"Ash? ASH!" Someone yelled.

I tried to ignore the person, muttering, "mph...five more minutes mom..."

"What? Ashley, wake up!" Someone was shaking me.

I opened my eyes, and found myself in the corner of the library, staring at Maya Mathews. Swtraight A student, an amazing role model.. People were often confused when they realized we were best friends. Her idea of being "rebellious" was getting an A on a test instead of an A+. Then, when people see me, with my blue hair, leather jacket, and generally "piss off" demeanor, they immediately assume I'm trouble. They're right of course, but they don't need to know that. Nevertheless, we've been inseparable since about 7th grade.

    "What time is it?" I asked, still groggy.

"It's lunchtime" was her reply.

Damn, really? I thought to myself. If that was true, then this was my fifth time skipping and/or sleeping through my first couple of classes. Hey, it's not my fault that math is boring as hell.

   "I'm so getting detention again, huh?" I asked.

"Come on, get your lazybutt up." she sighed, rolling her eyes

She always acted annoyed when I broke the rules, but I know she was more disappointed, and worried for my future than annoyed. Such a mom.

We walked to the east commons, went through the line to get our food, and sat down at a random lunch table. We soon were joined by my other best friend, Dylan. I love him like a brother, and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if he was for real.

He plopped down across from me, and said, "Fall asleep in the library again Ash?"

   "Hush, you." I said.

   He chuckled.

   "What is this, this third time? Fourth?"

   "Fifth, actually."

   He cackled, "Oh my god-"

   "It's not funny Dylan!" Maya said, frowning, "If she keeps missing classes, she's not going to graduate! We still have two years of high school left."

   "Ugh, don't remind me." Dylan groaned, "High school is the worst."

  "Amen to that brother." I said, high-fiving him.

   Maya sighed.

   "You two are hopeless." She said.

   "Hopelessly tired? Yes." I said

   "Hopelessly handsome, coming our way on your six." Dylan said to me, suddenly quiet, staring over my shoulder at something while simultaneously acting like he wasn't looking over my shoulder at something.

  "What does that even-"

   "Shh!"

   To my right, a tall boy from our grade passed by, with short black hair, dark brown eyes, and one of those playboy smirks that got some girls and Dylan all flustered for some reason. But everyone has their preferences, I wasn't one to judge. The second he had passed our table, Dylan let out a sigh.

   "Am I the only one who thinks JD looks good in plaid? Like, really good?" He asked, casually glancing back as the boy in question sat with his friends behind us.

"He's ok." I said, smiling, "He's kind of a jerk though don't you think?"

   "Hush you" He said

   "Don't use my own words against me!" I cried, trying not to smile

   "What're you gonna do to stop me?" he smirked

   "Keep talking and you'll find out-" I smirked right back

   "Children, children, please-" Maya said, chuckling, ever the mom friend

   The three of us laughed, ate our lunch, and spent a majority of the lunch period laughing, talking, and cracking jokes. Just another normal afternoon. Near the end of lunch, Maya and Dylan were engaged in conversation, about the school day so far. While they talked, my eyes wandered to the corner of the lunchroom. There were shadows, but not... ordinary shadows. They seemed to be, bubbling, which I can say for a fact is not normal, and not natural. Not only that, but there seemed to be shadows where there shouldn't have been.

"Guys, do you see what I see?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Dylan asked.

   I pointed to the shadows, which still looked bubbly, and creepy.

"What am I looking at?" Maya asked. She didn't see it.... And I assumed that Dylan couldn't either. I felt like I was in the blood-in-the-sink situation from IT.

"Guys, I'm serious. Those shadows over there, they're, like, bubbling or something." I said.

They just looked at me. "Girl, you trippin?" Dylan asked.

I just shook my head, a sinking feeling growing in my stomach. "We..we should move, let's move ok?" I asked, getting up.

I started dragging my friends towards the exit. The shadows were getting larger, creeping across the floor on their own. As I looked around even more, I noticed the other shadows also getting larger. That's when everything went to hell.

   Faceless shadow figures rose from the pools of darkness, each maybe at least 8 feet tall, and each one holding a very large, deadly looking weapon.

    "Everybody, RUN!" Someone yelled from somewhere, and the initial shock wore off. People could see the shadows now.

Students screamed, and scrambled for every exit. Some even tried to open the windows. It wasn't any use. The shadow guys were blocking off every way we could escape. The hallways, the staircase leading upstairs, there was no way out.

   "What the hell are those things!" Maya cursed, which was a sign to me that she was really freaking out. Maya almost never cursed.

   Then, one of the shadow warriors, one with a very large, wicked sharp, double bladed battle axe, charged the nearest group of students and swung his weapon.  It should have passed right through them. It was made of shadows, it should have gone through them without doing any harm. But no. To my, and everyone else's horror, the axe easily cleaved about six students in half simultaneously.

   I almost hurled right there, but I forced the bile down my throat, and looked around in hopes that a plan would miraculously form in my head. For some reason, it didn't happen.

   "Dammit, dammit, dammit..." I was muttering, trying not to look at the growing lake of crimson liquid leaking from the corpses. Then things got worse.

   The other shadow warriors started to use their weapons against the students, and things were turning chaotic. A couple of those things lumbered towards me, Dylan, and Maya, probably thinking, hey, here are some more pathetic schmucks we can kill! I wasn't about to let that happen. I ran in front of my friends, putting myself between them and the nearest shadow. Brave? Maybe. Stupid? Most definitely. What was I going to do against a damn battle axe?! The thing swung its blade, and without thinking, I yelled,

"Leave them ALONE!"

I felt the air around me suddenly seem to shift, and a sudden burst of tornado fast wind came out nowhere , which launched the shadow guy back into one of its friends, and its axe into the growing pool of blood and bodies. Not hurting the shadows, unfortunately, but managing to make my breakfast and lunch want to make a reappearance again as it landed on and crushed several severed limbs, and stabbed and/or beaten corpses. I imagine if the shadow soldiers had had faces, or been able to communicate emotion or anything at all, they would've been surprised. I know I sure as hell was. My friends and I stood there in shock for a moment, then the shadows seemed to hone in on me, and I thought it was time to book it.

   "Run!" I yelled. My friend did, staying close to me.

   The shadows tried to rush us again, but the wind made a sort of sphere around us, pushing them back. Several students took the opportunity to run through the opening the wind had made.

"What's going on?" Dylan shouted.

"Who cares? There's an opening! Let's get out of here!" Maya yelled back.

We ran, the powerful wind cocoon around us dissipating as we got closer to the exit. I noticed a lot of kids were doing the same thing. Had this happened through the whole school? The classrooms would be slaughter houses! I shook my head. I could break down later. Right now, I had to focus on getting my friends and I out of here.

   As we reached the main entrance, I noticed a boy, with short brown hair and bright green eyes, raising what looked like walls of dirt between him, some other people and  those shadow things as they flooded out of other areas of the school. I didn't have time to pay much attention though, because I had to duck to avoid several goddamn shurikens being embedded in my face, and make sure my friends were close to me. Unfortunately, things started to go wrong when we got outside. There were more of those things, with more weapons. Several more students fell as they ran out.

   I dodged their strikes as we raced past them, but Dylan wasn't that lucky. He yelped in panic, as one shadow with a hatchet grabbed his arm, and neatly hacked off his left arm. My friend screamed in pain. The hatchet shadow probably would have gone for another part of him if I hadn't ran back and grabbed Dylan's good arm, and ran as fast as I could. The poor guy kept running, probably from shock, and his brain not fully registering everything except the pain for the moment. As we raced away from the  school, I made the mistake of glancing at the stump. I saw the severed muscle, sinew and sawed off bone. There was the bile again. I choked it down a third time, and yelled, "We need to stop the blood from flowing!" He looked at me, eyes getting hazy. Not good! I pulled his jacket off,  ran to his other side and covered the flesh and bone, trying to stem the flow.

"Archers!" I heard Maya scream.

   I looked at her, and with my brain frazzled and still in shock, I asked. "How can you think about food right now?" She rolled her eyes.

   "Not the food, smartass, I mean real, bow and arrow archers!" She pointed at the roof.

   Hell, I thought as the archers aimed their bows at us.

"RUN!" I yelled. Maya helped Dylan run as fast as he could. But he was losing so much blood, and there were still more shadows behind us. I thought we were doing pretty good, since the shadows seemed to have the aim of a stormtrooper. I started to think we might all be able to make it.

   Then an arrow found its mark. Maya collapsed, a black arrow piercing her from behind, the point sticking out from her chest.

   "MAYA!" Dylan and I screamed.

"Keep running!" she gasped, looking up at us. Then she was just... gone.

   I let loose a few colorful swears, then another arrow spurred me into action as it implanted itself into the ground inches away from my foot. We kept running. There were a few other students running with us, but I couldn't pay attention to them for long.

"Ashley, look!" Dylan cried, nodding in the direction. His hands were unavailable for pointing. I looked in the direction he was referring to.

   An old man wearing sunglasses beckoned us, frantically, as if saying, Follow me if you don't want to die!

"What do we do?" Dylan asked.

   We didn't really have much of a choice. Students that had made it out were scattering in all directions, and the shadows were getting closer and closer. I said, "We follow."