A Single World to Change - Chapter One

The final bell of the day rang, a signal for the class to simultaneously stampede out without waiting for the lesson to finish.
I rose to follow, my bag clutched in one hand. Six more identical weeks to go, then half term, then six more. As I dragged myself to the door, my teacher – Mr Ayres - held up a hand.
“Not you, young man. I need to have a quick word with you.”
I had been in school long enough to know that these kinds of talks are never 'quick'.
“I'm worried about you, Victor. Your grades are fine, better than fine. You're one of my top students, but you don't seem to be... focused. It's like you're distracted. Is anything the matter?”
I strained a smile. “Nothing's wrong, sir. I've just been working hard.” Not exactly a lie. I did work but I wasn't killing myself with it by any means.
He studied my face for a moment. I suddenly felt like screaming and telling him everything: how I felt like nothing was changing, how I was sick of this life, how I couldn't stand waiting any more. But then he shook his head and the feeling was gone.
“Well.” Mr Ayres looked at the papers again, “Don't work too hard, got it? I don't want you to get sick just before your final exams.”
I nodded, holding the smile in place. “Yes, sir. Don't worry about me.”
Watching me from the corner of his eye, he walked to the door. I breathed a sigh of relief. Now I could go home.
I shoved my textbooks and pens into my bag, slung it over my shoulder and walked out. I noticed that the corridor was strangely quiet. The talk must have taken a while. Everyone had gone home.
Outside, the courtyard was also empty and silent. Where was everyone? I could understand them leaving the building, but didn't most students have to wait for their parents to pick them up?
Thunk.
I jumped as I heard a distant noise above me.
Unnerved, I tilted my head back and looked up at the building. There was no sign of anyone in any of the windows, but I thought I saw movement on the roof. A dark shape. I stepped back to get a better view.
My foot slipped off the edge of the path and into thin air.
“Wha-” My chest scraped over the edge of the hole. A hole? I slipped further as I tried to grasp onto the loose gravel. There! A weed sprouted, sturdy and thick in the centre of the path. I lurched forward and grabbed onto it. I pulled with all my strength as I tried to lift myself from the abyss below.
“Aah!” I flipped my body back onto the path and gasped for breath, tears of shock and fear stinging my eyes.
After a moment, I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked at the sight before me.
“What in the world?”
I stared in awe at the hole. It reached further than the school grounds, all the way out as far as I could see. Dark, empty. I couldn't see the bottom of it.
I looked around at the courtyard. How had everyone else had reacted when they saw it? Where had they all gone? It seemed strange that they had disappeared as soon as they left. I mean, even the teachers seemed absent from the school building and they were so overworked they practically lived there. How could I be the only one here?
I leapt to my feet, remembering the movement I had seen on the roof. Maybe someone else was around? They might know what was going on.
I flung the doors back and rushed down the corridor. There was no sound. Not even my shoes against the newly polished floor. No squeaking.
“Hello?” I shouted, as I passed classroom after classroom.
No reply, not even an echo.
I twisted round flight after flight of stairs. I was out of breath, but couldn't stop. I had to see who, or what, was up there.
I had never ventured to the roof before and the wind was strong as I stepped out, pushing roughly against my clothes as if it wanted me to turn back. I went on, determined to find the figure I had seen.
My gaze flew over the roof, searching desperately. The sky looked very different. It was a shade of orange, like clay. The clouds hovered limply, like ugly bruises, purple and swollen. They cut through the clear sky so jarringly that I was unable to focus on them.
Thunk.
“W-what?” I gasped as my eyes darted around. It was like a dream. Only, it felt terribly real.
I stepped out tentatively, straining to see if the source of the movement was still around. The wind blew my hair across my eyes. It wasn't cold, but my body was covered in goosebumps.
That was when I saw a girl standing at the edge of the roof. How had missed her? The long jacket that covered her was a bright red, clashing with the blue ribbon that held her long, dark hair in a rough ponytail. She had her back to me. Staring out at the sky?
I approached her, my heart pounding. I mean, what if she turned around and had the face of a fly or something? I shuddered at my wild imagination. Here, it felt like anything was possible.
Well, it couldn't really hurt to just ask her, fly-girl or not, what had happened to the school. Everything felt so surreal, I didn't feel as scared as I might have. I wondered if she was like me: someone who had been thrown into this mad world.
Bursting with questions, I tapped her on the shoulder, trying not to startle her. She didn't move. She might not have felt me through her thick, red jacket, so I tapped her again. Nothing.
A stab of fear. Was she dead? My heart beat like a drum against my ribs. I pulled on her shoulder and turned her towards me.
I exhaled in relief. No fly-face thankfully. She was just an ordinary looking girl of about fifteen or so, with a long, melancholic face that reminded me vaguely of saints' portraits. The ribbon was hardly sufficient to hold back the wild mane that hung far down her back, and allowed too much of it to come free.
An ordinary girl. Albeit one with very poor fashion sense.
But her eyes were vacant. They were glazed as if she saw nothing. I paused, unsure of what to do now I had found her completely unresponsive. What was going on?
I released her shoulders so that I could sit and think of what to do next, but as I did, her legs gave way beneath her and it was only because I was so close that I caught her.
“Whoa, what's wrong?”
My face flushed at the stupidity of the question. Obviously she was not going to reply.
Thinking that, I jumped as I heard a voice respond.
“She's okay, you know? Fine. She's fine.” It spoke in a wistful tone.
I blinked at her still lips and looked around. It didn't seem like there was anyone else on the roof. The voice sounded like it must come from quite a small person. Maybe they were hiding behind one of the pipes?
“Um...” I tried to sound friendly, but my voice shook. “Where are you? Please come out.”
There was a sad little sigh from somewhere above me. What could have caused the voice to be so depressed?
“You know, you can see me if you just look up. Why do people never look up?”
I considered this before I raised my eyes, but I wasn't in the mood for a philosophical talk. I wanted to get out of here and go home.
Above me, I saw a small, white cat balancing gracefully on the thin wire mesh fence. It watched me with bright green eyes.
A talking cat.
It seemed to frown as I watched it and a slight crease appeared in the smooth fur just above its eyes. Its whiskers twitched with disapproval.
“You don't seem all that surprised by me.”
It seemed disappointed. I frowned right back at it.
“Well, after I almost fell into that huge hole outside, I'm not all that surprised by strange things.” I stopped. I didn't have time to explain myself to the cat. “Listen, what's going on here? Why is there a hole in front of the school? Where have the people gone? What's wrong with this girl?”
The cat stretched out its front legs and yawned loudly, its mouth so wide I could see its pink tongue sticking out. I noticed the wind had almost stopped.
After a pause, it spoke again in its woeful manner. “You ask a lot of questions, you know? It's hard to answer that many, but I will try my best.”
I nodded and waited for it to speak, but it just sat there. When it had the nerve to start washing its paw, my hands clenched into fists. But I had always been fond of cats, so I spoke to it in a calm tone. “Excuse me, but are you going to answer my questions?”
The cat blinked at me, then tilted its head to one side. “Hmm, I suppose she'll wake up now. You're lucky to be one who got caught up in a world with her.”
“Hey, wait a minute!”
The cat leaped off the fence and flew out, over the side of the building and down. I quickly placed the girl down on the floor and rushed over. I peered through the mesh fence to see if the cat was okay. Surely it couldn't have survived such a fall? But, as I scanned the ground I saw no sign of it. The hole was beginning to shrink and fade, as if being erased by an unseen force, and the sky had returned to a clear blue. I could hear talking below and saw a couple of students calmly stroll out of the gates. The world had returned to normal, but I seemed to be the only one to notice it had changed.
I flinched as a noise came from behind me and turned to the, now clear, eyes of the girl in the red jacket. She was still seated on the ground, a hand held to her head as if to stop it moving. She looked up at me with an expression of confusion on her tragic face.
“Oh! Y-you're awake.” I stuttered in surprise.
I went towards her, faltered, and held out my hand instead. She stared at my polite gesture with a peculiar expression, then rose to her feet without touching my offered hand once. I slowly pulled it back and let it hang at my side, embarrassed.
She blinked apologetically, then attempted a smile. “I'm sorry, I'm just a little disorientated. I must have fallen asleep.”
It was more like a trance. I held my tongue though. She didn't seem to know what had happened.
“Is school already over?” She asked. Her school uniform was barely discernible beneath the red jacket.
“Yes, I think it's probably been over for a while.”
“Probably...” She repeated my words as a dark shadow slipped over her features and her eyes became dim.
I wondered what about that statement might have worried her.
“Excuse me...” She faltered.
“Yes, what is it?”
She let her gaze drop and seemed shy all of a sudden. “Well, I was wondering who you were. I have never seen another student come up here the whole time I have attended this school.”
I frowned in disbelief. “Well, I'm a student like you. I just... happened to come up here. I thought I saw someone. I suppose that was you.”
She smiled a little now; a sincere, appealing smile. It was nice to see her expression something other than melancholic. She looked almost normal.
“I see.” A pause. “My name is Hazel.”
“It's nice to meet you. I'm Victor.” I tried to mimic her light tone, but failed. How could I act like nothing happened?
She held out her hand to me and I shook it while questions raced around in my head. I felt like I was about to keel over. Probably a normal way to feel after something like that.
I released her hand. She was warm for someone who had 'fallen asleep' on the roof in that gale. I stepped back, feeling a bit awkward.
“Well, I suppose I should go.”
Hazel's smile faded and I regretted my words. But I really needed to go and lie down.
“Sure. Well...” She brushed her hair from her face. “I guess I'll see you around?”
She sounded so hopeful that I immediately replied: “Yes.” Although I knew we might never see each other again.
After a moment of awkward silence and uneasy smiles, I walked through the door. I didn't want to think about my weird experience a moment ago.