Punishment had a way of stretching time.
The classroom was already half empty, when the final bell rang, it's echo fading into the corridors like a tired sigh. I remained seated at my desk , fingures curled tightly around the edge of my notebook as the teacher's footsteps retreated down the hall. Chalk dust still clung to the air , and the afternoon sun slipped through the windows in thin, golden lines that felt more mocking than warm .
I was told to stay behind , to reflect they said . Reflect on my attitude. On my silence. On the way my eyes always wandered as though l was listening to someone no one else could hear .
By the time l was dismissed, the school felt abandoned.
Lockers stood open like hollow mouths . Chairs were stucked carelessly. The laughter that once filled the halls had vanished, leaving behind a stillness that pressed against my chest. Outside, a small group of students walked together, books tucked under their arms as they revised aloud, their voices blended into the hum of the evening.
I slowed my steps. I checked the road instinctively, though l already knew what l would find. The bus stop was empty. No engine sounds. No dust rising from approaching wheels. The last bus had left while l was siting alone at the classroom, counting the cracks on the walls.
I swallowed.
Waiting for the next one would take too long and the sky was already changing. Clouds gathered like bruises above the rooftop , and the wind carried the sharp scent of damped earth . " Nights always come too quickly these days ", l said to myself.
I turned around.
The shorter route home cut through the forest. Everyone knew that. " Don't ever walk their alone ", those were the words l grew up being told.
At the forest edge , the world seemed too pause.
The trees stood close together, their branches weaving overhead like clasped fingures. Sunlight barely reached the ground, and the shadows pooled thickly between the roots. The air felt colder here, heavier as though it carried memories it had never learnt to forget .
I hesitated at first, then went ahead.
My footsteps echoed too loudly on the dirt path, each one sounding like an intrusion. Leaves crunched beneath my shoes, and somewhere deep within the woods , something shifted, slow, deliberately, unseen.
I told myself it was only the wind.
Yet the deeper l walked, the quieter the world became. No birds. No insects. Even my own breath felt foreign, as though it didn't quite belong to my body anymore. The path twisted unnaturally, bending where it shouldn't, pulling her further from the familiar.
And then , l felt it .
A strange pull. Not fear. Not exactly.
Suddenly the rain started splashing out heavily, l ran as fast as l could possibly to find a place to protect myself against the rain. I was shivering from the cold that my clothes failed to back me up .
The rain stopped after a couple of some minutes. When suddenly l noticed that l was in a cave . The most shocking part is that it had light on, and l could see a path of footsteps that are leading you inside it .
I was so frightened by it that l tried to calm myself down. I decided to get a whole of myself and went in . The more l took a step closer l could hear sound of people chanting and laughing in unison.
I couldn't move my legs forward as l was frozen to the ground upon seeing what infront of me was.