When I woke up, I was half-dressed and someone was above me. The half-dressed thing wasn’t really a surprise, seeing as my last set of clean clothes— my favorites— were to be worn for night ten. Bleary eyes looked up and saw glowing red staring down at me.

“Why don’t you remember me?” He asked quietly, sounding hurt, “You promised you’d remember me.”

I observed him, unable to think too well. All I was concerned with was that he was there. That he wasn’t hurting me. That he interrupted a good dream.

“We’ve only just met nine nights ago,” I answered groggily, and Lucifer shook his head.

His glowing eyes faded, and I just watched his form. I wasn’t sure when he vanished.

I remembered the event vividly when my alarm went off, waking me up once more. I sat up, distracted. Remember… Him? I promised… The devil. That I’d remember him. Getting dressed after taking a shower, I stumble through my routine. Forgetting my coffee, I’m halfway to the school before I remember.

Arriving half an hour early, I just stare at the school. Remember… Him…

I pulled out my phone and rang William. He answered almost immediately, cursing out someone who had killed him in a video game, “Yeah?”

“Hey, did I ever have any friends?”

William scoffed, “No.”

“No, I mean seriously. Like, from the time we’ve met ‘till now. Was there even a single person?”

William hesitated, “No… No, not that I can remember. Why?”

“I don’t know. Just… I feel like I’m forgetting a lot about my past. I could have sworn I had at least two friends throughout my life, but… I can’t remember anyone.”

“Well, there was that one time when I was in second or third grade when you started freaking out and said the Devil was making your friends disappear, but after you went to therapy you stopped talking about him.”

I made a face, “What? I don’t remember that.”

“Yeah. Once, you said the reason you stopped talking about it is because he made it better, when no one else was around to hear you tell me. You were in… fifth grade, I think. You stopped freaking out at the end of the school year. Mom said it was because of the books you were reading. Said you were going to hell.”

“… I’d rule over Hell,” I said quietly, curiously. Where’d that idea ever come from, anyway? Where’d my whole satirical devil-worship shtick come into being? Christianity wasn’t even a giant part of my life, so how did I ever come to the conclusion that I’d rule over a place I never believed in when I died?

“Yeah, you used to always say that, too. It was weird. You always said you couldn’t wait to see me there, that you’d oversee my torture.”

I bit my lip, shaking my head, “Whatever. I was a stupid goth kid or something who got too into Twilight or whatever, because you’re not going to hell, ahah. Anyway, have a good night. Sorry for bothering your gaming session.”

“It’s fine, I was planning on going to bed soon anyway. Have a good night! Hey, maybe we can go get ice cream tomorrow?”

My heart stuttered. I wasn’t going to make it to tomorrow, though. He didn’t need to know that, though.

“Y-yeah, sure, kid.”

“I’m only three years younger than you!” He refuted.

I laughed, “Whatever. Love you. Bye.”

“You never say that,” William immediately said, and I huffed.

“Just say it back.”

“… Love you.”

I hung up, and tried the doors. They were locked, but when I looked at the time I saw it wasn’t midnight yet. A minute later the doors clicked open, and I hesitated. I was too distracted to go in. I’d die.

I’d die. Me.

Swallowing, my hand lowers from the door.

Was it worth it? Chancing my life to clean a school I didn’t need to anymore? Because of the pay I got yesterday, I could afford both the new console and the rent.

No. No, I didn’t need the extra pay. Turning, I blinked when I saw the doors. Wh… What? Spinning on my heel, my eyes widened when I saw I was inside. Going to the doors, I try them. They were locked. A note appeared on the door.

“Won’t unlock until ten minutes before sunrise.”

Swallowing, I move to the side and rip open the janitor’s closet. Grabbing a hammer that I left on my cart from when I helped fix the doors, I turned and slammed it into the glass. The hammer broke the second it touched the glass, head flying back and handle melting in my hands.

Looking up, I saw the note had a small addition.

“P.S. There is no escape. Finish the week, or die.”

Swallowing, I turned on my heel and went back to the closet. Pulling out my cart, I started in the boy’s locker room, since the Incubus wasn’t showering yet, luckily. After I finished, I turned to leave, but a creature in a towel was standing in my way. I could see why the incubus needed five hour showers, at night, and felt faint.

Wasn’t that the teacher that my brother hated? The one that made his girlfriend vanish? I watched at the blood and gore-soaked creature dropped the towel. They had nothing between their legs. It was like looking at a mannequin, and looking at the Incubus’ face, comfort tried washing over me. The pale skin, the stark ice blue eyes with a darker rim of midnight surrounding the iris, the dark hair. Didn’t my brother stop me from flirting with him once?

“Ice cream,” I said aloud, and all the comfort did was make me feel slightly ill, “Sorry. Didn’t mean to, um. Interrupt your shower-taking…”

I moved past the Incubus, hesitating right next to the creature as I felt a small amount of longing. I felt too disturbed and confused to act on the intense lust, and stumbled away. I continued cleaning like that, acknowledging the ghosts, but not reacting properly. The little girl was one of his ex-classmates that vanished a while ago. How didn’t I see that before? The little boy had used a chair to hang himself using barbed wire because people bullied him about it. There was a tall goth kid that got brutally raped, tortured, and killed in a corner by one of the female teachers. My brother had commented about how they’d been good friends, that the goth kid was taller than him.

The ghosts… Most of them were made here.

Shivers racked my spine as I remembered more and more of my brothers’ stories. His friends getting torn to shreds in broad daylight. The way he stopped referring to anyone he went to school with as anything except a school friend. How he’d asked me, and begged me to stop going here. Girls going missing, in the teaching staff and in the school. The Incubus. The boys being raped, tortured, bullied. Not by other students, but by the teachers.

This wasn’t a sense of normality for my brother, I slowly realized. This wasn’t the last good place in an apocalyptic scene. This was a place for the teachers, no matter who or what they were, to come and do anything their sick hearts desired to children.

I was stopped from cleaning by a man wearing a grey shirt.

I was trying to give my brother a sense of normality, but, to him…

My eyes looked up, and I saw Lucifer.

This was a living hell.

My grip tightened on my broomstick, and I nodded once to the Devil before cleaning around him. On the bright side, I didn’t have to deal with this school anymore. I pulled out my phone, and it went dark the moment I tried calling William. I pulled my lips into my mouth, taking a deep breath.

“Please,” I asked.

“What, trying to say your goodbye’s?” Lucifer said lowly from directly behind me, voice the flattest I’ve ever heard. His breath was on my ear, and he was too close.

“…” I remain silent, clenching and relaxing my fist around my cart. My phone flickered on, and Lucifer wrapped his arms around me as he listened to the conversation.

“Hello?”

“Um. So I just realized this, but this school isn’t even a school, is it?” I asked, voice wavering. Fear. Stress. Confusion. More than anything, though, self-hatred. How didn’t I see this?

“No. Why? What made you realize that?”

“… The, uh, the one making the girls disappear… He’s, um, he’s here. Covered in blood.”

“Seriously?” My brother asked, sounding concerned, “You need to get out of there.”

“I, uh. The doors are locked, and I, um. I can’t get out. The windows aren’t breaking.”

“Lily, do you want me to-“

“No,” I interrupted, “Just, no. Get a good job at, like, Toyota, or something, and just… Never come back here.”

“… You’re going to die, aren’t you?” William asked. His voice was flat. He’d lost so many people already… I couldn’t tell him he was going to lose one more.

“No,” I sighed out, “The, uh, teacher. He only kills people who are interested, so I’m not… I’m not in any danger. I promise.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Promising something like that? You break your promises, how can he believe you?”

“Who’s that?” I open my mouth to answer my brother’s question, only for him to continue,

“And don’t say you’re alone, because I heard him last time you were talking to me while at work. Who is he?”

I open and close my mouth a few times. How did I respond to that? I didn’t even know who he really was, aside from a demon or ghost that could revive people… Did I?

“He’s, my, um, he’s…” Lucifer’s arms squeezed me, and my breath shortened. I couldn’t just say he was the devil, could I? My brother was still unaware of… ghosts, demons, and all that. He’d not believe me, “It’s complicated, he’s a friend of mine. He shouldn’t be here, since the school was very intent on there only being one person in the school at once, but I snuck him in.”

“Oh. I didn’t realize you had any friends.”

“I don’t,” I answered immediately, before grimacing. Fuck, that wasn’t… Whatever, “He’s my, uh, boyfriend.”

Lucifer stopped breathing and my brother made an interested noise.

“Holy hell, you actually managed to get a boyfriend? Wow, congrats, dude. I kind of thought you’d be… Alone… For life…” William said, trailing off when he realized he was being rude and I rolled my eyes when he added, “No offense.”

“How aren’t I supposed to be offended by- you know what? Nevermind. Nevermind,” I laughed awkwardly when I saw the lights flicker and a new being appear at the end of the hallway, “Uh- I um, have to go, now, actually. Have a good night. See you tomorrow, for ice cream!”

“Yeah, of course!” My brother sounded happier. I was glad he thought I wasn’t going to be murdered, except, of course, my words which had such an oddly positive effect on him, probably pissed Lucifer off.

I hung up, taking a step back, but Lucifer was still there. My eyes were on the thing crawling towards me, though, and I tried ripping his arms off of me, but he wouldn’t let go. My attempts got more and more desperate the closer and closer the being got. It wasn’t crawling very quickly, but it was still halfway through the hallways, doors slamming on either side of it. The screeches in the classrooms it passed made me glad I wasn’t in them, but I was in it’s way, and I needed to get out of it.

“Lucifer, let go,” I said desperately.

“… Oh,” Lucifer said after a moment, his grip relaxing. I struggled to get out, but when I did his grip tightened again, “This is the first time I’ve seen you freak out. All he’s doing is crawling.”

A door slams. Shrieks and screams come from the room the door closed in.

“Let me go.”

“Not to mention you plan on running. You’ve always fought if it came to that.”

It’s bulbous eyes looked at me, the eyes a beautiful glowing shade of gold and oranges, looking exactly like a sunset. There weren’t any pupils or iris’. I struggled harder, the pale emaciated being crawling weirdly. Sometimes his hands went on the other side of his body, and he spun, neck and head staying up and staring even as I grimace at the snapping neck.

“Lucifer, come on, let go- I haven’t- let me go,” I begged.

“Were you actually serious, about us dating?” He asked, a non sequitur if I’d ever heard one.

“What? No, of course not, I lied! Let me go,” I yelled, the sound of my heartbeat rushing filling the air. I could barely hear my yell over it.

“Mm, that’s a shame,” He said, voice clear. It was like he was cutting through the fog just to talk to me. He still didn’t let me go. I struggled more, tears filling my eyes as I finally escaped and left my cart, bolting. I almost make it to the entrance before I trip, a clawed hand wrapping around my ankle and pulling me.

Hands struggling to gain grip, I kick out. Anytime I tried gripping onto something, the corner man appeared. Eventually, right before I was dragged into a classroom I’d never seen before, I grabbed onto the corner man. He didn’t move. The clawed hand gripped harder, trying to pull me the rest of the way.

“Esta Vales Romantique Serma Noric Nurmette Jervis Satanica,” I chanted hurriedly, pulling the words from somewhere in my subconscious. What did they do? I didn’t know. All I know is that, with a shrill scream, the claws vanished from around my ankle. Not looking back, I sprinted. The school was all fucked up, and the hallways weren’t the same, but I continued sprinting until they made sense. Even when my breath ran out I didn’t stop, throat burning and lungs aching, heart pounding and my legs burned. They were jelly, yet I forced them to keep pumping.

I barely saw the exit, gaze shaky and static filling my vision. Everything slowly started going dark, and I didn’t realize when I fell. When I woke up, the sun was lighting up the horizon. Limbs shaking, I shoved myself off and sprinted the rest of the way to the doors, slamming out of them.

Collapsing just before the parking lot, I reach for my car, but I couldn’t get up. I was breathing too heavily. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move, I was shaking too heavily.

“Oh! Does this mean I don’t have to hire a replacement? I mean, I wasn’t planning to, anyway. How much grime can the school acquire overnight anyway? You always managed to keep the place spotless.”

“Go… check,” I gasped out, shoving myself so that I could see the sky, “I stopped… cleaning around… three. The place was… spotless when I was done… cleaning,” I swallow and try continuing, “The rest of the night was spent, fuck,” I took a few more breaths, but the Head Janitor just shook his head.

“Let me guess. Running for your life from ghosts?”

“Ghosts… Demons… Weird creepy crawling fuckers… Almost died. Not coming back tomorrow. Have the feeling I’ll end up in the school anyway. Done working. Fuck,” I turned onto my side and curled up, “Just… give me my pay for what I’ve worked so far…”

I covered my head and just spent my energy trying to recover.

“Well, damn. Whatever happened really got you worked up,” The Head Janitor said after a moment, “I’ll call in a few priests and pastors tomorrow to go in with you, if you feel up to it. I’ve heard they’re great at getting rid of malicious spirits.”

“Mmmngh,” I agreed after a moment. If they couldn’t do anything about it, then I’d just blow the building up. My brother would probably be able to recruit a fuck ton of his friends, too.

Fuck, night ten was a fucking nightmare.

Birds pleasantly chirped above, the grass a lush green and the trees well taken care of. The sounds of laughter reached my ears, and my phone rang.

I answered it tiredly.

“Yo.”

“Hey! So do you want to get ice cream now?”

I laughed at the excited voice of my brother, who seemed even more psyched when he heard it.

“Whoa, you laughed. It’s been so long since I’ve heard you laugh.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No. It’s nice, like seeing sunlight after being stuck in school all day long.”