مدرسه روح زده فصل 14

The haunted School - Chapter 14

“Look! Look at this!” a girl cried. She held up my shirtsleeve.

Two boys tugged at the rest of my shirt.

I dropped to the floor. Tried to squirm away.

But they had us surrounded.

A girl pulled off one of my shoes.

Ben swung his fist hard, trying to fight them away. His hand smacked the blackboard, and he cried out in pain.

“Stop!” I heard a boy shout over the cries of the others. “Stop it! Get away from them!” I kicked out with both feet. I saw Ben swing his fist again.

“Stop it!” the boy screamed. “Get away! Come on—stop!”

The kids backed away. The girl dropped my shoe. I grabbed it off the floor.

They took several steps back, moving in a line, staring at us.

“The color!” a girl exclaimed. “So much color!”

“It hurts my eyes!” a boy cried.

“But it’s so beautiful!” a girl gushed. “It—it’s like a dream!” “Do you still dream in color?” a boy asked her. “My dreams are all in black and white.” Tugging on my shoe, I climbed shakily to my feet. I struggled to straighten my khakis and tuck in my torn shirt.

Ben rubbed the hand he had smacked. His blond hair was matted with sweat. His face was bright red.

“Tommy,” he whispered. “What’s going on? This is crazy!”

I stared at the five kids lined up in front of us.

“No color…” I murmured.

All of them were in black and white. Their clothes, their skin, their eyes, their hair—no color at all. Only shades of gray and black.

As I struggled to catch my breath, I studied them. And realized they didn’t look like modern kids, like kids from our school.

The girls all wore skirts, long skirts down to their ankles. The boys wore big-collared sports shirts, tucked into baggy, pleated pants.

Like in an old movie… I thought.

And all black and gray.

We all stared at one another for a long while. Then the boy who seemed to be their leader spoke up. “We’re all sorry,” he said. “You see, we—” “We didn’t mean to hurt you,” the girl beside him interrupted. “It’s just that… we haven’t seen color for so long.” “I just wanted to touch it,” the girl with black bangs across her forehead added, shaking her head sadly. “I wanted to touch color. It’s been so long. So long…” “Did you come to help us?” the first boy asked softly. His gray eyes locked on mine. Pleading eyes.

“Help you?” I replied. “No. No, we didn’t. You see—”

“That’s too bad,” the girl with black bangs said, frowning.

“Huh? Too bad?” I didn’t understand. “Why?” I asked.

“Because,” replied the girl, “now you can never leave.”