I look around the class, dazed at where I am. The classroom’s eyes are on me like I’m some circus act. What the hell are they looking at so weirdly?

“Hiragi-san are you listening? Pay attention this will be on your exam!” Sensei scolds me from the front of the class.

“Ye-yes Sensei sorry…”

Hey hey this must be a joke, is this a normal thing for people my age? To just teleport physically and mentally to a different point? I was just…. that’s right I was just arguing with Taki by the stairs! If I didn’t know any better this would be a scene right out of Steins;Gate.

“Psst Hiragi-kun are you okay? You walked in with a blank look on your face and just sat down, you didn’t look like your self at all”. A soft voice is whispering my way.

“Oh Kurihara-san, it’s actually kind of weird I don’t really remember walking into class at all. Maybe I didn’t eat enough for breakfast, you know fueling your body for success is what I pride myself on”. I try to think of some logical excuse for mentally blacking out all of a sudden.

We whisper to each other in the back of the class like we’ve been friends for years. I can’r help but feel a soft smile emerge from me after every exchange of words. Can we really become closer day-by-day like this? This seems too surreal to be real, almost too good to be true.

“That’s the Hiragi-kun I know, welcome back. Oh! Thank you for helping me with my English exam I would have failed if it weren’t for you. I need to find a way to thank you, maybe I could help you if you have any weak subjects”.

It’s still odd that she continues to acknowledge and talk to me. I’m just your above-average at everything high school student with no redeeming qualities. Hmm maybe I’m good at getting people who would normally avoid me to get to notice me, like a secret power!

“It was nothing I’m glad I could help, wouldn’t want my Kur—Ahem! Wouldn’t want Kurihara-san to fail especially with me teaching!” Whewww close one Yuta…

I grin with pride as she gently smiles back at me. I’m closer to my goal I can feel it, good job Yuta!

“Hiragi-san! Stop interrupting the class do you ever just th—!”

“EEEEEKKKKK!”

“What in the world??”

I hear a blood-curdling scream from down the hallway, everyone in class looks wide-eyed and uncertain of what they just heard. Sensei hurriedly slides open the classroom door and looks down the hall.

We also get up and look to see what’s happening in the hallway. Hear everyone worriedly talking to each other, even Kurihara-san is talking to her friends with a scared expression.

“Hey class get back inside!” Sensei urges us away from the door, this doesn’t stop some onlookers.

“Woah look it’s Kigashi-san by the staircase why does she look so scared?” Someone from the class asks this. All of a sudden I see other teachers rushing to the scene. Wait a second… that’s the stairs I was at talking to Taki before I mysteriously appeared in class! What is this feeling, my hands are getting really sweaty and uneasy.

The teachers all go to the stairs and look down in horror, a female teacher puts her hands on her mouth and looks away. Kigashi-san, the source of the scream, is sitting against the wall crying while a male teacher comforts her. What in the hell is happening?! What’s going on over there, I was just there surely nothing is that serious?

“What’s going on??”

“I don’t know I just heard screams a second ago!”

“Oh man do we get out of class now? hahaha”

“Shut up man its probably nothing serious!”

Students from other classes peak out their doors and start chatting among themselves. Usually commotion doesn’t get to me but I can feel my breathing getting heavy. Calm down, calm down, calm down Yuta.

“Go go go” Whispers inside my head are ordering me forward. Something is pulling me right now like some magnetic field. I dash off down the hallway as all wide-eyes are directed on me.

“H-Hey Hiragi-san what are you doing get back here!” I hear Sensei yelling at me from behind, I zone all the gasps and yelling out of my ears. My feet feel heavy but I’m going as fast as I can. My body arrives at the scene of commotion.

“What are you doing get back to your class right this instant!” I don’t notice the yelling from the teachers or Kigashi-san’s sobbing, I stare down blood drained from my face as my breathing completely stops.

“W-Wh-What happened….” These words escape from me.

Down the stairs there was Takigaya Hitoshi, he was dead. He had multiple stab wounds all over his body with his white school shirt drenched red from the blood. His glasses were broken on his face and I could see the whites of his eyes rolled back into his head. The scene was out of a horror movie where the victim is found, defenselessly killed.

“Huhh?.. Oi Taki get up…get up already this isn’t some damn game!!” I feel tears streaming down my hot face as I was yelling down at the mangled corpse. What in the hell happened to him?! This isn’t real, it can’t be. Some host will come out and say congratulations you win I’m sure of it! Please, please, pleaseeee!

“Don’t fuck with me—Aagh!!” My head furiously pounds as I grasp it in pain.

“Come on that’s enough you shouldn’t be here!” One of the teachers starts pulling me back away from the horror that I just witnessed. I don’t even try to resist. There is a bunch of commotion going on I’m sure of it, all I hear though are muffled sounds and vibrations.

The last thing I see before the darkness hits are silhouettes of shadows walking towards me.

----

----

My body feels like it’s endlessly floating in darkness, this serene feeling could last forever. I see a person in the distance, slowly they’re getting closer.

“Tap, tap, tap.” The sound of the shoes approach me. I can’t move, swallowed by the darkness taking me deeper into the gorging abyss.

“How could you do this..I didn’t think this was who you were, but it seems I was wrong”. This person talks down to me, a disappointing dark tone. Their face is getting closer while I’m locked position, unable to move and terrified.

“Why did you do it…Hiragiiii-kun!” Kurihara-san’s face fades out of the darkness staring right at me, looking at me with disgust.

“AHHHH!” I jump back into the real world, laying up in a bed trying to catch my breath. I feel a cold pad on my forehead… It looks like the nurses office.

“Woah now it’s okay, you’re alright it was just a nightmare.”

I look at the nurse confused as she tried to comfort me, what am I doing in the nur—

“Taki! Wh-what happened to… is Takigaya Hitoshi okay??” I almost jump out of bed with the realization of my memory.

I’m sure it was all a dream, that gruesome scene by the stairs, it has to be. I hate Taki with all of my soul but I would never want to see him dead. I’m not that cynical like some maniac!

“Just lay back down, you were overwhelmed with stress–”

“Knock Knock” Someone is at the door, Kasuno walks in. He looks kind out of it, likes he’s seen a ghost or some paranormal entity. Kasuno has never liked ghosts for as long as I can remember…

“Hey Kasuno this nightmare I had, by the stairs I saw some gruesome scene..it was with Taki I think.”

Everyone in the room is silent for what feels like eternity. What’s with them acting all out of it, wasn’t I the one that just woke up in the nurses office? Finally Kasuno breaks the silence while not wanting to make eye contact.

“Y-Yuta, that was no nightmare… do you not remember what happened?”

Huh? What is he rambling on about? Surely that wasn’t real, it was a scene out of a horror movie. Especially at our highschool, no way.

“What do you mean it wasn’t a nightmare, I must have passed out from not eating enough this morning or something right? That was all a bad dream Kasuno you can’t really tell me it was true?..” I say trying to counter Kasuno.

“Can we get a moment alone please?” Kasuno asks the nurse, she lightly nods and walks out the room closing the door behind her. He then walks up to me and sits down on the stool next to the bed. Its quiet for the longest time.

“Look..that wasn’t something you made up in your head, that really happened…” Kasuno seriously says to me. His voice shaking with fear is not something he would do to trick me.

“Yuta, that scene…that scene with Taki was where I left you when I went to class. What happened after I left?” He looks right at me waiting for my answer, I can’t speak because I’m frozen from shock.

Its all coming back to me now, Taki laying at the bottom of the stairs in a pool of blood all mangled. I feel my eyes widening in fear, is this what true fear really is?

“I-It was all real then?…When you left Taki walked up to me and did his usual belittling. He was throwing around insults like always, then..then I don’t know what happened after that. Next thing I know I’m in class like normal.” I try the best I can to get the words out of my throat.

“Wait you saw Taki earlier?! Right before, you know…did you see anything around the time you were talking to each other?” Kasuno asks me.

“No it was just us around at that time I remember, ma-maybe someone was hiding out nearby–I don’t know okay!” This can’t be happening this was supposed to be my event-free high school life then something of this caliber happens??

I look down at my hands, they were shaking uncontrollably and starting to sweat. What in the hell happened back there? In that little time after I saw him, he was murdered in cold blood!

“The police came and reported no one suspicious, I might have done some eaves-dropping outside the teacher’s room. Whatever happened Yuta, you didn’t miss it by much.” Kasuno and I both drop our gaze to the ground, things were serious now.

He’s right, there couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes for me to get to class and someone to intercept Taki by th—

” …The killer might still be in the school…Kasuno we have to get out of here now!” I try to jump out of bed, Kasuno stops me in my tracks.

“Calm down Yuta! There are cops crawling all over the school. Whoever did this is long gone by now and won’t try anything else. The teachers are calling for all students to go home today and tomorrow, we all have police escorts. Come on man lets get home… and don’t tell anyone else that you were the last person to see Taki okay? That would just bring unneeded attention to us when they could be focusing on catching the one responsible. It’s best to just forget about what you saw man…”

Forget…how could I forget what I saw today? I’ll never forget what I saw. We leave the nurses room and head to the mass of students leaving school by the shoe lockers. My head is throbbing, I need to get home. I wonder where Kurihara-san is, I hope she’s okay.

We all head home, a long, dreary walk back to our homes away from the scene that unfolded today.