《Panoris High》 Chapter 1 - Prologue It was the early morning; a light breeze fills the air. A group of four students were pushing each other, trying to get through the one entrance in the bus at the same time. Skyler put her briefcase in the storage at the bottom of the bus. Sighing while looking at the group of students, finally entering the bus. While Skyler entered the bus, a hand patted her back and a familiar voice talked to her. ¡°Heya Skyler! Ready for the big school trip before the summer break?¡± Skyler turned around and like expected. A boy with short black hair and bright blue eyes stands behind her. ¡°Ah your also here Dennis. Pia managed to convince her parents to let her join the trip.¡± Skyler replied smiling, while walking to the back of the bus with Dennis. At the back of the bus, waiting for them a girl with long curling pink hair with purple highlights and purple eyes. Waved at the duo while leaning against the window, giving space for them to sit. ¡°Hey! You guys got any clue how long this trip takes? I forgot to take my charger with me. If only someone had a spare one¡­¡± Pia told them embarrassed while softly hinting. Skyler sighed and opened her bag and handed a charger to Pia. ¡°Ahhh you¡¯re the best Skyler!¡± she said excited while plugging the charger in the outlet. ¡°No need, I do expect it back once we arrived at the campsite. To answer your question, it is a half day drive.¡± Skyler answered while grabbing a book from her bag. ¡°Well, this going to feel like a month then¡± Pia replied sighing while plugging her headphone in. ** After a good 8 hours of driving the bus entered a thick forest. Bells were heard, and a group of cows crossed the road. After 10 minutes or so the group left, and the bus continued driving. Going down a small path with an old sign saying, ¡®Green Wing Campsite¡¯. The bus parked near the entrance, afterwards the teacher who went with the group lead the class to the location where they would camp. Skyler, Pia and Dennis worked together to put up a tent big enough for the three of them to rest in. ¡°Alright guys it is still light outside why don¡¯t we take a look around this campsite for the time being?¡± Dennis asked the two girls. Pia nodded and put away her phone. While Skyler put her briefcase in the tent. ¡°Alright I am all done, let¡¯s go and explore a bit then.¡± Skyler replied while exiting the tent. Dennis smiled and the three of them followed the cobble road that they followed to get here. Pia looked around ¡°Well it is quite dead here it¡¯s almost like a ghost town. No other tent to see.¡± The campsite was quite small. It only has a reception, a bathroom and a small shop. Because of this their trip around the campsite was finished within 15 minutes. Dennis sighed. ¡®Well, you can see where the school¡¯s budget went.¡± When they arrived back, they helped the teachers prepare dinner for the class to spend their time. Once dinner was finished a boy with medium blonde hair and blue hair called Albert, invited them to the firepit. ** At the firepit a bonfire recently got lit up. Several classmates were busy collecting dry sticks, to keep the fire going for the night. The trio sat down on the stomps that were placed around the bonfire. One of the older members of Skyler¡¯s class waved over to Skyler. She knew him well even though they are not too close. It is not wrong to call him a friend. The young man stood up and poured some tea he prepared and handed it over to Skyler. ¡°Always make sure to stay hydrated Skyler! It has been a long drive to make it here.¡± He laughed. Skyler smiled and gave a thankful nod to him. That is Cornelius for you. Always there for his classmates which is also why they decided to make him the class representative. Cornelius gladly accepted it and always helped when one of his classmates got in trouble. Or a teacher does not do what he is supposed to do. Once Skyler sat back down. Dennis was busy already with roasting marshmallows. However, Albert decided to speak up. ¡°Alright. Now that everyone is here, and Dennis started roasting the marshmallows. Why don¡¯t we share some ghost stories with each other?¡± Right afterwards Cornelius chuckled and turned on the flashlight shining from down his face. Not realising that this does not really have any effect cause the campfire is shining bright. Nonetheless he continued trying to make a spooky atmosphere. Then started telling his story. ** ¡°This story is actually not one I came up with myself, it is actually a local legend around this area.¡± Cornelius said smiling while looking around him trying to tense it up. ¡°Long ago there was a big, influence full, high school, around those parts. The name of this school was Panoris High. It was a high school just like ours. However, not suffering from financial debts at the start.¡± He took a sip from his drink and continued ¡°Everything seemed to be going well for the school. However, without any explanation. This school suddenly closed one day. Nobody truly knows what the reason of the sudden closure was. Most documents about the school mysteriously got lost. When a team was searching the school through. They were not able to find anything documented. Only locked doors all over the place. However, the most mysterious thing about this all, is the fact that the team never came back. It is like they got wiped from earth. After that incident, nobody dared to come back to that school. The school is currently standing somewhere deep within the woods, far away from here abandoned. However, nobody knows the location, once you find it there is no way to find your way back, they say.¡± Cornelius finished his tea and puts it down. ¡°But that is just a rumour, a legend.¡± It looked like everyone was deeply invested in it. Skyler also admit that she was intrigued by the story. But this little ghost story telling party. Got abruptly interrupted by a loud cracking bell sound. That the teacher was making. She yelled that it was bedtime and told the class that they would wake up early tomorrow to visit a nearby ruin of an ancient village. Skyler, Pia and Dennis walked back to their tent discussing their day. After brushing their teeth and getting in their sleep bags. Dennis asked them ¡°Well that was quite an interesting legend Cornelius talked about earlier¡± Skyler sat up and smiled ¡°Yeah I do enjoy my legends, especially if I have never heard it before.¡± Pia rubbed her eyes ¡°I agree it was an interesting tale, but we might want to sleep, the alarm is set at 7am already¡±. Pia rolled around trying to sleep, Dennis and Skyler followed her lead shortly after.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ** The next morning once again Skyler woke up abruptly because, multiple teachers were marching around hitting bells. Dennis looked miserable complaining ¡°What is next? An entire orchestra of first year teacher?¡± he sighed annoyed. Skyler crawled out of her sleeping bag yawning and puts on her shorts, an oversized sweater, her boots and brushed her hair and puts a hairband in it afterwards. She sat down next to Cornelius, Albert and their group. While eating the breakfast that the teacher prepared for them. ¡°Time to start the sightseeing!¡± Albert replied enthusiastic while finishing his cereal rather quickly. Before Skyler even got to her fruit Albert already jumped up and ran to the bus. Only for a tall boy to push down Albert to the ground, then they left laughing. That was Paul and his group. The teacher came quickly to help Albert and settle it with Albert and Paul. Skyler finished her breakfast not noticing what just happened behind her back and she walked to the bus. Around a half hour later, the bus started driving through the narrow pathways in the forest. The drive itself was around two hours long. After an exhausting ride, the class finally arrived at the ruins. It was an abandoned village or well what is left of it, there are a few houses in the back which were not destroyed. ¡°Pia, Dennis. I¡¯ll go and look at the houses in the back¡±. She told them and the duo nodded and waved while going to a statue near the entrance. Skyler went inside the stone house and looked around. When suddenly a roaring thunder was heard outside. When she looked through the window, she saw the rain falling in a large amount. If she went outside now, she would be soaked. So, she decided to wait inside after what felt like an era. She finally managed to get back outside. Once she arrived it looked just like a ghost town. None of her classmates were in sight, she looked around confused. Thinking that they probably fled back to camp because of the storm just now. She turned around and saw a young girl with long blonde hair who looks to not even have reached 12 years old. The girl looked at Skyler curiously. When she blinked the girl was gone, after she blinked again. The girl was there again. However, it was a lifeless body with what looks like her guts sliced open. Skyler almost threw up and looked away and realised that it was starting to get dark. She slowly looked back to where to body was. But there was nothing. ¡°What kind of sick imaginations have I?¡± she said disgusted and went in the forest looking for a way back. After walking on the forest path for a good twenty minutes or longer, the clouds became grey, and the sounds of thunder appeared. She started walking faster and after another twenty minutes. She finally saw a large building in the distance and walked towards it. ** A tall, rusty, iron fence was in front of her. Skyler started to look around for an entrance and after looking around for a while, she found a rusty gate however to her disappointment. The gate was chained up with a lock. When looking through the fence she mainly saw plants and trees blocking the view. From what looks like an old school, for a moment she thought about the legend yesterday but shook her head. That was nothing more than an urban legend after all. She went back to looking for a way in, and a bit farther away there actually was a hole in the gate where she was able to crawl under. Without hesitation she crawled through it and appeared in an overgrown garden with benches surrounding it. Most of them were rotten and some already broke in half. When she followed the gravel path she saw. Several big windows, however, it was too dark to see through it. Looking up she guessed the building had at least two floors. She followed up and walked towards what looks like the entrance. She stood in front of the entrance and felt a chill going down her back and she gulped. Above the door was a old sign written on that sign was ¡°Panoris High¡±. Chapter 2 - Blood Red River As Skyler pushed open the door and walked inside. She stood in the middle of an empty room. Before her there was a pile of rubble blocking the way, deeper. inside the school. The only other way was through the reception desk, however, the door here also had a lock on it. Skyler tried her best to push and pull the door. But without any luck, it did not move an inch. Defeated, Skyler turned around. to exit the school. However, when she was about to open the entrance once more. She saw a green vine that perfectly fits the keyhole, grow through the keyhole down to the bottom of the door blocking the way out. Skyler quickly grabbed her backpack looking for something that could be used to cut the vine, without any luck. She threw her backpack to the ground, her face turned pale while realising that she is stuck. ¡°How can this be?¡± She asked to herself trembling while clenching her fists. The trembling quickly changed to rage she kicked the door while yelling. ¡°Those damn cowards running away, leaving me behind.¡± Grinding her teeth ¡°So much for my so-called friends, rather than staying beside me they all ran away. Now I am left alone here to die!¡± She took a deep breath in and leaned against the rubble while putting down and opening the zipper of her backpack. ¡°Luckily, I packed in a lot of food and water after that Strange dream from yesterday.¡± She said sighingThis book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. while taking a bite out of her sandwich. ** The night before the arrival at Panoris High: Skyler slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes. Looking around herself. There seemed to be almost an endless bare, desolate wasteland. Surrounding Skyler expanding to all directions. Once Skyler stood up, she had a difficult time with breathing. no breezes, no pleasant smells, just nothingness. Nonetheless she started walking forward, hoping somewhere along the way she can find an answer. About what situation and place this existence is. After what felt like hours of walking in a straight line, she arrived at what looks like a river trench, but without water. Taking no risks Skyler followed the trench at the side. After a while she stood before what looks like an endless void. Going deeper and deeper without the bottom in sight. Then she felt two hands pushing her back and she fell down the endless void. ** After falling for a long time Skyler started to realise. That this cannot be reality that she is experience, because of that she kept trying to wake up. With the hope that this endless fall stops but without any success. At last, she could see the same wasteland from earlier coming closer, and closer. Until she fell on her back, a cracking pain was felt the moment she hit the ground. But while ignoring the pain she slowly crawled to her feet and looked around, to her surprise she saw a short figure in the distance. She walked towards the silhouette, the closer she came the more she could see the details. It was a young girl, around 12 years old with long blonde hair. She was wearing a white dress, with black ribbons keeping the dress up. As Skyler came closer the figure suddenly turned around. Wearing a grim smile on her face, her bright orange eyes were glowing. As if they were staring straight through Skyler¡¯s soul, seeing all her secrets. The grim smile changes to a soft one and she waved while pointing to the distance, while Skyler walked closely behind her. A river was seen in the trench where she arrived earlier. However, the closer the two of them came to it, the more the colour of the river seems to change. After they arrived near the edge of the river, Skyler realised that the river was blood red. Suddenly the girl grabbed Skyler¡¯s arm and forcefully dragged her with strength, that seems to be impossible for someone from her structure. After running for a while, the duo stopped, a cracking giggle was heard, and the young girl pushed Skyler into the river. A sentence came out of the mouth of the young girl with a soft and calm voice she said. ¡°Stay away from that place, just stay in the blood red river of broken dreams.¡± Skyler felt a scorching feel burning all parts of her body slowly bit by bit, only a few seconds it was unbearable, and Skyler screamed out of pain. Seeing her body melt slowly. Then suddenly she woke up and sat up from her sleeping bag. Breathing heavily and feeling a tense pain on her arms. When she rolled up her arm, she saw a red spot. She went to the bathroom straight away and put her arm under the cold water. After cooling the spot for a while, it was suddenly gone. Her intuition said to prepare food and water for the trip tomorrow, that can let her last a few days. She went to the main tent and started preparing the kit right away. After she packed it all up in her bag, Skyler walked back to her tent and tried to get some more sleep. ** Skyler finished her sandwich while recollecting this nightmare, and the strange situation she was in at this moment. The moment she wanted to give up all hope, the locked door slowly opened at its own. While this door slowly opened, Skyler started having a cold feeling of danger lurking around her. Chapter 3 - Aching Memories After the door has opened before Skyler. She carefully inspected the surrounding area. ¡°There has to be some kind of mechanic around here¡±. Skyler mumbled to herself. After carefully inspecting the surrounding area, however, she did not find a thing. She scratched her head and slowly approached the door, while taking step for step on the creaking floor. As she peeked her head through the door, surprisingly. There was nothing to see inside. It was just several office chairs neatly put next to each other. When Skyler took a closer look to the chairs. There was not anything to see beside some spider webs with a tiny spider resting in the middle with multiple flies trapped in her web. On the tables there were a few computer which was not extremely old. Skyler guessed it was around 10 years old. Skyler tried turning them on but then realised there was no electricity in here, afterwards she facepalmed. ¡°It is an abandoned school with computers that Are at least 10 years old, of course there is no Electricity¡± she sighed embarrassed. The window behind the computer from the reception. Was filled up with dust making it hard to see what was behind it because of the dark. But Skyler was sure there was a faint orange light behind it. Either that or she is going insane already 30 minutes in. At the back of the reception there were quite some file cabinets. Skyler turned around and looked at themIf you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Maybe I can find information that can help me with finding a way out.¡± She said to herself and started searching. ** However, after searching for a while Skyler was not able to find anything significant. The thing that intrigued her the most was that most of the documents stopped around April 2010. That would most likely mean that the school closed down somewhere in April 2010. As Skyler put the documents back, she found a few keys that she took with her in case. Then she tried opening the exit and till her surprise it was already open. As the door slowly opens with a creaking noise, the other side of the rubble was shown. Skyler shocked and gasped to air when she found a skeleton with still flesh left on a few Parts rotting, leaning against the rubble with a stinking smell coming from the body. When Skyler saw it she turned around the very second and walked out of the hall to the large door at the end. Unlike the previous door this one was locked tight. When looking around there was mainly lockers and a few bins spread around and broken tiles on the floor. With the dim moonlight shining through a small window all the way up facing downwards. Skyler started her search looking in the bins which were empty and then each locker one by one. To Skyler¡¯s disappointment no key was found. The only thing she found was a few sheets which seems to be ripped out of a diary of some sort. When she started reading it, she realised quickly that it was a first-year student¡¯s record of her first school day. Skyler gulped at this thought, there actually was an old record from before whatever happened to this school. When she read the date, she was even more intrigued. It was from September 2009, the start of the school year in which the documents from the reception abruptly ended. ** " April 2009 ¨C First day It took a while, but I am finally able to start my high school in the class from ¡®09. The classes are called after the year they started. I heard from my older sister that back in her day there were more than one new class each year. But the popularity somewhat decreased after an incident. I do not really know the details because I have not seen my sister since 2005. But I do hope I could find someone who knew her to maybe get more information. Until this day I am still not sure why my parents were against me signing up for this school. However, I am no longer the little girl that they were able to hold on a leash. I am growing up and because of this I can also make my own choices. But enough about that time to explore my new school!¡± It was only two sheets but it kind of looks incomplete, so Skyler took it with her in case the other sheets of the diary were found while exploring the school. After putting them away suddenly the decaying school hall she just stood in suddenly changed. The missing tiles, cobwebs and wood that colored dark have changed back each, the tiles got repaired, the cobwebs are no more, and the wood is chestnut brown. Even the lockers were not rusty anymore. Then when she turned around, she saw a girl with long blonde hair, walking with a diary in her hand and some schoolbooks. ¡°Alright so the introduction is in the inner garden, that means we have to go through the canteen at the right and then take the exit north of the canteen. Then walk the hallway out there and we are in the inner garden.¡± She told a young boy with short red hair he replied shortly after ¡°Alright any clue what we will be doing today?¡± the girl sighed and shook her head. ¡°This is also my first time on this school, I got no clue¡± the boy scratches his head and replied, ¡°Well at least I know you from elementary school, it is good to have someone familiar with you.¡± The duo laughed and talked a bit and left through the door that was locked which was open right now. Skyler not wanting to waste this chance ran after them but then felt a sharp pain against her head then she fell over to the back the area slowly turning back to its former decaying self. Chapter 4 - Purple Stranger Skyler woke up again after this vision, and was sitting down, still confused what just happened to her. ¡°The moment I picked up that diary with first day encrypted on it. Everything just became dark and the next moment I see two people enjoying their first day of school.¡± Skyler looked around her at the decaying walls which only seems to have some moss growing on and around it, and leaves growing through it. Most of the school is starting to get taken back by Mother Nature. She stood back up and put a hand on her head, chilled. This is the second time within a few hours that she blacked out and saw some kind of vision. She walked back to the entrance of the entry hall, sighing somewhat hopeless, cause the door and only exit here was still stuck with a vine through the lock. She peeked through the window and saw a girl from around her age with medium length, purple colored hair. A brown and yellow colored skirt and a matching yellow shirt on top. She had a hair bow on with a yellow flower right on it. Similar to Skyler, her own hairband excluding a flower then. Skyler quickly started to bang on the window, yelling for help. To the stranger outside in the front garden where she walked just a while ago. It was nicely decorated with big flowerpots, with a bench on all the sides of this flowerpot. The flowers themselves mainly were getting strangled by weeds around them. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The young lady had a notebook in her hand and sat down on the bench facing the entrance. Skyler was still busy trying to attract her attention and the young lady looked up from her notebook and gave a quick glance towards Skyler and gave her a small smirk and ended up going back to her notebook. After struggling for a while, Skyler ended up sighing and was about to give up. When the young lady puts down her notebook on the bench. She stood up slowly and straighten her skirt and puts on her jacket around the shirt she was wearing. The jacket was a winter jacket made from wool. The jacket covers her neckline to just above her knees. The lady walked slowly towards the entrance of the school. Skyler first wanted to wave to her, but a gut feeling told her to get away from the window. Skyler generally got a good gut feeling and usually follows her intuition. Because time has proven again and again that her intuition can be trusted. Because of this trust, Skyler decided to slowly walk to the reception where she was earlier and went to hide behind the desk, peeking up through the window sometimes. She then ends up hearing a loud metal clank coming from the entrance of the hall. Skyler went to hide herself more under the desk when the banging started, a slow banging. But no voice was heard against all of Skyler expectations. Which made her even more cautious about this purple haired figure. After more clanks and banging were heard, some loud rustles were heard coming from plants. Not sure or those rustles were outside or inside. Skyler slowly started to crawl and look from behind the old dusty desk, towards the window where she was staring through earlier. Towards, Skyler¡¯s relieve n figure was behind or near the window. Skyler¡¯s heart was still beating quickly, and she ran to the spot where she found the diary earlier and managed to find a skull on one of the reception desks. Skyler yelled, still not used to skeleton remains lying around. But then remembered the strange lady still wandering around, and she shut her mouth. When she noticed something within the eye socket of the skull. When Skyler looked closer, she managed to see it being something iron. She carefully touched it and tried to grab whatever this was out of the socket slowly and was surprised when she realized it was actually an iron key. She looked at it and then at the big locked door at the end of the hall and walked towards it. Furthermore, she tried to fit the key in the keyhole on the door and after playing around for a bit she managed to fit it in and turn the key around. A mechanic clank was heard, and she softly pushed open the door leading to a new area.