Desperate Hours, Desperate Times

On the next day, Jay and I were both dozing in our dreams. The alarm clock kept on buzzing and ringing, it shook up and down and slid near the edge of the table. And it slipped and made a huge sound.

"Ah? What was that?" Jay was frightened, he woke up and gazed around, there was a clock lying on the floor upside down. Jay grabbed that clock and looked at it.

And his face went pale.

"WAKE UP, ALFIE! YOU are going to be LATE." Jay screamed, shaking my bed.

"Five more minutes...." I said. But Jay shook my bed even harder.

"NO MORE FIVE MINUTES!! It's already 7:50 am! You ONLY have TEN MINUTES to go to school! GET UP RIGHT NOW!"

"WHAT? Why didn't you wake me up earlier?!" I complained.

"Because I overslept too. I was tired after the battle yesterday. I didn't hear the alarm."

"Argh! If I knew it, I should set more alarms!" I cried. Rushing, I grabbed my schoolbag and hurried downstairs at the doorstep and tied my shoelaces on. Before I opened the door, I noticed Jay was not by my side, I turned back and wondered where he went. I gazed up at the staircase and called him.

"Come on, Jay. Hurry up!"

"Alfie, you forgot your keys!" said Jay as he floated down the staircase, holding a pair of keys.

"Oh! Emm....thanks." I thanked Jay. It was always easy to forget things when you were rushing. I got back the keys, locked the door and ran towards school.

Huffing and puffing, Mr. Weaver was standing at the school gate.

"Mr. Weaver, I'm sorry I'm late----huh?!" I looked up. Numerous students were lining up one by one in front of the school, gossiping with each other. Huge class signs were held significantly on the head of the lines with faces of anxiousness. The adults were shouting.

Why is everyone lining up and taking attendance? I wondered.

"Alfie! I'm glad you're ok. Now, get out of here and go back home immediately!"

"What?! What happened?!"

"Just a few moments earlier, there were many windows and lights in school started to break suddenly one by one without any reasons! NO ONE knows why they were broken! We are now evacuating everyone outside school for safety. And that means you too, Alfie!"

"Wait a moment, is there anyone who got injured?"

"No. There aren't any injuries but I received some calls this morning telling me that three students were being sent to the hospital last night. Wounds were found on their bodies but they didn't know who attacked them. We predict there must be someone out there aiming for this school in the first place."

"Who are those three students?"

"Your classmates. Fiona, William and Jose. I wonder why the criminal is aiming at our class."

Those people are the ones who bully me.

Wait. Where's Philip?

"Mr. Weaver, where is Philip?" I inquired. Mr. Weaver nodded his head.

"I don't know. He is on the missing list. I guess he is still trapped in school." He said as he crumbled his eyebrows and gazed far away. He struggled to remain calm and comforted me, "But don't worry, there is a man who is related to the police taking care of the situation right now. You should-----Huh?" As he looked back, I was no longer in his sight.

"Where does he go?" Mr. Weaver searched around, he saw me a few meters away, dashing to the school gate.

"Alfie, come back here right now! It's dangerous!" He warned.

"Sorry, Mr. Weaver! But there is something I must do!" I shouted back.

Crash!

Unexpectedly, an enormous sound rang into my ears, numerous fragile glass pieces shattered and dropped from the sky.

"WATCH OUT, Alfie!" cried Jay as he pushed me aside. My knees shoveled on the ground.

"Alfie, are you alright?!" Jay worried.

"I'm fine, thanks Jay." But where did those broken glass come from? I wondered. I looked up.

"Mr. Eric?!!" I exclaimed. Behind one of the windows, Mr. Eric held his white sword against a bunch of long black worms. On his left side, he was hugging a young female student tightly. He swung his sword up high, hoping to frighten them off. The worms wiggled and jiggled around up and down, like a hunter aiming at his prey. In a flash, all of the worms straightened and emerged fiercely at the ghost sweeper. Mr. Eric leaped back, disappearing from the window. My heart started panicking.

Mr. Eric is on the third floor. I thought. He seemed to be battling with something. Are those black hands?

"Jay, let's leave Mr. Eric with the ghost. We need to hurry up and find Philip. We can't waste any second." I explained. Jay stopped me.

"Alfie, why do you need to care about that nasty person? He bullied you."

"I'm not caring about him." I corrected him, "I just want to stop all this. What happened to school now is related to me, I have the responsibility to solve this problem. Most of the people who bullied me are being attacked already. Philip got to be the next target. If we find Philip, we will find the one who's behind this."

"You mean the host of the ghost? Why do you think the host will show up? He can be hiding somewhere while his ghost takes care of everything. Besides, we don't even know whether he knows there is a ghost fulfilling his wishes."

"True. But this is our only lead. We have to do something before the situation intensifies."

"You have a point." Jay agreed and complained, "Argh. If only we can know where the host is, then it will be much easier. Alfie, do you have any ideas on who is the host? It has to be someone related to you or someone you know."

"Err....no. I don't know who will do something like this. I don't have any friends at school."

"Hmm.....so I guess we can only know until we find him." Jay sighed.

∞∞∞

Meanwhile,on one of the corridors, Philip was huffing and puffing along, passing theclassroom doors. He got seriously irritated by running around at school in themorning. He always hated running, it caused his clothes to be soaked with sweatand smelly. If it wasn't necessary or an emergency, he wouldn't choose to run.But what he hated more was having bad luck.

"Argh....what a bad day. I can't believe the ceiling collapsed and blocked my way to escape. I need to go to another staircase." Philip grumbled. Turning the corner, he set foot on the steps but some kind of black stuff blocked his way.

"What are these? Black ropes? Why are they blocking my way out?!" cried Philip furiously as he tried to pull out the black ropes. They barely budged.

"Argh.....I........can't pull it......it's struck!!" He shouted and tried to pull harder. The ropes are twisted and tied together into knots like metal chains. The more he pulled, the more tighter the ropes were. Using all his strength, one of the ropes finally got loosened and was dragged out from the pile. But gravity bounced back to Philip, he lost his balance and fell on the ground, hurting his knees.

"Ouch! Argh......why do I need to do such a tiring job? Why isn't anyone coming here to me? All the others just left me here and evacuated on their own. How selfish they are!" He scolded. Without realizing, behind him, a pitch black hand with a long black arm started wiggling, it stretched straight its arm and glared at Philip.

"ARGH! Today is the WORST day ever in my life! Those window pieces nearly hit me when they broke, the ceiling collapsed and that bunch of STUPID ropes are blocking my way! I DON'T UNDERSTAND why I needed to face so much TROU—------AHHHHH!" Unexpectedly, he felt somebody touch his shoulders behind him.

"AHHH! Who touched me?!" Philip turned his head and saw a pitch blackhand was grabbing his shoulder.

At the next moment, Philip's face went pale.

Behind the black hand, there were hundreds of black hands wiggling and waving at him.

Hundreds of hands bowed down and opened a path to death, the shiver wind howled in, thickening the tense atmosphere. Philip wanted to scream but nothing came from his mouth. There was only silence. A slow tapping sound broke in.

"HI, PHILIP."

A dark brown young girl, dressed in black and red, stood there and greeted Philip with a creepy smile. With a miniskirt and a short sleeve T-shirt, her outfit made her look younger. Two long bloody red ribbons tied on her twin tails fluttered as butterflies as the cold wind blew by. Despite the fact thather face looked no difference from any ordinary girl, darkness and terror seemed to appear right behind her ruby eyes. Next to her hands were hands and hands. Two black long arms surrounding her waist, right above her miniskirt, like a belt. Others were linked to her back and floated in the air, wiggling and wobbling as if they were searching for a prey.

Without any doubts, the girl was definitely not human.

With an angel face, a dreadful monster.

"AHHHH!" Philip yelled in fear, he tripped on the floor once again.

"DON'T COME OVER!! YOU, MONSTER!!!" He scolded, pointing at the black hands. The girl frowned at him, clearly she was annoyed.

"Monster? How rude. I am not a monster. I have a name. You can call me Bloody." said the girl politely. It was an odd name but it matched the girl well.

"I DON'T CARE WHO YOU ARE! JUST STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Philip shrieked.

"It's a shame. I can't." Bloody pressed her lips, "I went all the way here just to see you. I can't just walk away and leave. Why don't we have a lovely chat?" She smiled. Philip gazed at all the black hands next to her. The girl's natural smile just freaked him out.

"I have nothing to talk to you. Just leave me alone!"

"Don't say that. Even if you don't want to talk, I have lots of interesting topics to talk about."

"Huh? What topic?"

"Oh, you're interested? That's great."

"Let me think.....hmm......we can chat about how beautiful your blood will be after I squeeze you into pieces. It will indeed be very attractive. Your blood will splash out with your intestines and liver. Your brains will be dripping out slowly bit by bit onto the floor. Just by closing my eyes, I can dream of your twisted face and sounds of screams, creating a magnificent harmony. Isn't it a wonderful topic?" She smiled.

"Don't be kidding me! It's disgusting! You are a MONSTER! GET AWAY FROM ME RIGHT NOW! I HATE YOU!" He barked in disgust.

"Well, that's great then." Bloody smiled even broader. Philip had no idea why the girl was smiling. All he wanted was to get out of here as soon as possible. Bloody lifted up her fingers and waved them in the air, her eyes were sparkling.

"Cause I hate you even more."

Hundreds of black hands scrambled together and leaped straight at Philip, they aimed for his head.

"AHHHHH!" While screaming, he stood up immediately and ran, disappearing in the staircase. Bloody didn't chase him, watching him disappear in the staircase. She didn't seem to think Philip could escape from her.

"You wanna play hide and seek? I love it." She giggled.

Philip continued dashing, with his feet scrambling down the staircase. Huge footsteps rang through the walls, it was easy to identify his location with the massive sounds. But there wasn't time for him to care about that anyway. Images of the long pitch black hands flashed back in his mind, the wiggling arms gave him shivers, just by glaring at them, they were like touching and peeling his skin. Pimples rose up, same as fear. He hated the smile most. The girl was smiling innocently, that was what crept him most.

".........what......the........heck is that? A girl with multiple arms?! This is insane!" He stopped to take a breath. It was the first time he saw such a horrible creature. There might be similar monsters in horror movies or books. Yet, seeing one alive in reality was totally different from fiction.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Sounds of footsteps came behind him and interrupted his thoughts. That creepy girl is coming! Philip thought. There wasn't time to run to the next floor, those long hands would definitely catch him. Philip opened one of the classroom doors, locked it and hid himself under a desk, hoping to escape from the girl. He could hear his heart pounding loudly, he wished it could slow down, or else the monster might notice his existence.

"Philip. Philip. Where are you?" Bloody asked merrily, skipping her way on the corridor. She raised her voice, not knowing she did it intentionally or not, it did make Philip tremble more.

"Come on, Philip. Don't hide and show yourself. I'm coming to catch you." She laughed. The voice was getting near. Her footsteps stopped in front of a classroom window. Philip held his breath.

"Are you here?" Bloody asked again. She lifted up one of her black arms, wiggled it a little and smashed the windows hard.

Crash!

"I found you." Bloody smiled.