Night Class

Sweetie Drops pulled Micro Chips along the corridors. Her eyes were burning from the smoke in the chemistry lab. There were steps behind her, the—

—thing that thing is still behind us that abomination the skeleton how can it be a skeleton—

—the killer was still after them.

She reached the hallway corner and turned into the next wing. Desperate she tried to open the first door and almost stumbled when it surprisingly opened. Not even aware where she was she dragged Micro Chips inside, only then realizing that it was a broom closet. She closed the door as quietly as possible and sat down against it. Micro Chips almost fell on his butt and leaned heavily against her.

Outside the steps moved past.

Phew.

“Are you okay, Chipper?”

He groaned and shook his head. She looked at him. His face was waxen, and there were sweat beads on his forehead. He was holding his side. Oh no. Please no!

She carefully moved his hand away and immediately noticed the blood, so much blood. In the darkness she couldn’t see any details of the wound, but with that amount of blood she didn’t need to.

“Oh, Chipper,” she said, putting her arms around him.

Micro Chips tried to smile at her. “It doesn’t even hurt that much,” he said, the expression on his face belying his words.

“I’m so sorry, Chipper.” Sweetie Drops leaned her head against his, her face buried in his hair. “Please don’t leave me, okay?”

“Anything you say,” he replied. “I… I like you a lot, you know?”

“Yeah, I do.” She had always known, ever since she had first joined the Astronomy Club two years back. How couldn’t she? Micro Chips had always been extra nice to her, always holding the door open for her, always sharing snacks with her, always trying to impress her with this or that fact. It had felt nice to have someone treat her like this. And now…

“I really like the nickname, too.”

Her tears started to flow. She couldn’t hold them back. She clung to Micro Chips and cried into his hair.

“You’re going to be alright,” he said.

“Please don’t leave me,” she cried, instantly ashamed at her selfish thought.

“I’ll stay… as long as I can.” He coughed, rocking them both. “Let’s talk about something. Make it count.”

But all Sweetie Drops could think of was how much she was afraid of losing him. And how selfish that made her.

“I’m so sorry,” she cried. “I was such a bitch.”

“It’s okay,” Micro Chips whispered. His voice was getting weaker, and his breathing shallower.

“It isn’t,” Sweetie Drops stubbornly insisted. “I strung you along because I liked the attention. I almost burned Sunset Shimmer. I… I don’t deserve someone like you in the first place, and now you’re… you’re…” But she couldn’t bring herself to say it. “I’m just such a bitch.”

“I think you’re great,” Micro Chips whispered. Sweetie Drops just continued to cry, even after he had stopped breathing.

***

Sunset only realized where they were heading when she saw the lit clubroom door. They entered the room and closed the door behind them. Trixie switched off the light, and they both sat down on a table. Sunset realized that she was sitting on the newspaper Sunflowers had been reading an eternity ago.

Trixie looked down. Suddenly she tensed. “I now remember where I saw that guy.”

“Which guy?”

“On the photo, in the magic library. It was when I researched this story.”

“What story? What the heck are you even talking about?”

Trixie pointed at the newspaper. “This is one of the props for my show. I left it here for them to find it, to set the atmosphere. The story is real, but it happened twenty years ago. The killer was caught a week later and died in prison sometime later.”

“You forged the newspaper?”

“Preparation is key,” Trixie said, sounding more and more uneasy. “I looked it all up in the library, and there was a picture of him and I just realized it was him. Why would there be a picture of a dead killer from way back in that strange room?” She sniffled. “And how can that thing still be alive? That’s clearly not natural.”

“Magic,” Sunset stated.

“But magic is supposed to be wonderful and—and magical!” Trixie exclaimed. “It’s not supposed to be like that! An undead monster murdering kids! Magic isn’t supposed to be terrifying!” She was sobbing.

Sunset put her arm around Trixie. She thought of the powerful magic of Princess Twilight’s crown, and how it had flowed through her and turned her into a winged demon. That had certainly been terrifying. And if she thought back to some of the things she had read in the forbidden wing of the library—no, magic was often enough terrifying. But that was clearly not what Trixie needed to hear right now.

Then they heard the steps again, out in the hallway. The door of a room further down was opened. Trixie almost immediately straightened up, scanning the room for anything that might help them.

“The closet,” Sunset whispered.

They got up from the table and sneaked to the closet at the back end of the clubroom. If only there’s room in there. If only the door opens.

They were lucky. It was pitch black inside, but between rolled up star maps and a broken tripod there was enough room for them if they huddled up close enough.

As they heard the clubroom door being opened, Sunset realized that Trixie was shivering. They were both still wet from the emergency shower, and Trixie was only wearing her undershirt. Sunset put her arms around her and held her. Trixie immediately clung to Sunset and wrapped her arms around her neck. The girl was shivering, and under the thin, wet fabric of the undershirt her skin was cold.

The steps slowly circled the clubroom, passing by immediately in front of the closet. Trixie nestled up against Sunset even closer, her shivers getting stronger. It’s probably not only the cold, Sunset thought and pressed the shivering girl against herself even more tightly.

Not her too, she thought again. And if I have to smash you into pieces, you bastard!

It seemed to take an eternity until the skeleton left the room again. The two girls remained as they were in their close embrace. Sunset didn’t want to let go of Trixie just yet—holding her like this was comforting. Also she didn’t know what else to try to get out of this nightmare. Trixie didn’t seem inclined to go anywhere either.

Freaking ironic that the star map has been here all along. No need to go to the map room after all.

***

She didn’t know how long she had been crying into Micro Chips’ hair, but finally Sweetie Drops’ tears were all spent. She kissed his head and carefully leaned him against the wall before slowly getting up. Looking down on him she found that in death his face looked almost calm. His eyes were closed and his lips curled in a tiny smile.

“I’m sorry,” she said to the dead boy. And there were a lot of things she was sorry for. For stringing him along. For treating him like a given. For never giving them a chance, even though she had known well enough how he had felt.

But she also felt sorry for how she had been acting all night. How badly she had thought of Sunflowers—and then Sunflowers had sacrificed herself so that she and Micro Chips could escape. And all she could think of was how arrogant and annoying Sunflowers was.

That’s just me.

Yeah. Feeling sorry for myself when all those kids are dead.

While I’m being totally useless.

She had even set Sunset Shimmer on fire. Trixie had been completely right to yell at her. She could have killed the girl—who knew how badly injured she was!

I must attune for all my wrongdoings. Maybe it isn’t too late yet.

“Goodbye, Chipper,” she said, fresh tears streaming down her cheeks. “See you around. Probably soon.”

She left the broom closet and wandered down the corridor. It all seemed increasingly unreal, the familiar floor tiles and the lockers as well as the pain in her heart. She didn’t even remember which floor she was on.

But she had a plan. Standing in the closet, mourning the loss of Micro Chips, she had remembered something she had seen earlier that dreadful night.

Sweetie Drops stumbled down the staircase like in a trance. She encountered nobody and heard nothing from anywhere in the school house. Maybe, she thought, it was over. Maybe the abomination had found and murdered Sunset Shimmer and Trixie and Miss Luna as well, and she was the only living soul left in the cursed school.

She didn’t really care if she was killed as well. What reason was there to continue on living, having seen all this? But before she went, she wanted to at least contribute. She was going to destroy the killer.

The basement was even spookier than before, now that she knew just how godforsaken this school was.

She took a quick look at the corridor opposite the one leading to the storage room and recoiled. A few steps in, sprawled against a wall, lay Clay Jug, his one remaining eye staring at the ceiling from his smashed face. The wrench was lying on the floor next to him.

“I’m sorry I thought badly of you too,” Sweetie Drops whispered as fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. That’s just who I am.

She found the storage room from where they had fetched the telescopes without problem. And on one of the shelves lay the item she had thought of.

A sledgehammer.

She picked up the tool. It was heavy. She probably wouldn’t get in more than one swing.

It would have to be enough.

She would make it count.

“Where are you, you son of a bitch? I think I know where to find you.”

She climbed the stairs again, pausing every now and then to listen for signs of her target, but couldn’t hear any. It didn’t matter anymore now. She knew where she would find him. It was fate, she thought—right where she had first encountered him.

She left the staircase on fourth floor to head for the stairs to the roof—right as the skeleton stepped out of the clubroom. It turned towards her. Was it looking at her? She didn’t know—the terrible thing had no eyes.

“Come at me,” she growled.

The skeleton stood, watching or not, waiting or not.

“Come at me!” she yelled. “Come and get some!”

The skeleton waved its knife, the blade shimmering in the moonlight. Then it slowly started for her.

***

“Did you hear that?” Sunset asked.

“Sweetie Drops,” Trixie mumbled against her shoulder. “Sounded like she’s just out in the hallway.” She let go of Sunset. “Do you think we should check on her?”

“Yeah.”

They hurried out of the pitch black closet and into the clubroom. The door was still open. They heard the skeleton’s clicking steps out in the hallway. Carefully they sneaked towards the door and peeked outside.

What the hell is she doing?

Sweetie Drops stood in the middle of the hallway, the sledgehammer in hand, while the skeleton was slowly walking up to her. Run, Sunset thought. Why don’t you run away?

When the skeleton was almost right in front of Sweetie Drops she raised the sledgehammer. It was obvious that it was too heavy for her to hold for long. The skeleton stopped. Sunset had no doubt that it could just lunge at her, like they had seen it do more than once this night. But it only stood there.

Why doesn’t she hit it then?

***

Sweetie Drops looked into the skeleton’s face. It was mostly blackened due to the fire in the chemistry lab. She could clearly see the chipped spot on the cheekbone—crazy as it seemed, this was Billy Bones.

He didn’t move, just stared at her with his empty eye sockets.

How could she ever have hoped to destroy an unnatural thing like this? A monster?

She wasn’t strong enough to do it. Maybe one of the others had been strong enough, maybe Sunflowers or Sunset. Sweetie Drops wasn’t. Even now she continued being useless.

She slowly lowered the sledgehammer.

The skeleton dropped his knife and reached out with his left hand. He took the hammer. In one smooth motion he gripped the hammer with both hands and swung it. Sweetie Drops felt the impact, and suddenly she was lying on the ground, looking at the ceiling, not feeling her right arm anymore.

The skeleton moved into her field of view. He raised the sledgehammer again, this time smashing her right hip. The snap of the breaking bones resounded through her body, and Sweetie Drops yelled in agony. With a loud clatter the skeleton dropped the hammer.

“Just finish it,” she whispered. She was done being useless.

The skeleton disappeared from her view, and suddenly the world began to shift as he dragged her along the hallway. The bones in her shattered hip ground against each other, incredibly painfully. But Sweetie Drops only screamed when he started dragging her up the stairs to the roof.

***

When the skeleton raised the hammer, Sunset quickly turned around. Trixie huddled up to her and buried her face against Sunset’s arm. They both still heard the terrible crunching sound of the hammer hitting Sweetie Drops, but at least they didn’t have to see it.

Sunset only chanced a peek after the second impact and the clatter of the dropped hammer, curious what was going on, and saw the skeleton dragging Sweetie Drops away. To her horror she realized that the girl was still alive.

When the screams began both girls covered their ears, but it wasn’t enough.

“She had the right idea,” Sunset murmured. “And a whole lot of courage.”

“Yeah.” Trixie swallowed. “We must finish this, don’t we?” She looked at Sunset with those wide eyes, still shaking. She seemed at the verge of losing her mind, and yet she still willed herself to help Sunset fight the skeleton. She pulled Trixie into a quick hug.

Up on the roof the screams finally died down. They left the clubroom door, and Sunset picked up the heavy sledgehammer. The knife was gone; the skeleton had probably picked it up again.