By, Anonymous
Cal stared at the faded graffiti that graced the brown wall of a stall in the second floor girl’s bathroom. She slumped heavily, as if sitting up straight would drain her last scraps of energy. She wiped traces of tears from her cheeks and blinked vigorously, hoping that her eyes didn’t look too bloodshot. She desperately combed her fingers through her frizzy hair, trying to find some comfort in the repeating motion.
She was alone in the bathroom, but she could hear muted bits of conversation from beyond the walls. She pictured every voice talking about her, analyzing her every move, criticizing her appearance from head to toe. Her mind spun and churned. She could feel her eyes beginning to burn again, the tears threatening to return. Overwhelmed, she threw her arms against the sides of the stall and wailed.
A brilliant purple light exploded out of her palms, crackling like lightning against the walls. Cal’s eyes popped open, and she yanked her arms back, but the light kept coming, burning brighter, until she had to squint. She wanted to scream, but could only watch the display with a detached fascination. After a few seconds, the light blinked out all at once. Cal blinked. She was staring at the exact same walls as before.
Am I losing my mind?
In a trance, she stood up and pushed open the stall door. The bathroom was dead silent. One of the fluorescent lights flickered unsteadily. Cal walked to a sink and let ice-cold water flow over her hands. She flexed her palms. Nothing happened. Despite having promised herself minutes earlier that she would never leave the bathroom stall again, she walked out the door.
The hallway was completely empty. Cal was faced with rows of gray lockers standing like silent soldiers, and the occasional neon poster peeling off the wall, but she was the only one in the hallway.
Weren’t there people out here before? Talking?
It didn’t matter. Cal counted her solitude as a blessing. She made one last effort to smooth out her hair, then hurried back to her classroom. All she wanted was to put this mess of a day behind her. She reached for the doorknob and pulled. It didn’t budge. She gave a timid little knock, hoping that she hadn’t been gone for too long. No one responded. She gritted her teeth and knocked harder. Nothing.
Cal peeked into the classroom through a window. The lights were on, and the desks were arranged in perfect rows, but there was nobody there. There weren’t even any books or schoolwork adorning any of the desks. It was like the first day of school, an untouched diorama.
Cal felt a familiar sense of panic flood her system. Was there some kind of emergency drill happening that no one had told her about? Were her classmates playing a prank on her? She ran to check the classroom across the hall. It was also completely empty.
“Hello?” she called to the hallway. There was no response. Cal clapped her hands a few times, and the sound echoed from the ceiling. She was struck by a sudden, bizarre thought.
This is what you wanted, isn’t it? There’s no reason to be upset now. Everyone is gone.
Cal began to laugh hysterically. She ran from one end of the hallway to the other, then back again, and again. She screamed at the top of her lungs. She let herself lie flat on her back and stare at the ceiling, daydreaming to her heart’s desire. The red puffiness that clouded her eyes gradually faded away. She broke into the cafeteria and danced on the empty tables. Finally, it occurred to her to wonder what was happening outside the school. Had the entire population vanished into thin air? She opened the main door, stepped outside, and gasped. Her heart dropped into her stomach.
The front lawn of the school looked mostly the same as it had before. A few cars sat in the parking lot, and the flagpole flapped lazily in the breeze. Beyond that, however, was abyss. It was as if the world had simply given up and dropped out. The regular world faded out into a vast white void. Cal was certain she was staring into empty space.
Cal began to nervously place one foot in front of the other, edging her way toward the end of the world. She stared intently at the blurry boundary where the green grass of the school lawn faded out into nothingness. She swore she could see that line inching forward, like reality was expanding out into the void. Cal shuddered. She turned and began to creep along the boundary line, tracing the edge of the world, afraid of what she might find but wondering if there was anything else to discover. As she approached the back of the school, she noticed a strange dark mass clustered in a shallow ditch.
Cal crept closer to the ditch and leaned down to take a look. The dark mass was made up of a system of interconnected tendrils. It reminded Cal of the roots of a tree, or maybe a cluster of black snakes. There was something about it she couldn’t put her finger on, some unnatural and foreboding air. Without thinking, she reached down to tap it with her finger. A sharp burning sensation exploded over her fingertip, and she jerked her hand back in pain. A cold feeling of dread rushed through her, but dissipated as soon as she backed away from the ditch. Cal didn’t know what it meant, but she decided that nothing good could possibly come from that place.
She returned to the school and continued to pace through the halls, moving more slowly now. She took her time, tracing her fingers against the wall, scanning her eyes over every crack in the wallpaper. She began to hum softly to herself.
All of a sudden, across the hall, a brilliant burst of light began to flash and pulse, simply manifesting itself out of thin air. Cal gasped and staggered backward. The light was purple…it was the same light that had erupted out of her hands in the bathroom stall. The light gently faded, and the form of a teenage girl emerged into the hallway.
The girl had apparently been carrying her schoolbooks, because they were now scattered around her feet. A few stray papers drifted into the air. The girl looked around herself in a daze, her mouth gaping and her eyes wide as she explored her surroundings.
Oh no, Cal realized. It’s Angie.
Cal knew that she should step forward and say something, but she felt completely frozen in place. Angie looked forward and noticed Cal standing in front of her for the first time.
“Cal?” she whispered.
Realization dawned on Angie’s face, and she spat out a laugh. “Oh my God. You’re the girl who…”
NO.
This was supposed to be Cal’s place, a place where she could finally escape from the horror of other people. No one was allowed to invade her world, especially not Angie. Cal’s heart began to pound faster. Her vision blurred. She was dizzy with panic. She turned and ran down the hall, her feet slamming audibly against the tile floor.
Lights everywhere, more flashes of purple, swarming through the corners of her vision -- was it just her imagination?
Cal tore through the school’s front door. In some dark corner of her subconscious, she knew where she was going. She bolted around the side of the school, panting heavily, though she hadn’t run far.
She jumped into the ditch. The black roots were still there, coiled and waiting for her. Cal thrust her hands down into the tendrils. Pain shot up her arms, intense and pulsing, and she screamed. She kept screaming, turning it into a source of power, forming barely coherent words.
“GET AWAY! GET OUT!”
All she could feel was pain and heat and rage. Her mind was clouded with thoughts that weren’t her own, thoughts that barely made sense.
If I can’t have this, no one can.
Gasping for breath, Cal slowly raised her arms. The dark force was a part of her now, coiled around her arms and draped over her shoulders. It felt intensely heavy, like the energy was being actively drained out of her body. She dragged herself out of the ditch and toward the school. With one firm and final motion, she pressed her hands against the brick wall.
The black tendrils spread from her arms and over the wall of the school, expanding every second, consuming everything. They formed splinter-like formations over the wall at first, then grew into a solid mass of darkness. It began to spread outside the wall, tracing itself around the corner and onto the ground.
Cal fell to the ground, sobbing, finally realizing what she’d done. She struggled to her feet and limped back to the front doors of the school. “Angie!” she called.
The tendrils ravaged everything around her, cascading down the school hallways. Cal could hear menacing cracks spreading as the school walls struggled to support their weight. One of the tendrils shot directly under her foot, and she tripped and fell flat on her face.
The last thing she saw was pure, impenetrable darkness. Then, the world around her collapsed, and she was lost in the white void.