The Sub-Inactives - Chapter 4: The Discovery.

We arrived at my home and I showed her around. It wasn’t anything special: two floors, the first one had a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom and a laundry room; the second floor had another bathroom, my room, a room where I kept most of the things I never got myself to organize, and another room which I didn’t used.

When I asked her where she wanted to stay, she immediately answered. “Where you do”

My girlfriend had changed radically. She was a thousand  times more loving and caring than before. I think that even that description falls short.

Why was she like that? I didn’t know and I didn’t care.

By the time I knew “why”, it was already too late…

We did very common things the rest of the day; we talked, ate chips and drank some orange soda while watching TV, just the usual stuff.

I also used some of that time to wash the dishes I had left a couple of days. Something extremely unusual and almost incredible was the fact that my girlfriend helped me. I use “unusual” and “incredible” because she hated to do any kind of manual job.

When it was time to sleep… well, I’m simply without words. I’ll just tell you it was the most romantic and beautiful night of all my life.

Next morning, I woke up way earlier than usual for a Saturday; around five in the morning, if I remember well.

She was still sleeping when I woke up.

“My little angel…”

At that moment, I had gotten to the conclusion that I had imagined the red room. Stress… something I ate… something like that.

 Since it was Saturday, I decided it was a good idea to finish with all of the chores to have the rest of weekend free to enjoy it with my sweet girl.

It was a curious thing… just the fact of being around her made me happy. We weren’t that type of couples that met each other doing things they liked or something like that. No, we simply knew each other in a random talk, and we found out we really enjoyed being around each other.

The good thing was that, for having the rest of the weekend free, I only had to do simple and pretty mundane things: take out the garbage, clean up most of the mess I had done during the weekend -I wasn’t that organized-, and wash the laundry.

It didn’t too me that much to make the first ones, maybe one or two hours, if I exaggerate, but…

It was time to do the laundry.

I grabbed the laundry basket and took it down to the first floor. I was putting the clothes in the washing machine while I thought about last day’s beautiful night when “something” grabbed my attention: the clothes I wore the day of the red room.

The clothes were already in the machine, so I had to take it out to give it a good look.

As soon as I took them out, my hearth paralyzed completely, and the image of the red room came back even stronger and more alive than ever.

“No God… don’t make this to me… no… “

The clothes… the clothes were stained red.

“NNNOOOO!”

It was a miracle that that… whatever it was that was upstairs in my room didn’t wake up.

I returned slowly to where… “she” was, more because of the “shock” than not to make noise. I opened the door and went inside.

I couldn’t believe it, I simply couldn’t believe it. I had to lean on a wall so not to fall to the floor.

“It’s not possible… what’s going on?”

She was there… but it wasn’t possible. She was DEAD. It didn’t make any sense at all.

I just couldn’t get it.

Then I remembered something.

“Well… my parents are on a trip..”

“Oh… my… god…”

It was until that moment that I realized the mistake I had made.

  

“And my little brother is with them…”

“OH NO!”

The Sub-Inactives - Chapter 3: The Question.

Once my girlfriend was at ease, she explained me how the whole business went down: how I had hit my head when I fell down, how she had gotten so scared her screams were heard by the principal, how they have gotten me to the nursery… anyway, the whole thing had been a really shameful experience for me, but I think that since I had fainted, it was the least one could expect.

She also mentioned something about the star quarterback of the football team being missing… apparently, he hadn’t returned to his home yesterday after practice, and his family was somewhat worried. I didn’t give it too much thought, since I never liked the guy anyway.

By the time she had finished telling me everything, we were outside of the nursery walking to the school’s main gate.

It happens that I had been unconscious the whole day, and classes were over.

It was until we got to the exit that I noticed all the time we had walked we had been holding hands.

“Strange… she’s more lovey dovey and corny than usual…” I thought. “Bah, I shouldn’t be complaining about that. I’m just being paranoid.”

We got out of the school and… well, frankly, I didn’t want to let go of my girl.

I had experienced losing her once already. All those horrible feelings and sensations… I just didn’t want to pass trough all that again as long as I continued being among the living.

The funniest thing of the whole business was that, apparently, neither did she, since she wouldn’t let go of my hand.

I used all the courage I had, more than ever in my life. I swear of god, I even stuttered.

“Listen,” I began akwardly. “As you know, I live alone, two whole floors, only for myself, and… and I don’t like it. I… had a nightmare,” the only viable and logical explanation I had for the red room. “Were you… you died, and I don’t want to pass through something like that. Yes, I know it’s stupid and it makes no sense, but… I don’t want you to go away, so… could you…could you stay in my house, at least only for today?”

I felt like a complete idiot. “What the hell am I doing?” I thought.

“Mmmmh…”

My girlfriend began to scratch her chin. She was thinking about it.

“OH MY GOD, SHE’S THINKING ABOUT IT!” my mind raced in anticipation and a small degree of surprise.

“Well… my parents are in a trip and my little brother is with them, so…”

“Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god…” my mind was just spinning around.

“Yeah” she said with a smile. “I will,”

I hugged her again. I simply couldn’t believe she had accepted.

Though, right now, I wish she never did.

The Sub-Inactives - Chapter 2: The School

The next day, I had to use all of my guts like never before to go to school. I didn’t want to go: I felt scared to death and extremely sad, but I couldn’t disappoint my mother.

 As soon as I crossed my school’s main entrance and I set one foot on the campus, I got goosebumps. I didn’t even want to remember what had happened yesterday.

But I immediately noticed that that day wasn’t going to be a normal one: several teachers were already waiting in the classroom’s doors.

“Go to the conference room. Now” they told us.

“Obvious,” I thought. “After what happened… yesterday, it is obvious that they’re going to have a meeting in the conference room to  told us what happened and warn us.”

But I was somewhat confused: with something of this magnitude, why they weren’t any police cars around? Why wasn’t there any black ribbon on the main gate or the fence? Why they weren’t any “police line – do not cross” yellow stripes? Why hadn’t the classes being suspended to begin with?

“Maybe they just forgot or something,” I thought, though it didn’t make any sense in retrospective.

But I was wrong. Everything was odd due to one very simple thing.

“Students,” said the principal via the speaker in the conference room. “Yesterday, a prankster did a horrible joke on the police. You don’t need to know the macabre details, but all of you should know that we are investigating, and we are going to get him. I promise that - --“

 “…”

 “WHAT?”

“Something is wrong. Something is very, very wrong…” so stumped that thing left me, that I simply didn’t put attention to the rest of the conference. I was going to stand up to reclaim, but I didn’t. “It wouldn’t be the smartest thing to do,” I thought. How things were back then, it was better not to call any unwanted attention.

After the conference was over and everybody went out, I just stood there in the school yard by myself for a couple of second to try and digest this whole situation.

“What happened here?” I thought in a desperate manner.

I couldn’t be true.

“WHAT DO THEY MEAN WITH “A JOKE”?”

I couldn’t be true.

“Maybe the police was never able to find the room? Maybe it is just a giant scheme from the school?” I was sure of what I’ve seen.

My mind filled itself with incoherent ideas and doubts without answers. I didn’t know what to do nor to think.

“Excuse me…” Somebody was talking to me and I ignored it completely.

“Nothing makes sense… no…” I was still drowned in my own doubts.

“Hey, are you alright?” that somebody kept talking.

“No… it can’t be…”

“Hello? Is everything fine?”

I got mad. I turned around to see who was talking and screamed “WHAT DO YOU WA – ?!”

I couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Well, there’s no need for you to yell at me like that…”

Everything lost sense in that same instant.

“NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO…” I thought.

“If you don’t want to talk, only say so, ok?” I guess she wasn’t that confused.

“This can’t be happening to me… NO!”

“Hey, are you alright? You look somewhat pale…”

“YOU’RE DEAD!”

“Hello?”

Thank god there were only the two of us in the school yard.

I tried to run. Terror had possessed me. I don’t know what got into me.

But I tripped with a bench that was just behind me and I hit my head so damn hard I pass out.

The last thing I saw… that last image.

My girlfriend standing in front of me.

“No…” I thought. “I don’t… get it… it isn’t possible…”

“It isn’t…”

“…”

“…”

I remember that, when I woke up, the headache was unbearable.

I don’t know how much time passed, exactly. I was unconscious for 6 hours or more, I think.

Shortly after waking up, I immediately knew I was in the school’s nursery. Although I couldn’t see a thing (since somebody had put a wet towel over my eyes), the smell of old medicine and latex gloves was difficult to miss.

            The pain in my head was going away slowly, and my senses were returning somewhat at the same time and speed, but I still didn’t dare to move any muscle at all.

But I could feel something more… different and new. It felt pretty warm, and it made me feel better. That something was holding my right hand and was transmitting a very sweet and gentle sensation trough my whole body, giving me more strength.

“Who could it be?” the answer was obvious in my mind, but it didn’t make any sense at that time. I didn’t want to believe it.

I tried to move, but I couldn’t: too numb. But I guessed that the attempt was pretty obvious, as I almost immediately heard her voice… I voice I thought I was never going to hear again.

“It’s crying. Whoever it is, is crying,” I thought.

“Why… why?” the voice said, holding my hand even tighter than before. She just wouldn’t stop crying. “What did I do? Did I hurt you? Why did you behave like that?”

“My god. What’s going on?”

“If it was something I did, I’m sorry,” she kept saying.

She took my hand to her wet cheek. It felt so nice.

“Please… forgive me…” and she kept crying.

Women’s tears are their most efficient weapons. Even more when they come from the woman you love.

At that moment, I didn’t understood what was happening. I was sure of what I’ve seen in that red room… but at that moment, my girlfriend was there, sitting right next to me, crying because of me.

“Did I… maybe, just imagined it all? No… it isn’t possible… Or is it?” it didn’t had much sense, but it was the only explanation I had.

Nothing made sense, but I decided, in that same second I doubted of myself, that it didn’t mattered anymore: I wasn’t going to think about it.

My girlfriend was ALIVE, and that was the only important thing… the only thing that really mattered.

I tried to pull my free hand. It was extremely difficult, but I was able to do so in the end. Thank god the pain was almost gone and now all that was left was the numbness.

“Don’t worry,” I said. Still with the towel on, I turned around to where I thought she was. I think I turned at the right side, but I’m not sure. “It isn’t you, it’s me. Very strange things have been happening to me lately. Sorry if I made you worry.”

“Oh, thanks heavens!” it appeared she was pretty happy I finally showed some signs of still being among the living. “THANK YOU!”

Eventually I found out I had made a mistake: in no moment had I shown signals of life. Even when I thought I had moved a little bit, I never did: she spoke to me all the time I was unconscious, from begging to end.

It was a little bit evident, in fact, when she dug her face in my stomach, hugged me however she could right there on the spot, and crying more than ever, said “YOU FINALLY WAKE UP! THANK GOD!”

It took me some time to calm her down.

Her little and beautiful face… full of tears…

Once the drama was over and I could finally, at least, seat on the edge of the bed, I hugged my girlfriend as tightly as I could.

“She’s here, and that’s all that matters,” I thought.

And you don’t know how much I repent, to this day, of having thought that way.

The Sub-Inactives - Chapter 1: The Red Room

I don’t know why it happened, and I no longer remember exactly when it happened. The worst of all is that now all those memories are useless: nothing really matters now.

I only know that, after that day, everything changed.

I was a normal back then. Everything was normal: I had a quite pretty girlfriend, an active social life, loyal friends… you know, the works. Everything was how it was supposed to be when one has that age.

And my girlfriend… beautiful as only she could be.

But that day…

It was a normal school day like any other. On the usual twenty minute break between classes, I waited for my girl on a particular table in the school’s yard like I always did, but she never arrived. “Well,” I thought. “Most surely, one of the teachers is scolding her again or something like that.”

It was something unusual, but it had already happen a couple of times before, so I didn’t give it too much thought and ate alone. Then, the day continued as normal.

At the end of the classes, I went to the school’s main gate to wait for her like I normally did. Since I wanted to be sure to see her at least once that day, I was the first to arrive from all the students.

She never came out.

Fifteen minutes… thirty minutes… one hour. I waited for more than an hour; already a lot of time after the last student went away.

It couldn’t be possible. I had already said hello to her in the morning.

I decided to look for her. I didn’t have anything better to do anyway.

The school was pretty big itself. It consisted of five buildings, three floors each, each floor with a long line of nine or sometimes even 10 rooms. One could get lost pretty easily there.

I went from room to room, from floor to floor…

It was until that moment that I realized the school had a very strange and sinister atmosphere on its walls… I don’t know, it was like if somebody was walking behind you, spying you the whole time, but when you turn back to see who’s back, nobody’s there.

I don’t believe in ghost, neither back then or now, but at that moment, I felt very strange stuff.

When somebody is alone in this type of big places, that somebody turns into nervous wreckage.

After almost an hour of searching tirelessly in the whole place, I got to the very last classroom in the very last building that I had decided to check, and the room looked very weird from outside: its corridor windows were painted red. Such was the color’s strength, that I couldn’t see a single thing trough them.

I entered the classroom.

And now I wish I never did, ever.

The paint I mentioned before, the one I saw in the window… well, it wasn’t paint.

It was… blood…

All the room… ALL OF IT…

IT WAS ALL COVERED IN BLOOD!

 “OH MY GOD!”

I tried to go back… to get out of there. But the door was jammed. I couldn’t understand: the lock was on my side of the door, but I couldn’t move it: it was as if it had moved when the door closed behind me, and now was stuck.

I screamed and hit the door. I tried it all… but nothing. A putrid smell was quickly filling my lungs. I was scared.

I turned around to see the room, freaked out.

THUD!

And as soon as I turned, “something” fell from the floor, making a strange, wet sound when it landed.

It was a human hand.

My brain twisted and my stomach went upside-down.

I almost had a heart attack.

Challenging all my thought and sensations, I walked deeper into the room, the ceiling’s blood dripping and falling into my clothes, every step I took being muted by the red liquid in the floor.

“What the hell happened here?!”

Desks… the chalkboard… by the love of god, EVERYTHING WAS COVERED IN BLOOD!

I didn’t dare to touch a thing, only to see the macabre panorama.

The smell of blood and metal refused to leave my nostrils… it was a disgusting smell.

The blood from the ceiling wouldn’t stop falling over my clothes and hair, while it kept moving and falling in the walls.

“Oh God, please God, don’t let me die here, don’t let me --“

Then I saw her. Mi girl, she was there, as pretty as always.

But I hadn’t seen well… it wasn’t her completely…

It was only her head…

Her body…

“HER BODY ISN’T HERE!”

It was until that instant that I understood all.

All this moment, in what I’ve been soaked in, what I’ve seen, stepped on and smelled was…

“…”

“…”

“…”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”

I ran. I screamed. I slipped and stained all my clothes even more of that red liquid. I crashed with the door and I remember I kicked it so hard that my whole leg went numb. But I didn’t care; I just wanted to open that door and to run away. I didn’t care about my leg and kept running.

Panic itself took over me completely. The image of that room just wouldn’t get out of my mind, and I just wanted to get as far from there as fast as possible.

I don’t remember that well what happened later, but I think I jumped every single stair from all the floors in one leap, in a bad fall I hit my back pretty badly, and then I run to my house without stopping, not even to get some air.

My house wasn’t anywhere NEAR the school, but at that moment it was the last thing I cared about.

I arrived at my home almost passing out of all the effort I had put in running to it, my heart beating faster than ever. I went immediately to my room.

I took my clothes off and I threw them. They fell in the laundry basket by mere coincidence.

Then, I just blocked.

That red room… that damned room… I was never able to pull that picture from my mind.

Hours passed, I don’t know how many. I stood there by myself, alone, hugging my own legs, in a dark corner of my room for several hours.

After some time, I grabbed my cell phone which was in a nearby table. At that moment, there wasn’t… there simply wasn’t any possible way for me to stay calm and stop crying and trembling, but the best idea I got to calm my own nerves was to call the police. I called and told them there was been a grotesque murder in my school.

As soon as they asked my name, I hung up. It was by mere luck that my cell phone wasn’t mine and that I had just found it lying in the floor one day: even if they tracked it, they would never know it was me who made the call.

The fact I called the police calmed me a little bit, plus it gave some peace and tranquility to my brain and soul.

I was finally able to stop crying and I dared to go out of my room to take a bath.

Although it’s a little bit too much, the rest of the day went out like any other. I could never really stop shaking nor did I give much attention to the TV. It was so bad I even missed the news, were I was almost sure that there were going to show something related to my school. I didn’t think too much about anything except calming my own nerves.

But I never suspected that this was going to be the last time that something made sense, even if in a very small way, in my life.