Chapter 3: where art thou?

ERIC SIDE

Eric struggled to move. All he could feel was the rough carpet beneath him. He opened his eyes, but his eyelids forced its way down. He had no choice, his body was about to turn off.

When Eric opened his eyes again, he was in a garden. A garden that he's seen in his dreams before. Right before him sat a little girl, who bathed her feet in the gentle rivers she was sitting by. She was a petite girl with silver, silky hair. Wearing a nightgown despite being in broad daylight. Sitting on a lawn of daisies, she turned her body around to face Eric.

"Daisy." Eric said with a bit of confusion.

"You're here early." Daisy looked around and stood up.

Eric walked towards Daisy a little bit.

"Daisy, why am I here?"

"Don't you want to have a good dream?" Daisy replied, smiling.

With a sad look on her face, Daisy snapped her fingers and everything around them changed. All the flowers vanished. The river vanished. All the birds, the blue sky, the trees and the cool breeze vanished. Now, it's just them standing on a plane of still, navy water. Black, rectangular structures were visible in a faraway distance, all tilted at an angle. With every step they took, white ripples formed around their feet.

Daisy turned around and started walking across the river. Eric followed her closely, almost as if he was afraid of drowning.

"Are we headed somewhere?" Eric asked out of curiosity.

Daisy stayed silent for a few seconds and replied, "No. We are just waiting until you wake up again."

They soon reached a shore, and warm, black sand surrounded them.

"Listen." Daisy whispered, "Can you hear the uproar outside?"

Eric tried blocking out the sound of the crashing waves, and heard faint shouting.

"Aren't you going to join them?" Daisy turned around to Eric and smiled.

Eric tried forcing himself to awake from slumber, but his body would not budge.

"Daisy, please help me."

Daisy tilted her head a little.

"I'm just a made up person in your mind. I cannot help you control your body. I can, however, encourage you a little."

Daisy giggled a little and walked up to Eric's ear. She whispered something to him, something that sent shivers down his spine.

"Now, wake up."

Something in Eric's mind broke, shattered, and suddenly the dark world around him and Daisy shattered.

"Wait, Daisy!"

Daisy smiled and waved at Eric while she slowly faded away.

All that's left is Eric with his eyes wide open, collapsed on the floor of an empty library.

Eric could not move his body, he was paralysed. Black figures danced around in his eyes, menacing their presences before him. Eric blocked all the hallucination out and forced his body up from slumber. Eric limped slowly out of the library, and headed outside.

What's weird was that there was no one to be seen. Even when he was in the library, he couldn't spot anyone. The school was strangely quiet, and was filled with bloody mist.

Eric thought he was still hallucinating, but it all felt too real to be just a hallucination.

Walking around the school, the classrooms were all empty. Books and paper were scattered in every single room, as if people left in a hurry. So much in a hurry, that people didn't bring their valuables along. Eric walked in the direction of the oval, and an eerie scent grew more and more fond. Eric was scared to find out what had happened, but he must know what happened.

Though, eventually, he became more and more awake, he became less and less aware. The world shook with every step he took, and every step made his heart throb.

Eric walked through the "B" block classrooms, the music building, passed the showcourt, and finally, he was near the oval. He walked faster and faster, until he was sprinting down the asphalt floored basketball courts. The anticipation was killing him. He stopped at the front of the oval, and the sight was a horror.

"What the fucking hell?"