Someone was pointing something at her. It resembled the silhouette of a gun. The long pistol barrel stood only feet away from her head. She couldn't see anything else, darkness fixed around the man as if he possessed it. She didn't know what to do. She watched as the finger of a man trained it on the trigger.

It was shaking, the man was nervous. She tried to make out who the person was weilding the gun, but couldn't. His features were at a blur, but he looked familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on who it was.

She started backing away in shock as she noticed the man stance once more before letting his finger retract and pull the trigger.

Scarlet woke up in a start as if she was seriously hurt, but she didn't yell. She looked around vigorously wondering where she was.

She was surprised to see herself in her own bed, nothing was changed. Walls were still the bleak dry tan and the floor was a dull oak brown. She looked toward the window of her room to see it creaked with a tiny draft flowing into the room, pushing the curtains by like a school bully. The room remained dark though as she found out it was still at the midst of darkness.
She then remembered what happened at the school. She felt an uneasy relief as to think of it as a dream.

Was it all a dream? Her best friend Emerald being taken away by some mysterious smoke, and Mr. Woodman trying to hunt them down like a hunter searching for his pray, and what came through the window? She was doubtful, she almost wanted to walk out of the room and ask her step brother Lincoln if he was with her that night, but she didn't want to.

She felt almost scared of what he would say. Anyway, he was still asleep, she didn't want to wake him.

The morning approached rather quickly. She couldn't go back to sleep, so she got up and took a shower hoping to get her distracting thoughts out of her head. She couldn't get the dream out of her mind. After a quick shower, she put on her normal attire; that being an old sweatshirt she had gotten from her favorite band a while back and skinny jeans that she casually wore almost every day. She looked at the mirror once more and decided to put on a light amount of make-up. She tended to not to do a lot when she was stressed.

She made it back to her room only to find it slowly fill with the sunlight that crept over the horizon. A warmth hit her legs at the light and heat of the sun beamed at her. She looked at the time and realized that she had a little bit before she had to leave for school.

She tidied up her room a bit before laying back into bed with her back against the wall. Before she had the chance to reach for her phone on the night stand, a person walked into the room.

It was Lincoln. He looked confused and almost startled. He was still in his night wear, he didn't even get dressed yet.

"Scarlet." He asked. Scarlet looked up a little weary, she didn't know what he was going to say. "Yes?" She answered calmly.

"You didn't by any chance remember what happened last night, did you?" He said almost nonchalantly, but concern lurked in his voice. Scarlets mind began to scurry after his question. "You not talking about-." Scarlet was stopped by Lincoln nodding his head slowly.

Then it was all true. What happened last night wasn't a dream.

---

"Wait so, we all saw the same thing last night? This wasn't a dream?" Zachary blurted with surprise.

Everyone was hesitant, but most nodded.

"So you all can recall when the Mr. Woodman held us at gun point? And when that thing smashed up against the window?" Zachary whispered harshly, keeping it quiet as if they were in a library.

Although it wasn't a library. It was only their noisy second hour Psychology class. Veronica, Cadence, Lincoln, Scarlet, Zachary, and Colleen, who was back from being sick, all sat in a rectangular table that sat at the back of the room. It was second hour, and even know they had a test to study for. They had other problems to discuss first.

"We were all there Zach," Lincoln mumbled. "Well most at least." Lincoln glanced at Colleen who sat quiet, but intent to the conversation. Veronica told her everything that had happened last night, breaking her 'don't tell anyone until 2nd hour' promise, but like teenagers, promises aren't held to high regard.

Everyone didn't know where to start, there was so much to ask about. Yet, most of their questions couldn't be answered. None of them knew what the hell happened last night.

"Have any of you seen Emerald today?" Veronica asked, looking around the table in hopes for an answer.

All of them remained quiet as they tried to recall whether or not they saw her last night. They should have known whether or not she was here. I mean, geesh, she was taken out by some mysterious smoke where everyone left her with a potential killer. She may be dead, kidnapped, or shipped off to another country for what they knew.

Everyone answered with a no or shook their heads, none of them knew where she was.

"Well that isn't a good thing." She recalled.

"Did any of you think to go to the detention room and see if there was anything from last night?" Veronica asked, hoping to hear an answer from someone this time.

"I checked this morning, the lights were off and the door was locked, I couldn't see anything inside." Lincoln replied, crossing his arms and leaning back in the chair.

"Did anyone make out what that thing was that smashed into the window?" She was desperate to hear something helpful.

Cadence looked up from his text book he was studying and to Veronica. He thought for a second before continuing. "Yeah. I did. And to be honest, I don't exactly know," He closed his book slowly and tucked it away under his trapper keeper. Before Veronica could give a frustrated gesture, Cadence continued, interrupting her thought. "But. I did see something. It sounds absurd, but whatever flew through that window yesterday. It wasn't human. It had a dark complexion and huge arms. Everything else was obscured by the smoke." He explained.

The group looked at him and gave no reaction, but most everyone struggled to believe it. Everyone saw the thing fight Mr. Woodman with intention. Some wild animal would've never of went out of its way to attack. There was no reply to his comment.

"None of you guys recorded what happened last night?" Colleen was slightly sketched out.

"Mr. Woodman compensated our phones before detention, he locked them in a drawer." Veronica stated, sounding nonchalant.

Colleen nodded, running her hands through her straightened hair and leaning back in her chair.

"Now the question is this though. What happened after we left?" Lincoln bumped in, bringing up a new subject.

No one of course knew what the answer of that was, but instead only added a question to the already overflowing roster of others they haven't figured out yet.

"I don't think we can figure anything out till we see that detention room." Scarlet added, skootching in her chair.

"Why? What does that have to do with it?" Lincoln asked, sounding a little harsh.

"Because that room might have been left untouched waiting for someone to find it, or they covered it up. The door was locked, so he could've left the room damaged" Cadence bumped in, getting Scarlets logic.

"Doesn't that mean that Emerald would still be in the room if so?" Colleen tilted her head in curiosity.

"I think at least someone would've noticed the broken window and demolished room from the outside." Zachary opposed, overrunning Colleen's question.

"The room is almost isolated to the school. You can't see the window from any parts of the school or road. You would have to walk back behind the school to see the window." Veronica doubted.

The school was laid out in quite an odd way. The school has a lot of dead end hallways that sprout off like an oak sapling. The detention room is in one of those dead end hallways that lays at the end of the hallway making the room almost hard to see from the outside or inside.

"Even if that's the deal, there would have to be some sign of damage on the outside of the room. That room was demolished when we left. I can't imagine what it looked like after we left." Lincoln stated.

"Who would be able to fix a room with a broken window, shattered floors and walls in just a night?" Zachary added.

"A lot of people." Cadence responded.

Zachary moved in a little closer and made sure no one was around. "But what people would want to kill us though?" Zachary muttered.

There is an awkward silence as everyone tried think of a reason why anyone would attack them. They haven't done anything wrong, they were innocent, or that's what they believed.

"We don't know for sure if he was trying to kill us." Veronica countered, leaning back in her chair.

"Mr. Woodman had a gun training on us Veronica," Lincoln snapped, trying not to sound harsh. "He most likely was trying to kill us." Lincoln stated, calming down from his previous statement.

No one said or peeped anything else. Everyone remained silent for a few seconds as the rest of the class drowned the tables silence out.

"Are any of you busy after school today?" Veronica questioned.

"I have cross country practice after school." Cadence responded.

"I do too." Colleen added.

"Zach and I have Theatre practice after school." Lincoln spoke, sounding curious.

"Why do you ask?" He tilted his head a bit.

"We're going to check that detention room" Veronica reassured.

---

The rest of the day went by like cold molasses as everyone waited for the end of the day. No one knew what to expect. Everyone who talked had tried to take a peek at the room, but yet it still remained closed.

When the bell did ring, everyone was not hesitant to meet up. The group agreed to meet up after school to search the detention room.

"Let's go." Veronica commanded. Everyone followed what she said and began to follow her down the hall to the room. Cadence, Veronica, and Colleen all walked in a line as they traveled the halls to the detention room. Lincoln and the rest of them talked in the back.

"So I've seen you're feeling better." Veronica directed toward Colleen, who walked swiftly in her running attire. A graphic tee, black leggings, clean running shoes that was all topped off with a hair band, making a ponytail in the back of her head.

"Oh my god, you don't even know how good it feels to breathe again." She enthused, sighed wistfully.

The mood died really quickly as they contained down the hall. Colleen gathered the thought that the two were still shaken about last night's event.

"You guys are ok. Right?" Colleen reassured, looking at the two of them.

"Yeah we're fine. Just can't get it out of my head is all," Veronica chuckled a little.

"I just don't know what to expect in that room. This can call be a some sick joke or-" She gets jammed in her words as she tried to give out a sentence.

"It's alright. Just know that we'll get this figured out eventually." Colleen stated.

"Do you believe us Colleen?" Veronica glanced at her, looking back in front of her.

"Believe what?" She questioned, a little dumbfounded.

"What I told you about last night." Veronica said.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I." Colleen suggested. Sounding unsure of her statement.

Veronica nods her head and continues down the final hallway.

Everyone urgently grouped up and neared the detention room. Cadence was the first one to make it to the door and instead of the door being locked and the inside being dark. The door was wide open and the room was lit. Cadence simply walked in and was oblivious to what he saw.

The room was intact. The windows were intact, the walls were intact, and even the floor was intact. The desks were lined up just like the day when detention started. The rest of the group walked in and had the same reaction. They didn't know how to react. They all were confident that what happened last night was true. All of them experienced it, doesn't that make it real?

"Can I help you?" A voice sounds in the room.

A few jump as they look over to see Mr. Woodman sitting at his desk doing paper work and what not. Mr. Woodman had the same old attire as usual. His tone seemed to be the same. Everything seemed to be the same.

"Uh." Lincoln was the first to respond, stepping in the front of the group. "I was wondering if we could have our phones back from yesterday." He requested, asking politely.

"Did I not give them to you yesterday?" He asked, genially curious.

Lincoln simply nodded sideways and Mr. Woodmen thought for a second, looking down at the drawer that the phones are.

"Well I apologize if I didn't give them to you," Mr. Woodman grabbed his key chain with a copious amount of keys and selected one. As Mr. Woodman tried to unlock the drawer. Everyone surveyed the room to try and find any damage in the room, but not a speck of what they saw yesterday was left in the room.

He jerked the key in the hole and unlocked it. The group neared the drawer to see their phones still in the same place.

"Here you go." He moved away from the drawer and waited for all of the group, except Colleen to grab their phones.

Once everyone had grabbed their phone and scooched toward the door.

"Thank you." Lincoln said, trying not to break out in nervousness.

"Of course. Have a good day." Mr. Woodman waved the students.

Everyone walked out of the room and once they did, they picked up their pace down the empty halls.

"What the actual hell just happened?" Zachary hissed.

No one responded as they didn't have an answer to fill his question.

Everything was normal. Mr. Woodman still had his cardboard voice and acted no different as the last week. He acted as if nothing happened yesterday. The room was also not damaged, and not even a bit.

Chills went down everyone's spine. They swore what happened last night was true, it felt too real for it to be a dream.

"Guys, there is no way this actually didn't happen." Zachary went on.

"How can we find out whether or not it did? There is no way we can tell if it did or didn't." Scarlet questioned, her heart racing a little.

There was a pause before Lincoln slowed to a stop, he thought for a quick second before he thought. "There's a security camera in there." Lincoln mentioned, sounding as if he has discovered something big.

Everyone could recall a camera on the top corner of the room. The black dome hung, contrasted to the corner of the room where it laid on record, or at least they believed.

"Well how are we going to view it? We can't just go and ask for security footage. They'll be suspicious of something," Scarlet told, beginning to walk down the hall again.

"We have go into the school and get into the security footage." She continued.

"How the hell are we going to get into security footage, that shit is locked up and safe from everyone." Lincoln rambled.

"I know someone who can get in." Veronica stopped once again and looked at Cadence, who innocently strolled about. The rest of the group stopped and got who she was referencing. Cadence looked back with a unsure look on his face.

"Guys, I can't. Do you know how much trouble we can get in if we get caught?" He worried.

"Do you know how much trouble we can get in if what happened last night, happens again?" Veronica shot back, leaving Cadence in silence.

"Besides, why don't we ask the school for the footage, they can at least do something about this situation if this stuff actually happened." Cadence readjusted his glasses and stood.

"We can't tell anyone we don't trust at this point. They could've done it." Veronica replied.

"That's ridiculous. Why would they want us killed?" Cadence argued.

"Good question." Veronica simply replied, leaving Cadence's question at bay.

As the group began to walk once again. They are halted to a stop once again to see a student almost run into the group. Everyone startled and saw who the students was. The student wore dark clothing that matched her black hair. When her blue eyes stared at the rest of the group. They stood speechless.

The girl was Emerald.

She stared at the group and gave them a weird look.

"What is it? Do I have some shit crawling around my face or something?" She retorted.

The group eased off a bit and tried to act normal.

"No it's nothing," Scarlet paused for a second. "What are you doing here?" She asked, posturing up.

"I have detention to serve again." She sighed.

"Were you here today?" Scarlet let out another question.

"Most of it. I slept in till 3rd hour. So I wasn't here for half the day." She gave out a stupid laugh. There were a few awkward chuckles that followed.

"Ok I have to go. Mr. Woodman's going to end up giving me another detention if I don't get to the room in time." She bolted off.

A stray amount of goodbyes left the groups mouths before everyone started walking again.

"Now apparently Emerald is also fine too." Lincoln stated with no surprise.

"I don't know about her coming in 3rd hour. I feel she was doing something else before that." Cadence predicted.

"Are you saying that she was one of the people who were trying to kill us?" Scarlet retaliated, sounding almost offended.

"No. No, I'm just saying that she may have been put up to something." Cadence reassured.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Scarlet questioned.

"She could've been like-" Cadence rambled as if he was going to say something, but doesn't.

"Never mind it sounds ridiculous." He ended.

Everyone ignored his comment and moved on.

"So how many of you are interested in sneaking in tomorrow night?" Veronica blurted.

Most every everyone raised their hands for a second in interest. Cadence was the only not interested.

"Look, I'm not going into the school and hacking into their system again. We can figure another way out." He argued.

"Are you scared or something?" Veronica picked on him.

Veronica knew that Cadence would fall for it. Cadence was one to be peer-pressured easily. That's how she got him to change her grades.

"No, of course not." He retaliated.

"Then what's holding you back?" Veronica gestured.

Cadence gave her a rather angry look, knowing what she was getting at. He sighed in defeat.

"When do we meet?" Cadence started.