Trapped In High School: A Narrative Fiction

“Hello?” The door clicked shut behind me, the quiet sound loud in the empty hallway. I didn’t notice, heading down the hallway, not realizing how bad of a situation I had gotten myself into. “Hello? Peyton? Dad?” I called again into the dark, scanning the walls as I walked down the hall, nearly blind in the dark. “Is anyone here?” There was no response. I was completely alone in the dark. Unbeknownst to me, I had just locked myself in the abandoned first grade pod.

Just under an hour ago I had arrived at Prairie Star for the annual Justice Grove picnic with my family. My brother, being a grade ahead of me and my sister, immediately headed off to join the second graders with my mom. My sister and I elected to instead stay with our dad and eat the standard school fair junk food, watching the families mill around the school grounds as we sat in the tall grass. “Are you sure you don’t want to do anything else?” My dad asked us as we finished our food.

“No, thank you.” I responded, shaking my head. I was tired and didn’t want to move from our spot on the hill.

“Can I get more food?” Peyton asked, standing up and brushing hot dog crumbs off of her boot cut jeans. My dad nodded in reply, standing up as well. Peyton took off down the

Normally the pod was an open hallway, but seemingly out of nowhere, two doors had appeared and blocked my immediate entry. I frowned, but pulled the doors open, struggling with the weight. When I finally managed to open them, I wasted no time in darting in. “Hello?” I called, heading down to Ms. Brush’s classroom. The doors clicked shut behind me, completely engulfing me in darkness. “Peyton? Dad?” I tried again, just as I turned the corner to the classroom. The lights were off, and no one was present. I was completely alone in the darkness of the empty pod. I took this as a sign to leave as soon as I could, turning and quickly walking down the hall, my footsteps muffled by the thin