The next morning, Kelly and Jane walked together to their classroom. Kelly looked pale, her eyes sunken from a sleepless night filled with worry about her dreams and the tall man she had seen in the art room.
"Hey, Kelly, why didn't you sleep last night? You look really pale. You might fall asleep in class," Jane said with concern.
"I was afraid of having another nightmare, so I decided not to sleep," Kelly admitted.
"I see. Maybe you should find a new psychiatrist. If you do, your dreams might stop," Jane suggested.
"Yeah, maybe," Kelly responded, but doubt filled her voice. She didn't believe a psychiatrist could fix this, not after what had happened to Mr. Smith. She knew she had to find her own answers, and right now, her only lead was the bronze boy.
During class, while Mr. Jones was lecturing, Kelly struggled to stay awake. She tried her best to listen, but exhaustion weighed her eyelids down, and soon, she succumbed to sleep. Moments later, she jolted awake. Darkness had enveloped the room, an unnatural silence pressing down on her. No rustling papers, no distant hum of the school—just an oppressive void. Kelly's breath quickened when she noticed that Mr. Jones was still at the front of the room, unmoving, while her classmates sat motionless, their eyes blank and white, devoid of pupils.
A cold shiver raced down her spine, and fear rooted her to her seat. Her skin prickled as she whispered, "Sa... Sarah... hey, Sarah." Her voice trembled as she tried to rouse her seatmate, but Sarah sat motionless, eyes fixed ahead.
With her heart pounding in her chest, Kelly stood on shaky legs. The classroom door was ajar, and she took hesitant steps toward it. Outside, the hallway was cloaked in the same impenetrable darkness. She peered into a neighboring classroom and saw the same haunting sight: a teacher and students sitting lifelessly, eyes turned an unnatural white.
Kelly's pulse raced as she ventured further into the hall. "Hello? Is anyone here...?" she called out, her voice echoing into the silence. It was then that she heard it—a soft, wailing sound that made her stomach twist. Turning, she saw a woman in a white dress repeatedly bumping her head against the wall, sobbing.
"Are... are you okay?" Kelly asked, her voice quivering. The woman turned slowly, revealing a face so pale it was almost translucent, eyes hollow and cheeks sunken as if starved for years. Blood began to seep from her eyes, nose, and mouth. Kelly gasped and backed away, her legs trembling.
The woman's slow shuffle turned into a sudden sprint, closing the distance between them in an instant. Kelly's instincts screamed at her to run, and she did, heart pounding as the woman's blood-curdling scream shattered the windows around them. The high-pitched wail pierced her ears, drawing blood as she fell to the floor, dazed. The woman drew closer, reaching out with bone-thin hands.
"Kelly, wake up! Hey, wake up!" Sarah's voice cut through the suffocating silence like a lifeline. "Mr. Jones is staring at you."
The heavy, oppressive air pulled her back into reality. The classroom was filled with light, her classmates looking at her with a mixture of curiosity and concern. Mr. Jones glared at her, eyes narrowed with frustration.
"Did you just fall asleep in my class?" he demanded, his voice tight with anger.
Before Kelly could respond, Sarah's eyes widened in alarm. "Kelly, your ears... they're bleeding."
A collective gasp rippled through the room as Kelly reached up to touch her ears, her fingers coming away red. She stared at the blood, shaken and confused.
"Are you okay?" Sarah asked, her voice filled with worry.
Mr. Jones let out an exasperated sigh. "Kelly, go to the nurse's office. Now."
"I'm... I'm sorry, sir," Kelly whispered, pushing herself up and leaving the classroom, a cold dread settling deep in her bones.
Kelly sat in the nursing room, the sterile scent of disinfectant stinging her nose as the nurse finished checking her ears. The room was bright, with sunbeams filtering through half-open blinds, casting stripes of light across the tiled floor. Kelly's gaze was fixed on the wall, eyes glazed as her mind churned with what she'd seen in her dream. Despite the sterile, ordinary atmosphere of the room, she felt as if an unseen shadow loomed over her.
*What was that dream?* Kelly's thoughts raced. *Who was that woman? This dream felt far more real than the one with the clock.*
The faint creak of the door snapped her out of her trance. Jane burst into the room, her footsteps echoing off the tiled floor, mixing with the faint hum of fluorescent lights.
"Oh my god, Kelly! Are you okay?" Jane's voice was edged with worry. "I heard you were sent to the nursing room, so I came as fast as I could."
Kelly, still dazed, barely registered her friend's presence. The view outside the window caught her eye — the school's manicured lawn swayed under the breeze, the trees casting long, finger-like shadows on the ground as clouds drifted lazily across the sky. The world outside looked so normal, so indifferent to her inner chaos.
"Hey... hello?" Jane's voice brought Kelly back to the present. Jane waved a hand in front of Kelly's face. "Are you alright?"
Kelly blinked and turned, finally seeing Jane beside her. "Oh... Jane, you're here? Since when?"
Jane let out an exaggerated sigh, rolling her eyes. "Seriously? You didn't even notice me walking in? Kelly, tell me what's going on with you. You've been spacing out more and more. Is it the nightmares? You didn't even sleep last night, did you?"
Kelly hesitated, the sterile room suddenly feeling stifling. The steady ticking of the wall clock seemed to echo her heartbeat. She glanced at the corner of the room, where an old cabinet with chipped paint stood, stacked with unopened medical supplies. A part of her feared that talking would bring the dream's terrors into this space, making them real.
But she needed someone to know. The thin veneer of normalcy was cracking, and the horrors she faced were pressing too heavily on her mind. Taking a shaky breath, Kelly began to speak, her voice hushed but urgent. She told Jane everything — the visions of Mr. Smith's death, the strange, lifelike dream she just had, the tall man in the art room, and the mysterious boy with bronze skin.
Jane's expression shifted from concern to a mix of doubt and apprehension. The fluorescent lights above cast a harsh glow on her face, revealing the furrow of her brow and the tension in her jaw. She shifted her weight, glancing at the nurse's desk where a fan hummed quietly, oblivious to the storm brewing in Kelly's words.
"Wait, hold on," Jane finally said, lifting her hand as if to physically stop the rush of information. "You dreamed of Mr. Smith's death? And you're sure it was him? And this bronze-skinned boy... it could all be a coincidence, right?"
A shiver ran down Kelly's spine. The room's air felt colder than before, as if a draft had slipped through the window despite it being sealed shut. "I know it sounds impossible, but it's not just the dreams. I recognized the clock, Jane. And Mr. Smith... I saw him. And the tall man wasn't my imagination."
Jane bit her lip, the creaking of an old chair adding to the silence that followed. "Look, Kelly, I've never seen a bronze-skinned boy in the art room, and I'm there all the time. No one else has, either. And the dreams... they're probably just your mind playing tricks on you because of stress. But... if you really believe there's something more, I'll help you. We'll look for this boy."
The tension in the room broke slightly, replaced with a shared resolve. Outside, the distant laughter of students hinted that the normal school day was still moving forward, oblivious to Kelly's turmoil.
"Okay," Kelly whispered. Relief mixed with apprehension. She glanced at the window again, where a sliver of sky peeked through the blinds, bright and mocking in its calmness.
Unbeknownst to them, Janus stood outside the nursing room door, his face unreadable. The sun's golden glow spilled into the hallway, casting an elongated shadow at his feet. He tilted his head back, feeling the warmth of the sunlight touch his face as the wind howled softly past the building.
"Bronze-skinned boy?" he muttered under his breath, a smirk playing on his lips as he opened his eyes. They glimmered like coals in the light. "So, he's awake. How annoying."