WEDNESDAY 

Lucas woke before he had even realized he was asleep.  He closed his eyes trying to relax. He felt as if spiders were slowly crawling over his body. He could feel each tingling step, he could feel their hairy bodies. He could feel the burning sensation as the spiders began to bite and chew his flesh. Millions upon millions of tiny little fangs bit and tore into him. He began to scream. And try to push the spiders away. He was shaking. No, someone was shaking him. He opened his eyes, sitting up in bed. His vision was fuzzy and static. In a few seconds it cleared. It was his dad. 

“Lucas, are you ok?” he asked, with concern flooding his voice.

“I-I'm fine, just a dream,” he muttered, half to reassure himself.

“Do you want me to stay?” his dad asked.

“No, no it's ok you have work,” Lucas said, pulling on a smile. It hurt.

Again Lucas was at school. His body still ached. And he trembled. He still could hear the thing’s laughter in his head. He could feel the oozing skin across his flesh. It was only about half way through the day. Lucas was in the middle of math class.  He was trying to pay attention but all he could see was the demonic thing. He began to shake more.

“Mrs. Holly,” he said, abruptly raising his hand.

“Yes, Lucas,” she said, looking up from her desk.

“May I use the restroom?” He was sure others could see his hand shaking. He grit his teeth.

“Yes,” she said, but there was an odd tone to her voice. 

Lucas trudged off, the hallways were silent and empty. So was the bathroom. He looked in the mirror. His eyes were red. Had he been crying? He had not noticed. He began to shake again. 

“No, shut up,” he whispered sharply to himself. 

And then from behind him he heard a scream. The same scream he had heard from the monster and then change Changed into a sickening giggling. He could smell the death. He looked in the mirror and screamed. It was there right behind him. He spun around and tripping over his own feet hit his head on the sink rim and crumpled to the floor. 

Penny and Roxanne sat in their class. They had history together. Roxanne was jealous of Penny. How her life came so easy. How she could talk and make friends so easily. Unlike herself. She was not necessarily made fun of, well, to her face that is. She knew many of the popular girls hated her and just assumed Penny hated her, too. The class was pretty silent except for the droning on of the history professor. Someone's phone in the back began to blare. Then another phone and then another; pretty soon the whole school was getting notifications about an earthquake warning. Then an alarm. The professor was shouting for everyone to slowly evacuate the school. In about ten minutes everyone had evacuated the school. Penny began to walk around in search of Lucas. She searched for about five minutes then tried to call him. It rang and rang then went to voicemail. She began a quick, frantic search for him. Eventually someone noticed her. It was Penny.

“Roxanne?” she said, jogging up.

“Is something wrong?” she asked, looking around.

“I can't find Lucas.” she said.

 She could feel tears in her eyes. He had been so distant all day. What was wrong? He had said it was just Jasper's mom. But something else was off. It was not all just sadness. Roxanne knew the look. She had seen it in her mom after she had watched her dad backhand her and left. It was such a look of terror. 

“When did you see him last?” Penny asked, grabbing Roxanne’s shoulder.

“Um- Lunch,” she said, looking around as if she expected him to just appear from the midst of the crowd. 

“Let's go in,” Penny said, setting her eyes onto the school.

“What? Like sneak in?” she asked, looking around to the teachers.

“Yah, but where do we go that we can get in that they won't se-” she began.

“Come on, there's a door this way around the building. They never lock it.” she grabbed Penneys hand and pulled her over the door. 

They rushed through the school's hallways checking the classrooms. It was so quiet they shouted a few times for him. Their voices echoed throughout the building and resounded off the flat symmetrical wall. They both felt on edge. Finally, one of the last rooms they checked was the bathroom. Penny pushed open the door. She was about to ask if there was anyone there but she did not have to. Both girls immediately saw Lucas laying on the floor. There was a little pool of blood. 

“Lucas, oh my gosh, are you ok?!” Roxanne and Penny both shouted almost at the same time. 

“Lucas?” Roxanne said, holding up his head. 

The wound did not look bad, just bloody. 

He cracked open his eyes, taking a moment to recognize their faces.

“What are you guys doing here?” he asked, confused. 

“There was an earthquake alert,” Penny said.

“And then I couldn't find you so we went looking for you in the school.” Roxanne finished helping him to his feet.

Penny gave him some paper towels to help stop the bleeding.

“Earthquake?” Lucas said, feeling groggy and he had a splitting headache.

As they walked through the building all three of them had the feeling as if they were being watched. Lucas tried to brush it off. 

“Come on, it's nerves. Just nerves,” he kept on telling himself.

The feeling of nervousness seemed to grow more and more. Penny was sure the others could hear her own heart racing in her chest. 

“What if it's here?” Lucas whispered. 

He was thinking of the monster of course but had not meant to voice his thoughts out loud. Roxanne looked at him confused, but Penny understood. Her eyes widened and the same thought began to dig into her skin as well. 

“It-it. No,” she whispered back.

“What are you guys talking about?” Roxanne said, looking around she could feel her breath catch in her throat. 

“It's nothing. Just the earthquake,” Penny said, looking at Lucas. 

His eyes were wide and he looked as if he were looking at something none of the others could see. And then they began to hear the sounds. It began with the low tapping. As if someone were just tapping the cement floor with a bone. It was a dull but simultaneously sharp sound. None of the trio addressed it. It was in their heads. Nothing was there. And then there was something of a guttural growl. They turned but no one was there. Lucas could feel his heart sinking. His entire body was growing numb. They all felt like they had been walking down the halls for hours. They were only just a minute or two away from the exit. They didn't mind leaving in view of what the school could see. They could explain and they would understand. They finally reached the last stretch. Just this last hallway and then one more turn and the doors. They could even see the light showing into the end of the hallway. The last hallway was dread. As before there was the feeling of dread. But it had grown, now it was not a feeling but a true thing. It filled the air and choked them. They heard a sound like the bone tapping causing them all to jump, spinning in the hallway. 

Roxanne sighed and even mustered a little laugh as nothing was there. Penny smiled weakly but it was immediately ripped off of her face, replaced with such a look of utter terror. Roxanne followed her gaze to the end of the hallway where they had walked out of seconds ago. A bone white leg reached out and stepped onto the floor. It clacked. The leg reminded Roxanne of a praying mantis arm. How it was thick and sharp appearing like a barbed sword. The first leg was followed by another of similar states. And then came the body, all bone white and shimmering in the cold false light common to school, hospitals, and the morgue. 

The creature looked down at them and its face seemed to split. The corners pulled upward, creasing its face in a kind of twisted way that would cause even Satan to wince. The complete terror the thing radiated was so thick that none of them could move for a few seconds.

 Penny was thinking, “No, not here it's dead.”

Roxanne could only think of how they were all about to die. This couldn't be real. No, it was a dream. It was a nightmare. But somehow she knew that it was real. She was going to die.

Lucas looked at the thing, with its slit eyes. Its wide smile. A long and pale pink tongue snaked out and licked the lips. It was so quiet Lucas could hear the tongue sliding across the gums and teeth. He could hear the drool ooze down the thing’s face and splat on the ground. 

Images of the blood began to run in his mind as well. Had that really only been yesterday? Was he only going to live a day outside of the creature before it determined to kill him? But before he knew what he was doing he grabbed both the girls’ hands and in spite of the paralyzing terror and his skull crushing headache, he began to run.

 The thing screamed, enraged at the audacity that such lower and weaker beings would run from it and began to follow. They could hear the sharp cracking as each one of its legs began to hit the ground. The three ran as hard as they could. 

Lucas reached the end of the hallway, dragging Roxanne and Penny with him. The door was only a few yards away. There was no time, he threw open the closet and yanking the two girls inside he threw himself in and shut the door. 

He heard the monstrous bulk smashing into the space they had occupied not even seconds before. He heard the thing’s gasping inhale as it shook off the blow. It was dark. He heard Roxanne inhale to scream. He smashed his hand onto her mouth.  She shook but stayed quiet. Penny was flattened against the wall. They were going to die. This was it. She was sure of it. The floor began to shake. It was the monster, it was opening the door. 

No, it took the trio a few seconds to realize it was not the monster, it was the earthquake. The entire school was shaking. They felt like they were in the middle of a jello castle. And then there was a loud grumble. No one could tell if it was the monster, the earthquake or both. No one cared. They heard a loud crashing and all ducked down, throwing their hands over each other. The crashing was loud and went on for several minutes. Then it was quiet, Lucas listened for the monster breathing. Everyone was holding their breath.

“Lucas. Open the door,” Penny finally whispered.

“Ok.” He whispered back, putting his hand on the knob. 

He could feel his entire body shaking. But he still cracked the door open. The hallway was a mess. He could see bookshelves had fallen. Frames from the wall. But there was no monster. He stepped out trembling. The others followed. There was nothing there. Lucas only then realized exactly how much he hurt. When he had slammed into the wall his bruised body seemingly flared up, and his head still hurt, making him feel weak and dizzy. The adrenaline was still high though, high enough to carry him. 

The three walked out in a daze. People immediately swarmed them asking them questions. Penny did the talking. Someone pulled Lucas to the side. The rest was a blur. A few doctors had checked out the wound on his forehead. But they deemed him ok and he was allowed to go home. 

His dad had hugged him along with his grandpa. They had eaten dinner and talked. Soon Lucas was laying in bed feeling completely exhausted. He pulled the blanket over his head trying to block out the thought that haunted him.