The Foreboding Sunrise

TW: child abuse

The sunrise came. I hated sunrises. They reminded me of when my old elementary school had burned down that May. Fiery reds and oranges, dancing in the sky, clouds like smoke in the air. This intensely red and orange sunrise with the smokey clouds seemed like a normal morning for everyone else, but it just made me scared and sad. I was scared of my new school with this sunrise looming over it, and sad that my old school was gone. I heard rumors of this school, but my mom told me they weren’t true.

I walked in the giant doors with my mom, into a dull gray building that looked like a prison inside and out. “They just haven’t finished decorating”, my mom said, though she didn’t seem confident in this. She signed me in for the first time and went to leave, but as she started going through the door she paused and turned around. “Be good,” She started desperately, “Please. This is the only school in town, and we can’t afford to move.” This didn’t encourage me. The office lady was old and wrinkly, with curly gray hair and kind but dull, sad blue eyes. “Follow me” she said. We walked down the dimly lit hallway. It was gray and plain. The big ugly blocks in the walls reminded me of the prison my daddy had worked in before he was killed. I saw something strange in the distance. I wasn’t wearing my glasses, so I wasn’t sure what it was. It looked like kids hanging from coat hooks. We got to the classroom door. “Well,” she took my stuff and hung it for me. “Here’s where you hang your coat and knapsack” the office lady said as she came back to the door from the very first hook as I wondered what was on the hooks farther down. “Backpack” I replied. “It’s not a sack to nap in. it’s a backpack” I said quietly.

“Oh, you better not take that tone with Miss Em,” She started

“But I didn’t mean”

She spoke gibberish in attempt to quiet me and replied in a whisper, “Don’t make her angry”  

The nice office lady went back to her office looking sad, “This one won’t last” she muttered to herself gloomily, “And such a nice girl”

I was scared. I went into my class. There were only 3 other kids. A little boy named Trumble, “Your name sounds mean” I said, and my teacher put an X on the blackboard next to my name. There were lots of children’s names. All with five X’s next to them, except for Trumble who had two, Allison with three, and Joshua with just one.

“Andy, Amy, Kyle, Martin, Shay, London, Kelly, Amanda, John” Miss Em started.

“All very bad children. They all got five X’s, so they ended up in detention.”

“Where are they now?” I asked. She ignored me and gave me another X.

“Talking out of turn. Interrupting. Rude tones. Getting out of your seat. Sleeping. Etcetera”

  “What’s etcetera?” asked Trumble.

X number three. I wonder what he did before I came in.

“You will follow my rules, or you will follow these children to detention” she said with a scary, but happy smile. “I don’t like rude children.”

Trumble had five X’s by lunch, then he was gone to detention. He cried on the way down the hall. “No!” he protested, “No, please! What’s wrong with his face!?” I secretly looked out the window. Miss Em was dragging him, against his will to the playground. She forced him up the stairs and struggled to get him across the rocking bridge. She shoved him down the slide as he screamed. “Be good” she said in baby talk. “Or else you’ll end up like the other X’s.” He didn’t come out the end of it, and he didn’t come to class the next day.

“Where’s Trumble?” Allison asked, and she received her fifth X.

“Hey!” I protested, “That’s not fair!”

X number five for me. Miss Em had a scary, stern look on her face when she turned to put the X’s on the board, but then looked happy as she turned back around to face Joshua.

“Well, Joshua. It looks like you are the star student. Go to the office for your prize. As for you two, you can follow me”

  Joshua would be the last kid in the classroom once we went to detention. We walked down the hall, unsure of what was happening.

Allison gasped and started crying desperately, “No!!” she sobbed, “Its true!” she said.

I looked where she was looking. The things hanging from the hooks were skeletons of children, hanging by holes in their skulls. There wasn’t much left for flesh. One had an eye dangling from the socket. She turned around with Miss Em now dragging her by the wrist and shouted for the other classrooms to hear, “ITS TRUE! THEY EAT CHILDREN!”

Children opened doors and looked out into the hall.

“Just a tantrum” Miss Em lied, hugging Allison. “She just needs some love” she smiled as she told the older kids who came to see, but they kept staring. She got impatient. “Get back to class or I’ll eat you all!” She yelled as her face contorted angrily. I heard the other teachers all yelling, “X for Jeromy” and “Mya. This is your final X.” and “Jacob! Get to your seat or you will get an X!” Children started screaming and one was begging for mercy as his teacher cracked his skull with a hammer. He was the only one left in that class. I tried to turn around and run but another teacher was there and grabbed me. We were both dragged to the door as I heard the nice office lady resigning loudly, “You were only supposed to eat the really bad ones!” she said loudly over the children screaming and crying. Miss Em and the other teacher shoved us through the door and dragged us to the playground. There was no awful sunrise now, it was passed lunch time. Everything was calm outside, except for the screaming in the distance. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue with a few cottony white clouds. The birds were singing, and a squirrel happily chased his mate, tumbling through the branches. The teachers dragged us up the stairs. Allison was protesting so much that I heard her arm break through her screams. We were dragged in our backs, the sun stinging our eyes and our shirts scrunching up, across the burning bridge as it pinched our backs. We got to the slide and we were shoved down. Our heads banged the sides of the slide as we tumbled down, and the bolts shocked us. We slid down old blood from past struggling children, and we landed with a hard, loud thud in a concrete room with other children, some alive and some not. Some in the middle. I didn’t think I’d ever see another sunrise.  sunrise.