VAL DAY-SANCHEZ

Copyright © 2016 Val Day-Sanchez

All rights reserved.

The bell rings and Annette scurries out of the classroom towards the curb. Between the children eager to escape the confines of their school and their parents cascading upon the property, Annette feels even smaller than her three foot frame usually accommodates. She looks down at her oxfords and walks through the sea of people to the curb.

Her grandmother will be there. She will be waiting for her and they will walk home together. Annette will talk the entire way. Her grandmother will walk proud and deliberate. When they reach her third floor walk-up her grandmother will serve her favorite, an apple pastry. It was ceremonies the way her grandmother would first warm it in the oven, while Annette changed out of her school clothes. She would come sit in her step stool turned booster seat and there would be her treat, sitting on a paper plate with a wicker paper plate holder. She would eat carefully to avoid tarnishing the white table cloth.

Annette stands on the curb. With the sun beating down on her, she begins to search for her grandmother. She stands on her tiptoes leaning every which way, attempting to improve her vantage point without abandoning their agreed upon spot.

The rotation of cars in the pick-up area begins to slow and her heart is attempting acrobatics in her chest. She is pacing.

The busyness of the roundabout completely stops. Now she is alone. The absence of noise, that only hundreds of children can create, reveals a haunting silence. Annette suddenly feels exposed and she slowly, not wanting to create any sort of attraction makes her way to the boxwood bushes.

She knows this spot, between the landscape and the building. There's enough space for someone small. She sat here sometimes during lunch or early morning drop-offs. She was good at hiding.

It is dark in her secret place and Annette finds that there is more space to it than she remembered. She crawls deeper into the spot, and squeezes through a tunnel. When she approaches the opening at the end, she looks up to see that the sky is suddenly dark.

She is able to stand up and she wonders where this tunnel has led her. Is she still at the school? A wind sweeps past her, causing her to shudder. There's something big up ahead and she just wants to get there. She feels the hairs on the back her neck stand on end. She contemplates if it was the wind or her discomfort that caused her to shake. There is something watch her.

She begins to walk faster, skipping at first and then entering a full run with the wind surrounding her now and she realizes it's not wind from the sky but wind from something moving, fast. Something big. Annette runs to her large target and she's confounded with what she sees.

It's her school, only in complete shadow. It looks tattered and abandoned. Nothing similar to how it had looked just moments ago. Taking a deep breath she runs inside. Be brave. She pulls the thick metal door open and leans against it once inside. She will have to serve as the barricade as the school is bare. The “wind” seems to have hands that dig into the rotted building and shake it. She hears the hurried pounding on the ground outside. Annette slowly begins to turn around and looks through the glass window. Animals. Hundreds of them running past. She strains to seem them. They are blend in with the darkness. Annette can only manage to see them while they are captured in the street light. Glimpses of fangs. A peek of silver claws. A flash of thick fur.

Annette watches them intently before a loud banging sound pulls her away from the beasts. She freezes wondering if one of them has deserted his herd and made its way inside. Be brave.

Adjusting her eyes to the darkness she sees what has caused the commotion. A piece of the building's roof has fallen to the floor. Annette moves closer to the dislodged artifact only for larger a piece to crash into the floor, mere inches away from where she had previously stood. She has to get out of here. The door from which she came is locked. She will have to venture deeper into the school and somehow avoid the monsters outside.

Annette still hears them as she makes her way through the dank failing structure. She passes the main office, and the kindergarten classrooms, her classroom among them. Perhaps she can talk to her teacher, get her to call her grandmother or tell her what had happened to the school. She moves down the hallway, careful not to make any noise. As she reaches for the door handle to her room she hears an awful noise come from the other side.

It is not human. It is a deep guttural howling. Annette considers what nonhuman could emit such an unnerving sound. Perhaps a dog? She wants it to be a dog but she knows no dog can sound so fierce. The howling stops and Annette hears footsteps. Whatever it is, it's coming closer. Does it somehow sense where she is? She turns away from her classroom door and begins torun. She runs through the back doors of the school and onto the derelict playground. What further horrors would she encounter here?No sooner had the thoughtentered her mind does the jungle gym begin to creak and sway.

Annette watches horrified as it morphs into an animate object. Ripping the concrete, that mounts it onto the pavement, out of the ground. It now stands over twenty feet tallwith the two metal slides acting as its slicing appendages. The monkey bars serving as its jaws. Annette screams as the massive nightmare lunges for her, tearing down a portion of the school in the process. She retreats back to her hiding place.

She sits as still as she can, trying to forget about the creatures that lie just beyond the shrouded bush. She crawls further into her hidden spot. As she maneuvers through the tunnel she feels the earth start to trimmer. She keeps going, desperation and fear fueling her determination.

A light appears, accosting her eyes and temporarily blinding her. She blinks repeatedly only to see the school janitor. "What are you doing down there?"

Annette is too relieved to speak.

"Come on, let's call your grandmother."

Valerie Day-Sánchez enjoys reading and writing across genres, although young adult is her favorite at the moment. Threshold is her first attempt at Sci-Fi. Her other work consists of YA Fantasy Trilogy, Harlow Whittaker. She received both her B.A. and M.A. in Communication Studies from New Mexico State University. Her love of the desert Southwest keeps her close to home although she loves to travel, especially when she gets a chance to try the local cuisine. Playing with her two sons and the family’s Boston Terrier, Winston, are how she occupies her time when she’ not writing.