"Why are you here? I have all that I needed in this place, thus requiring no more false hopes of salvation from people like you."
It was the voice of a young man sitting in the front row seats of the room I'm currently in; there's also frequent noises of something that's being scribbled down the paper, in addition of the sounds of eraser that's frequently dusting off what was written just before.
I stood silently on the back of the classroom, it was far different than the first one I've encountered with zombies as students and the devils as teachers. This place looks like just a normal classroom, though underneath all the sense of normality, there lies a sublime feeling of serenity in here which makes me feel at ease. Somehow it feels so nostalgic, seeing the tranquil atmosphere around this quiet classroom, which reminds me of the old days.
Let us drove back again to the events happening just before.
.....
It was truly pitch dark inside the classroom, and it deeply terrifies me when I tried to enter it. But as I already conquered my fears and finally went inside the room, it turns out to be just like a normal classroom...no...it's a very stable environment, the only one that's pretty much unfazed by my disorderly thoughts. And so as I could freely think what I wanted as I entered the room, it made me truly felt like a human being.
There I switch on the light, as I couldn't see anything due to the place being overly dark, and saw one young man sleeping on the floor, at the back of this classroom, I tried to wake him up but there as I approached closer it seems that he was suddenly alerted by the sound of coming footsteps and he shockingly jumped as I walked closer. Then he quickly skipped towards the front row table where there's a bunch of papers along with some stationery to help him in his tasks.
And then here we are now, back to the beginning of this story.
......
"I'm not a teacher so rest easy, there's nothing for you to worry about. I'm just a high school dropout by the way."
Well even though he's not asking about it, that won't really hurt to give him some topic to think about, seeing as he kinda look dejected and such.
"Oh...I see, for what reason did your school kicked you out, mister?"
"Some illicit relationships with a young female teacher. We finally got found out and that's how our lives got totally ruined. Nevertheless, it garners the totality of my resolve to move outta that cruel town towards a much better place."
"Sounds like you're having quite a tough life back then." saying this, the young man...or should I say the student...continues on scribbling on a piece of paper.
He's pretty much the only normal student I found so far in this place, brimming with the force of life just like what I expected from any other human being.
"Not really...at least it feels much better since I basically hated school. Being in a workforce was much better and I've got to taste a fine alcohol on top of that, not to mention my co-workers were really nice."
The young man stayed silent for a while after I finished my words, then he scribbled something again.
"It will only be a short moment before I graduated, after I manage to answer the last question...I'll be set here to go into the outside world. But then, it's truly ridiculous how I couldn't really choose where I want to go. It will solely be determined by how my parents and the current society views it, without any regard to my own personal beliefs and feelings, because after all...I'm still young and powerless without anywhere to go."
I walked to the front row as he continues on speaking.
"Hmm....come to think of it, shouldn't you finish this one up quickly since all of your friends already finished it? I figured out they already left quite some time ago."
Pointing out directly to his answer sheet, I saw his expression change slightly, it might be due to the shock that I'm suddenly appearing in front of him.
"They only took a few minutes to finish answering all the questions, furthermore since it's multiple choices and such, and they could graduate as soon as they filled up all the answers, it only requires a miniscule amount of thought to do so. If you're asking me about this...well...the peculiar test had no time limit at all, though it's strongly advised that I should answer this with deep thought, and thoroughly in order to end up in a place I truly belong in...most of my classmates didn't ever come across to this kind of thought, judging from their carefree attitude. Just go with the flow, they said."
The way he gives me the explanation fills me up with a feeling of awe on how eccentric his views might be. Hmm...wait a minute, it kinda sparks some curiosity deep within my thoughts...
"Well then, could you show me the questions and your answers up 'til now?"
"Here." he handed up the question sheet, which is filled with scribbles and such...
And as I tried reading the questions, for example:
What do you aspire to be in this life?
A. Doctor
B. Lawyer
C. Politician
D. Businessman
E. Artist
F. Other (fill the answer in your answer sheet)
He answered.
"I want to be a comedian."
And so he also wrote down the answer on the question sheet beside his own answer sheet.
Then onto the next question:
Do you believe in God?
A. Yes
B. No
There I saw his handwriting below the B answer
C. Depends on the situation, there's the time when I believed in the existence of a deity, and at the other time I tried my hardest to deny it, or pretending it doesn't exist. Choosing the other would only makes me a hypocrite.
Again I smiled at his answer.
It truly spark my interest how the final test before the graduation were mostly philosophical questions that would make someone think deeply about how to proceed, and people were free to give in their thoughts without having to be bound by some set of regulations, given the notion that there's nothing such as right and wrong answers. And it truly becomes much more interesting given the student's statement that all of his friends only took some mere minutes to get it done without a thought.
"If I may ask, how long have you been working on the certain test?"
"I don't know. But I just like to spend a really long time by myself in this classroom right at this moment....because when I finally left this place...I don't really know if I..."
"Don't give me that half-assed talk, you brat. If you don't really want to leave school, just leave it up to me. It's not really acceptable for a dropout to be teaching you this, but there's another school right there for you. There won't be any strict set of rules and obligations you must follow, and when you graduated from it you'll be able to choose whichever path you want in life, but you might have to work at least ten times harder than you are now, so how's it?"
The lone student just stared at me with a blank look on his face. I didn't like this sissy brat's attitude after all, and so I grabbed the lighter from my pocket...using it to burn his question and answer sheet to ashes.
"No...."
"Go and try to stop me if you can, kid, that is if you wanted to get beat up. Though it won't change the fact that your choice has been made deep down in your mind, am I right?"
He didn't try to fight back after all. So I figure out that his mind is already set right from the start, truly...most students would panic to death when someone tries to burn their answer sheets right in the middle of their exam.
But this boy is different.
He just stares down at the burnt down paper, which is now reduced to ashes, just like it was someone else's problem. Exhaling deeply down, he stretched his arms around, re-arranging his stationery and putting it back to his pencil case. And then he put all of his belongings into his backpack located below his seat...just like preparing himself to go home right after.
"Thank you, sire. With this I can at least repeat the 3rd year, at least it'll give me some more time to sort things out."
As he's trying to exit the door, I stopped him on his tracks by blocking the exit.
"What are you talking about? Aren't you going to transfer to this new place where you will attain your freedom?"
"B-but sir..."
"Enough!"
I'm fed up with him.
I forcefully lift his body with both of my hands and thrown him outta the window. It was big enough for his entire body to went straight out. And I was right, the window shatters as his body flown right through it, and it follows up with the screams of agony of someone falling downwards.
And then I heard a loud thud sound, there's nothing else after that beside the sound of my breathing inside this room.
.....
...........
...................
I've awaited for the confirmation that my mission is over. Meanwhile I took off a cigar from my pocket and smoked for several minutes with it, the smell of tobacco sure gives me some kind of relaxed feeling after a hard day's work.
Though, it's not the usual voice in my head that was speaking to me.
"Thank you sir, now I've finally found my salvation in this place you mentioned before."
Salvation my ass.
I'm just telling you to go right away to afterlife in a polite manner. An idealist like you has no place in this cruel yet harsh reality. Since you're unlikely to kill yourself, I'm just doing you a favor in your place.
"Oh look, my time has finally come."
This time, I'm saying it to myself.
I felt the entire space before me distorting, twisting and turning about. Meaning that I would definitely go back to my afterlife, the world of narrators, once again becoming a meaningless entity which serves no purpose rather than becoming the mundane manifestation of the author's thoughts.
No...I don't want to be in that meaningless life again.....no more...
I had earned this pleasure of living a momentary life as a human being. Now I won't go back to being a nameless, formless narrator again, having no depth and history at all, with each and everything I had in value being utterly reduced to something without any inherent meaning.
And so I did myself a favor by running as quickly as possible towards the window, experiencing what I did towards that one student just before.
There's no time left, so I thought, and that causes my reflexes and senses to augment itself, making me jump at the right moment; the shattering sound of the windows, and the feel of my entire body being completely outside the school building.
Oh look, I'm falling at an incredible rate towards the grounds. I'm too scared myself to see what lies beneath, though it still greatly assures me that the feelings of distortion I had earlier were nothing more.
I am not a nameless and formless entity.
"I'm a human being. I will live as a human and die as a human."
And so this will be my last words before my body finally reached the ground, and thus I will ultimately meet my e---
Xxx
"Mister K, are you dozing off in the middle of work again? Well you're already working very hard in these past few months, how didn't you take a breather sometime..."
Was it...the voice of another human being? It sounds like an old woman.
I soon found myself being fully conscious in a much different place, the atmosphere around here is very stable, without any single hint of distortion even in my wildest thoughts. Would this be the thing they refer to as reality?
"Sorry...sorry...madam Baker. I will soon continue my shift on instructing these good-for-nothing youngsters how to bake a delicious bread."
That's right. I'm not a nameless yet formless narrator anymore, but a character in a some kind of manufactured reality, a stable world with concepts and such on top of that.
Now I finally remember, I'm currently working as a manager in the bakery after spending a few years helping an old couple running this place which was once a completely run-down derelict bakery. The pay wasn't all that great but they do treat me like their own son...no more like a grandson really due to our differences in age. They provided me with shelter and food, and although it's quite modest, it truly made me felt the joy of living, it also reminds me that even the simplest things can be truly meaningful.
"What's your age this year...mister K? I remember you will be 22 years old in the next few months. That reminds me that me and my husband do celebrate your birthday every year from whence you first came, but it's not truly a proper celebration."
The sincere words of the old woman nearly made me tear up. Even more while thinking what they have to go through while I'm not here helping them out.
"Don't sweat it, ma'am...I'm just fine working with you to help this place prosper."
"That reminds me...we've got just enough money to pay for your University tuition, in case you want to finally enroll..."
"No...just no, my future will be with this bakery, no way I'm going to get back to that kind of---"
Knock...knock
Before I could finally finish my own sentence, I heard someone knocking on the back door which is leading to the place me and the old woman are currently talking.
"Who's there?" and so I said to the one knocking
"I'm here to meet someone named Kaminski."
Wait...I've got the feeling that's my name.
"That's me, I'll be right here in a moment."
.....
"Y-you are..." opening up the door, it greatly shocked me in this moment.
"Someone you know, Kaminski?"
It's the student whom I met in the classroom earlier, he's the source of the stability going on that distorted world of reality after all.
"It's nice for us to meet again....Mister K, you saved my life from total ruin just before."
That's all the young man said to me after we met up again.
"Enough with the chit-chats already, you greenhorn, go start baking some bread in that room over there, these guys will teach you how to do it."
Thus, it's all that I could say to him, this time just to hide my embarrassment.
Because for some reason, I felt this to be the happiest day of my life, ever.
I felt really glad that I could at least muster the courage to break free outta this classroom on my own. And on top of that, could save one weary soul from giving himself out just to become a lifeless zombie.
The Classroom - Fin