Project: Death for Classroom Zero

Chapter 6: Behemoth and Twins

He was running, and running, and running.

In a dark alley, for an hour already, he kept running. Endlessly. The sweat breaking off from his skin and the drenched shirt he wore does not matter to him. Even the weariness that has formed on his muscle.

All he needs, all he want, is to run.

And run faster.

It was hard to tell if he was being chased by someone. Or something. In the dark alley of the supposedly busy streets, he could not see. Being in panic, he stumbled in the ground when a laying low cord of electrical wire tripped his shaking feet.

His nose hit the ground, broke. The sudden eruption of blood flowing from his nostrils had made him dizzy. His lower lip exploded too from that impact. He had a wounded knees and elbows too.

Unfortunate. Unlucky.

Yet, despite the injury acquiesced by his body, he did not stop. He quickly rose from the ground, and run again. His breath frantic, short, failing.

Running, he realized that he acquired a broken bone to his left leg too. He cursed; “Bullshit! What’s next world? What’s the next unfortunate?! You are biased! You haven’t even gave me a good time ever since I was born in this f*****g world!”

And then he regretted.

A screeching sound appeared from the adjacent alley where he was standing. It sent him goosebumps. A chill in the spine.

He started running again. Hopeless, but he should. He need to run. Despite how cruel the world is, despite how biased the life, he still wants to live. Because life, as what was thought of him—not of what he was experiencing—is beautiful.

He still wants to see the beauty of the world. He surely wants to see it. For her. For the only woman he loves.

He could feel there was something following him now. He was certain. He could feel its simultaneous steps, as if it had ten legs or more. He could feel its stare; eight times more piercing than just of an ordinary human. He could hear its growls too.

‘Help, help, help! Please help me!’ he was screaming at his thoughts. But he could not scream it directly to anyone, or anywho from here. Because he will die. Surely.

From the back of the alley, from where the unknown creature came from, a dog barks repeatedly. Loudly. A screech happened to occur from the creature following him at his back.

The man forcefully shut his eyes, about to jump in joy, in happiness, in thankfulness to the owner of the dog, or to the dog itself.

Because the dog sacrificed his barks—and even his own life—to save him.

He tried his best not to let out a wild scream or shriek in order for the dog’s unwilling sacrifice would not be wasted. In haste, in silence, he ran. At the back, he heard the dog who was just earlier barking, released a piteous cry that only lasted for three seconds or less.

Three seconds was a too limited time for the man to escape. But it was more than enough, especially to him—in order to hide. He was crouching in the middle of trashcans filled with mountainous pile of garbage that has not been collected by the garbage truck for about a month or two.

He was holding his mouth. He was shaking. He was crying. But no sobbing. But not moving. He was quiet. Even though he does not want to, but he chose to open his eyes—to watch the creature where it would move. To where it would go.

Under the beam of the mourning moon, he could see the creature’s ten walking legs—human legs—stepping with the pattern similar of an arachnid’s. Pedipalps. Its body—Cephalotorax—was made of mushed flesh formed as if it was just made by a child from its clay toy. An abdomen part, similar of a spider was attached to the creature. But, it was made of glass. Inside, there were green liquid frothing, poisonous, and ready to be ejected to anyone it could treat as prey. At its Chelicera, instead of eyes, there the man could see four heads of a toddler, each has a red eye to complete the infamous eight eyes of an arachnid.

The man, he knew himself, that he was an Arachnologist. A spider enthusiast. He knew he should not, but he could not help himself comparing the creature to the spiders.

For indeed, this was a spider. But, a horrifying human spider.

***

Tristan jolted from his bed with a scream. His eyes were filled with horror as he open it from a long time sleeping. He felt the trickle of sweat on his neck and forehead, as he attempted to calm his hard-pounding chest.

“What was that dream?” he asked himself. He dreamed of someone. A man.

He dreamt of walking on a dark alley when he saw a man running with noticeable panic painted on his face. He was curious to that man that is why he followed him. To his surprise, he saw a horrible creature following him. Something frightening. He screamed and shouted warning to the man whom a spider-like creature was following with. But it seemed that he was not being heard by the man, for he continued running. Until he realized that the spider behemoth made of human’s body was now looking at him. What made him jolt up from his sleep is when the creature opened its mouth—below the heads of the toddlers—and ate him.

A terrifying dream.

“That was just a dream. Only a terrifying dream,” he repeatedly chanted.

When he finally moved on from the nightmare he had, he started noticing a sound erupting from a speaker attached on the wall, above, near the ceiling. Perhaps, it was what made him awakened. A familiar sound bouncing on the walls of his room.

“Ah vous dirai-je, Maman,” he said, telling the name of the familiar song that swirls around the room.

He knew its name, for it was what he was trying to learn as a piano piece when he joined the music club of his earlier school. Funny, for the English counterpart of the song was the nursery rhyme, ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’. However, he recognized that it was the second among the twelve variation of the piano piece.

He quickly stood up, and arranged the bed he slept at. Calmly arranging the bed cover, he again saw the card peacefully sitting on the top of the table.

He wasn’t sure what the ‘see you’ he decoded means. But something in him tells that he should keep it. Hide it. He have this instinct that he should not tell in regards of this to anyone, even to Rain. He picked the card, and placed it inside the drawer of the table in his room.

“Better hide this first.”

Having fully decided, he started to stride towards the door. He unlocked it, but only slightly opened. He peered through the spaces in the door, and carefully checked if the place outside was safe.

It was. In fact, some students from different rooms were already outside, warily scanning the place, and having a talk to other students who they can view as perhaps, their friend.

“I think its already safe to go outside,” he whispered to himself. “No more neuroleptic gas in the alley which Rain warned me.”

Fully opening the door, he warily looked at the other students waiting outside their doors as well. He accidentally made an eye contact to two women. They have an identical features of their face, making Tristan conclude that they were a twin. They were clinging to each other’s arm, and has a grim glimmer on their eyes.

Surprisingly, they strode towards him. They eye at him with a noticeable intention.

“Fauxier. That was your name, wasn’t it?” One of the twin said. She was a woman who have multiple piercings on both of her ears, and a cap tucked in her head to hold her shining sleek hair.

“Last name,” Tristan corrected.

“T—Then, what is your first name? I—If it was okay to ask.”

The other woman has an entirely different personality than the first one. She was more conservative than her sister. Her eyeglasses will give the impression that she’s an introvert. Shy.

“Tristan. Tristan Fauxier.”

“Nice meeting you, man. I’m Timmy,” said one of the twins who wears cap.

“I—I’m Tammy Cruz,” said the shy one.

“Nice meeting you both,” he said, smiling and nodding to them.

He realized that perhaps it was a great decision if he is going to have connection to other students belonging in this game. As he looked on the whole surrounding, he realized that almost everyone was talking to their co-student, trying to build connection. Perhaps, that was a good tactic, for if ever the next game would require being accomplished in group, he could have someone to look at, aside from Rain.

“You see, we’re familiar to you,” said Timmy.

“Familiar?”

Tammy nodded, same as with Timmy.

“Y—You may not be familiar to us, but we’re familiar of you, ever since Junior High School,” said Timmy.

Tristan had curled his forehead, and asked, “Why? In what way?”

“At… at the competitions. There were time that we became opponents in a quiz bee competition. You are the representative of your school, and Timmy was the representative of ours. You swooped the quiz bee with only one mistake, while the others could not just do anything but look in awe at you.”

“And when there was a Literary competition, Tammy represents our school. She was the second placer, while you know who wins.”

Tristan was fascinated that the twins knew and is familiar of him. He never expected that other students almost around their city could be on this place as well. He thought he was just the one who was from his city. The others, he believes that they came from different far away places.

He had never remembered the twins ever since he competed in different competitions he had joined. But the twin recognized him, which made him feeling guilty.

“I never knew that. Not even recognized you.” Tristan scratched his head.

“It is okay,” said Tammy, “You may have not known, but almost all of the students who would compete in a competition of our cluster would recognize you. After all, among everyone, you are the one standing out.”

“Ah, really?” He felt shy.

“You were a loner then. Preferred to be alone, that’s why you may not recognize us,” said Timmy.

“Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be sorry, man. It is okay for us. Actually, we were admiring you and your intelligence. We even asked each other of what if you and the both of us were classmates? We could perhaps help each other,” added Timmy.

“A—And now that we’re Senior High School, we never thought that we could meet and be classmates,” said Tammy. “C—Classmates here, inside Classroom Zero.”