When Nightmares are alive

"Don't tell anyone," demanded Kelly. 

        "I won't, how could I, what would I even say" cried Natalie. 

        Kelly and Natalie stared at each other for a few seconds until the bell rang. The girls had been friends since they entered 6th grade at Fredrick Middle School. A school so ordinary and plain that someone passing by could quickly speed right by it without even realizing they passed it. Just thirty classrooms, half of which were empty, in a dried-up desert town. 

        "We just need to go to our classes. I don't have social studies until the afternoon," said Natalie. 

        "Yeah, it's my 7th,period," said Kelly. 

        "I'll call my Mom and make her pick us up," stated Natalie. 

        "What class do you have now," inquired Kelly?

        "Choir, I'll get a pass and call my mom," said Natalie.

        "Okay. Bye, said Kelly."

        "See you soon."

        Ms.Janson, the choir teacher, was never strict about giving out nurses' passes. All a student would need to do is ask, and they'd likely be granted a pass without so much of a question as to why the trip to the nurse was warranted. Ms.Janson did not like talking about illness, and god forbid you mention being contagious to her. So when Natalie asked for a pass, Ms.Janson did what she always did and wrote Natalie a pass.

        When Natalie arrived at the nurse, she knocked on the door and waited a few minutes. When no one answered after a minute, Natalie knocked again, and still no one answered. The nurse's office was close to the choir room. Natalie could hear her fellow classmates practicing their high-pitched vocal cords. For a second, she actually felt a little sick. They sounded extra high-pitched that abnormally hot October day, just one week before Halloween. The last thing she wanted to do was go back to class.

        The Office secretary, Stacy, welcomed Natalie when she walked in. She was a skinny Irish woman with bright red hair. She had freckles all over her face. She reminded Natalie of a Leprocon until Natalie learned about all the crazy things Leprocons do. Then she reminded her of a garden groom. When Natalie told Stacy that she needed the nurse, she bantered her a little about why she hadn't taken the outside door. Still, Stacy was never one to be a stickler for the rules, so Stacy let Natalie take the side door to the nurse's office.

        When Natalie arrived at the nurse's office, she was startled to find the lights off and the medicine cabinet open and rummaged through. People's pills were on the floor. The supply cabinet had bandaids that had been thrown all through the office. A giant tub of hand sanitizer spilled everywhere and a ripped-up ace bandaid. Natalie instantly got a feeling to run; what if what happened to the social studies teacher had happened to the nurse! Natalie ignored her gut feeling and searched for the nurse's phone. It was not where Natalie usually would call her Mom from the nurse's office to get her. Just as Natalie was going to run back to Choir, she tripped over something. That something was the phone! 

Natalie wasted no time and began to call her Mom. 

"Mom!"

"Um, Hi Natalie, It's Karin your moms securty, can I leave a message for you, she's busy." 

"No!" I need her!

Just as Natalie was about to yell at Karin for her little power play, someone or something grabbed her hand and threw the phone down, hanging the phone up. This thing had the same color hair as the nurse, and "it had the same eyes as the nurse! "But "it's" skin was blue, and "it's"its teeth were as sharp as razors, and "it" had arms like an octopus! Natalie ran as fast as she could! She managed to run out of the nurse's office, slamming the door shut on the nurse on her way out. She ran past Stacy in the office and back to Choir. "Where is your pass," asked Ms.Janson. 

"My what?" asked Natalie

"Your pass? Why did the nurse send you back? You look horrible….." said Ms. Janson. 

"I don't have a pass," said Natalie

"Well, go back to the nurse and get one," said Ms.Janson. 

"No! I can't!" 

"Now or I'll call the dean," threatened Ms.Janson

        Natalie left and went to get Kelly. She walked up to Kelly's English class with courage. There were two 6th-grade English teachers. Ms. Kawn had a reputation for being mean, giving more F's, and calling home more often than any teacher in the history of Fredrick Middle School. For years parents had petitioned to fire her, but she was married to the principal and had been teaching at the school for 25 years, so she was going nowhere. However, sometimes, it seemed that even her principal husband wanted her to retire. There was also Ms.Ski; she had four kids, two of whom attended Fredrick, and the other two were in elementary school. Ms. Skis's class was typically chaotic and somewhat easy to pass. Ms. Ski did not make phone calls home. Natalie had Ms.Ski, and Kelly, Ms.Kawn. Ms.Ski would have believed Kelly if she had asked for Natalie, but vice versa; the lie would need to be grand.

Knock Knock 

"Ms.Kawn arrived at the door and said, Yes?"

"Kelly is needed by Mr.Thompson, the Math Teacher." Said Natalie.

"Why," asked Ms.Kawn?

        "He has an emergency question about math club that only I can answer," said Kelly. 

        "Gosh, tell him not to use my class time like this Kelly, hurry back," Demanded Ms. Kawn. 

        The girls walked rapidly down the hall, neither really knowing where they were going but with a sharp eye out for teachers. 

        "Did you call your mom?" asked Kelly?

        "Her security answered," stated Natalie. 

        "So…is she coming," asked Kelly?

        "I don't know," sighed Natalie.

        "But also when I was at the nurse, she ……"

        "wasn't the nurse anymore." Asked Kelly.

        "She was more like an it," said Natalie.

        "Like, IT the clown," asked Kelly?

        "No…… she had the same hair and eyes, but her skin was a sickening color, her teeth were as sharp as razors and…………

        "Ladies!' a voice trailed from down the hall. 

They booked it before they could be caught. Neither of them knew who was calling them down the hall, but at this point, it didn't really matter. The only thing that mattered was leaving Fredrick Middle School. The girls needed a break from running down the hallway, so they entered the girl's bathroom. 

"Well, that's not as crazy as what happened in Ms,Krims class. When she turned off the light to play a video for us, a strange devlish music started to play, and all the kids started to point to this one new girl. She started to scream and tried to run away. I just felt frozen. I really couldn't move," said Kelly. 

        "What is going on with our school," asked Natalie. 

        "I don't know, but that's not it! After everyone pointed at her, she started to shake, and her eyes turned a strange purple color. Then the video started to play. It was just shapes and weird sounds. I tried to hide my eyes and ears in case that could help me!

        "Why would that help you?" asked Natalie. 

        "I don't know," said Kelly.

        "Girls where is your pass!" Yelled A Voice from down the hallway. 

        "We need to run," yelled Natalie.  

Just as the girls started running down the hallway to make their way out of the school, they passed the cafeteria; Kelly slipped on a slimy red sauce. She quickly realized it was spaghetti, and not just any spaghetti, the special school red 40 spaghetti sauce with extra starch noodles. It was truly disgusting. Kelly dusted herself off and attempted to start moving again, but she found Natalie missing. 

        As Kelly looked around, she saw no trace of Natalie but started to notice strange things about the food. The cornbread seemed to have eyes for holes. Eyes that followed you around. The beef stew didn't quite smell like any beef he'd ever smelt, and was that some type of collar? At this point, Kelly hardly even wanted to know.

        The doors to the cafeteria now seemed far away. Pills of food had started to form all around her. The pills soon turned into mountains, and there wasn't just food in them but classmates! John was from social studies, Carlos was from English, and Harold was from the Choir, they were all stuck together like a human pretzel. The Cafeteria workers had grown out of their human-sized bodies into giants and started eating handfuls of food. Kelly started to look around frantically; she started to feel hopeless about ever finding Natalie. 

 It was at that moment Kelly saw Natalie stuck in a pudding the size of a jacuzzi. Natalie was waving around her hands and screaming. She started to sink. Kelly jumped on a pile of gigantic dirty trays, on top of the edge of the bowl, containg the substance designed as a pudding with all her might and managed to yank Natalie out when she barely had a single last brief to give, 

        "Thank you for saving me!" shouted Natalie. 

        "I haven't saved you yet! We need to get out of here." Said Kelly. 

        They ran past smelly cheese; they ran past raw, bloody chicken. A giant cafeteria soon noticed them and tried to chase them, but slipped on a banana peel. The girls jumped when a bundle of moldy apples rolled under their feet, and they leaped when a spoiled egg appeared out of nowhere, flying directly for their heads. Hand in hand, Natalie and Kelly bolted out the cafeteria room door. 

        "Nat, you know what the reminded me of," asked Kelly.

        "What?"

        'Keeleys nightmare! On our way back from a band contest a few weeks ago Keeley told me a story about how she had a dream that all the food in the cafeteria transformed into a gigantic nasty form, AND PEOPLE STARTED GETTING STUCK IN IT, AND IT WAS MADE OF QUESTIONABLE MEAT,"

        "Keeley," asked Nataile. 

        " Keeley." Said Kelly, "My friend from the band! 

        Before Natalie could say anything, screams from the choir room retreated down the hallway. Ms.Janson ran out screaming. At first, it seemed like she was the one being chased, but Natalie quickly realized Ms.Janson was running directly for her. 

        "Did you get possesed?" asked Kelly!

        "No!" Kyle used to tell me he had nightmares of Ms.Janson chasing me since she didn't like me!" Yelled Natalie. 

        "Natalie practice your notes! Natalie practice your notes! Natalie practice your notes," bellowed Ms.Janson down the hallway.

 Her dress had become ripped and stained pukish green. Her voice was as high-pitched as a microphone squeaking when bumped incorrectly. Ms.Janson was trying to grab Kelly with all her might, but she was just missing every inch. 

        "Not now Ms.Janson!" 

        The girls turned a sharp corner and were able to ditch Ms.Janson for a while and hide in an old classroom.  

        "I can't believe we saw our social studies teacher turn into a vampire, our nurse and Choir teacher turn into monsters, and all our food become………whatever that was! This is all so crazy!" said Natalie!

        "I know," said Kelly. 

        "Do you seee them!" 

        The light in the hallway had gone out, and the choir students had left their classroom and begun to march towards the girls. The choir students had begun walking towards them; their eyes had turned purple. One of them started to point to a girl named April. Then they all started to point. Mark, Jeff, Barry, Kerri, Layla all of them. The voices chanted:

        "You are next."

        "You are next."

        "You are next Natalie."

" You are next Natalie."

"I wonder whose nightmare it is that Mrs.Janson is chasing you down the hallway," said Natalie.

"If that's even whats going on" yelled Natalie!

"How could it not be! Think of all the weird things that have happened! And how inconsent they are, how could it not be we are stuck in some alternative universe matrix and are living each others nightmares," explained Kelly. 

"I don't know," said Natalie. The teachers have secretly become their inner selves.

"No! Natalie! Than why would their have been such a dister in the lunch room," yelled Kelly. 

Just then, a bunch of papers blew through the hallway. Natalie grabbed a picture to see the girl, Lorri, set behind her 7th period with the words "pig" written across a photo of her in her swimsuit from her family vacation last summer. Natalie hadn't spoken to Lorri, but she knew she was scared of getting fat. 

"Okay Fine, I belive you!" said Natalie.

"We need to get out of here before more possed classmates come and try and get us, I think if we stay in the light we will be okay," said Kelly

"Let's go to the Attic," said Natalie. It's in the social studies wing. You have to push the board above locker 34D, and a stairway will emerge. 

Kelly jumped over locker 34D and pulled above the locker as best as possible. She was successful as the stairway rolled onto the floor before them. The girls only had a second to safely get into the Attic as they heard people calling or coming for them in every direction. Someone was even still chasing them down the hallway for a pass. Couldn't they see? Nightmares had come alive!

The girls looked around the Attic. The girls heard a noise coming from a distinct corner. They were scared that whatever was in the corner would unleash a nightmare before them, but it ended up just being Billy. A shy, skinny 7th grader. Before the girls could even ask a question, Billy started talking, 

"I was up here with my Basketball team! We were teasing the 6th graders with a ritual that they had to do! Hide in the Attic for all of 3rd period and than jump out in masks and scare everyone who eneters the hallway to go to 4th period. But we found a book with a lot of strange writing that most of us had never seen!"

"Most of us," asked Kelly?

"Most of us except Jackson, who learned the mysterius langauge the book was written in when his Mom was teaching aboard." Explained Billy.

"Kyle found the book and tried to read some of the pages to no avail, but when Jackson saw it, he knew it was Irish and was able to read one of the pages," said Billy; after he read one of the pages he got scared and slammed the door shut," said Billy.

"A few minutes later Kyles eyes turned purple and his skin turned gray. The room filled with water and everyone started to panic! In the Final moments before what I could only assume would be the end all the water vanished, but Jeffies and Emmets eyes were purple and their skin was gray! They started pointing at some of the other players and than Jeffies greatest nightmare, bees, started to come true," Said Billy. 

"Wow, that is so afuwl," said Natalie.

"Where is Jackson now," yelled Kelly!

"I don't know," said Billy! 

At that moment, someone popped up through the stairway. 

"Ladies! I have been calling you for 15 minutes! I've been chasing you! Glad to see you found Billy. We need to go to the office now!" Said Vice Principal Max. 

"Why?"

"Our Schools fallen victim of the curse…again." 

"What do you mean AGAIN!" cried Kelly.

"This has happened in 2005, 2009,2012,2019,2021, 

"You mean this is the 6th time that the students of this middle school had their Nightmares come alive," yelled Kelly. 

"No, of course not. The curse book is in Irish and contains various curses. One year, every student got turned into a cat. A curse can only be cast when read in perfect Irish; it's very picky like that. The curse book hides itself as well. It usually appears when a group of students are doing something of very impure intention or are feeling very vile towards the school. 

"How can we break the curse?" 

"Easy, we have to read the poem in re verse in perfect Irish," yelled Vice Principal Max!

"Not easy, we have no idea where Jackson is. Who on earth knows Irish," questioned Natalie.

"Ms.Stacey!" yelled Kelly.

"Exactly what I was thinking," Said Vice President Max. 

"But what if shes become a nightmare, like some of the teachers," asked Natalie. 

"Never Ms.Stacy," said Billy from the back. 

"Nope, never Ms.Stacy," Said Vice Principal Max. 

        When the four finally made their way to the office, they quickly found Ms. Stacey hiding under her desk.

"Oh Max," she cried, "are we experiencing another curse?"

"I'm afrid so, heres the spell book, we need to work fast!" cried Max.

Stacey quickly found the spell and read it backward in the language she had spoken to since she was a child. Stacey's entire body started to shake, and sweat poured down her face and neck the more she read. But she didn't stop. She did it for the school. She did it for Max. She kicked Ass. Stacey saved the school yet again by reading a poem backward in a language she had known her entire life. After she read the poem, students' eyes began to go back to brown, blue, green, yellow, and all the colors eyes should be. Only one pair of glowing purple eyes would sometimes emerge when you crossed Ms.Janson the wrong way. All the students returned to normal, except for one student, Jackson, the Irish speaker who cast the poem in the school, who was never found. As for the poem book, it does what it always does; it hides in a new spot until some other poor middle school accidentally finds and reads it.