Five Seconds After Death

Pay your respects to the ravens

It was a cool overcast morning as students languidly funneled into the old brick highschool. Shouts of obscenities, half-conversations and laughs filling the hallways.

The bell rang and the halls slowly went silent till they were empty, save for the few grade eights who still struggled to find their first class.

Ms. Pharnum, the math teacher, stacked some worksheets on her desk neatly before she told the class to keep working on their algebra as she stepped out for a moment.

Of course, once the teacher was gone all the kids immediately started to chat with one another. Not Zach though, who sat at the back of the classroom. He didn't want to have to get slammed with homework this weekend, so he focused on the math problems.

Zach tried to drown out the noise from the classroom. He really wished he had his headphones on at this moment. Sitting next to the window for a brief moment Zach thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Not really thinking he glanced towards it.

No... What the hell?

It was the creature he saw in the forest last night.

It was standing just beyond school grounds hiding in a blackberry bush. Zach just stared at it trying to figure out what exactly he was looking at. The door to the classroom shut, and everyone was back in their seats. Zach tore his gaze away from the window to the front of the room. Ms. Pharnum was just going over the math problems in their textbooks. Zach stole another glance out the window.

It was gone.

His mind was in a milky haze as he walked to his next class. The same creature had shown up two more times today. Once when it appeared in the washroom which scared the hell out of him. Next he saw it crouching on top of one of the lockers.

From what he observed the creature just watched him and it didn't seem to want to hurt him. When he tried to approach it or talk to it it'd just back away or vanish.

Zach was also surprised to notice that no one had picked on him today, well not yet.

The bullying he endured never got too physical, but it seemed like he was always the target of jokes or pranks gone too far.

Zach didn't have friends at school.

He'd hang out with his friend Aster, who was homeschooled when he wasn't busy, or go talk to Sawyer but that was pretty much it.

This never bothered him. Zach had convinced himself that he preferred to be alone. People were too complicated to be around anyway, too difficult to build a relationship with. So trudged through the halls with his headphones always over his ears, paying no mind to the people around him.

The school day was nearly over now, and Zach had planned to meet Sawyer at the record shop and tell him about the creature that's been following him all day. Hopefully Sawyer would believe him.

He had a feeling that a guy like him might be more open-minded to the existence of supernatural creatures.

Zach had procured a spot on a bench in one of the school's halls. Perfect space to eat lunch away from everyone. Suddenly a familiar voice called out to him "Hey!"

Zach looked up to see a group of boys about his age walk inside from the courtyard. He recognized the first boy as Robert, but everyone called him 'Rod.' He'd talked to Zach before, asking him to hang out. Zach was well aware of the reputation Rod and his friends had so he politely declined.

Just to make things worse Rod and his gang had recently found out about Zach's brothers 'part-time' job selling drugs.

They became more aggressive at trying to include Zach in their activities which were usually drag racing, underage drinking, and vandalism. Zach wanted nothing to do with them.