End?

Flying quickly backward, Daniel didn't even have time to think about what had happened when he hit the hard concrete floor of the school. For a moment, he felt like someone had drained him of all his strength. It was as if the entire world he had known began to blur.

• Ugh… - he groaned.

After feeling the pain spreading across the right side of his back and leg, he desperately cried out softly:

• Aghh…

If he had been able to watch himself fall, he would have realized he had come dangerously close to breaking his right arm, which could have had catastrophic consequences in his near future.

Opening his eyes and regaining the ability to see the world as it truly was, he saw that he was lying on the green concrete floor, the hardness of which he had just felt deeply.

He looked at his right side, where his head had been tilted. He saw his small, black phone and, after a brief look, noticing the phone hadn't fared any better than he had, he squinted his eyes slightly in mild sadness.

The sadness didn't last long, as another jolt, stronger than the last, shook him awake from his still-dazed state. If he were to guess, he'd say it was at least twice as powerful as the previous one. Trying to regain balance on the increasingly chaotic floor, he didn't even have time to mourn his condition.

• KRRRRRRYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAGH!!

Daniel felt small, really small, as if he were just a tiny wooden boat caught in the middle of a terrible storm. Spitting blood, he saw shards of glass from three 50-centimeter windows flying in every direction.

Trying to get up, he felt a piercing screech in his skull. Slightly curling toward the stairs on his left, leading to the basement and the school's locker room, he noticed blood spilling from both his right and left ears.

Stumbling backward again, he felt the ground shake violently due to tremors even stronger than before. So powerful that he noticed cracks spreading across the green concrete floor. Thinking there were still two more floors above him, he shuddered slightly, looking up to see the same cracks, but fewer in number.

• Uff… - he sighed heavily.

Luckily, the ceiling was probably even stronger than the hard concrete below him. "I wonder what it's made of," Daniel thought, quickly returning to reality. He looked back, seeing something even more terrifying than the crumbling building he was standing in, helpless, like a sheep waiting to be devoured by a pack of wolves.

The glass doors, which had just a moment ago been intact, were now shattered along with the entire glass dome that separated the janitor from the main doors, leaving a view of Patrycja, whose fate had been sealed by the shards.

The largest fragment had lodged deeply into her neck, piercing the carotid artery. Blood pulsed in spasmodic bursts, splattering everything around the poor, dying janitor.

Another piece of glass was stuck in her chest, embedded so deeply that it was barely visible beneath the bleeding wound. Her eyes were wide open, frozen in an expression of pure terror. Her lips trembled, as though she were still trying to say something — perhaps scream, perhaps beg for help — but instead of words, a soft, gurgling sound came from her throat.

Behind her, the control panel blinked. The button to open the doors was still working — as if mocking her in her last moments of life.

The rumbling finally stopped, but the floor still trembled slightly. Daniel couldn't tear his eyes away from what he had just seen. The dome, which was meant to protect the janitor, had become her death trap. And she, drenched in blood and glass shards, looked more like a part of the décor of the dying building than a person.

Daniel was in such shock that, until recently, a person who struggled to stand due to pain now stood frozen…

His stomach clenched violently. He felt something rise in his throat, burning and bitter. There was no time to think, as his body took control. He bent over and vomited straight onto the floor. A thick, yellowish sludge spread beneath his feet, and stomach acid burned his throat. He coughed, spitting out the remnants of saliva and blood, feeling his body tremble in spasms of disgust.

One thought crossed his mind: Is this the end?