The hallway was long, dark, and narrow, making it nearly impossible to see five feet ahead. The walls were all white, with wooden planks running along the walls that went up to Rachel’s waist. The floorboards of the hallway were the same as the room Rachel had just came from, holes scattered about, causing her to take slow and careful steps. Both the walls and the floorboards had occasional spot of blood on it, some spots appearing to be older than others.

Rachel’s nerves were running haywire. As she made her way down the hallway, she constantly looked behind her, making sure no one was following her. While she was checking behind her for what seemed like the billionth time within five minutes, Rachel tripped over something. The blonde landed with a thud on the ground, and released a short cry of pain. When Rachel looked to her left, she was greeted with a pale face of a brunette girl. Rachel screamed, and stumbled to the other side of the hallway. She sat on the ground holding a hand over her heart that was racing a mile a minute, taking in deep breaths.

The brunette’s face was incredibly pale. Her hazel eyes were wide open, and her mouth was slightly agape. A small stream of dried blood ran from the corner of her mouth to the bottom of her chin. Once Rachel got her breathing under control, she slowly stood up, and looked at the corpse carefully. The girl didn’t seem to have any blood on her body besides the small line from her mouth. Upon closer examination, Rachel discovered a thin ring that wound its way around the girl’s neck, making it appear that the girl had either hanged herself, or was hanged by someone.

After feeling her heartbeat slow to a normal pulse, Rachel stood up, and continued her journey down the hall. She eventually came to a fork, and looked carefully in each direction. However, the darkness of the area didn’t help her see which would be the best way for her to go. After having a small debate in her head, Rachel decided to go right. Only time would tell if her decision was right.

The hallway was nearly identical to the hallway Rachel was on. The occasional blood stains on the walls and floorboards, and there were even more dead corpses rotting away on the ground. Halfway down the hall, Rachel began hearing moans. The moans sounded like they were coming from a child, and getting louder by the minute. Frantically looking around, Rachel saw a door to a classroom on her right, a few steps in front of her. Sprinting to the door, she tugged as hard as she could, only to find it locked. The moans were getting louder and louder, and Rachel could notice a faint blue light at the end of the hallway getting brighter and brighter. Holding back a scream, Rachel remembered that she passed another door to her left a little ways back. Quickly, she ran as swiftly and quietly as she could.

When she reached the door, she tugged at it, as she silently prayed it would be unlocked. Thankfully, it was, and Rachel quietly slipped in and closed the door behind her. She then wasted no time in finding a hiding place. Not seeing anywhere ideal, she found a desk lying on its side and quickly ducked behind it. The moaning continued to get louder, and the blue light continued to grow brighter.

The moaning suddenly stopped, and after waiting a few minutes, Rachel slowly poked her head around the edge of the desk. What she saw made her instantly jerk back behind the desk, as her hands immediately flew to cover her mouth. Right outside the door, was the source of the bright blue light. A small boy was seen peaking through the door windows. The boy was ghostly pale, and his large round eyes peered innocently into the room. His hair was parted off to the right, making him seem like a lost child, just trying to find his mom. Rachel wasn’t quite sure what it was, but child made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

The door slowly slid open as the child silently slipped inside. “Sister? I know you’re in here. Why don’t you come out?” The boy’s voice echoed off the walls, causing Rachel to almost shriek in surprise. The boy quickly frowned when he got no response from Rachel, and he began to walk around the room. “There’s no time for games, Sister.” The boy walked to the opposite side of the room, and curiously looked around the room. He then spotted the desk that Rachel was hiding behind. A small smile formed on the boy’s face, as he began slowly approaching the desk. “I found you, Sister.” The boy was halfway to the desk, when the door to the room was unexpectedly thrown open.

A fairly tall boy was panting in the frame. He had short blond hair sticking out all over the place. His school uniform consisted of black pants, with a matching jacket and a white button down shirt. His piercing blue eyes widened with fear as he took in the small child standing before him.

“Brother, I wasn’t expecting you to be here.” The blond muttered something underneath his breath, and forced himself to begin running down the hall once again. The boy’s lips curved upwards as he watched the blond run, and shortly afterwards, he chased after him, leaving Rachel behind. Once the brunette was sure the blue boy was gone, she stood up. She didn’t see the mysterious blond boy enter the room, only heard the child mutter something about a brother. As much as she wished she could stay and dwell on recent events, she knew it was in her best interest to keep moving.

As Rachel began walking down the hall, she heard a piercing scream. It was obvious that whoever was responsible from the yell was in pain. Rachel hurried down the dark hallways, trying to find the source of the commotion. As the screaming grew louder, Rachel slowed to a walk. The screams led her to right outside the infirmary. The old doors were cracked open, allowing her to crouch down and observe what was going on. Rachel noticed three figures in the room, a small girl, wearing a royal blue dress, and had long black hair that ended around the middle of her back, a tall boy with blond hair, and another girl with red hair lying on the ground. The boy was cowering in the corner of the room, while the red head was whimpering and shaking on the ground. Upon closer inspection, Rachel noticed a growing pool of blood underneath the red head, and watched in horror as she ceased all movement and noises.

The girl in the blue dress slowly stood up, letting her hands fall to the side, revealing a bloodied scalpel in her right hand. The blond haired boy cried out in fear, as the girl began making slow steps towards him. The raven haired girl cackled as the boy backed up into the wall.

“There’s nowhere else to run now.” Her psychotic giggles filled the room, causing the boy shake in fear.

“S-Sarah, please, don’t do this!” The girl, Sarah, ignored the boy’s desperate pleas of mercy, and raised the hand containing the scalpel into the air. Rachel squeezed her eyes shut, unable to watch the events that were to follow afterwards. Soon, the boy’s screams filled the room.

A large smile found its way onto Sarah’s face. Her eyes shinned with amusement, the occasional cackle leaving her mouth. Her cheshire smile only grew with each stab that she delivered to the boy with her scalpel. The boy tried desperately to avoid the bloodied weapon, but Sarah had managed to tackle him to the ground. Once she had pinned down his limbs, Sarah again raised the scalpel, and hit her mark, the boy’s right eye.

Rachel squeezed her eyes closed, and pressed her hands over ears, in futile attempts to keep the boy’s cries out of her head. It went for a few minutes like this, with each new stab Sarah delivered to the boy’s eye, his cries grew louder and louder. Until came the time when the boy finally stopped screaming.

After screaming for minutes at a time, he finally lost his voice. He laid weakly on the dirty ground, accepting his fate that he would die in the cursed halls of Divine Harmony Elementary; a school that shouldn’t even exist anymore and a place where the dead are tortured to feel the pain of their death in the afterlife. The boy knew that there would be no heaven or hell waiting for him, just that he would be trapped in these halls like his friends.

Sarah watched as the life drained out of the boy’s eyes, and released a final psychotic cackle. She stood there laughing for the next few minutes, before slowly vanishing into thin air. After a few moments of deafening silence, Rachel cautiously walked into the room. She first examined the boy, then the girl. Looking closely, she saw the boy’s student ID, “Allen High School; Hayden Abott.” Rachel noticed that there was also a small piece of scrap paper with his ID. Next, she moved on to the girl. The blonde quickly located the girl’s student ID, and noticed that she had also gone to Allen High School. Behind the girl’s ID, she also noticed a small scrap of paper. She inspected both papers closely, but no matter how hard she thought, there seemed to be no connection between her piece of scrap paper and theirs. However, she didn’t think so. There was something about this scrap of paper that made this entire place seem mysterious.

Rachel stood up abruptly, and walked to the door. Determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, she confidently opened the door, and marched down the hallway until she ran into Sarah. Rachel found the raven haired girl sitting on a desk in a science room. She was smiling innocently at her, and slowly reached for her scalpel. Instead approaching her slowly, like she had done to Hayden, Sarah dashed right in front of Rachel in the blink of an eye. Giving the blonde no time to react, Sarah quickly swiped at Rachel. The blonde stumbled backwards, and landed roughly on the ground.

Sarah’s evil laughs were so loud, that they echoed off the walls of the school. Her smile stretched across her face, as she stared at Rachel with her large beady eyes. The blonde watched with widened eyes as Sarah raised her hand, the blood-stained scalpel shining in the faint light.

“You’re going to die now, Sister.” Sarah brought down her hand at a rapid pace, aiming to make contact with Rachel’s left eye, only to be surprised that her weapon had struck the dark floorboards. Shocked by her unusual miss, Rachel was able to push the small girl off of her and sprinted out of the room.

Sarah gritted her teeth together, as she slowly stood up. She glared at the empty doorway silently fuming at how she let a victim get away, but then realized that there was no true escape from Divine Harmony. A sinister grin crept onto the child’s face, as she bent down to dislodge her scalpel from the floorboards.

“You’ll regret running away from me, Sister. I will make sure you will suffer in your last moments.” Her smile stretched across her face and she released loud cackles from her mouth. Her laugh echoed throughout the building, and slowly faded as Sarah began to disappear from the room.

Rachel dashed down the hallways of the school, until she found an abandoned classroom to hide in. She backed herself up into the corner of the room, and pulled her legs up to her chest. Silent tears streamed down her face, as she tried to prevent loud sobs from leaving her face. Wiping the tears away, she began to slowly take inventory on herself. Seeing that she had no injuries was a miracle, and she began to question her good luck since she had woken up in this miserable place. Not wanting to go exploring, Rachel stayed curled up in the corner, and began to go through her memories, trying to figure out what she was doing before she was even brought here.

Lost in thought, Rachel failed to notice another presence filled the room. It wasn’t until the presence in the room had latched itself onto Rachel’s form. Terrified from the sudden attack, Rachel released a terrified scream, and kicked the figure off of her. She then proceeded to pick up one of the overturned chairs in the room, and was preparing to throw it at the figure.

“Wait, Rachel! It’s me!” Rachel froze in place, and let the chair fall back onto the floor. A loud thud resonated throughout the area as Rachel stared at the person standing across the room from her. The person slowly walked out of the shadows, and stood a few feet away from her. A boy with black hair, and blue eyes stood staring back at Rachel with his arms raised above his head, signaling that he wasn’t planning on harming her. He was wearing a uniform similar to hers, a navy blue school jacket, with the school’s crest on the right side of his chest, and black slacks and shoes. Both the teens stood in silence, just staring at each other, predicting what the other was going to do. 

“…Adam?” A smirk grew on the boy’s face as he lowered his hands.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.” He walked over to Rachel and placed a hand on top of her messy hair. “You look like you’ve been to hell and back.” Rachel slapped away Adam’s hands and made her hair look somewhat presentable.

“Well maybe that’s because there are ghost children roaming these halls trying to kill us!” Adam laughed, causing Rachel to roll her eyes and walk towards the door. It wasn’t until she was halfway down the hall that Adam realized she was gone. He quickly raced out of the room and easily caught up to her. Silencing his laughter, he squeezed his way past her, and blocked her from advancing farther down the hall. “Move out of my way Adam.”

“Hey, I was only kidding. Calm down Rachel.” She sent him an annoyed glance, and turned to walk back down the hallway. Adam released a grunt of annoyance at Rachel’s stubbornness and ran after her. Once Adam caught up to her, he placed both his hands on her shoulders and turned her around, forcing her to look at him. “Look Rachel, I’m sorry. But we’re in a serious situation here, we need to stick together. We’ll find the others and figure out a way to escape this place okay?” Adam could tell that Rachel didn’t understand what he was saying, and sighed. “Do you remember what happened before we ended up here?”

Shaking her head, Rachel looked around the deserted hallway. “I only remember waking up in this place alone. The rest of our friends are here?”

“Yeah, it was Katie, Kyle, Allyson, you, and me.” More confused than ever, Rachel brought a hand up to her temple. “Look, we can talk about this later, right now we need to find a safer place to go talk things over.” Rachel nodded her head in agreement, and let Adam take the lead. Her head was pounding as she thought about Adam’s words.

My friends are here. Why did we end up here? How could this happen to us? How could this happen to anyone? The blonde was brought out of her thoughts when Adam suddenly stopped. He outstretched his arm, lightly pressing Rachel to the wall, as well as himself beside her. With is other arm, he brought a hand up to his face, letting Rachel know that it was time to be quiet. Curious as to what was going on, Rachel strained her eyes to peak around Adam and the corner, only to see a faint blue light getting brighter.

Panic soon erupted in the pit of the girl’s stomach as she fought the urge to take off screaming in the opposite direction. Sensing Rachel’s discomfort, Adam placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Looking around, he saw a classroom that they could hide in. He slowly extended an arm and pointed to the classroom, looking at Rachel to make sure she understood the plan. Getting the message, she silently nodded her head, and slowly made her way over to the door.

As Rachel slowly made her way to the door, Adam stayed where he was, watching the blue light get brighter, and making sure his friend made it safely into the room. Moans of a child were soon heard, and Adam sent a quick glance towards Rachel. The blonde was trying to pull the door open, but no matter how hard she pushed or pulled, the door wouldn’t budge. Silently cursing, Adam rushed over to help her.

“On three,” he whispered. “One… two… three!” With a hard tug, the two teens were able to get the door open.

“Brother, Sister? Is that you?” Adam shoved Rachel through the door, and quickly threw himself in after. He quickly shut the door, and placed a nearby chair against the door handle. The blue light grew brighter as the ghost child neared the classroom door. Adam pressed his back against the door, and hoped the ghost wouldn’t look down if he were to look through the window. Meanwhile, Rachel hid behind a teacher’s podium that was resting in the front of the classroom.

Rachel stared at the wall opposite of the door and tried to keep her breathing even. She forced herself to focus on anything but the current events. Her mind wandered from what her mom was going to fix for dinner, the project that was due in her history class that she hasn’t started, to what it would be like to be a dog. As she noticed the blue light getting brighter, she hugged her knees, and began to quietly rock back and forth.

Noticing a small lead pipe lying on the ground, Adam quietly reached for it, ready to attack if that thing decides to enter this room. Luckily for the teens, the ghost child walked past the room, not even glancing in the direction of the door. When the light faded, Adam released a breath he was holding, and stood up. He dusted off his pants, and looked over in Rachel’s direction.

Almost instantly, he noticed that the school was getting to her. The blonde had stopped rocking, but was not blankly staring at the floor in front of her. He ran a hand through his hair, and began to figure out what he should do. It was obvious that Rachel couldn’t continue like this much longer, otherwise he would risk her losing it completely, but at the same time it wasn’t safe for them to stay in one place for too long. After debating this for a long time, he decided to let Rachel rest.

“Rachel, why don’t you get some rest? I’ll take the first watch, then we can switch.” The blonde tiredly nodded her head, and stretched out on the ground. Adam watched as she lay down on her side facing the wall. Her breathing soon evened out, and her soft snores soon filled the room. Once Rachel was asleep, Adam sat down nearby, and began turning things over in his head; unaware that a pair of eyes was watching the two teens from the shadows.