The Midnight Game

Chapter 9

Juliet was left in a lonely bus stop, the only thing she could smell was the stench toxic waste from the cars passing by which she wasn't enjoying. She was bored and tired but this was not new for her. Waiting for her father to finish teaching is not an easy task for her. Sometimes, she would have to wait for more than three hours, making her wish she had a car but her father was a very sensitive person rejecting his offer would result in a month of silent treatment and he wouldn't let the matter go easily.

Having a college professor as a father is no joke, always being monitored twenty-four seven. Especially when her school is within 50 meters from the college her father teaches he keeps contact with every one of her teachers and set his expectations too high for her while Juliet was just an average student who was weak in mathematics and a disaster in P.E.

A car stopped in front of her and rolled down the windows, Juliet flashed an awkward smile when she saw her Evelyn, the girl that recently moved into the town poking her head out with her good looking brother, the driver flashing his charming grin.

"Again?? Today?? Just get in already. Aren't you tired of waiting for him?" Evelyn asked, her smile turning into a serious expression. She looked really concerned.

"It's okay, he will come out. You guys go. Thanks for the offer though. Meet you guys at the school tomorrow" The disappointment burning through Evelyn's plastic smile could be spotted from miles away, she didn't act on or even make a face, she simply rolled down the window allowing Joseph's car to speed up like Usain Bolt.

A tumor of guilt grew inside Juliet's empty stomach, this wasn't the first she turned down Evelyn's offer and she was sure this was not the last. Juliet is getting pretty tired of it all, pushing everyone away from her just to please her parents and especially her father who constantly reminds her that getting along with people is not bad but going as far as friendship means distraction and distraction means she would fail to reach the goals in her life.

However, right now sitting in a bus stop with the empty highway in front of her that used to have cars and bike jamming the road and people crawling everywhere like cockroaches she thought about one thing, her goals in life. She wanted to graduate high school with straight A's and get accepted into Harvard University and be an English teacher just as how her father did but was this all her goals?

'Do I even want to be a teacher? An English teacher at that..' This question would always circle around her mind along with the question 'Who's life am I living? Why can't I choose who I want to be instead of letting my parents shaped me into who they want me to be' but of course that question received quite a laughter from her mother with a comment that her daughter was really funny and followed by 'You're really overdramatic Juliet'

That's where her dream of taking control of her life and get the occupation of her dreams as a surgeon ended. With the help of her father's daily speech filling up her brain it was enough to make the unanswered questions slip her mind and be flushed down the drain to keep company of her miserable life that was already gone down there the moment she was dragged out of her mother's womb.

She sighed as she realized that her father was late than usual, this time she had enough of it. She stood grabbing her heavy bag from the ground, glaring at the road that would soon be swarming with cars and motorcycles of people returning home from work. Juliet started walking angrily, not caring what would her mother say when she gets home without her father.

Suddenly, She was startled by a loud sound of thunderclap which sounded a like boot being slapped on the pavement but louder. She dropped the bag in shock. She breathed in calming herself down, however, another one followed, then one more with loud screams of agony followed. It was coming from inside the campus.

One possibility crossed her mind making her jump reaching for the one inside her bag, she pulled it out and her shaky fingers fumbled on the numbers typing 911 as fast as she could. Her blood ran cold as she noticed that she had no cell reception. Her eyes widened when she realized that there was nothing she could do than watch. An option to run to the police station was shrugged off because it was more than a miles away. She hoped someone around the place but no, this place is only full morning and evening.

The college dormitory sits half a mile from her. Her school was the nearest but today is Friday nobody stays after school. Another shot was fired interrupting her panicked mind. It wasn't the last. She heard seventeen more. She was on the ground hiding under the bench of the bus stop praying the shooter wouldn't come out and see her.

She couldn't exactly run since her father is still inside, she knew he would be safe because other than a control freak her father was smart. He wouldn't die, at least that's what she could tell herself to keep calm. Unfortunately, She couldn't bring herself to leave either so she had nothing to do than counting the shots that kept being fired by the monster. She noted that the screams didn't stop him. The seventeenth bullet was the last after that it was pure silence as if nothing had ever happened.

She waited five minutes, nobody ran out of the building, no police car arrived and no sound from inside either. Her phone still had no line. With her curiosity building up, she wipes her teary eyes and stupidly started walking towards the dead silent campus knowing that she'd regret this later. Her heartbeat vibrating her whole body out of pure fear didn't help the situation at all but her hands were tied going in, getting a phone from inside the office and calling the police was the only rational thing she could think of.

However, near the office building she was stopped by a crying male voice, she turned to the place the sound was coming from, it was coming from the building where her father's class placed at. He taught special classes there every day after school. She smiled as she knew that it was, in fact, her father's voice. When she heard it the first few shots she may have felt confident that her father survived but the opposite scenario started playing in her mind as soon as she heard the sound of more than ten bullets being fired.

She took few more scared steps that didn't make any noise, she wanted to make sure if its safe for her to walk directly to building so she hid behind a wall next to the classroom the sound was coming. Finally, after gathering enough courage she stuck her head out and took a peek inside the class.

The first this she was blood, shock ripped through Juliet's body like lightning gluing her shoes rightly to the ground as her mind registered what was in front of her "Oh my godddd, Ohhh my goddd, Ohhhh Jesus" Her voice came out as a shriek. She never thought to see this horror, she wished she ran to the police station instead of coming here when she had the chance.

She had painted a whole picture of how this scene going to play out in her mind when she entered this building but this isn't what she expected, this just was not possible she want to think that she just didn't saw her father crouched down on the with a handgun gun on his left hand and his right hand wrapped tight around one of his male student's neck crushing his trachea in a class filled with bodies and blood on the walls, on the chairs and on the presentation board. All of his student dead.