Canto I

"All hope abandon, ye who enter here."

—Dante Alghieri, Inferno

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It's not a usual night for me. Even though there is the moon and stars just where they were last night and I know everyone back at home enjoys their dinner at this time. I know that they are having mixed vegetables and Rotisserie chicken tonight because it's Friday. It's 'that' day because Dad goes to S&R on Fridays. It's routine, a tradition and almost a habit. But tonight, it is different. I'm not at home lousily browsing my FaceBook app over dinner as I do every night. Tonight, I'm at my boring religious school. We have this mandatory retreat that will last for three days and two nights. Aside from that, I have to say that I love how the night sky is only cloudy enough to let the moon peek over us. Lately, all we had were rainy nights. Daytime is so short like a day didn't happen at all. It's almost always dark outside and every night is a cold rainy night. Hell, I could not even jog in the park because of it. My nights at home are so gloomy and I could not help to long for something new, something that would make me heart pound hard against my chest. Something thrilling and as we sneak along the open hallways of our school. I felt it. I know that this night is different, not because I'm not at home or the different weather but because right now, excitement runs in my veins.

The hallways will be pitch black dark if there was no moonlight coming from the open side of the hall. We let out few giggles and several hushes to silence each other who are all moving fidgety because of mixed feelings of anxiety, fear, excitement and mischief. We moved like mice; one follows the other and all were ready to jump at any moment. My hands feel cold and so are the droplets of sweat budding on my forehead. January breeze cools my hot cheeks when we reached the veranda. It was an open space used for dance practices and physical activities. It was not too big of a place and not even too high; it is only on the second floor of building C.

Beneath the veranda is the canteen so this is where me and friends usually hang out during lunch. It has the full view of the school field and not only that, there are four long wooden benches near the railings and few tables on the side. The simplest way to describe it is to say that it is a rooftop with a roof; the best place to judge people walking across the school grounds. We came into a stop to catch our breaths, all five of us were sweating from running. I watched three of them breathe heavily and noticed one of us is missing. I stood there, trying not to panic. All sorts of possibility came into my mind and I felt my head throb when I imagined Talia was caught by guards who do round search on night shift. It can get our asses on detention or worse, suspension.

"Talia?" I whispered. I asked Astrid to accompany me downstairs in search of Talia. When she agreed, I signaled Asia and Stella to hide under the wooden tables while waiting for us.

"Talia? You there?" Astrid whispered as we walk down the stairs quietly as we can. When we were halfway down we heard footsteps incoming. I hitched a breath and suddenly, I felt like the sound of my heartbeat is louder than the approaching footsteps. For a split second, Astrid and I looked each other in the eye and ran as quietly yet as fast as we could. We hid under the wooden table beside Asia and Stella's. It is a defective teacher's table but still provided us enough cover to hide under. I'm eternally grateful for the ever perfect person who decided to put cover on the front of the table and only left the back open for the wide leg space or should I say, hiding place? It was dark, there was only moonlight to guide someone. No one could ever find us under a teacher's table with benches covering our backs on a very dark place unless it is someone who has a flashlight.

"Raev, Raev! What happened?" Stella asked in a low voice that was laced with panic and fear. I saw Asia beside her, trembling and sweating profusely. I am confident that no one would ever find us but I'm worried about Talia. I decided to not tell Stella what happened yet until the footsteps passes by.

"Shut up, when we get caught. We die." I silenced her. She seemed to understand what I was about to say. Asia, too. For all of us can hear the footsteps now. It entered the veranda and I see light passing through underneath the table. Suddenly, I became hyperaware of my cold sweat as they drip along my forehead. I clasped my cold hands which seemed like they ran out of blood and jitter in panicking silence.

'Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.' is all I could ever think until I heard a low voice.

"Guys, wait up. Fuck, are you there? Guys?" I felt relief wash over me. I could not be anymore grateful that it is not the end of us. I reared my head to reveal myself and tapped Astrid beside who has her eyes closed and both hands on her ears. She opened her eyes and I pointed at Talia.

"Talia, you fuck. I was scared as hell. Why do you even have a flashlight?" Stella asked trying to be mad but sounded like she wanted to laugh.

"No, you. I was alone, okay? I had to use a flashlight. If anyone's scared it should be me. This place seemed like a haunted school. No shit, I was scared to the 8th circle of hell." Talia retorted as she was still catching her breath. Talia was always the clumsy one in the group, I do not even know why I was surprised when she was the one who got left behind.

"Okay, Dante. Now, all of us better quit hiding. There were benches beside the railings for a reason." I said. Everyone has their hanky with them so when all of us were done wiping up our sweat, we started talking and laughing about that false alarm earlier.

"I miss the days when all of us were classmates. I swear, those were the best days," I said growing sentimental when we started talking about building B.

"Woah there, drama queen. We just talked about how great we are to sneak from building A to C and now, you're starting to get all teary-eyed there. But I have to agree." Stella chimed in.

"Fuck you, Star. Yeah sure, we all got sweaty trying to sneak away from our sleeping classmates, yadda yadda but I'm serious, okay?" I rolled my eyes on her. We just passed by our old classroom back in fourth grade and I barely had the time to check it out because we were running. However, I noticed that the chairs were really small compared to what we have on our current classrooms. I can't believe we were that small.

"So, you wanna go back and check it? We'll go with you." said Astrid.

"No way, like what I said, it seems like this school is haunted."

"Drop the 'seems', Talia. We all know it is. This school is more than a century old and was ran by different priests over the decades. We have rumors going around that at night, there is headless priest holding his head on one hand and drags a chain on the other. Besides, literally beside this school is a cemetery." I replied.

"No shit, Sherlock. We all been knew, I was just trying not to scare you, guys. But there you are, dropping all these scary shit on our laps." I know Talia was being considerate but she does not have to. We are all accustomed to these scary stories, many teachers claim to experience it first hand.

"The school is also shaped like a rectangle and you know what they say about it, it is like a coffin. It is weird that buildings face each other and the quadrangle is literally a rectangle." Asia murmured while staring blankly in front of her. I can feel she's scared. I do not know what she's seeing or if she's seeing anything we are not seeing. All I know that she is chilled to the bone.

"Idiot, of course it is. Quadrangles are usually rectangular in shape and surrounded by buildings. But the buildings don't face each other. Building A and C are parallel to each other and so is building B and D to one another. " I said trying to get her feel anything other than fear. She's being unusually quiet so I tried to provoke her but it did not work. She only nodded quietly.

"Okay, Math wizard slash drama queen. First, you scared the shit out of us and then, you'll give us free math lecture? Get outta here. Wait, wow. Whose cars are that? Sleek." Stella said, getting distracted and pointing at the Hummer, Range Rover and RV parked in the quadrangle near the two school mini bus.

"The principal is here. Anyway, Star, shut the fuck up. I may be a horror trash but I didn't scare anyone, Talia did. Besides, aren't we all here for ghost hunting?" I said and then Talia pinched me. I was not really sure about it when I asked. I was not really listening on their plans that day, I just go with whatever.

"No, who said that? Or maybe you weren't listening. We're here because we knew it'll be boring inside the room at this hour. I bet most of them are already asleep yet the night is still young." Astrid answered.

"True, we planned this way before retreat. Remember? Besides, praying all day is draining. We've been praying all day for two days now. I feel like I'm going to be a saint at this age. Phones are not even allowed, no wonder I feel like I need something to keep me from dying out of boredom." Talia added and I agree. It's been a while since I felt this excited. I was about to say something when Asia's cold hand held my arm tightly. We did not hear the gates of building A open but we saw the school bus coming in. Astrid and Talia went closer to the railings to see things better.

"I feel something bad," Asia whispered. At this point, I could feel her trembling. Her grip on my arm grew tighter. I am an empathic and intuitive person but nothing compared to Asia. I stared at her grip on my arm and I swear I could feel her fear. I knew in an instant that something is off. It is not really advisable for the varsity team to come back to school at this hour. If anything, the school would require them to leave early in the morning or while the sun is up to avoid circumstances like this. No one will fetch these students up in school now. I checked and it's almost midnight on my watch. Maybe, the bus had problems on the way. But, it was unusually dirty, too. It's like smeared with paint on different places, especially the front. There were paint all over the windshield, too and it looked like as if the windshield wiper was the only thing that saved the driver from going total blind on the road. I thought my night was already unusual at best until the door of the bus slowly opened. I saw that the limping driver go down the bus and walk away. He obviously wanted to go faster but his body does not allow him to. His white shirt has now a weird design and half as the same color as the paint on the bus.

"Oh shit, I think it's blood." Astrid said clutching the railings harder. She is visibly trembling and I also could not help but tremble too when I realized that whatever splayed on the bus was not paint, but blood. A tremendous amount of blood.

We were all dumbfounded there, none was moving for no one knows what to do. I think we were all nailed into our positions and did not breathe until 3 limping men went after the driver. The driver looked back and tried to run after doing so. But the three men chasing after him were faster. In no time, they got him on the ground. The driver tried to fight back by pushing the man who pounced on him first but the other two bit both of his arm. For the next few seconds, the driver was seen to be struggling until he went completely motionless. The doors of the bus closed abruptly. Inside it were high school students, moving back and forth inside. Out of their what I assume are cheering placards, they spelled, 'h e l p'. Some of them were banging the windows, trying to make noise and catch attention. After what seemed to be 3 minutes, the three men who jumped on the driver redirected their attention to the bus. Limping, they walked their way to the bus and started banging back on its sides. One of these men went directly to the door and started banging violently. I gasped at the sight of the bloodied driver, with his insides hanging out after three men feasted on his body, who stood up and walked towards the bus. Two more limping people were seen entering the gate. I felt like my blood gone cold and I know all of us could not believe what was happening. However, at that sight, I know I had to act. I know what a horror trash had to do.

"Do not cross directly towards building A. I guess you already know what they are and they're here. They entered our school premises, they may go wherever. But right now, we see them crowding towards the bus so we must seize this opportunity to move but don't be complacent. There may be others so be wary. Do not be in their sight, pass through building B instead and run towards your classrooms as quietly as you can. Wake everyone up and explain the situation without causing panic. We should not make noise. I'll get the teachers and personnels." I commanded and with that, everyone started flying towards the building B except me.

It's not a usual night for me. I know what they are. God, just when I thought this night could not be anymore unusual.