By: Genevieve Scholl

Hey everyone! I wanted to do something special for Halloween, but since there really isn’t anything to do I decided to share with you a short story that I started writing today. I will give you the conclusion on Monday!

I sat in a dark and empty hallway, with only the gentle hum of the overhead lights to keep me company. The bright red EXIT sign at the end of the hallway offers escape, but inside I know it will only bring me freedom from the building; only to push me into the first fresh snowfall of the season. What I really want, what I really need, is an escape from everything. I crave an escape from everyday life and my boring existence. Freedom from the people whom surround me, from the textbooks that bind me, from the time that limits me, and from the clothes that cover me.

My. My, isn’t that a lovely word. Some me-time would be the perfect solution to my trapped feeling. A complete surrender to myself, allowing my body and mind to act independently from the rest of the world. Or perhaps I needed a new world…

Yes, a new world in which I can completely start my entire life over and avoid the mistakes I had made in this one. Except, realistically I knew that wasn’t possible. This world and this life were my only option and I would just have to suck it up and take it one day at a time.

As I continued to sit on the hard tile floor, by classroom B252, I started to drift to sleep… or at least I thought I had, but that was the only logical explanation for the strange green glow coming from the dull gray wall. Wasn’t it? As I watched, the glow spread between the spaces separating thirteen of the bricks. One of the classes down the hall ended and students started passing me in the hall, rushing like cars on a highway at rush hour, but no one seemed to notice the strange light. How can they not see it, I thought to myself as I continued to watch.

The hallway cleared of students once more and the glow grew brighter, intriguing my interest. I slid closer to the wall; trying to explain the occurence, and hoping I was just hallucinating, but there was no explanation readily available for it. Being excited by unexplained and odd phenomena since I was a young child, I lifted my hand to press it against the bricks. Based on the radiant glow I had been expecting heat, but the wall was surprisingly cool… Cold, even.

I tore my hand away and hesitated. Should I even have been touching the green glow? What if it was radioactive? The glow seemed to pulsate like it was welcoming me to touch again, but still I hesitated.

Look for the conclusion on Monday…