{¤¤¤Chapter Three: Soot-Stained¤¤¤}

The girl touched down next to a student in the 8th row. Like the other students, he was busy too, but he'll be one of us soon.

The girl touched his shoulders, and after he turned his head, the shadow made his way to his body.

A few minutes passed, and he is now one of us. 

He touched his face, feeling the soot caused by the wet smoke. 

 His foot was raised from the ground as the emitting smoke from his mouth connects to the girls.

The smoke intertwined and their heads were twisted. I can see their suffering while their body is slowly covered by soot, their eyes crying out black tears. Their mouths opened and a lot of smoke was let out. Small spheres made of soot flew everywhere, being sniffed in by the students one by one. They coughed hardly, sneezing and rasping as they try to get the soot spheres out of their lungs.

But it is too late now.

They're one of us now.

The students kept denying it.

They are one of us.

They deserve it.

Lily's Point of View

I placed my finished test paper on my armchair's table. Finally, I did it. Should I review it? 

Due to my overconfidence, reviewing is not only vocabulary. But the results are good though.

With my hair covering my nose, I had no idea that others were rasping and dying to cough soot out of their lungs.

I stretched out my arms and raises my head. Black smoke was everywhere, and the children in the ninth row- which is what I am facing, has soot on their faces, and smoke emitting out of their mouths.

A boy faced me, his face is dirty with soot,  and his eyes are completely inky. He walks to me, and as I turn around I realize what is going on. 

Black-eyed students are ubiquitous, and the only ones that are not are in my row, their test papers are covering their faces. The gym was stained by soot. The air is polluted, hurts your nose as you take a little sniff. And you'll suffer coughing it out of your lungs.

I was suffering there in my seat. Why would they let this kind of thing happen?

I need to find out why.

I turned my head quickly to the upper floor of the gymnasium. 

I know they have things like this, it is a private school anyway. 

Three freakish holes can be seen there, with a scholar beneath one. Under the holes are terraces with seniors accompanied by a long lever that has the same length as their height. 

Surprisingly, that is the only thing that I saw on the upper floor. No headmaster in sight, just three scholars.

Upon seeing that, worry and suspicion came to my mind. 

What will happen next?

I did not notice the boy in front of me. The smoke crawled out of his mouth like worms. He tends to walk closer, and the tension grew.

I screamed and quickly covered my mouth.

One sniff of polluted air and I'll be one of them soon.

I turned my head on the last row of unaffected students. Test papers are on the floor, and two students coughing and smoke emitting out of their mouths.

Some of them are in the barricade gate, screaming for help. They even made noise by punching and screeching.

Schools never taught us how to survive things like this. If I get older I will send a petition to the head school council.

But here is a question: Will I survive?

Thoughts filled my head. As I sit there, the monster is inside me, slowly turning me into a monster.

Turns out that the time  I screamed, soot followed in after I breathe in after the scream.

Oh, what a terrible mistake.

I need, to survive.

Will she survive?

How and why?

I carefully breathe in, and then I felt a ticklish, something crawling up from my lungs to my trachea. I felt like I need to cough.

Just one cough.

Just one.

"I can't hold it," I whispered.

I let out a dry, heavy cough.

I touched my face with my hands. I sniffed and more soot entered my nose. Even my eyes were affected. I blinked and the soot was gone.

But it wasn't gone.

It entered my eyes. 

From my pupil, the soot made its way to my vitreous. 

It was tickling at first, but at the end of its journey to my eyes, it hurt a lot. I covered my eyes with my hands. They were dirty, stained by soot, and other smoke particles. 

This will make me get bronchitis and coronary heart disease.

I blinked.

My eyesight was blurry, everything looks pixelated near me. And those afar, are darkness.

Hold up, don't tell me I'm watching a movie with 720p resolution????

I touched a part of my eyeball and stared at it. Even it's pixelated, I can see something was stuck in my eyes. 

I coughed once more, but it was lighter.

I touched my throat. I can feel that there is something in my throat that is slowly coming out. 

A black fat worm, stained with soot and acid is crawling from her esophagus to the trachea. It leaves a trail of shallow small holes and soot. The soot falls from the trachea to the left main bronchus and joins the soot formed in the bronchi, blocking the way of air to her left lung.

The worm crawled up to her esophagus and keep itself from falling by using its claws that secretes acid.

Her eyes fill with shock as she feels like the worm is reaching her laryngopharynx. She got off her seat and dropped on her knees.

She whispered help, and that even made it worse. 

She is running out of air, and she knew one thing to prevent that.

A cough.

She puffed and then forced herself to cough. Her eyes are almost inky as she draws another breath. Every puff has no effect.

Is she gonna die?

She feels bad about this. Dying with something Inside your body is somewhat- disgusting.

She needs to die without it. She needs to fulfill her wish first.

She banged her head on the floor. She puffed and raises her head, blood is on her forehead. She can feel some urge to vomit. Something is going on her insides, and whatever it needs to get out of her body. The worm reaches her oropharynx, and the air is limited.

Later on, she'll die from suffocating caused by the worm.

Or will she?

She screamed as hard as she could, and soot powders fly away from her mouth. Her mouth was forcedly inside open, black liquid dripping out. Her eyes turned inky as she let her tears go. Her scream echoed around the gym, and then the rest who are unaffected was alerted that someone was afflicted and it'll be their turn next.

"I have seen enough." Charies drops the test paper on the floor and took a quick glance at Lily.

Charies is one of the attendees and has the same intention as Lily. She was disgusted by how Lily was afflicted by just letting her guard down for a second. She needs to be careful. 

But this doesn't end her journey.

Charies covers her mouth and crawls on the floor to prevent getting the attention of the blacked eyed children. She turns to the row of the unaffected attendees, covering their faces away from the affected ones that are there in their fronts waiting for them to get afflicted.

She needs to get out there. Leaving everyone here is okay, not staying here saving them and dying without getting any achievement.

She looks around, checking if someone is following her. Yes, there is one, the blonde girl that is sitting next to Lily.

She heard her name was Emily. An Alabamian that moved here. She looks scared, but for her, she'll just block her way or even betray her to escape. SHe'll never trust someone who sits beside the afflicted.

She frowns and Emily replied with a shocked face. 

Once they'll open their mouths, it's game over.

----RULES THAT NEEDS TO BE FOLLOWED IN ORDER TO SURVIVE----

1. DO NOT OPEN YOUR MOUTH. Soot particles can be inhaled and once it comes in, the worm will form inside your body. 

2. THE LAST TO OPEN THE MOUTH, SURVIVES. Just trying to keep yourself from inhaling can be really deadly. Some people with long breath can survive. But you can just cover your mouth and breathe in in the places where soot is not present.

3. NEVER LOOK AT A SOOT CHILD'S INKY EYES. It can make you scream, which will lead you to breathe in soot particles.

These are the rules that the cast needs to follow. And here's a reminder, 

YOU CAN STILL SURVIVE EVEN THE WORM IS INSIDE YOU.

IT CAN ONLY SLOWLY EAT YOUR INSIDES, WHICH WILL TAKE A LONG TIME. 

DON'T GIVE UP ON LILY, WAIT FOR HER TO COME BACK.

SHE'LL BE BACK.

---ANNIE CHAN 0: