My paralyzed body is rooted in place but my brain desperately screams for me to run for my life. As a sudden urge of adrenaline rushes through me I grab April’s hand and my feet fly off the ground in an instant. April clearly surprised by my action, gets pulled towards me but doesn’t topple over. She matches my pace and we both go down the stairs in lightning speed as we let out screams of terror that I’m unable to process. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever ran down the stairs so fast in my entire life. All I can hear, beside the sound of our feet hitting the ground violently is excruciating groans and screams coming from the giant creature that is now following us. “I didn’t FUCKING sign up for this!” I shout in frustration as I hear the same heavy footsteps as before picking up their pace. As we reach the ground floor I immediately think of bolting out the school, but the thought of giving that thing open space throws my plan down the drain. I frantically look left and right as I hear April shouting at me “What are you standing still for?!” She says in a hurried and terrified voice. "Let’s hide there!” I say in a mix of low and loud voice, as I point at the janitor’s locker-closet at the far end of the hallway, to our right. She quickly looks out the school, and ,probably, after having the same train of thoughts as me, she nods and replies “Okay.” We hurriedly huddle in the closed space together, our bodies practically pressed against each other. Not soon after we enter, than we hear the footsteps getting closer, and eventually we see the creature chasing us reach the same level as us. With eyes looked on the monster we hold our breaths as it appears to have lost sight of us. (Thank god it didn’t understand or hear what we just said…) I think to myself as I take a closer look at it from inside the small horizontal gaps of the locker (It looks like a male. Albeit a mutated one. His clothing is practically rugs hanging from his enormous body, looking like it just ripped right through them. And it has that expression that screams pain and anger.) I analyze its, or maybe his, appearance as he roams around the hallways down towards the exit of the school building. (Why’s he here? Nora’s ghost was here for a reason so what’s his?) I come up with a question I yet have no answer for. As the humanoid creature disappears from my field of view I turn to look at April who is trying to keep her breathing in check. “It’s okay, I don’t see him anymore.” I try to reassure her. “Him? Do you know him or something?” She replies trying to act as composed as possible. “No, but he certainly doesn’t look female.” I shrug and quickly come to the realization of just how close we are right now. I basically feel her breath tickling my neck even as we speak. (This situation must be really uncomfortable for her…) I instantly think seeing her troubled expression. “Sorry for stuffing you in such a cramped space. We’ll get out of here ASAP.” I tell her encouragingly once again. I would scratch my cheek right now but I honestly can’t. That’s how little space there is inside this locker. “No it’s okay. I’d take this over being out in the open with that thing any day of the week.” She quickly replies blowing a strand of hair away from her face and I instinctively close my eyes. “Sorry.” She reflexively says and for some reason blushes. “Nah it’s okay really, since it’s so cramped we can’t even move. Haha!” I chuckle trying to hide my embarrassment. “In fact my cheek was getting a little itchy earlier but my hands are stuck. Talk about unlucky!” I say without even thinking, trying to avert the attention of my last awkward remark. I immediately squint as I realize I might have made this a lot more awkward than it was. “Oh Really? Do you want me to scratch for you?” She asks looking serious. “What really? Oh I mean it’s okay you don’t really have to.” I shrug acting aloof. “Come on, just tell me where it is!” She quickly fires back. Her hands were placed on my shoulders the moment we squeezed inside so she’s the only one capable of doing it. I lightly shake my head and nod, convincing myself I can’t avoid this situation. “Right cheek.” I say in surrender as I drop my head so she can reach. (Man that is really AWKWARD!!) I think as I lock gazes with her. “Got it.” She says as she brings her hand to my face and almost caresses it before lightly scratching it. “Ow! Wait you'll tear my eyeball off!” I squint as she scratches harder. “Shut up! It wasn’t on purpose!” She semi-shouts back as we fidget inside the locker. Having been too loud we both hold our breaths for a moment, as we hear the faint sound of those heavy footsteps from earlier getting closer. “Don’t tell me he heard us!” April exclaims in a hushed voice, as the footsteps grow louder and more frequent. “Oh he certainly did!” I say in a panicked tone as I swing the locker room door open and I step outside, with April following suit. “L-L-Locker…” I hear a faint heavy voice coming from my right and turn around to see the creature speed walking towards us. “It can talk?” I exclaim flabbergasted. "Just run!" Aprik immediately shouts as we both run at the school doors, but we soon realize the exit to the courtyard is blocked. It was then that I realized he’s big enough to block a whole set of double-doors even with a bent back, as I saw him standing in between the school yard and us. I dig my heels to the ground stopping my advances, and stare inside his extremely red bloodshot eyes. At the moment, I’m left not having a clue on what to do next. (Do we run up the stairs and hide in a random room? What if the room is rigged with traps and we end up dying from that instead? The only place left to hide is in the bathroom buildings, but we need to get him to move out of the way.) My thoughts run on a highway with 90mph as I try to brainstorm anything that might help us in this situation. Just in time and as if on cue I cook up a plan and grab April’s hand as we ran towards the hallway on our left. “What are you doing?! We’re at a dead end!” She yells at me with an expression that basically screams how much she wants to punch me right now. The creature quickly follows us not wasting a moment, as its heavy steps echo throughout the hallway. Without wasting a moment myself, I immediately turn my back to him and April, and give a good smack to the window in front of me, with my elbow. "That door is not the only way out!" I shout as I hit it again, but the window doesn’t break and I falter for a second. “What are you on about?!” April yells at me once again as she steps next to me. “Isn't it clear enough?!” I shout as I keep on hitting it with everything I’ve got. She catches up to my plan rather quickly and starts smacking it too. The monster though doesn’t relent either, as it slowly but surely crawls closer to us with each passing second. After a very powerful war cry accompanied by a fist, the cracked window finally breaks down into pieces and we waste no time jumping out of it. As soon as my feet hit the grassy land I turn around to the aftermath, which is the monster stretching out its hand towards us through the small gap from the window unable to get to us. Thankfully, the window was just the right size for us to squeeze out and leave the monster unable to follow the same path. “Let’s go!” The girl next to me yells once again as she grabs the shoulder of my uniform and we dash away from the scene.

I sit down on the bathroom floor, panting heavily, my back and head resting on the big metallic door behind me. April sits next to me, her chest moving up and down, as she takes big, fitful breaths. “That was close… to say the least.” I break the coordination of our exhausted breathing. “You don’t say...” She replies before exhaling deeply. “Well, at least we’re alive.” I point out as I look down at my hands. I quickly notice that the knuckles of my left hand are covered in blood. As soon as my eyes see the red liquid, dropping from my hand I immediately feel a sharp pain going through it. “Tch.” I click my tongue instinctively, as I can’t be bothered to take care of the wound. “What’s wrong?” The girl next to me inquires, as she takes a look at me and her gaze falls on my hand right after. “Hey you’re hurt! Let me see that!” She continues as she slides closer to me. “Ah, It’s no big deal I’ll just clean it up in a bit.” I shoot a reply as I shrug, disinterested. “Hey what’s with that attitude? What if it gets infected? Get up and show me that hand right this instant, mister!” April bolts out of her sitting position and stands in front of me, hand extended, wearing a serious face. I look back and forth between my hand and her, with an unamused and exhausted expression. “Come on we haven’t got all day!” She insists, gesturing towards me with her outstretched hand. After heaving a deep sigh I grab hold of her hand with a "Yes ma’am". I show her my hand and she looks at it, like she is a doctor with her index finger resting on her chin. “It looks like there’s no piece of glass stuck in there, so it’s just a flesh wound.” She explains as she puts my hand on the sink and immediately turns the valve, causing water to shower the wound. “Hey! Warn me first!” I bark gritting my teeth in pain. “And to think you were acting all tough a few seconds earlier…” April replies with a sadistic smirk. After a few seconds she turns the valve the other way round, cutting off the stream of water as she steps away a few seconds after. She comes right back, holding a long stream of paper and begins to wrap it around my hand. Touched by the tenderness of her gesture I feel my lips reflexively form into a grin “I could have done that myself if I’m being honest. But thanks, seriously.” I come right out and say with a genuine smile. “Well consider it a thank you for getting us out of that situation.” April replies in a low tone, looking away, with a reddened face. I’m left astonished by this cute side of her. (Fake persona or not, she’s quite kind at heart.) I think to myself as I look at her flushed expression. “Don’t get any weird ideas though.” She manages to ruin her cute image once again as she bluntly states that. “Yeah, yeah.” While replying I plop down back in front of the bathroom door once again, and she follows suit. After sitting down we both sigh once again as we look at the ceiling. “What is he going to do if he… you know… catches us?” The girl next to me asks, bringing her knees in front of her face. “I REALLY don’t wanna know what will happen if he does, but I’m pretty SURE it won’t be beautiful.” I of course reply without sugar-coating our current situation. “Aghhh I just want to go home and sleep… and play games… and eat ice cream… and sleep…” She starts ranting, and honestly, she has every right to. We’re in pretty deep shit right now. “…And listen to music, on my headphones while laying in my big comfy bed…” I join in on her ideal scenario. A scenario that WE would have taken for granted, were it not for all this. She silently nods and looks down on the floor. “Which song would you play first?” April asks me with a soft voice. “Bad day.” I reply instantly almost fantasizing that scenario. “Definitely.” She replies as her lips form a small smile. Right after that, silence hangs inside the bathroom as we both get lost in our thoughts. (I really took all of those things for granted. My life, my home, my mum. Everything. If I get out of this alive, maybe, just maybe I will try to be a better person and live a better life.) I slowly start humming the melody of the song I uttered the title of. For some reason, I feel April’s shoulders loosen next to me. “… Cause you had a bad day… You’ve taken one down…” I suddenly start singing the lyrics of that song in a low voice. “You sing a sad song just to turn it around…” Suddenly April joins in with the same tone in her voice. “You say you don’t know, you tell me don’t lie.” I continue singing the lyrics and we trade line for line, trying to keep our voices as low as possible.

“You work at a smile and you go for a ride…”
“You had a bad day the camera don’t lie…”
“You’re coming back down and you really don’t mind…”
“You had a bad day.”
“You had a bad day…”

We continue to exchange verse for verse, in what feels like the most soothing minutes of the entire day.

('Cause you had a bad day...)