point of the time, I gave up on myself, I knew someone horrible was near me and that all I knew was that I was next in line to be eaten. I can feel the worms leaving the burning sensation as they slithered inside my shirt, on my stomach making their way to my private parts. I realized later that I wasn't able to close my mouth anymore, it was filled with the taste of vomit, the smell of rotting had consumed my senses. The only thing I was able to do now was listen to my demise slowly consuming someone I know before me, slowly increasing its pace.
But you know, people say you always see your life flash before your eyes. I realized it was death. People see death flash before their eyes the last and the first time before dying. And it wasn't the point at this day where I die because I was saved by the sound of the distant bell ringing faintly. Its sound was now increasing, covering everything. It's the bell which rings when the period is over. The worms started to fall, dead, I can feel it, in my mouth, I spit them out. I was slowly able to gain control of my body and light returning to my eyes.
What I saw left me unable to move again. A body half devoured, twisted not even animals consume their prey like this. It was something alien, something paranormal, someone rotten because his uniform was all torn up from different parts, his private parts were all gone, consumed by whatever that nightmarish creature was. I heard faint breathing, the chest moving up and down but before I could get control over my body fully things started moving backwards, faster than before, the body went with it.
But this time I wasn't transferred to a different place, but the same place, the real nurse's room with the smell of blood all over the room. I was lying on the bed with no one around, neither the body nor the creature or the nurse. Everything was dead silent after the bell.
With much effort I picked up my body from the bed and got out of that place of murder. The corridor itself had splashes of blood all over the walls and floors as if everyone on the corridor was butchered, murdered.
The horrible scene stamped in my mind as I rushed towards the classroom.
Another one of the mistakes I made that would lead to my eventual death, yes this is the story about how I die in a nightmare and you are gonna remember it.