FOUR: TRAUMA IN THE HALLS

When I came out from the stall, the bathroom was empty, they had probably gone for dinner.

I made my way to the halls, it was empty as well and I rushed over to my room, pushing the door open and scanning round. My roommates weren't in, it looked like everyone had gone for dinner, there was a small clock on the wall indicating that it was seven minutes to seven.

I quickly applied my lotion before tossing on my pajamas, a pair of sky blue trousers and sky blue top, I tied my hair up in a bun and grabbed my phone before leaving the room.

As I closed the door, it dawned on me that I had no idea where the dinner was held and the halls were completely empty.

I climbed down the flight of stairs and got to the first floor. It seemed all the floors were rooms only. I made my way out of the building and headed back to the first story, which was the first place I had entered. I took a deep breath and walked through the halls which where also empty and climbed to the second floor.

There were majorly classes, different empty classes, when I was halfway down the second hall, I realised this floor was for classes only. I sighed and began to walk back then I heard a clicking noise making me freeze.

The light bulb above me flickered, please don't telI me they had bad electricity. I turned around and watched as each light bulb began to go off, one by one.

That wasn't normal.

I swallowed hard and began to run through the hall. I was almost at the stairs when the last light bulb went off and a figure appeared in front of me. I screamed out loud and someone grabbed me and closed my mouth with their hand.

I shook in fear as the figure in front of me came closer, I couldn't see, it was dark. The person holding my mouth began to pull me backwards, further into the hall, I struggled against them and tried to move, I screamed into the hand tears welling up in my eyes.

Once I noticed the person struggled to hold me, I added more effort and used the back of my head to slam their face. The person cried letting me go, the voice, it was a girl.

The figure in front of me stretched their hands out wide to block me from passing.

“Let me go please, it's almost dinner time!” I pleaded.

“Our dinner is in front of us” the figure said, it was also a girl.

The other girl came back to try to grab me and I tried to fight my way through, the two of them pinned me down to the ground and I screamed to no avail. I could feel their sharp nails trying to dig into my skin.

“What are you doing?” I suddenly heard a sharp voice and they froze.

“Let her go, now” the sharp voice said again and the two began to scream like they were in pain before releasing me and running away.

The owner of the voice walked up to where I was, but all I could see was a dark shadow, she reached out and pulled me up.

“You're almost late for dinner” she said holding my hand and she led me back to the stairs.

I squinted my eyes as I came into the light, I looked up at the person that had helped me, it was the blonde girl that had directed me to the principal's office.

“T..thank you” I muttered, still shaken up and she just stared at me.

“I told you, don't say that” she frowned and I was about to apologise but she just waved her hand.

“Let's go” she said and I followed her to the the third floor and we walked to the left hand side, there I found a hall bustling with students in their different nightwear, some were talking, others playing.

“This is the dinner room” she said and I nodded turning to face her, her creepy smile had returned. I was about to thank her but I remembered what she said and we both walked into the dining hall.

As we entered some people stared and others whispered, but some didn't care, I took deep breaths trying to calm myself down. A bell suddenly rang and the door we just came in through shut making me jump.

I couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong.

“See, we were almost late for dinner,” she said, turning to face me.

Suddenly everyone stood up rushing to where they were serving food, some people started fighting and dragging for a space on the line.

“Are you hungry?” The girl with me asked with her weird smile.

“Yeah, but there's no way we can compete with that” I pointed to the hectic line. I just saw someone swallow another person's head. I rubbed my eyes but didn't see it again, was that possible?

“Avery” I heard someone call my name and looked up to find my roommate Phoebe walking up to me. Her hair was properly stretched out, she had lipgloss on and her pajamas were sexy.

“I thought you missed dinner” she sighed in relief before looking at the person beside me, her eyes widened and she moved in the opposite direction.

“Come on” Phoebe grabbed my hand pulling me away and I watched the blonde girl just stand and smile at us.

Phoebe pulled me to the middle of the line where she and Daphne had been standing.

“You found her,” Daphne sighed before flicking my head.

“Ouch!” I exclaimed, rubbing my forehead.

“Don't ever miss dinner” she warned and I was beginning to get confused.

“Why?” I asked and she and Phoebe stared at me.

“Those who miss dinner…..” Phoebe started.

“Become dinner” Daphne finished and for some reason a chill ran down my spine. Then the both of them laughed.

“Look” Phoebe called and I looked ahead and watched the blonde girl that helped me walk to the front and everyone gave way for her and she stood in front of the line and was served.

“How did she do that?” I asked and watched the cook hike up a bunch of what looked like raw meat and I stared in confusion.

“She's the daughter of the dragon king” Daphne said and I stared at her confused before turning back to the blonde girl and I saw what I never thought I would see, scales appeared on her neck and she blew a straight line of fire out of her mouth onto the raw meat and cooked it.

I stumbled backwards and cleaned my eyes. That was not possible, I chuckled and laughed slowly before turning to my two roomates who only stared at me and I began to shake my head.

"No, that can't be real" I forced a mirthless laugh but, they were not surprised.