Infection

The school bell rang and the halls immediately flooded with students eager to force their way out of the prison cells the grown ups insisted they flock to for six hours a day. Reading, writing, arithmetic; all the same old shit that would most likely mean nothing when you "grow up". Teenage angst is a wonderful thing; a very cliché thing. Something I’m sure you’ve been told a million times. Unfortunately, this isn’t one of those stories. I’ll try not to bore you, I promise. Let’s take a walk back to yesterday afternoon, about the time the clock struck three. . .

Aiden was already standing against the schoolyard wall when the bell rang. He saw Kora open the door from her classroom only moments later and look around. He nodded towards her, and pulled out a lighter from his back pocket. Aiden lit a cigarette, and ran a graceful hand through his shoulder length hair, dyed a combination of orange and blonde. Not many could pull it off, but he could. Kora walked towards him, smiling. He kissed her on the cheek, and took her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers.

“Ditch again, huh?” Kora asked, grinning.

“You know I don’t like that word. How about, I wanted to admire the scenery, or perhaps, I needed a breath of fresh air?” Aiden smirked, an eyebrow cocked.

“Oh, please. Aiden, stop filling your lungs with smoke for one second, it’s a bad habit.”

“Fine, fine.” Aiden dropped his cigarette on the ground, and put it out with the toe of his black chucks.

The couple walked towards the underground metro station. They rode the escalator to the depth of the grounds, and stood on the pavement waiting for the trolley to arrive. It appeared right on time, and the doors automatically opened, leading from the platform, to the inside of the beautifully furnished transport car.

“After you, mademoiselle.” Aiden said, bowing slightly.

“Why, thank you monsieur,” replied Kora as she accepted Aiden’s outstretched hand. He followed his girlfriend onto the car, and offered her a seat by the window. The two were on the last compartment of the trolley, separated by a single door on the far right of the room. The ceiling was painted a light beige color and a single chandelier hung from the center. The compartment had a very aristocratic feel, which seemed a little eerie in the fact that they were boarding an underground subway. The seats were upholstered in a beautiful red, cross-stitch pattern, and the windows were draped with thin, black curtains, embroidered with swirls and curves that portrayed a sheer elegance in design. They were the only two on the car until-

“Kora?” A sudden voice said from behind.

Kora turned around suddenly to find Momo and Tohrn standing behind them. “Mo! I haven’t seen you in forever!” She exclaimed.

“Oh god, I know! How are you?” Momo flipped her dyed blonde hair, and pulled out a pocket mirror from her purse.

Kora shuffled uncomfortably, and Aiden and Tohrn looked at each other in a way that inferred they were thinking the same thing – girls were so eccentric. Nevertheless, Aiden put an arm around Kora’s shoulder and tugged her hair playfully. She seemed to calm a little, but only for a brief moment.

The trolley came to an abrupt stop, nearly knocking the two couples over. Aiden caught Kora, managing to steady himself as well. Tohrn had fallen on the nearest booth, and Momo was ungracefully sprawled on top of him.

“Jesus, what was-” Momo was cut off in mid-sentence by a dull thud from the other side of the compartment door. The unpleasant noise was followed by sheer silence; a very uncomfortable one at that.

Aiden helped Kora into a nearby booth and calmly walked towards the compartment door. He looked back into Kora’s kind eyes and nodded his head. Aiden swung the door open and a man who must have been resting against it fell back, sprawled out into the hallway. His eyes were glazed over and a trail of blood dripped out of his mouth, down his cheek, leaving a little pool on the ground.

Momo shrieked and pressed herself against the booth, drawing her knees up against her chest.

Aiden kneeled down and placed two fingers to the man’s neck, checking for a pulse. “He’s dead.” He stated, his face showing his shock.

“Aiden, look.” Tohrn pointed to the compartment beyond the door.

Aiden turned his head, finally noticing the strong stench of blood wafting from the next room. The odor was mixed with something else, but he couldn’t quite place it. The view was even more shocking than the smell. There were corpses sprawled on the floor, across booths, across each other. The occupants were oblivious to the strange presence hovering above them, slowly spreading into the room. It seeped into every corner, every nook and cranny. The disease that would cause their very own demise, the students had just invited it in.

Let’s take a step back into the present; a little peek at this unwelcome guest that will soon seep into your very own mind. Don’t doubt it. That was their first mistake. This intruder is airborne, colorless, odorless, tasteless. It absorbs into every pore of your flesh, circulating in your bloodstream before reaching the viscous matter of your desolate brain. It eats away at the sticky substance that controls your hearing, moving slowly to sight, touch, and eventually leaves you paralyzed in a horrible state of confusion and loneliness that’s hard for any sane person to possibly fathom. It causes an extreme form of schizophrenia, paranoia and malignant insanity that if left untreated, proves to be fatal. I’d recommend you take extreme caution if you’d like to continue. Even the most impertinent of beings fall into it’s trap.

Momo began to pray incessantly in Chinese. She heard a slight rustle from beside her, and upon opening her eyes slowly, watched a faint silhouette slink along the wall of the compartment. She hesitantly turned around to determine whom the shadow belonged to, but found no one behind her. She turned back to face the wall but the silhouette had vanished. She sighed in relief. But now, what was this? Momo felt a cold hand on her shoulder. It was slowly reaching around to take a grasp on her fragile neck. She saw the shadow again on the wall, this time holding a scythe. She screamed, and tried to try the culprit’s fingers loose, but found her hands slipping, grasping nothing but air. The grip tightened. She felt completely hopeless. Her struggles were endless as she faded into unconsciousness. The slim fingers left her neck, leaving her limp body to absolve into the darkness.

“Mo! Wake up, Momo!” Tohrn gawked at her unconscious, limp form. “Wake up, please!”

“She must have fainted from shock,” remarked Aiden.

He was calm and collective, as always, and Tohrn looked at him in dismay. “We have to do something!” Tohrn yelled.

“There’s nothing we can do!” Tohrn saw a flash of light reflected from something Aiden was holding behind his back. He smirked. “Do you want to play a game? It’ll be fun, I promise.”

“Aiden, this is no time. My girlfriend is sick; yours is scared to death, hiding in a corner."

“Nonsense. . .there’s always time for this one. Guess what I have behind my back. Come on, I’ll give you a hint. I found it in your backpack.”

Tohrn cried out in horror as Aiden revealed a brilliantly polished kitchen knife. “That’s. . .that’s not mine!”

“Don’t lie to me.” Aiden’s eyes turned cold, looking black in the light. There was nothing left but pure hatred. He stepped forward hastily. Kora covered her eyes as she heard a slashing sound followed by that dull thud again. When she opened her eyes, Aiden was crouching on the ground beside her. She caught a glimpse of Tohrn’s corpse lying in the middle of the room, surrounded by a pool of blood. Kora didn’t have time to scream, Aiden’s lips were against hers in a feverish kiss. She had to act now. She wrenched the knife from Aiden’s hand before he could object and thrust it into his abdomen, and without thinking, twisted it. There was a horrible gurgling sound as her boyfriend fell to the ground. He looked at her, and with a last breath uttered, “I love you.”

Kora shed a single tear and closed her eyes, clinging to the blood soaked knife. When she opened them again, she was sitting on a booth in the trolley, Aiden beside her, Momo and Tohrn in the booth behind. They were laughing and joking and catching up on old times. She felt a wave of relief and the hallucination deserted her mind. Everything was fine. And then, there was a dull thud against the compartment door.

Kora's eyes filled with fear and she shrieked, "Don't open the door!"

Too late.

Well, this was kind of a one shot short story. I wrote it..well, pretty tipsy at 2:00 AM for a school project, and then turned it in the next day. Again, Faith is my amazing beta and she gave the horrible story some, umm, reading quality. XD If you liked it, you're funny.