The Caverns of Carnage

October 21, 2023

I woke up in my bed. The room was silent. Outside it was raining and the sun was rising. Was it all a dream? Or did it really happen? I walked to my parents room.

They were asleep in their beds.

My friend Ryan Carrelli came the following morning. Ever since we were in middle school, we always walked to school together. It was always astonishing to people how me and Ryan could be friends, because we were both polar opposites of each other. Ryan was somewhat outgoing and extremely talkative, whereas I was more quiet and introverted.

Even our physical appearances were completely different; I was a bit chubby and Ryan was really lean. I had wavy dark-brown hair, and Ryan’s was curly and black. I had gray eyes, and his were a deep brown, like his hair.

However, when we entered middle-school, Ryan started acting strange. He rarely talked to anyone then, which was odd, considering the fact that he is known for being extremely outgoing. When I approached him, he said that he was having “issues”. A few weeks later, Ryan was diagnosed with depression. He started distancing himself from everyone, and many days would even skip school.

During April 2021, I tried to ask him what was wrong, and he told me that he was feeling suicidal. Thankfully, I talked him out of it, and months later, he recovered, and everything went back to normal.

Until now.

“I had one of those weird dreams again.” I told him. I recounted the dream of my parents going missing, and the well, the fire, and the skin-less man in the armor.

He looked at me with a skeptical look.

“It’s probably nothing, we have a fire drill today, that might be why you dreamt about the fire,”

“Maybe…” I said, but not feeling entirely sure.

During the first class at school, our teacher, Mrs Lorraine, introduced us to a new student.

She opened the door, and a girl walked into the classroom. She was wearing a navy-blue hijab and a blue and white sweatshirt, blue jeans, and brown sneakers. She had brown skin, and chocolate-brown eyes.

“Class, please welcome our new student, Nakia Bahadir.”

She sat down awkwardly at a desk in front of Ryan, and pulled out her bag.

“Now, everyone, please give her a warm welcome.” told Mrs Lorraine, “Her father told me that she’s had some… some trouble… adjusting.”

Me and Ryan exchanged concerned glances.

Mrs Lorraine clapped her hands.

“Everyone, I’m sure you’ve heard that we are going to have a fire drill today. When you hear the alarm, everyone will line up in an orderly fashion, and proceed to the grounds.”

When the lunch bell rang, me and Ryan walked to the cafeteria to eat.

At a table in the corner, sat Nakia, scrolling at something on her phone. No one sat with her.

Around her, people were acting weird. One boy dropped his juice carton. Nakia smiled and picked it up for him. The boy took one look at her, blinked, started shaking and bolted out of the cafeteria. Many students were whispering as they walked past her.

I felt kind of bad, so I nudged Ryan and we both sat down at Nakia’s table.

“Wassup?” I asked.

Nakia didn’t respond. She glanced over at me, blinked, and continued to gaze at her phone.

“So, you aren’t really a chatty type then, huh?” remarked Ryan.

“Why were all those people saying stuff about you?” I asked her. “And what did Mrs Lorraine mean by “having trouble adjusting”?”

Nakia sighed and put down her phone. “My parents were immigrants from Turkey. I used to live in New Jersey before we moved.” she began. “It was hard. I was the only Muslim student in nearly every school I went to. Everywhere I went… people, even my own friends, were extremely racist. After a while, I just stopped making friends.”

At that very moment, a girl, Lila Crosby, and two of her friends walked over to the table where we were sitting. Lila Crosby had remained in high school for as long as anyone could remember, and each year she had blackmailed and bribed her way to winning class president and homecoming queen.

“Hey, Miss Terrorist, you’re sitting at our table,” Lila called out. “You need to go.”

Nakia turned. “There’s tons of other tables.” she muttered. “I got here first. Who do you think you are anyway?”

Lila slammed her hand on the table.

“I know you’re new here,” she said, threateningly, “But trust me, you do not want to get on my wrong side, m’kay? I’m Lila Crosby, class president and homecoming queen four years in a row.”

Nakia looked unfazed. “So?” she said, and took a sip of water from her bottle.

Lila’s false smile faded. There was a look of visible exasperation on her face. She whispered something to one of her friends and turned back towards the exit. Her friend pulled out something from her bag, while the other took out her phone.

Me and Ryan were about to warn her, but it was too late.

A stream of hot chocolate came streaming down from Lila’s cup and onto Nakia’s head and sweatshirt.

“OW!” Nakia screamed. She stood up quickly from her seat.

“Oops.” giggled Lila innocently.

“Hey, what did you that for?” said Ryan scowling.

“I’m sorry.” said Lila, in the most unapologetic voice imaginable.

“Why did you do that?” Nakia asked, her voice breaking.

“I said I was sorry.” she replied.

At that moment, Mrs Lorraine came towards us. She looked at Nakia, who was drenched head to toe with hot chocolate.

“Nakia, what happened?” she asked.

“Nothing, Mrs Lorraine,” Nakia, sniffled, fighting back tears. “I… I just spilled it.”

She got up and dashed out of the cafeteria.

“Melodramatic much?” sneered Lila.

Nakia didn’t turn up for the following class. Ryan and I overheard Lila telling her friend that Nakia was crying in the girls’ washroom and wished to be left alone.

“You should have seen the idiot’s face.” she cackled.

During the History lesson, the fire alarm rang.

The janitor came sprinting into the classroom, a look of pure alarm on his face.

Everyone stared as he announced “Fire… real fire… from the west hallway!”

There was uproar. Students scrambled for their bags and books, and it took several shouts from Mrs Lorraine to bring silence.

“Lila, lead everyone outside into the grounds at once,” she muttered.

Lila grinned and shouted “Follow me! Stay close behind me, now. Excuse me!”

Me and Ryan passed people hurrying in different directions. As we propelled our way through a crowd of confused middle-schoolers, Ryan suddenly grabbed my arm.

“I’ve just thought… Nakia.” he said.

“What about her?”

“She doesn’t know about the fire.”

I bit my lip.

“Fine, but Lila better not see us.”

Ducking down, we skulked into a deserted corridor and hurried off towards the washrooms.

“Can you smell something?” Ryan suddenly asked.

I sniffed the air. I could smell something pungent and unpleasant. The smell of deeply and violently bitter smoke. The smell of fire.

From our right, as we reached the upper lobby, we could hear a slight hissing and crackling sound. In the distance, we could see the bright yellow and orange tongues of flame spreading outwards from the window of a classroom above.

“It’s spreading towards the washrooms!” I cried out.

It was the last thing we wanted to do, but what other choice did we have? Wheeling around, we sprinted to the corridor where the washroom was.

Nakia Bahadir was shrinking against a classroom door, looking as if she was about to pass out. The bright fire was fuming through the hallway, spreading closer towards us.

I grabbed Nakia’s arm to go, but the fire was catching up behind us too.

“What do we do?” Ryan cried. “There aren’t any fire extinguishers!”

Nakia coughed and stood up. She turned around and looked at the door behind us.

“This is the Home Ec kitchen.”

She bolted the door open and we followed her inside.

“Quickly!” she yelled. “Grab some salt!”

I reached out for the salt shaker and Nakia quickly emptied it into a bucket of water. She grabbed a spoon and started stirring vigorously.

We rushed out of the kitchen and Nakia tossed the bucket of water onto the fire. It started dying down.

“I think the fire exit’s this way!” I pointed to our left.

As we sprinted towards the door marked FIRE EXIT, I heard a voice behind me.

It was the same raspy, unnatural voice I had heard once before. Once before in a dream.

“Gabriel Coleman…” It called out my name.

I turned around. Surrounded by blazing golden flames, reflecting on the bleak metal of his armor, stood BloodLust, his inky cape billowing behind him. The flames around him weren’t the only fire present there. There was fire within his dark eyes. A fire reignited. A fire seeking vengeance.

“Is everyone okay?” Ryan asked, once we got out into the football ground.

“Yeah,” I answered. We both glanced at Nakia.

“Yeah, I’m fine…” she smiled feebly.

“Don’t worry about what Lila did,” I assured her, “She does this to everyone.”

“This is different,” Nakia said, her smile wavering. “You wouldn’t understand.”

And she left without saying another word.