Classroom of Truth!

Oh shit! Here we go again.

     Matthias jumped out of bed all covered in sweat, trying to undo the tie that was wrapped tightly around his neck. He breathed heavily as if he had just finished running a marathon. He sat on the floor and leaned against the wooden frame of his bed, trying to wipe off the dust the sandman had graciously dumped on his eyelids. He sighed when he was done and buried his face in his palms. He had a nightmare the previous night yet he could barely remember anything that happened. All he knew was that he was petrified. He looked around his bedroom. The piles of dirty laundry were in their usual position; all over the floor. Even though everything looked normal everything still felt strange. Out of place.

  There was something off with his room but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He lay on his bed and stretched his half-naked body, feeling somewhat calmed after hearing the cracking sounds from his weary joints. He closed his eyes, ready to undertake another round of slumber so he could get his mind off the nightmare.

    “BEEP! BEEP”, went the alarm clock. He looked at the clock: 6:47 am. He jumped out of bed, shocked. “Damn, I almost overslept”, he thought as he dashed into the bathroom to take a shower. “Arrgh”, he yelled a few minutes later as he emerged dripping wet from the shower. He hadn’t taken a towel with him so he was pissed that he got water all over the floor. Luckily for him, there was a towel covering a mirror that stood beside the bathroom door. He quickly grabbed the towel and dried himself off. Matthias then pulled a school uniform out of the closet next to the mirror. “Lucky me”, he thought as he put on the uniform. He had ironed an extra pair before going to bed the previous night. He was knotting his tie while looking in the mirror when he paused for a moment. He didn’t remember going to bed the previous night. He didn’t even remember ironing anything yesterday, much less coming home from school. Something felt fishy. As he resumed knotting his tie, he noticed something in the mirror’s reflection and looked behind him. On the opposite side of the room was what looked like another mirror covered with a large towel.

“Was that here before?” he thought.

“I don’t have more than one mirror”, he said to himself. He walked towards the mirror and touched the towel, half-expecting something, anything, to jump out at him. He raised the towel slowly, still indecisive on what to do.

“HONK! HONK!”

The loud horning of the school bus interrupted his train of thought. At the same moment, his bedroom door swung open and his mother stood in the doorway, belt in hand.

“What are you dilly-dallying around here for?” Mrs. Bradford asked as she buckled the belt around her waist and adjusted her suit. She was getting ready for work so she could beat the early-morning traffic associated with the roads of Lagos.

“Your classmates are already on the bus and you’re here delaying them.”

“I’m sorry, Mom”, Matthias replied timidly. “I’ll be down in a flash”, he said as he tried to avoid her glare.

  As he tried to walk past the doorway his mum grabbed his shoulder. He stood as still as a lamppost. At 7 feet tall, Mrs. Bradford possessed a personality as imposing as her height. Despite being her son, however, Matthias inherited not a single iota of that gracious height from his mother. In terms of height he was, if anything, slightly above average. Although she was usually as meek as a kitten, her job as a police officer did nothing to highlight her meekness.

“Mum”, he said calmly, trying to ignore the vice-like grip that his mother had used to latch onto his shoulder. “The bus is waiting. Can I go now?”

“Matthias, look how filthy this room is”, she began. “Do you bring girls over here while the place is a mess”, she asked, a sly smirk covering her face. Matthias let out a snort as if he was trying to stifle a laugh. He looked up after a few seconds.

“I don’t bring girls over while my room is messy”, he said.

“So you admit to bringing girls over when the room is tidy?” she laughed.

“I neither confirm nor deny that statement”, he said, trying not to laugh.

Mrs. Bradford laughed out loud as Matthias wondered if what he said was funny. As a male in a Nigerian household, you never joked about bringing girls to the house unless you were discussing marriage. Then again, his dad was remarried to a foreigner–an American- so some jokes were acceptable.

“Well, you should really hurry on down, lad”, she said. “I’ll clean your mess up.”

Matthias smiled and kissed his mum on the cheek and then dashed down the stairs.

Mrs. Bradford walked into the room pushing away the piles of dirty laundry with the side of her foot. She took off the towel that covered the mirror and gazed at her reflection. After smoothing out her curly hair, she reached into her pocket, pulled out her bright-red lipstick, and began applying it on her lips. She stopped for a while, feeling uneasy. For some reason she felt like she was experiencing déjà vu. This wasn’t the first or second time she had approached this mirror. She had a feeling that there was something more to it. She pulled the mirror away from its spot and turned it around so she could see behind it. She stumbled backward in shock, trying to stifle her scream. She suddenly remembered what made her so uneasy. On the backside of the mirror were two words written in bright-red lipstick. It was in her handwriting. The words were:

DON’T

LIE!

      Matthias greeted the bus driver and the security guard as he stepped on to the bus. He then walked down the aisle and took one of the seats at the furthermost back of the bus and rested his head against the window. Although his school wasn’t too far away, he insisted that his mum paid the fees that would let him use the bus on his way to school. It wasn’t that he didn’t want his mum to drive him there. It was simply because the school bus rides gave him a chance to socialize with some of his friends in different classes. He watched the other students already on the bus. Some were chatting and texting. Some were reading and others were sleeping. He pulled out a phone from his pocket and scrolled through it as he tried to pass the time. Eventually he got bored and began to doze off.

“I wonder if I’ll be able to talk to Jonah”, he thought as he closed his eyes.

The school bus went on its normal route, picking different students from their homes. Gradually, the bus began to fill with the voices of chattering teens. One of them sat on the seat in front of Matthias. Matthias felt a light tap on his shoulders and heard a voice calling out his name. He opened his eyes slowly.

“Wake…. Up… Sleepy… Head. We’re… almost… at… school.”

       Matthias recognized the owner of that voice immediately. Only one person he knew sounded like he suffered from a case of low blood pressure. Jonah ran his hand through Matthias’ hair. He smiled as he shrugged Jonah’s hand away. Despite his weird speech pattern, Jonah was extremely popular. In fact, that very speech pattern was what earned him his popularity. He was also quite handsome and charismatic so that really added bonuses to his portfolio. Matthias and Jonah talked for a while before they were interrupted by some girls. The tallest of them seemed shy and tried to hide behind her friends as they talked to Jonah. Matthias couldn’t make out what they were saying despite hearing the soft hum of Jonah’s voice.

“What did they want?” Michael asked upon Jonah’s return.

“My… Cell… Number.”

“I didn’t know you lived in a prison”, Matthias said with a smirk.

“Not… That… Kind… Of… Cell… Dummy”, he laughed

Matthias imitated him and they both roared in laughter. They kept talking and for a while Matthias, considering the jovial atmosphere surrounding him, forgot all about the ominous feeling he had that morning.

The bus approached a suspension bridge that led to the other side of the city where the school was located. A girl was walking down the aisle and as soon as she reached the back of the bus, the vehicle went over a speedbump and she stumbled, dropping the books she held in her hand. One of them opened up on the floor. Matthias felt a strange feeling as he saw the book. As he bent over to pick it up, he noticed two words written in red ink on the back page:

DON’T LIE!

Suddenly, there was an earthquake and the ground shook vigorously, upsetting the very foundation of the bridge. The sound of falling rubble drowned out the shrieks of the petrified high school students who clung to each other for dear life. The bus swerved left and right repeatedly as the driver tried to dodge falling debris he could barely see. Matthias reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a rosary. Despite not being a devout catholic, he murmured a quick Hail Mary prayer. He could barely hear his own thoughts over the screams of the other students. He yelled as he felt himself leaning over. In a moment, the bus swerved too far to the left to avoid colliding into a car and was overturned. Matthias yelled as his body was bashed against chairs and other students. His head smashed through the opposite window and everything went dark. As he slowly passed out he could hear the screams of terror and confusion coming from the other students. Suddenly, it went quiet and Matthias opened his eyes.

He and his classmates were all seated in a white-washed classroom. Everyone was panicked, wondering how they got there after the incident with the bus.

“Good morning, students”, a loud voice said.

All the students turned towards the door and stared at the speaker hanging above it.

“My name is Gad”, the voice said. “We’re going to play a little game now.”

“Who is it? Who’s playing this awful prank?” the bus driver yelled. He dashed towards the door and tried to open it but the door wouldn’t budge.

“Mr. Martins, the windows won’t open either”, a student yelled. Other students rushed towards the windows, trying to break the glass by smashing it with furniture.

“The last one standing will be allowed to leave”, Gad bellowed.

No one said anything for a moment. It seemed as though each student was trying to assimilate the situation they all found themselves in.

“It seems you all have recovered from the initial panic of finding yourselves trapped.”

“Don’t worry”, Mr. Martins yelled. “Someone will come to rescue us and then…”

“Impossible”, Gad said. “You all died in the bus crash and are now trapped here. Only when you leave this classroom can you return to reality.”

“As if I could believe that”, a student yelled.

“As you witness with your own eyes the events that are about to unfold, you will come to believe it whether you wish to or not”, Gad said. “Now, let us begin the first game.”

Something will happen to those who do a certain thing and the last person remaining will be released. However, if you disappear you shall repeat this day all over again.”

“What is this ‘certain thing’?” a student asked. “Explain yourself, Gad. If we do not understand the rules then…”

“You’ll understand shortly. Just do your best and focus on being the last man standing”, Gad said.

The class went in an uproar. The students began to panic.

“Calm down, everyone. If we work together we can all escape”, Mr. Martin said.

As soon as the words had left his mouth, Mr. Martins went up in a cloud of smoke. Only his clothes remained.

“First loser: Mr. Martins. 37 remain”, Gad yelled.

The students recoiled in horror. A voice then came from Mr. Martins’ clothes:

“If this is real, I have to get rid of these kids somehow…”

The students began to murmur. “What was that voice”, they asked themselves.

“Those were his true thoughts”, a girl yelled. “If you lie, you disappear and only your true thoughts remain.”

“What are you talking about, Natasha? That’s impossible”

Another student disappeared.

“Second loser: Michael. 36 remain”, Gad said.

“Idiot! She shouldn’t have said that. If they didn’t know they’d have kept talking and disappeared”, the voice from his clothes whispered.

“It’s true”, Matthias thought to himself. “Though it’s not certain, people are disappearing if they lie.” How can I get out of this classroom?” he thought.

“Wait guy!” a student yelled. “We don’t know for sure if what he’s saying is true. Maybe we’re all just dreaming and if we disappear we wake up!”

James disappeared.

“Third loser: James. 35 remain.”

“I hope these idiots believe me and try to escape by lying”, the voice from his clothes said.

The students got even more panicked.

“Don’t… Talk! You… Shouldn’t… Talk!” Jonah yelled.

“You’re right. If we don’t talk, we won’t disappear.”

POOF!

“Fourth loser: Simon. 34 remain”

 “No, Jonah! If they don’t talk no one will get eliminated”, the voice from his clothes said.

The whole class went silent.

One second had passed.

Two seconds had passed.

Three minutes had passed.

“Everyone has fallen silent, I see”, Gad said. “That’s just a waste, so we’ll begin Question Time.”

“Let’s see. We’ll start with the person who suggested you all stay silent, Jonah.”

Jonah fell to the floor in shock.

“Why do you talk so slowly, Jonah”, Gad asked.

Jonah covered his mouth with his hands.

“If I don’t talk…” he thought to himself.

“If you don’t answer in ten seconds you shall disappear, Jonah”, Gad bellowed.

“It’s…” he began, his voice shaking. “It’s because I thought it’d make me popular”, he cried out.

Matthias stared at his best friend, shocked. The whole class was also shocked. The tall girl who asked for his number ripped the piece of paper it was written on.

“Just to be popular?” Gad asked.

“Because I heard having a unique personality helps you stand out”, he cried.

“This is the truth”, Gad said. There was a hint of happiness in his voice.

“Jonah, you’re the worst” Nicole said.

“Shut up! It’s better than dying”, he yelled. “All I have to do is say the truth and I’ll be free. It won’t even matter because none of you will ever know what I said”, he laughed.

“How about you, Class Representative Nicole? You were elected Class Rep. even though you did not apply. Have you told your classmates how you feel about that?” Gad asked.

Nicole covered her mouth, desperate not to answer the question.

Ten seconds had passed.

POOF!

“Fifth loser: Nicole. 33 remain.”

“I hate you all for electing me. It’s just a job that comes with unnecessary responsibility. I wish I had repeated a year than having been stuck in a class with you oafs”, the voice from her clothes said.

Some of the students began shedding tears. Gad began to laugh out loud.

“You humans are truly humorous. Despite the numerous hints I left you all before the bus crash, you still end up failing the game”, he said. “Most of you have repeated this day several times already”, he added.

Matthias immediately remembered the words he saw on the book before the bus crash. He had the same feeling when he approached the mirror in his room. He also remembered that there were some students and teachers who weren’t picked up by the bus. Maybe they told the truth when they played and didn’t have to repeat the same day over and over, he thought.

“Matthias!” Gad said. “I have only one question for you”

“Did you kill your father?” he asked

Matthias stood frozen to the spot. There was no way he could answer such a question in the class.

Ten seconds had passed.

“I’ll give you a few extra seconds to answer me”, Gad said.

One second had passed.

Two seconds had passed.

He began to sweat profusely.

Ten more seconds passed.

POOF!

Matthias began to disappear slowly and stared in dismay at the horrified stares he got from his classmates. As he faded away, he remembered all the attempts he had lost in previous games.

“Sixth loser: Matthias. 32 remain”, he heard Gad say.

Matthias jumped out of bed all covered in sweat, trying to undo the tie that was wrapped tightly around his neck.

“Oh shit! Here we go again!”