(Creepier than normal. I blame the cold.)
I crouched outside a classroom, listening to a speaker perform a dramatic monologue while the whole class took an exam. Polite applause marked the end of their speech. As they exited, they greeted two toddlers that had markings on their faces who were waiting outside.
I hurried into a white car, carrying nothing but the clothes I wore, and a tin box that had a notebook with a bunny cover, a notepad, a compact mirror and a waterproof pen. I was instructed to never show the notebook to anyone else, although at that moment, I was extremely tempted to take it out, if only to see if I have information on what was happening.
Aside from me and the driver, there were two other passengers in the car.
We drove. The road was quiet, eerily so. The only source of light were from fading street lamps. There were no other cars, only people slowly shambling in the same direction as us. Away from the sidewalk were dimly lit figures - very human-like in shape, but wrong somehow - crouched in the dark, watching every movement.
I sat beside the driver, window half-open. He told me we were the only survivors. Fractured memories came to the surface: Marked hands bound by ropes, left hanging on the ceiling. Bodies punctured by steel pipes. Shards of glass that showed candid photos of happier times, but only when light hits at the right angle. Darkness turned into a creature that only appeared human.
"Just us? Not even... then?" Classmates, teachers, school children. Everyone else.
The driver answered in the negative.
One of the crouched creatures suddenly ran across the road in all fours. The driver hit the breaks and the car stopped. I looked around. We were alone.
It leapt on the windshield, and banged its fist on the glass. It appeared like a completely burnt human with its rough and cracking black-red-brown skin. Its eyes glowed, its mouth open as if it was baring its teeth and screaming, but there was neither teeth nor sound.
The windshield cracked. I reached at the backseats and grabbed a large and heavy backpack, rolled down the window, and hit the creature with the bag. It fell off the car. The driver immediately drove us away.
As I returned the bag to the other passengers, I jokes about having a "back swatter".
