The year was 2016. This was in the middle of Autumn, nearing towards the end of November, as you could observe and see the tree leaves falling in the distance, forming a pile of withering orangey-brown leaves on the ground.

The wind howls as the students arrived through the school gates, hustling and bustling down the corridors. Friends are greeting each other with joyful laughter, whilst loners just stand still and become envious of others.

Aaron stood still by himself, on the side of the pavement, as the light breeze blew his unkempt hair across.

Di-ring! Di-ring! Di-ring!

His russet-coloured eyes remain motionless for some time until he heard the sound of the school bell. The school bell rung three times, each time lasting and couple seconds.

Aaron turns his head ninety degrees to the left, as he then looks up at the stationery digital display clock hanging on the side of the school building.

The digital clock displayed '8:45'.

He thought to himself and sighs, 'It's time for school...'

Aaron muttered underneath his breath, "What a pain." So nobody heard him say anything.

○ ○ ○

Several hours later...

Within the room B10, located on the second floor of the main school building. Room B9 to B11 was designated as the computer, quite often taught ICT, Computing, and other classes.

However, sometimes other subjects will be held in that particular classroom, because of the lack of rooms or the classroom is already in used by another block.

Seated within the corners of the room was Aaron. He was quiet and was on his phone.

His sloppy tired eyes remain fixated on his smartphone, unable to take his eyes away from it. He thought, 'It's been quite a while since I've last logged onto Royalroad.'

'How long ago was it? 2 to 3 years perhaps...'

Aaron then lets out a long sigh of disappointment, as he shakes his head slightly. He started reminiscing on the good old times, the times he spent reading and actively converse with the Royalroad story community.

Scrolling down through the list of bookmarked stories. He thought to himself, 'So many of my favourite novels have either been dropped or been abandoned by the author himself/herself... It is a pity.'

Aaron's eyes slowly drifted away from his phone, as he leans back against his computer chair.

'So many things have changed since I first started my highschool year in year 7. Now I am in year 11.'

"It's been five years, huh," Aaron said so in a quiet voice, inaudible to others.

This complex feeling he's experiencing right now. He didn't know whether to feel depressed, happy, or sad. The sense of nostalgia is starting to rack his brain.

His medium-length unkempt hair reaches pass his eyebrows, covering his eyes slightly, but whenever he moves his head. It uncovers, revealing his dark brown dull coloured eyes.

Aaron then smiles helplessly at himself. He knows full well that his peaceful highschool lifestyle won't last long.

He only has a year left of high school, like any other his age, he is forced to either go to college and then university to get a bachelor degree, or go get a job to earn some income and make a living by himself...

'Life itself is a drag.'

Aaron then spends his free time lazying around on his smartphone, surfing the internet, when all of a sudden his phone began to rung. It played the song 'Onlap - The Awakening' as his phone's ring tobe on full blast so that all the surrounding people could hear.

Aaron visibly panics as he quickly lowers down the volume on his phone, 'Goddamnit! I forgot to put my phone on vibrate.' He curses himself internally.

Somebody calling him at this ungodly hour, caught him off guard, as he embarrassingly turns his body around.

All of the people within the ICT room are now staring at him. Their eyes are shifted away from their computer screen and are now on focus solely on him.

He became the sole attraction of all the people's gaze.

This made Aaron feel slightly uncomfortable. A strange slumbering tightness unravelling withinside his chest, his body temperature rising, as his cheeks and ears having turned a bit red in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry for the distraction, everyone." Aaron immediately apologises profusely to everyone; his classmates.

Mr.Davies was the supervising teacher in charge of watching over the students in the ICT room, during the lunchtime period.

He remains seated within his chair, behind his desk, located in the front of the classroom. "Was that a phone call?" Mr.Davies asked with a stern look on his face.

Aaron nodded his head slightly and answered, "Yeah."

Mr.Davies stern look then turns into a curved smile, as he commented, "If you want to answer your phone call, you can leave the room and answer it."

Mr.Davies is a nice ICT teacher, despite the way he presented himself. He is always lenient and patient with his students.

He then lectures Aaron, properly as a teacher, "However, if this was during a class period. I would have no choice but to confiscate your phone because it is distracting the class. Do you understand?"

Aaron said so honestly, "Yes, I understand Mr.Davies. I will switch off my phone when it is time for class."

Aaron then picks up his phone and then checks for the name of the caller. He was surprised that the caller's name was 'Sameer', highlighted in white bold text behind a green background.

'It's Sameer, why is he calling me at this time.' Aaron thought to himself, 'If he wanted to find me or Anik, he would head up here himself with the others. I'm definitely sure Mr.Davies would kindly allow others to join the session.'

Sameer Chowderick was a dear friend of Aaron he met during his first year of high school, and one of the five friends he commonly hangs out during highschool.

Before he was about to leave and answered the call, a chubby Bangladeshian person named Anik interrupted him.

He asked him, out of curiosity, "Who is it?"

"It's Sameer." Aaron immediately responded.

Anik then smiles and light breaks into a burst of laughter. "So it Queera. hahaha..."

Queera was a nickname that Anik gave to Sameer. It means strange and odd in the English language.

Sameer always has a strange personality, despite his nerdy appearance. He is not at all that intelligent but is highly sociable and friendly.

He quite often likes to talk about horror movies rated 18+, and supernatural stories in gruesome and obstinate details. Not suitable for kids his age. Especially, the scenes depicting some cannibals and otherwise gruesome murders.

Thinking about it, it gave Aaron some chills. Remembering the scene in which he showed an Asian girl dicing human meat with a meat cleaver and turning it into meatballs, it gave Aaron goosebumps.

Anik Mangallick is one of Aaron's five friends, but also the one who first founded the group. He was the one who brought everyone together with his laughter and jokes.

Aaron left the ICT classroom by himself.

* * *

He then answered the phone call; Aaron's thumb hovered over the answer button, as he presses on the green square box with a white phone silhouette to answer the call.

Aaron then answered the phone, "Yeahello."

He put it on a loudspeaker to hear the phone call more correctly since there was no one was around to listen in to their conversation.

From the other side of the phone call, Sameer sounded panicky and urgent, "Where the fuck are you, Aaron? You idiot! Why didn't you answer your phone call more sooner!" He shouted at Aaron and berated him with many questions.

Aaron was quite at a lost for words, showcasing a look of visible confusion.

He told Sameer to calm down and speak more slowly, "Sameer, calm down and speak more slowly. I can't hear you properly over the loud screaming in the background. What is happening over there."

Aaron was starting to feel anxious for Sameer, as he some strange noises over on the other side of the phone call.

Sameer only said a few words over the phone and Aaron immediately got the gist of it. "It's literally a pandemonium over here! A widespread epidemic of chaos! Monsters are invading the place... run!"

"So where are you now?" Sameer asked rather urgently, showcasing his worry for Aaron's wellbeing.

Aaron immediately responded, not wanting to further worry the impatient Sameer any longer, "I'm on the second floor just outside the ICT room."

Sameer sounded a bit relieved, "The ICT classroom is not that far away from here. Just a couple of minutes from the library." Sameer commented, and then says, "Don't do anything irrational, and quickly find a safe place to shelter yourself. We'll come to find you."

Off into the distance, a couple of feet away, a green humanoid figure then enters Aaron's line of sight.

The little green skin creature stood on its own two feet, much like a human does, roughly around 3 ft tall, around the same size as an average child. Whilst wearing only a loincloth covering its lower half. It is completely shirtless on top.

Its face was extremely ugly and horrendous, resembling a wrinkled old man.

It gave off a hideous grin, revealing its row of sharp carnivorous yellow teeths. It stares off in Aaron's particular direction.

It wore a primitive necklace, showcasing its own rank within its tribe.

The tribal necklace is made of plant fibre woven together to form a string. It is decorated with canine fangs, bone claws, and small animal skulls.

The bigger the beast skull and the number of skulls dangling around on its tribal necklace, thereby indicated how strong it was.

It has only one small beast skull dangling around its tribal necklace, with added small sharp bone claws as ornamental decorations. It holds no sentimental purpose.

'Is that thing a goblin?' It was Aaron's first thought.

Aaron has seen many pictures of goblins depicted in western fantasy novels and media and even video games. So he could easily differentiate goblins from other fantasy-like races.

"What is that thing doing over there or am I hallucinating and seeing things?" Aaron said so to himself.

He didn't quite believe whatever Sameer was just saying to him, and just assumed that he was just playing a prank on him.

'Sameer, David, Malachi, and Gerard is probably in too.' Aaron thought to himself.

However, the green skin goblin wasn't even a prank. It was neither an illusion as well. It is real and alive, breathing in front of him right now.

The goblin gave chase, as it swiftly rushes over towards Aaron's location right now. Viciously, eyeing down Aaron's figure like that of a hunter and its prey. It is armed with a makeshift 6 inches long stone dagger.

Its boney long fingers wrapped around the hilt of the stone dagger, its grip is tightening, pointing the direction of the stone dagger towards Aaron's direction.

"What the... Get back! Stay the hell away from me!" Aaron's delayed response.

"Aaron! Aaron! Get the hell outta there quickly! Aaron..." Sameer on the other side of the phone heard Aaron screaming. He felt that something was undoubtedly wrong.

However, Aaron's grip on his phone suddenly loosens, out of fright, as he drops his phone on the ground.

The S*msung smartphone then falls to the ground with a thud, hitting the bottom of the rough carpet floor, and a crack appeared on the surface of the phone screen.

As he suddenly started yelling, overcome by a great sense of deadly crisis, at the fastly approaching goblin that is aiming after for life.

Aaron then froze on the spot by the incoming sense of fear. His legs were trembling, as he unconsciously took a few steps back.

The goblin then launches an attack. It lunges the dagger blade towards the left region of Aaron's stomach.

However, Aaron instinctively reacted, his body moved by itself before he could consciously make a decision.

Aaron then jumps back, a couple of inches away, out of the trajectory of the lunging stone dagger blade. It missed him and his stomach by a hair's breathe.