Just Another Normal Day | ✓

+0.5h

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Alex walked to the exit, tightly holding onto a small box with his free hand. The students had had to leave all their stuff in the classroom and evacuate immediately, but Alex couldn't help but grab something from Will's backpack before leaving.

Will's new video game.

They had made a promise that they would play it together. Now, they never would.

Alex's grip on the CD box increased as his mind wandered back to the scene where his best friend had lain, dead.

Holding onto the video game, Alex stepped out of his school, his eyes void of emotion as scenes from the shooting played in his head over and over and over again.

It could have been me.

I could have been shot.

Soon, a nurse came over and checked Alex for any injuries, then told him to head over to where the parents were gathered, with his hands held up high.

Alex raised his hands, shakily, gripping onto the cd box. It was the only thing keeping him from succumbing to the nightmares in his head.

A cop approached him, asking him something. But Alex didn't know what the man was saying. He didn't want to.

All he wanted was to go home and hug his mother and cry. 

He wanted to be rid of the horrors that had made home in his head. He wanted to go back to the way it was before.

Mom, I want this to be over.

"Kid, what's this?" The cop asked the shaking boy, looking at the CD box, concern laced in his speech.

Alex's poker face crumbled. He was shaking. All he could see was blood. The red cold blood that had surrounded him when the killer let the bullets loose.

The blood of his classmates.

Alex let out a sob, falling onto the cop's crouching figure. "He's dead. My best friend's dead. I want my mom. I want... want to go home."

The cop hugged the frightened child, attempting to comfort him.

As the cop brought the weary and drained child over to his parents, all Alex could think was: Please, stop this game. Games aren't fun, anymore. Please, let it be game over. I want out.

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Mdm Faith watched as her students stumble out of the school, their shaking hands raised and their glazed eyes red.

I couldn't stop it.

The principal felt her heart shatter as parents and students and staff cried at the entrance, their eyes filled with sorrow.

I should have conducted more drills.

I should have hired more security guards.

I should have been better.

I should have stopped it.

Mdm Faith watched as teachers cried in agony, parents screamed for their children, and students stood shaking with fear.

I caused it.

It's all my fault.

The school's principal hugged her husband, hiding her face in his chest. Her cries were muffled but her body was shaking beyond ever before. Her teeth chattered as images from the incident ran through her mind, over and over again.

Her husband wrapped his hands around her, pulling her closer. "Faith, it's not your fault," He reassured her, his tone laced with concern.

But it is.

"I'm so sorry..." Mdm Faith muttered over and over, shaking her head.

It was all her fault.

She wasn't a principal, she was a murderer.

While her students had been dying, all she could think of was how scared she was, and how she wanted to live, and how she wanted to hug her family once again.

But her students had wanted those things too.

And some of them didn't get those things.

Because of her.

Mdm Faith burst into sobs once again.

I'm so sorry...

She decided to resign from her job. It was for the best.

Please forgive me, Lord, for I have sinned.

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