The School of The Undead(Archisha Srivastava) It was a normal day at school for Maria. She had gotten her report card, filled with straight A’s and perfect scores “Wow”, she thought. “My parents will be happy with my scores this time too”. She went to her friends, during recess, and her friends ignored her as they were jealous of her impressive report card. She, however, didn’t care about her friend’s behavior and focused on the end of the school day, when she could show her parents her fantastic report card.
The bell for dispersal finally rang, and Maria picked up her bag and got up to go tome. Her school was very large,and had five floors. Unfortunately, her class was on the fifth floor, and she always had to climb or descend the stairs for what seemed like an eternity, for every period she had to go outside for, and it was very tiring. Today, Maria didn’t feel that energetic, so, she quietly waited everyone out, even the teachers, to secretly use the lift. As she was waiting for everyone to leave, she reflected on how her day went. She felt hurt about how petty her friends were beiignoredignored her just because of her academic scores. She couldn’t help but remember her old best friend, Daniel. They used to do everything together and used to have loads of fun, and Daniel never acted jealous or shallow with her for petty things. She remembered how devastated she was when he told her that he had to move to Switzerland because of his father’s transfer.
Maria was so deep in thought that she lost track of time, and she realized she was late when her watch beeped at 6 pm. She checked her surroundings once again for any staff or children that were present. Since there were none, she hurried to the lift. She felt afraid. She suddenly remembered all the rumors about her school. The rumor had it that many staff members and children have been killed here. She shivered. “Stop scaring yourself, Maria! They are just rumors.” Maria thought aloud.
The lift doors opened, and she got inside. To her surprise, she saw another student inside. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. She knew him. He was a guy from her grade, named Matt. He had moved away a few months ago. “I guess he came back”, Maria thought. “Hi, Matt.” She said. “How are you in school so late?” She asked. Before he could answer, her sir from 1st grade, Mr. Rendalls, entered. She was shocked to see him appear and come inside out of nowhere. She pressed the button for the ground floor, while her sir pressed the one for the third floor. Suddenly, the lift started moving sideways very fast and creaked loudy. Matt and Maria screamed and stumbled, but Mr. Rendall didn’t flinch. Slowly, the lift screeched to a halt, and the teacher went out. Maria and Matt were terrified. They both dashed to the door to get out of the manic lift, but at the last moment, the doors closed and once again the lift began its dreadful movement.
After a few minutes, Daniel couldn’t take it anymore, and banged the doorelevatormoving elevator. It hummed to a stop, and the doors opened. A distorted automated voice slowly said, “You are now at the Grou-grou-ground floor.” It was glitching. Matt held Maria’s hand and they ran out of the lift. Maria expected to see the display of the trophies that the school had won, the small cafeteria, and a few more classrooms, but instead, the whole place had transformed into an empty, eerie basement. The only thing recognizable to Maria in the strange place was the back gate of the school, which led to the playground and horse stables. “I-I’m scared. I don’t know this place.” Maria stammered.
Matt put a comforting arm around her shoulder and led her to the back gate. They got out. Matt faced Maria and asked, “Why are you here right now?” “I wanted to use the lift, instead of climbing down the stairs. I had to wait everyone out, so nobody could see me use the lift, which is not allowed to be used by the students” She explained sheepishly. “Don’t ever, ever be here at night. You are alive.” Matt said, in a grave voice. Maria was confused. “But why?” Suddenly, Matt uttered some strange words and transformed into Daniel.
Maria gasped. “Daniel? What? But, how? Where did Matt go?” she questioned. “You’re in the night school. Here, all of us are dead. Everyone you saw and will see inside the school building are dead. We all were murdered here. Matt doesn’t exist. He was murdered here too, like me. We all are the… undead. The school has covered up our deaths. But now you know the truth. I can’t tell you more. Now go, go before they get you too.” Daniel explained. He gave a gentle push to Maria. “Go straight, then take a left. Run to your parents, and don’t look back.” He said. Daniel’s expression remained solemn, and so did his voice. But Maria could sense a hint of terror and sadness in his voice. Maria was too terrified to even speak. She didn’t know what to believe. She only did what Daniel told her too.
She noticed that, as she came closer to the place Daniel told her about, daylight became brighter, and soon enough, her watch showed the time “2:08 pm” “Strange”, she thought. She ran to her mother. She decided that Daniel was just playing a joke on her, that he also wanted to use the lift like her, and was just trying to prank her with the made-up silly story. After all, Daniel was a pretty good liar.
Maria started to feel better, and decided to tell her mother about Daniel. “Mom! Guess what? I saw Daniel today!” she exclaimed. “Who is Daniel?” her mother asked. Maria was a bit taken aback by her mother’s answer. “Daniel! Mom, he’s my friend who had moved to Switzerland! He has come back!” Her mother suddenly looked worried. She took out her phone and, after a bit of typing, she pulled up a picture of Daniel. “Is this him?” her mother asked. Maria nodded.
Her mother gasped and said, “He is a boy who was murdered here, in this school, by a teacher named Mr. Rendall, who also later died of something unknown, in this school. This all took place back in 1980! Maria, the boy you claimed to have seen, has been dead for more than 40 years!” Maria was shocked. Were the things Daniel said true? Had he really been murdered? Had he actually saved her from becoming a victim of this twisted, dark school, like him? The answer to those questions still remains a mystery, to this day.

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