A Lurking Danger At School

The classroom window faced the vast courtyard with a mermaid fountain in the middle and topiary trees in the form of some cartoon characters. Seeing the originally 2D figures come alive in 3D form excited the children a lot. After getting positive feedback from the parents, St.John management replaced the topiary trees once or twice a year to adapt to the current trend.

Aiden's classroom was on the ground floor. He was unable to unlock the door from the inside so he had to resort to climbing out of the window. The boy dragged a chair to the window and placed it against the wall, just underneath the window. He swiftly climbed up and unlocked the bolt. The cold breeze blew into the classroom and made his teeth clatter. Aiden looked up and saw that the sky was cloudy. The sun was hidden away neatly behind all those clouds. Without the sun, it seemed as if it were much later than 3 PM.

Aiden carefully climbed over the window, one leg at a time. When he ended up sitting on the window frame, he sucked in a deep breath before letting himself slide to the ground. His school bag, unfortunately, got caught by the frame during the fall and he ended up tumbling like a little ball on the ground before bumping against a bench and lying sprawled on all fours on the ground.

The boy was breathing heavily.

He made it.

He got out of the classroom.

Aiden Matthews rose to his feet, brushed the dust off his clothes, and repositioned the schoolbag across his chest. The dull pink scarf around his neck became even duller thanks to the dust. Aiden decided to wash it at night by himself. He could not entrust the item to any maid, for fear that his father would find out and ask the maids to throw the scarf out.

Aiden walked slowly toward the vast courtyard. Immediately before the courtyard was the drop-off and pick-up area. There was no parking lot for parents, only for teaching staff. Aiden had expected to see his family's car with the butler inside waiting for him, but there was no car. The boy stood and waited for some time, but still, no one came to pick him up. He looked at his watch and it was showing a little past 4 PM.

A drop of water splashed over the watch's glass surface.

"..."

Aiden looked up at the sky in awe. One drop turned into many, falling from the sky and landing on Aiden and his surroundings indiscriminately.

The rain started to fall. Since the first day of the month, the little town of Arbyshire had been plagued by the typical chilly wind of the winter accompanied by a downpour in the afternoon. Around this time, Aiden used to watch the pitter-patter of raindrops hitting the window in the comfort of his bedroom. This was the first time ever that he stayed in the school until so late.

Aiden ran back in the direction of his classroom to take shelter, but when he arrived in front of the window, he could not reach it. There were a lot of chairs inside the classroom and none outside. Aiden contemplated taking shelter at the entrance of the school building, but it was quite a walk toward the drop-off and pick-up area. Aiden did not want the old butler to have to get out of the car to look for him.

Lacking better options, Aiden Matthews went to take shelter under a nearby tree, just close enough to be able to see in case his family's car finally arrived. The tree that he picked still had a lot of leaves in the mighty branches so it was able to prevent Aiden from getting thoroughly soaked. Aiden had taken shelter under this tree many times before, so he was comfortable with his choice. The little boy was not the only one who thought about this good shelter from the rain. There was someone else who was taking shelter under the tree.

Aiden Matthews felt a chill run down his spine when he realized that he was not alone. All the teaching staff and children and their parents had left the school hours ago. So who was this other person?

Aiden slowly turned around and his eyes met a pair of red eyes with black pupils. The man had two open gashing holes at his neck, blood dyed half of his shirt brownish red. His hair hung around his distorted face like wet seaweed. His breathing was erratic, and he made guttural sounds that seemed to come from the underworld.

Aiden slowly retreated until he got out from under the protection of the tree. The rain started to pour hard on him, causing Aiden's little body to be drenched in no time. The little boy could not care less about it. He could not get his eyes off the horrid creature that was eyeing him with his wild, bloody eyes. Aiden knew what this creature was before he even bared his fangs and lunged at him.

It was a rabid vampire!!!