Niko Black's Story

Niko stirred groggily on the floor of a brightly lit doorless hallway. Yawing he sat up taking notice that he was shirtless still wearing the shorts that he usually slept in. "Yo, what did I smoke last night?" the hallway was nearly endless, stretching to what seemed like the end of the world. It was a familiar place, placating him with a wave of nostalgia. As he pulled himself to his feet he heard the sound of children steadily growing in the distance until he heard their laughs and giggles as if he were standing in a crowd of them. He looked around nervously as he slowly made his way down the hall alone. He knew this place, he'd been to this place many times before. It's name was on the tip of his tongue. Niko came under a flickering light. The only one aligned on the ceiling that was blinking. His eyes came across a bronze plaque on the wall which read: Halbrooke Elementary School 1912

It was his middle school, he looked over his shoulder. There was a door behind him. How did that get there? Curious he turned to it. Maybe it was an exit. He laid his hand on the door knob, twisted and pulled it open. The cheerful sounds of the happy children were sucked into a deafening silence. He stood frozen. It was a classroom, walls covered with colorful drawings, brown wooden desks-full of attentive children who's eyes were all on him. A hand clasped over his mouth. All of the children's eyes began to roll into the back of their heads as blood spilled from their mouths. They fell from their seats coughing and crying. He jumped into the room to help, not knowing what to do. His entire body trembled as he cradled one of the children in his arms. He recognized her. A 7 year old girl with golden locks who's face had been plastered all over town for the past few weeks. Her name slipped from his lips in an almost inaudible whisper. "Faith Krusser."

She smiled. "You'll never find me."

The expression on Niko's face embodied his confusion and terror.

"If you come looking for me, he will come for you," Black tentacles burst from the girl's chest, reflexively Niko dropped her and backed away. Faith continued speaking as she convulsed. "He will come for all of you."

Niko sprinted from the classroom and fell onto his bedroom floor. A dream. He sighed a breath of relief then looked a bit ahead of him. His cell phone buzzed. He reached out to grab it. It was a text from Colin wanting to meet for drinks. Shaking off the sleep, he picked himself off the floor, got dressed and left his home, but not before grabbing his video camera.

It didn’t take much to realize that she wasn’t the only one Colin had texted and she couldn’t blame him. How many people would actually be up this late and even willing to go out? Not many. Enid smiled lightly at the male not really sure how to react or respond to the situation. She didn’t really recognize him, but there was no shock. She didn’t know a whole lot of people in the town she’d lived in for two years.

But what he was suggesting was the very thing that Colin and she had just been talking about. They weren’t on a date. This is why she never went into public if she could help it. People tended to get the wrong idea. It was the look on the firefighter’s face in reaction to Niko that made the situation even funnier and she found herself trying not to laugh.

She listened to them banter. Yeah she was used to people getting the wrong impression and while she was never comfortable in social situations, she figured this was a crowd that she could handle. She barely heard Colin’s next words as her eyes landed on the newcomer’s camera. Her eyes light up and she went to grab it before she stopped herself.

“Sorry, may I?” She asked pointing to the camera. She wanted to compare it to the ones she owned. While she knew his equipment wouldn’t compare to her professional stock, it was nice to see people who liked photography. In a small town it was hard to find interests the same as other people. Maybe this outing wasn’t going to be so bad after all. It wasn’t like anyone knew her job, so it worked to her advantage. They didn’t know she knew anything about the world other than having money from somewhere to build her house. Working outside of the town was coming in handy because she loved showing people up and impressing them. Which was one thing she hoped she could do here in front of the two men who seemed content to pick on each other.