{¤¤Chapter Two: Deserved¤¤}

The moving photo disappeared and left her speechless. 

It was my first time witnessing such a phenomenon.

I took a few steps backward and brainstormed what should I do after what I saw.

"Should i- should i-" I gasped as I grab my hands tight to one.

I thought for a moment. something like this should never be left to only me, I need to tell someone about this. But to who? I left myself staring at the doll for a few minutes. But something told me to take it, as evidence.

I kneeled and picked up the doll. I can feel a chill run down my spine as I place a finger on it. I closed my eyes as I slowly raise it from the ground. I opened my eyes, I can see the doll's eyes staring at me directly. I shook the doll violently and then ran away to the campus gate. 

My eyes were closed shut and I was sprinting to the crowd ahead.

I felt my face bump into a back, I opened my eyes and found myself staring at the back of some senior. I walked backward and hugged the doll tight. The senior turn around, and places the attention on me. 

It wasn't a senior, but the actual headmaster.

Suprisingly, the headmaster was incredibly young and blends with the surroundings well. And that is a huge problem. I don't know if he is trying to watch the students, or he wants to look at the students eye to eye.

As I pick up those thoughts in my mind, he was staring at me, reading my mind. 

That creeped me out since this is the day of the examination and I am sure out of the test. It is also very humiliating since there are other exam attendees around. This would really make me fail the exam, and go home empty-handed.

Yet he smiled.

"On a rush, Miss Jenkins? The exam hasn't started yet." He said while his arms are at his shoulder level stretched out. 

His handsome accent was music to my ears. 

He has luxurious black hair cut short in his shoulder level, a nice and neatly ironed uniform, and a shiny ID with his name in it.

Blake Wellington

The Headmaster glanced at his watch.

It was nothing special, just a normal watch that my father owned when he was a young lad. Or I didn’t notice the rise of its value since it is antique today.

I watched him turn his back and he gracefully snapped his two fingers. It was a signal for the seniors to open the gate. 

The gate to the gymnasium was made of steel, a barricade type of gate. 

The gates opened and the headmaster lead the way. The seniors lower their gaze while we moved forward in lines. I was the last one in the two lines of attendees, following the trail of a fellow lass. 

I hid the doll in a small sling bag hanging on my left shoulder, trying to steal a glance at my back. 

The young girl’s ghost is still there, staring through my soul. I  can feel she is angry for stealing the doll, but I have to.

The wind blows and I can feel chills once again. The scary senior might be trying to creep me out again, or…. the ghost girl is here.

The barricade gate was closed behind me, and the thin mist covered the sight of the trees and the young girl’s ghost.

The seniors led us to our perspective seats, one meter away from each other to prevent cheating. 

I took a quick glance at everyone before sitting. According to my calculations, we are about one hundred attendees from around the state. Most are from private schools, and some are from public schools. 

It took a while for the senior to distribute test papers on the last row, which I was in. 

I stared at the test paper. I played with my pen, and astonishingly what I studied was in the test. I can hear the loud scribbles that keep echoing around the gymnasium. 

I covered my left ear with my left hand and focused my attention on the test.

Somewhere in the gymnasium, an odd-looking girl is thriving on the exam. Beneath her chair was her own shadow, steady and copies every move.

Was it really a shadow?

The shadow blinks its lifeless eyes and scratches its 2D head. The shadow has a scribbly texture like it was made by someone who is too lazy to color a shadow black. 

The shadow grew its size until it reached the other student at the back of the odd-looking girl. It climbed from the student's feet to the student's chest. 

STUDENTS POINT OF VIEW 

I trembled as I felt a really heavy feeling in my feet. It's like I am having fatigue. Though I thought it was just the feeling of insecurities from the answers I write back on the exam. I think it is just anxiety because  I did not study well back then.

But it wasn't.

I bent my body and looked down. A black, shadowy figure with scribbly texture was in my feet, wrapping my feet tight to climb to my upper body. I opened my mouth to scream, but what comes out, was black smoke. Before I could know it, the shadow was inside me, emitting black smoke residue out of my mouth. 

I can hear it speak to me. 

At first, it sounds like breathing, but as it grew louder, the terrifying it gets. There is only one word that he spoke to me, a word that made me murder.

KILL

I lost consciousness.

My sight grew dark as black smoke covered my eyeballs. And now I am sitting here, blank-faced. 

There was a girl in front of me. The smoke wrapped around her neck, and I can't help but just watch instead. 

I watch her suffocate as the smoke was wrapped tighter. She closes her eyes, and she fell on a silent dead. As my smoke eyeballs focus on the girl, my ghost eyes, which are about to get out of my body, turn around to see what was they doing. 

No one paid attention, even the nearest senior just a meter away... No eyes watched, nor glanced at us.  It's like, they want us to die so they will reach the wanted numbers... Is this how education works? Is this in their curriculum?

I turned to the girl. She is dead. 

The smoke held her up from her seat. The smoke entered her body and she developed black eyes. I stared at her eyes. 

I can see the hunger for blood and flesh on the girl's face. But her ghost, which is about to leave her body, glared at me. She was glaring like she wanted to put a sword into my body.

But it is over for both of us.

we're dead.

The shining light to my future is gone. Just darkness.

I lose my body, my entire personality.

But it's unfair to be just us.

Others deserve it too.

With exasperation and homicidy, I hurled the girl around the gym.  The smoke rope grew longer and longer as it enjoys eating out our spirits inside our bodies. 

The students were distracted by the exam. 

Why can't they just turn around?

Just turn around.

It's very simple.

HELP US.

WE DON'T DESERVE THIS.

Thanks for finishing this chapter!

See you soon!

-Annie Chan