Endless Halls

Chapter 1 - Mistakes

Amamiya Secondary Education School, a school for those in both Junior and Senior high school. A rumor floats around the school, rumors of ghosts in bathrooms, mysterious deaths, and disappearances.

Things don't make sense.

After school, a group of kids gather in an empty classroom. One of the boys looks around the halls before closing the door shut.

"Alright, we're all here right?" He says. "Sadly." A girl responds. "Oh, lighten up! We're almost outta school anyway! Might as well do aomething HUGE like summon a demon right?" The guy responds. Suddenly, their teacher bursts into the room. "Seriously? Listen, I know the rumors are interesting and all, but doing rituals at school seems a bit silly, right?" He says.

"We gotta put the rumors to rest ourselves! It'll kill me if I don't find out the truth!" Another girl exclaims. "Okay, I don't think you'll LITERALLY die. Wait, Nomura-san, aren't you in junior high school? Why are you up here?" He questions? "Wherever Morina goes, I go! Even if it's a bit scary..." Nomura says. "What she means is she doesn't feel like walking home." Morina responds.

"Nevertheless, I can't accept you all doing this." He continues. Another boy stands. "...You're curious too, right? Supervise us. I'm sure it'd be no trouble to you!" He declares. "Hmmm... I'll admit. My curiosity has been peaked... Fine. But first, let me give a quick roll call." He says.

"Furuya Makoto?"

"Right here, as per usual."

"Fujiki Akari?"

"Unfortunately, here to look over these guys. I'm way too busy for this.."

"Makin-"

"My teacher Watanabe likes to talk a lot but I guess it's nice to fresh the memory. There's Saburō Makino, I don't know much about him besides he's kinda loud. Shiori Miura is nice. She keeps to herself mostly. I heard a rumor about her family though. Kaida and Morina Nomura... They're interesting characters, I'll say that much." Makoto thinks as he turns his head around.

"Hmm, Yamato Sano.. Guys brave. He's the one who suggested this whole ordeal. I'm not really friends with any of these guys. Just along for the ride." Makoto continues, glancing at Akari.

"Anyway, where was I? Oh right, Nori Shimoda. Typical cowardly type. Really only doing this to be seen as "tough" or whatever his concept of tough is. Don't really like him. Junpei Uchida is the only person I know well. We've known each other for a few years. Definitely been a while, but he's cool. Cool, courageous type of guy."

"Tsunade Kataoka. Not much to say about her. She's probably the most physically fit person here, she's a great runner. Other than that, she's cool."

"Haruna Makino is Saburō's sister.
Their kind of a duo in the sense that when they do something together they usually always crush it. Pretty envious of them. On her own, she's pretty capable. I've seen her in action once or twice."

"Arata Tsuda. I'm not one to talk, but he hasn't said a word all year. In all our time knowing about his existence, he hasn't said anything. He doesn't get up to trouble though, so im neutral about him."

"Kenshin Sakai. True to his name, the dude's a fighter. Not even street fighting, but professional fighting. I guess you could call him a prodigy. That's what most people call him anyway. From the rare times I've talked to him, he's great. The type of guy who would never abandon a friend."

"...Hey, Makoto? Hello, earth to idiot? You've been lost in thought for a few minutes now. Are you ready to get this over with?" Akari exclaims. "Pfft, yeah. I got this." Makoto responds.

"What was the plan here before I came in?" The teacher asks. "Well, I'm glad you asked! All we have to do is wait until 3:50 and shout "Take us away, free our souls" together! That should do it I think?" Yamato shouts.

"Sounds pretty fuckin' stupid to me..." Tsunade says. "Hey! Tsunade! What did we say about swearing?!" Haruna shouts. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. My bad." She retorts.

"Are we REALLY sure this is safe?" Shiori ponders. "G-etting cold feet, Shiori? It's f-fine! I'm here with you all s-so it'll be a-alright!" Nori retorts. "You're shaking. Are you sure you aren't staying here out of pure arrogance?" Kenshin asks. "What are you accusing me of?! Being scared?! I'll never get scared! Doing something like this is EASY!" Nori shouts.

"Are they seriously still bickering? Shimoda-sensei, can we just leave? I don't think this is a good idea anymore." Kaida says. "If you want to, but I have to supervise these guys." Shimoda replies.

"Oh, wait! Guys! 3:49! Quick, huddle around me!" Yamato shouts. Kaida grabs the door and finds its stuck. She pushes it as hard as she can and it doesn't budge. The clock 3:50.

"Take us away! Free our souls!" They all shout in unison.

Silence fills the room, until the school starts to shake violently. Desks and Chairs fly all around the room as a desk flies towards Morina. Junpei charges at the desk with his shoulder, pushing it away from her. Everyone is subsequently knocked out.

Awaking an unknown amount of time later, Makoto scans the classroom to find it rusty, destroyed. The air permeating with the smell of blood. Mostly everyone is freaking out, looking around frantically. "Where are we?! WHERE ARE WE?!" Tsunade yells. "We're in our school still, we never moved!" Saburo yells.

"Screw this, I'm leaving! This is too much for me!" Shiori declares. She runs to the door. "Shiori, going off alone isn't a good idea!" Makoto says. She slides the door open and screams in horror before running to a nearby corner, quickly throwing up.

Shocked and horrified, Makoto, Nori, and Saburo peek at the sight Shiori was staring face to face with.

A lifeless corpse sits in the hallway, it's face disfigured, it's chest stripped of all remains, if it wasn't for the uniform they were wearing, you wouldn't think this was a human.

Everyone looks away as Nori runs to a corner, in tears. "We have to do something. We have to get out!" Shimoda exclaims. "We have no means. We don't have any clue where we are, what's waiting for us or even what's outside those halls!" Kenshin yells. "Kaida.. I don't wanna die here!" Morina exclaims. "It's alright, I won't let anything hurt you." Kaida responds.

"...I'll go. If it's finding out what's going on then I can do it." Akari says. "At least let me go with you. What or whoever that did this to that person is probably roaming around still. I can't let you die." Makoto declares. "Fine. Just don't slow me down." Akari responds. The two walk past the dead body and wander the broken halls. Blood smears the walls as the two slowly walk.

Suddenly, Shiori bursts out of the classroom and runs for the group. "What? Didn't we JUST leave? What's the matter?!" Makoto asks. "Something burst through the classroom window, quick, follow me to the staircase!" Shiori yells. Makoto and Akari follow her, passing the hanging entrails of past victims.

The deeper they go, the worse the blood smell gets. Eventually they reach the staircase. Next to them, a group of four large creatures, canine-shaped but the skin on their mouths are exposed. Their eyes are holes and they have a forever twisted smile, covered by the dark.

The animals are feasting on a corpse. "Shiori.. Where did you take us?" Makoto ponders. Shiori's limbs start to crack as she grows taller, slowly growing to over 8 feet tall. The genderless, dark monster turns around with its mouth agape, looking at them with pure hunger. Makoto and Akari stare on, paralyzed by fear.

Endless Halls Chapter 1, the end.