Cass rose. The house was dark, and no one was awake. After fulfilling his morning routine, he gathered his belongings and stepped out the door. The air outside was, once again, cold.
His walk to school contained no irregularities, and soon enough he arrived in front of the building. Walking in, he felt the heat contained within it.
'Not as bad as yesterday at least.' He thought.
A sparse crowd flowed in through the doors. Stepping carefully around the people, he made his way deeper into the building. Before he reached the secluded hallway, however, he noticed a tall figure standing at its end. He wore light blue jeans with a loose green shirt, his blond hair slightly frizzled.
Hearing Cass's footsteps, Logan looked up from idly checking his phone.
"Good morning." He said.
Cass looked at him for a few seconds, slightly confused, before finally responding.
"Good morning as well." He decided on.
"Sorry—it's just that I see you every morning in this hallway, but I've never talked to you..." Logan nodded slightly as he spoke.
"So, what's your name?"
"Cass."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Logan. I have to be somewhere unfortunately so I'll have to go now, but I hope you have a good day, Cass." Logan smiled at Cass before swiftly walking off.
Cass watched as he disappeared down the hall.
"He's never tried approaching me before..."
***
Soon after the first bell rang, Cass appeared in the engineering classroom. He began taking out the assignment from yesterday, when he suddenly saw the strange woman from yesterday walk in.
"I'm sorry, everyone. Ms. Fischer is still feeling very sick today—I'll be filling in for her again. Her absence was very... last minute, so there's no sub plan unfortunately. You can just treat this class as a study hall for today." She bobbed her head, her slightly curly brown hair moving up and down.
Begrudgingly, Cass put away his paper.
'So I didn't need to do it yesterday...' Cass lamented.
Zipping up his backpack, he reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone. Any time free is time spent idle.
Eventually, the bell sounded, signaling the end of first period.
'At least I only have 6 more to go now.'
***
The rest of the day went by smoothly. Eventually, Cass found himself walking his way through the streets once again.
Finding himself in front of the familiar door, Cass extracted his key. A soft clicking sound came from the doorknob as he unlocked it. Pushing open the door, Cass looked around and frowned slightly. All of the lights were off, and a coldness permeated the air. No sound came from within.
"Where is everyone..."
Rushing around the house, Cass followed the same route he did the night before. Every room was silent, only a darkness residing within.
Returning to the kitchen, Cass studied the counters again. The note from the previous night was gone. Cass stood silently for a few moments, pursing his lips.
He pulled out his phone sending a hasty text message to both of his parents.
'where are you?'
He waited. Gradually, the seconds turned into minutes, but there was no reply. His frown deepened. He sat down at the kitchen table, placing his head in-between his folded arms. There was no reply.
***
Standing up, he resolutely began walking towards the stairs.
'Someone should be home. Mom works from home and Dad is still looking for a new job. Dad mentioned he was fee unwell, though... Did they go to the doctor together or something?'
Arriving in front of an upstairs door, Cass knocked.
Knock.. Knock.. Knock..
It resounded from within the room. Only silence ensued. After waiting for a few moments, Cass tightly gripped the cold metal of the doorknob. With a forceful twist, he pushed the door open.
The inside of the room was noticeably cooler than the rest of the house. The air stood still.
Cass scanned the room thoroughly. Their bed was neatly made, and the ground was barren. On the various furnitures, however, a clutter lay. He stood before venturing into the room.
Notebooks, pencils, and paper were scattered on tops of everything. Most of them were blank, but a few were densely packed with words and flowery imagery.
'Those most be some drafts Mom wrote. She always said she preferred writing on paper.'
Cass's phone suddenly dinged. Urgently, Cass scrambled to get out his phone. It was from Ava.
'have you done the guided reading ye t'
In the dark room, his phone shone like a beacon.
'no. by any chance have you seen my parents at all'
'lol did they leave you alone or something? my parents do that all the time. they'll probably come back soon'
Cass turned off his phone, not bothering to reply. He was growing visibily worried.
'They're always quick to respond to my texts. Why aren't they responding this time?'
He walked around his parents room, entering the connected bathroom. The counters were clean and everything was neatly packed away into the proper drawers. Cass looked into the mirror. He saw his anxious face looking back at him, lips thinly pressed together. As he concentrated on the silence, he suddenly heard a faint murmuring coming from far away. Full on anticipation, he ran to look down the hallway. It still retained its emptiness. Confused, Cass concerntrated on the silence once again. The murmuring came from behind him. He couldn't make out any words, nor could he discern the gender of the speaker. They sounded like unintelligible ravings.
He followed the sound, leading him back into the bathroom.
'Outside...' He realized.
'The sounds are coming from outside.'
He walked over to the window and pulled back the curtain. The only thing he saw was the empty sea in the distance.
'What is that sound?' He pondered over it.
'I remember last night I saw some people standing on the beach... Is that somehow related to this?' He wondered, forming conjectures.
He shifted his gaze back into the room, his eyes landing upon the mirror again. His face was etched with worry, any subtlety completely gone.
In the corner of his eye, however, he caught sight of something strange. The small trashcan besides the toilet was overflowing with papers. In the barren bathroom, this oddity jutted out greatly. Cass turned around and slowly approached it.