Horror Stories #1 - nails

"What is this?" 

Enid picked the rusty nails and inspected them. He didn't know why the nails were there at all. He glanced at his partner, Nessia, as he looked around the classroom to try and figure out why the nails were even there. They were in an abandoned school for a photography project. Enid still remembered how excited Nessia was for this project.

"Enid!" Nessia greeted, waving him over. They were paired together or the upcoming photography project, and Enid couldn't be more happier. Nessia was the best student to be with for the project, as she was able to capture the little moments in life and present them as life changing events. They chatted about nothing, laughing at some lame jokes Nessia had overheard from her other classes while they waited for the teacher to come in.

"Alright, class, this project's theme is a bit different than what you're used to," their teacher called out. The class quieted down. The teacher wrote "horror" on the whiteboard as she explained, "A good photographer should be able to capture all events of life. Horror is a theme not many will touch," the teacher continued, looking at the students, "Remember, horror isn't limited to blood and death. Horror is something that will send shiver up to one's spine, to make one turn their head away in disgust. Do some research before starting." The teacher wrote down the deadline for the project and dismissed the class.

Enid and Nessia walked to the local part, intending to start their project early. "Nessia, any idea?" Enid asked, pulling his notebook and phone out to start researching. When he didn't receive any answers, he looked up from his notebook, only to find Nessia deep in her thoughts. "Nessia?"

"I think I know what I wanted to do," Nessia started slowly. She showed Enid a picture of an abandoned school on her phone, "There's this abandoned school not far away from here. I think we can sneak in and get some shots." The girl quickly sketched a rough layout of the building and its surroundings, circling random parts of fences. "These are the weak spots, we can crawl into the building through these spots."

"Didn't they said that the people who went in never came out?" Enid asked. Nessia laughed it off, "Do you honestly believed that? It's just a myth made by the adults to stop people from going in!"

And a couple of days later, they were in the abandoned school, and Enid started to think that they really shouldn't be in the school. He didn't pay the rusty nails any more attention, but something was nagging at the back of his head, telling him that he was missing something. Something to do with the rusty nails.

He looked around the classroom again. Maybe he had missed something the first time looking around. The classroom was organised, too organised to consider that something awful had happened when the school was still operating. Some parts of the blackboard wasn't cleaned properly. He went to inspect the barely-there words. "Say, Nessia," Enid started, "Do you have any idea how the school got abandoned?"

"Not really, no," Nessia answered, snapping a few pictures from the broken window, "But some said that something demonic was summoned and it refused to leave the school. They say to take it with a pinch of salt, of course." Nessia sighed at the pictures she'd taken before moving back to the broken mirror, determined to get some of the more interesting pictures.

 Enid paused at Nessia's explaination. He turned to Nessia slowly, a horrifying look on his face, "There was a demonic entity and you didn't bother to say that before we entered this school?" He asked. Nessia shrugged, "Take it with a pinch of salt, Enid. It wasn't like the entity will appear in the middle of the day."

"You won't know!" Enid said, looking around with a newfound consciousness, "Demonic entities don't care if it's day or not!" To his surprised, Nessia only laughed at his face. She waved his concerns off, stating that the rumours were rumours, and they were there for their school project anyways. Enid didn't like that they basically entered a place with a demonic entity roaming around, but he couldn't back out from it right now. They were there for their school project, just like Nessia said.

He grumbled a bit before returning to the faded writings on the blackbaord. "It's just something about Chem," Enid thought to himself. He turned back, mouth opened to mark a remark about the blackboard when he realised that Nessia wasn't even in the room. "Nessia?" Enid called out, his fear resurfacing. "Nessia?" He called out again, louder than his last. 

It was only then he noticed a small cotton doll sitting innocently on a nearby table. Was the doll even there when they first came in? Enid picked the doll up, curiosity burning inside of him. He felt something long and slim on the back of the doll. He didn't think much of it, turning it around to check the backside of the doll.

Nails. Long, slender, and most importantly, rusted.

Enid gulped. He stared at the rusted nails on the back of the doll, his body frozen in place. There were a couple drops of dried blood on the punctured back side of the doll. Enid wasn't sure what to make out of it. The boy gently put the doll back to the table, trying to figure out his next move. 

"Where's that blasted nails, anyways?" Enid mumbled, looking around. He tried to find the rusty nails from before, but no matter how hard he tried, he could never find the nails. He walked out of the classroom, intending to find Nessia first. 

"Nessia!" He shouted into the empty hallway. Only echos of his voice were heard. Nessia wasn't there. "Nessia? Where are you?" Enid peeked into each and every classroom he saw, but he didn't find Nessia. He huffed, walking towards a nearby staircase. Maybe he could find Nessia on another landing of the school. He continued to for Nessia, but besides a couple mannequins laying around, there was no sign of Nessia. A shudder ran down Enid's spine. What if he couldn't find Nessia before the sun went down? He would so be in trouble with her parents.

Enid walked around the school, trying his best to find his friend. Oddly enough, he found Nessia sitting alone in the cafeteria, staring into the empty room in front of her. Enid was going to greet Nessia and complain a little bit about her running off without telling him, but something about the atmosphere in the canteen stopped him.

The air wasn't still though, Enid noted, there was some movement in the air, dust floating about. No, Enid realised as he came to a stop in front of the entrance way, it wasn't the atmosphere, it was the aura radiating off Nessia. The feeling of different and unbelonging was coming off of Nessia in huge waves, crashing into Enid's body. He didn't know what to do. Nessia was facing the empty cafeteria, with her back facing Enid. 

He noted that there were a few injuries on Nessia's back. Weird.

Enid, against his better judgement to leave the place at once and return to his home, entered the cafeteria. "Nessia!" He said, "Here you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!" The boy waited for Nessia's response, maybe an apology, maybe a bright laugh or even teasing him for worrying, but Nessia said nothing. "You know, we spent enough time in this place," Enid continued, walking towards the door again, "Maybe we should leave here-"

"No!" Nessia snapped. Something solid fell from her lap as she glared at Enid for suggesting that they leave the school. "I wasn't even done," she said. She picked up her fallen camera- Enid's eyes widen when he realised that, because Nessia loved her camera- and walked towards the end of the room. Her grip on the camera tightened when Enid followed her without prompting.

Nessia got down to work in no time. She clicked and clicked and clicked, but this time, Enid noticed that her usual seriousness and attention towards the pictures were gone. She was taking pictures at random, clicking whenever she felt like it or when something caught her eye. Nessia would never take pictures randomly, especially for a school project.

He followed Nessia to the back of the cafeteria. He couldn't ignore the awful smell that assaulted his nose once they reached there. "Ugh, Nessia, is there anything that you'll want to show up in a school project?" Enid asked, disgusted. Nessia didn't answer him. That's strange, Enid thought, his eyebrows furrowed, Nessia always answer things, even if she doesn't know it.

He waited for a couple of moments to let Nessia finish what she wanted to do. He was positively bored, but with the small reminder of a demonic entity roaming the school he kept silent. It wasn't until Nessia got up from the ground and left the cafeteria without a word that Enid finally saw it.

Big, black holes, were formed on Nessia's back. Just like the doll he found after Nessia went missing.

They were walking towards the entrance of the school when Enid finally found the courage to ask. "Nessia, what- what happened to your back?" He blurted out. The boy felt his stomach turned when a round of fresh blood started to pour from the holes. He could see her skeleton, bright and crimson, before another round of fresh blood came oozing out of the holes. "Nessia!" He shouted in panick. Enid have no idea what to do. He froze from trying to find something to cover Nessia's injuries with when he heard soft laughter.

The laughter turned louder and louder and soon enough, Nessia was laughing loudly, as if watching Enid panicking was the funniest thing in the world. "Oh, sweet, sweet Enid," Nessia started. She tried to walk, but her body collapsed to the ground with a painful smack, causing Enid to scream. It didn't lessen Nessia's laughter, it only added fuel to it.

"Enid, Enid, Enid, sweet little innocent Enid," Nessia singsonged, standing up again, her hand raised in front of her, "Isn't being a doll wonderful? You don't have to think about anything, you just have to allow the puppeteer control your movements and words. Isn't that just marvellous?" Tears fell from Nessia's eyes, but she sounded so happy, so relieve. Enid scrambled back even more. His back hit the wall and he was trapped, trapped between this God forbid place called a school and his best friend, who was being very, very unsettling. 

Nessia took one step forward, blood gushing out of her even more. Another step forward. And another. And another. And another. Until she was face to face with Enid. 

"Oh, Enid, you have no idea how wonderful being a doll is." Nessia's eyes went black. A smirk was left on her lips when the wind blew louder around them. A dark mist formed, with something in the middle of it. The object was thrown towards Enid. Enid sucked in a sharp breath when he recognised and realised what was going to happen.

"No!"

----------

A pair of best friends wandered into the abandoned school, both curious about the numerous rumours they have heard about it. Upon reaching the entrance, one of them crouched down and picked up something. 

"Hey, look at this." He showed the two dolls in his hands to his companion. His companion looked confused but said nothing. "Don't you think they look like the missing children from a couple of months ago?"

The other shrugged. Losing interest in the dolls, they entered the school, never noticing the rusty nails jammed to the back of the dolls, or the dark mist forming in the shadows.