Alarmed

“Did you do it?” Aaron asks as I slide into the seat behind him. I pretend not to know what he’s talking about as I begin to unpack my bag.

“Do what?” I respond with a sly smile.

“You know what I’m talking about. Fourth period. Did you finish Geometry?”

“Obviously,” I say with a cool confidence.

“Well, can I have it?” he shoots back. I can tell he’s nervous and I like the little bit of power I have over him for the moment.

I shrug my shoulders and his face crumples. I wait a few more seconds before giving in, “Yeah, it’s all yours,” I say, sifting through the day’s work to find the page of proofs I’d worked out perfectly the night before. I even double-checked my answers, evidenced by the small tick marks sprinkled across the page.

“All right class,” Ms. Schaeffer says, as I hand Aaron the paper and focus my attention to the front of the room. “I’d like to go over the multiple cho…” she trails off as a deafening alarm screams across the loudspeaker.

My first thought is a fire drill but the look on Ms. Schaeffer’s face is filled with an unbridled terror that is enhanced by a sudden convolution of screams and loud bangs echoing from the outside hallway.

Aaron says it first, “A shooter!”

He scrambles from his chair knocking over my stack of homework, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the far corner of the classroom. My mind is frantic. How can this be happening? I cower with Aaron and the rest of my classmates as Ms. Schaeffer runs to lock the door but she’s too late.

For a moment she is still, standing in front of the door, eyes locked on the small window above the door knob and the evil on the other side. The blasts shoot through the door and into the classroom and the whimpering and muffled cries around me turn into deafening screams.

Dred throbs through my veins, as I hold Aaron’s hand tightly and crouch low, but it is inevitable. I want to say goodbye to so many people. The explosion of gun shots pepper the room, silencing the terror around me as they tear through the flesh of my classmates. This is it, I think as I feel my body begin to rip apart and a spill of crimson clouds my vision. A surreal sense of lightness follows the wave of unspeakable pain. I squeeze Aaron’s now limp hand once more and give in to the darkness.