The Last Day

Author's Note: I just watched a movie about a lock down so for this creative piece, I decided to put myself in the shoes of someone living through one. I tried to imagine how scary it would be, how everyone else would feel, etc.

Food was flying everywhere and the whole class was laughing. Time had flown by so fast; it was hard to believe that it was the last day of school. The celebration was in full swing until the principal’s voice came onto the loud speaker. My teacher turned the music down and gasped as his voice echoed clear as a bell.

“We are going into lockdown mode.”

When the shock went away and my teacher’s face regained it’s color, she herded us like cattle into the back corner of the room. My stomach was doing somersaults as we all silently crawled under a table. I was really uncomfortable, but so scared that I didn’t dare to move.

We all flinched as the doorknob started to slowly turn. When it opened, all you could see was the darkened hallway. We all heard our teacher inhale deeply as his figure came into focus. The first thing I noticed was his eyes. They were blue; cold as ice. His gaze swept the room and when he landed on us, he started to smile. Too scared to look at him anymore, I quickly glanced in my teacher’s direction. Her face was ghostly white; I saw her hands trembling.

He crossed the room and sat down in a desk. The chair groaned its objection, but I could tell he didn’t care. The silence was broken by a loud ring as the phone awakened. When he stood up I could see the pistol glaring at me in it’s holster. Almost as if it were daring me to speak up. My best friend reached over and grabbed my hand. We made eye contact for barely a second, but I could still see my emotions reflected in her expression.

When he hung up, he quietly put the phone down and turned towards us. A smile slowly spread across his face as he reached for his gun. Twirling the gun, he started to pace. He turned his back to us and stared at the board for what felt like forever. Suddenly he turned around so fast that none of us had time to brace ourselves.

The gunshot echoed throughout the classroom and I instantly went numb. I started shaking and blinked back tears. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Then all of a sudden, a cop burst through the door and tackled our intruder. My teacher jumped up and pushed us until we were all running out the door and down the hallway.

I was still shaking when my mom jumped out of the car and ran towards me. I collapsed into her arms and started to cry. I couldn’t help it though, I was still so scared. I heard squeaking behind me and turned around to see a stretcher being wheeled into the ambulance behind me. My heart sunk when I saw the familiar shoe of my best friend sticking out the end of the blanket.