Night School: Part 2 (Patreon)

The morning after her was an especially wakeful one for Makoto, as whatever funky nonsense she’d eaten had stirred her dreams into a frenzy. She powered through her breakfast and hopped into the shower. As the water splashed over her sleight frame, she couldn’t help but remember the elaborate and vivid experience. She had convinced herself that having woken up in her bed, there was absolutely no way it could have been real, but at the same time, several things were bothering her.

First, Makoto couldn’t remember doing anything other than going to the old Bright campus the previous night and running into the schoolhouse. Secondly, everything about it had seemed so real, but draped in a surreal blanket like a filter over her cognition. Finally, the only real evidence that nothing strange had happened was that she woke up in her own apartment. She tried to push it from her mind, unwilling to allow herself to think about it too hard. The last thing she wanted was to have a mental breakdown over what she was insisting was a dream.

She stepped out of her bathroom wearing nothing more than a towel and felt her heart nearly stop beating as she looked over at her dresser. Her camera sat upon it, surrounded by odds and ends that she had thrown on top of the flat surface instead of properly putting them away. Makoto’s pulse hastened as she drifted closer, gravitating towards the worrisome device that would either prove or disprove whether or not the previous night’s events were real or not. There was a long while where she knew shoe could just stop at any moment, but she didn’t. Once again, she ignored her better judgement and lifted the camera before turning the screen towards herself and turning it on. 

She clicked through several pictures of flowers followed by a shot or two of the school library. After that was a photo of a beautiful pig that a student had brought onto campus in full fairy regalia complete with painted hooves and fairy wings. Immediately after the pig was a dark image of Maya peering stupidly into an abandoned building after dark, followed by several static filled images of what did indeed appear to be a classroom with black walls. 

Makoto immediately closed her eyes and almost threw the camera down onto the dresser, but opted for the bed even in her panicked state. Her stomach lurched and grew cold as her hands began to tremble. Reaching for her phone, Makoto did her very best to type out a coherent message to Maya but had no idea what to say. Between asking if she was okay, relaying that the night was real, and asking what happened, the terrified woman found herself caught in a loop of starting to type something, then deleting it to write something else. She never did end up finishing anything, as eventually Maya ended up texting her first.

-Meet me by the library

[Okay]

When Makoto approached their usual spot on campus, Maya was already there waiting for her. But instead of her usual relaxed attire, Makoto couldn’t help but notice that her friend had also decided to wear an unusually all-black outfit to school that day.

(1)

“Oh look. Twinsies.” Maya said upon seeing Makoto. It was clear that she was buzzing with an unusual amount of energy for someone so normally subdued.

“Yeah… I guess so.” Makoto replied, surprised to see Maya so up and about.

The two made small talk that felt strained and awkward even for the two of them. Makoto knew they were both dancing around talking about what had happened the night before. Eventually it was Maya who broke the dam.

“So….What happened to you? This morning I just woke up in bed like nothing happened, but you didn’t say anything. Do you…remember last night?” Maya asked, eagerly bending over and twisting under her friend to better observe her expression.

“I…..Remember. Most of it. I remember there was a classroom…I took some pictures….and then….something about a paper…or maybe an essay or something?” Makoto said, furrowing her brow in confusion at the blank spot in her memory.

“Oh my god, it was the same for me! I went in to the classroom, then there was a projector I had to turn on, but then it started up a movie or something and I just kinda don’t remember anything else specific. I know I watched the movie and I felt good, but not what was on the screen. Then I woke up in bed feeling AMAZING. We’re going back tonight, right?”

The last statement shocked Makoto into a wide eyed stare. “Are you kidding?! We don’t even know what happened to us! We might be possessed, and now you want to go BACK?!”

“Well…Yeah.” Maya said, seemingly minorly offended by the question. “Why wouldn’t I? It was a once in a lifetime experience. I had a supernatural encounter then woke up safe and sound, feeling like a million bucks! Of course I’m going back!”

Maya’s enthusiasm was completely lost on her friend. With everything she’d seen and felt the night before, the lost memories were far more alarming to her than invigorating. Unlike Maya, Makoto felt no rush of enthusiasm or euphoria. She felt…altered. Affected without her permission and in a way that bothered her, but she couldn’t precisely describe. Not that she felt doing so was necessary after being forced to enter a haunted school building and exiting under mysterious circumstances.

“You’re coming with me, right?” Maya asked, her expression coming off as more forceful than pleading, but still reading as a request despite the obvious pressure to say yes. Still, it didn’t do anything to change Makoto’s mind.

“…No. Maya. I’m not going back there. I’m sorry, but…no.” She said.

It was only after being turned down that Maya’s expression changed  to one of legitimate concern.

“….But what if something happens to me while I’m there?” She asked grimly.

Makoto rolled her eyes in irritation. “Something DID happen to you! Last night! Not even twelve hours ago we were freezing our asses off in front of a building that was always in front of us no matter where we went! We were SCARED, Maya! *I* was SCARED. I don’t want to go back, and if you’re so afraid of being by yourself then just DON’T GO. I am not trying to ruin your fun, but this is something we never should have been doing in the first place!” 

Makoto slapped her hands on her thighs in exasperation. “I’m not going. And you shouldn’t go either.”

Maya turned and walked down the road a short ways without speaking. Eventually, she turned around and declared “Okay.”

Makoto had barely finished breathing her sigh of relief when her friend continued speaking. 

“I’ll go by myself. If anything happens or I need help, I’ll call you.”

Maya shrugged and walked away, turning her back on Makoto. Makoto in turn could only turn around and go home again.

“Whatever.” She sighed.

(2)

The air was just as chilly as had been previous night. Maya had come better prepared, this time making sure to bring a thick leather jacket with her, but it was still cold. Her breath came out in warm, steaming huffs as she walked boldly around the campus. Admittedly, it was a much more daunting thing to walk around a place she knew was haunted alone as opposed to wandering around with a friend, unsure that anything was strange about the place at all. 

She’d been walking around the dark school grounds nearly exactly as she’d done the night before, albeit this time free of the laughing, running, and certainly without peeking into any dark windows. Now that she knew something was there, the thought that something was going to jump out at her or drag her inside was a terrifying one that Maya dared not tempt fate with. But after two hours of forcing herself from one relatively safe looking area to another, the daring scholar had found absolutely nothing more than creepy shadows and goosebumps.

She checked her phone for the time. It had been an hour longer than it had taken to find the building before, causing Maya to sigh in both relief and defeat. She walked back towards the hole in the gate, relieved that nothing had actually happened to her while she was by herself, but somewhat disappointed that she wasn’t going to be able to have another unbelievable experience.

(3)

Halfway across the main campus she stopped walking. Her heart sunk into her stomach as she saw a light peering out over the trees at exactly the spot where the wrought iron fence should have been. With trembling breaths, Maya closed her eyes and turned to walk away from it only to find the building she’d so sought after standing before her the moment she’d decided she no longer wanted in.

-Hey

Makoto nearly jumped out of your skin when she heard her phone buzz. She had been sitting alone in her room with the lights on waiting nervously for her friend to contact her.

-I need your help

Makoto was just about to respond when the screen lit up and switched to a picture of her and Maya as the call button lit up.

“Hello?” The shy girl asked timidly.

“Hello, is this Makoto Suzuki? My name is Sergeant Landry with the LA County Sheriff’s Department. I have a Maya Katz here who has you listed as her emergency contact and I was wondering if you could come down here to the old Bright University campus? Miss Katz was found breaking and entering and as much as I would like to make this a non-incident and let her off with a ticket, I have reason to believe she’s been drinking and would feel much more comfortable releasing her into the custody of someone she knows is safe. Could you come down here and pick her up please?”

Makoto sighed. Of all the things she had expected the call to be at that point, a police officer was among the better things to have to deal with.

“Sure. I’ll be right over.”

Lacking a car of her own, Makoto had been able to convince her dorm neighbor Josh to let her borrow his as an emergency had come up. She pulled up to the school and saw the police car with it’s lights flashing and an officer she assumed to be Sergeant Landry standing outside of it. The Asian girl parked and approached the officer as he flagged her down from his position.

“You Makoto?” He called out.

“Uhm…Yes sir. I am.” She replied.

“Alright. I’m Sergeant Landry, we spoke over the phone. I found your friend fucking around in one of the abandoned school buildings and she seemed like she was either high or extremely drunk. When I tried to talk to her she was incoherent and resisted when I tried to guide her away, so I was forced to cuff her to a bike rack on the campus until I could get her a ride home. She insisted that she call you to come get her but was too out of it to dial the phone, so that’s I had to be the one to call you. You know if she has a history of drug use or anything?” Sgt. Landry asked in a professional and to the point manner. 

“No. She’s normally really straight edge and doesn’t do that kind of thing. We don’t even drink.” Makoto replied sincerely. 

“….Alright, well…follow me.” He said.

Makoto was nervous about reentering the school grounds, but the police officer’s presence combined with her worry for Maya won out. Sgt. Landry lifted a turret flashlight and illuminated nearly the entire campus in front of them as he began calling out towards a particular building.

“Alright Miss Katz, I’ve got your friend here. It looks like we can get you out of here.” He called out loudly.

Makoto was beginning to worry as they approached the dark building when she couldn’t see Maya or the aforementioned bike rack, her brain reeling with possibilities of her friend being possessed or suffering from some weird supernatural curse. Her concerns shifted however as she heard the iron gates to the campus squeak and slam shut. With a sudden jerk of her head Makoto turned to look backwards and found that the gate had indeed closed on it’s own. Even more troubling was the fact that she could see neither the police car nor it’s flashing lights. 

She no longer heard the rustling and crunching of the police officer’s boots on the grass or the sound of his voice. The light cast from his turret flashlight had vanished along with Sgt. Landry himself, leaving Makoto all alone on the dark campus.

Terrified, the frantic girl dashed towards the hole in the gate with the singular goal of escape clear in her mind. She sprinted furiously, but after what felt like several minutes of running, she looked at her phone, gasping for air. Makoto’s blood ran cold as she saw the time: 11:19PM. Precisely the time that Sgt. Landry had supposedly called her.

Makoto’s hands trembled as she opened her call and messenger logs, only to find nothing from anyone in the hours that had followed Maya’s earlier request to meet up at school. Makoto felt the air grow cold around her as she closed her phone, noticing the pale orange light lapping at her feet. She looked up to see the same building as before standing right in front of her. It towered over her tiny frame as if mocking her for trying to escape. 

(4)

Then the door cracked open and the wind blew her forward, beckoning her to go inside.