One Friday night, many years ago, me and a couple of my friends snuck into school, after it was closed. Well, we didn’t really sneak in per say, since a concert was being held in the auditorium and the doors were open, but we did manage to get pass the sectioned off area of the school without being noticed.
The school hall’s looked different late at night. While some of the ceiling lights were still on, most weren’t, making parts of the hall completely covered in darkness. That, combined with the lack of crowds of students that you would normally see moving about during the school day, gave the whole hallway a kind of silent, eerie feel.
After a few minutes of walking, we found what we were looking for.
Mr. Penumbrum’s room.
There was a test on Monday. We hadn’t taken any notes, and we were not prepared in the slightest. If we failed it, we would have been screwed.
Mr. P kept a sticky note with his computer password right next to it, on his desk. We figured that if we could get into his computer, we could get the answers.
My friend Taylor was great at picking locks, so we had him try to crack open the door while me and Kyle kept a look out. Eventually, he got it open, and we were finally inside. Kyle went straight to Mr. P’s desk, and sat down in the chair.
“Found it.” called Kyle, as he plucked a pink sticky note up off the desk. Me and Taylor rushed over and looked over his shoulder. Slowly, he read out each letter and number as he typed it on the keyboard.
“Z…
click
…4…
click
…E…
click
…1…
click
…D…
click
…0…
click
…R…
click
…3.
click.”
Sure enough, it worked. We clicked around a little bit, and eventually found the test answer copies that Mr. Penumbrum kept.
“What an idiot.” chuckled Taylor. “Alright… lets grab some pencils and paper, write this down, and get out of here.”
“Wait, I got an idea.” Kyle said, his voice rushed. “You guys get that stuff, but go sit down in the desks.”
“What? Why?” I asked, confused.
“You’ll see.” he replied, the grin on his face covered in light, coming from the computer screen.
I didn’t know what he was planning, but I was curious to find out, so after I grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil, I sat down in the front row. Taylor sat down next to me.
A few seconds past, before a bright light hit the projector screen on the walk in front of us. Me and Taylor shifted in our seats to turn around, and we could see that the light was coming from the projector in the back of the room, that Kyle had just turned on. I could faintly see Kyle’s silhouette amongst the shadows, next to the projector.
“Turn back around!” he shouted, in a voice that was clearly a poor imitation of Mr. Penumbrum. So we did.
“Okay class. Today… er, tonight… we will be going over the test answers!”
With that, he switched the projector screen to show the numbered problems, as well as the correct responses.
I turned to Taylor.
“You copy down the questions, and I’ll copy down the answers?”
He nodded.
“Sure.”
And that’s what we did. The room was so silent, that it almost felt like we were actually taking a test. The only thing that I could hear was our quiet breathing, and the faint noise of the orchestra, coming from somewhere else in the school.
After a while, we got every question as well as every answer, all except for the last one, which was a writing response.
“We should write it down anyways, so we could think of a response before hand.” I suggested to Taylor.
“That’s probably a good idea.” Taylor responded with a yawn and a stretch. “Hey, Kyle, can you switch the screen to the written response problem?”
We waited, and eventually the screen changed. But it wasn’t to the question. It was just completely white.
I was about to ask if something happened to the projector, but something caught my eye, right before I turned around.
Kyle’s shadow appeared on the projector screen. He began to do a funny little dance, one that looked like he was a marionette.
I snickered, but Taylor didn’t seem to find it funny.
“Kyle, what are you doing?” asked Taylor besides me. “Just switch it to the last question so we can get out of here.”
“Stop fooling around.” I heard from besides me. I didn’t look though, as my eyes still glued to the screen, watching Kyle’s shadow. He was no longer dancing.
The sound of Taylor moving his desk as he got out of his chair filled the quiet room, it being followed by footsteps as he walked towards the back. Now I could see Taylor’s shadow against the projector screen, slowly getting smaller as he got farther from me and closer to Kyle. Suddenly, his shadow stopped, right next to Kyle. I waited for the shadow to move again.
It didn’t.
That was when I could feel the prickly sensation on the back of my neck, the one when you think someone is staring at you. I could feel breath against my neck, too. It felt… cold.
A shiver ran down my spine. But for some reason, I didn’t dare look. I just continued staring at the screen, at the shadow of Taylor and Kyle, who were both staring at me. I didn’t no how long I stared at the shadows, but the projector eventually turned off, and the screen went dark. I waited a few minutes, but it didn’t turn back on. While I still felt scared, I no longer felt anything staring at me.
I slowly turned my head around, slightly shaking, hoping I wouldn’t see Taylor and Kyle creepily staring at me. I didn’t see that, in fact, I didn’t see either of them.
At first, I thought it was a prank. They were just going to pop up, and try to scare me. I got up and walked to the projector at the back of the room. I checked behind it, under the table it was on, and every other possible place in the classroom that they could have hidden. I couldn’t find them.
“Guys, this isn’t funny. Where are you?” I asked aloud. The room remained dead silent. Almost… too silent. I suddenly realized that I no longer heard the orchestra playing.
They must have left already, I told myself. But I never heard the door open. Regardless, I kept telling myself this, grabbed the papers, returned the room to normal, and got out of there. I managed to sneak into the crowd of parents and orchestra members as they were leaving the school.
I tried calling Kyle and Taylor when I got home. They didn’t pick up. I tried calling again Saturday. Still no answer. On Sunday their parents picked up the phone, just as worried as I was. On Monday Kyle and Taylor were both declared missing.
I heard it during the morning announcements, on the loudspeaker. Everyone began talking to each other, wondering what happened. Everyone except for me. I didn’t tell anyone what I saw. I don’t even know what I saw. I kept thinking about that night, wondering what exactly happened. My train of thought was interrupted when Mr. Penumbrum shushed all of us.
“Yes, it’s sad they’re missing.” he said, in a harsh, cruel, voice. “But we still have a test. Taylor and Kyle probably didn’t study, and just didn’t want to show up for it.”
He began to pass the packets out to each of us. I had completely forgotten about the test, due to recent events. I didn’t even memorize anything I had written down on Friday. When I got my packet, I could see that the printer must have messed up for mine, as it was randomly black and gray in some areas. I groaned exasperatedly as I flipped through the pages, trying to find one that looked at least kind of normal.
That was until I got to the last page, which appeared to be completely blank.
Of course it didn’t even print the last question. I sighed to myself.
I began to raise hand to ask Mr. P for another copy, when I noticed something that was hidden underneath my now risen elbow. The paper wasn’t completely blank. I quickly lowered my hand and lifted there paper to my face, trying to make sense of it, trying to make sense of it all.
It was a strange marking, almost like a smudge. Completely black, and an irregular shape. At first glance, it looked like just another printer failure. But as I squinted, I realized it looked like something else. Something that I saw that night.
It looked like the shadows of Kyle and Taylor.