Joedog1331
11-06-2016, 07:42 PM
Joseph Bouthillette
School Hostage
Mrs. Read rambled on about a chapter of a boring book I didn't read the previous night. This was an occurrence that was too often. She would get excited about some character doing something symbolic and the class would pretend it was as interesting as she thought it was. It's like me with my screaming lyrics in the heavy metal I listen to. My friends worry too often that I'm depressed and disturbed because of my obsession with listening to screaming lyrics. They just don't get it, but I make them listen to some songs anyways, just like she makes us read her stupid books.
"Start reading the paragraph that begins with 'several years ago' on page 67 for me, Joe", she said to me in a forcefully pleasant tone. I thought to myself, "My God could this get any worse". I hate reading. I just can't stand it. I prefer listening to music over reading. In my life, when I listen to music I can hear the stories in the lyrics and make up my own while listening to the music. But reading, in my opinion, it's just lazy. There's no inspiration. You're just taking the words that an author gives you and putting the image in your mind. But with this book, you can barely even follow what's happening. Whether you're listening to me read or not it's just impossible to understand.
Before I even began reading there was a knock on the door. Mrs. Read told us to wait one second and then slipped outside. I was curious, so I asked Kelley, "what do you think that's about, Kelley?" "I don't know!" She responded in a very sassy tone. She was always sassy to me. I shouldn't have expected anything less. Like Tristan never misses his chance to make a witty, funny, or playful comment. Seconds after Mrs. Read left the room, he said "PARTY!" And the class, me included, quietly laughed. "Did I tell you about when Mr. Cortler wasn't here and we didn't have a sub?” I asked Kelley and Nicole. Nicole just looked at me and laughed a little and said "what did you do, Joe?" Before I could continue my story Mrs. Read walked back into the room. "Sorry" she said "that was a former student. He's been having some personal issues. Okay Joe, sorry for interrupting, you can continue." "Where was I?" I asked possibly to kill time, or hoping maybe she would have forgotten. "Page 67, at 'several years ago'" she said.
Just after I began to read it again "'several years ago'", I was interrupted by the intercom. "This is a lockdown, I repeat, this is a lockdown". It was the principal, Mr. Kingsley, who had spoken in a surprisingly calm voice. You would expect if it was a real lock down he would sound frantic and nervous. It was probably just a test, but we've never had practice lockdowns. Even if it were practice, there would have been talk about a practice lockdown before it happened.
My class had no clue what to do in the event of a lockdown. We looked at each other and at Mrs. Read nervously like some unnamed person let out a large fart, except there was no giggling. We slowly got up. I whispered to Kelley, "what do we do?” to which she responded with a blank stare and a shake of her head. Then finally, after what felt like ten minutes, but was really only a few seconds, Mrs. Read motioned with one hand to the corner of the room and with the other hand had a finger to her lips. After doing this, she quickly went to close the shades. We were fortunate enough to be in a room with a wall of windows on one side. The door was off to the right on the opposite wall from the windows, so we were huddled on the left side of the room.
I was nervous. I was scared that there was something terrible happening and the moment when Mrs. Read walked up to one of the windows to close the shade, a bullet would come shattering through the glass and continue straight through her heart. I could only picture it like a scene from the TV show “24”, the president pacing cluelessly into the line of fire. But thankfully after about a minute of working on the shades, she had finished and joined us quietly huddling in the corner.
None of us knew what was going on. Different scenarios continued to play in my head. Maybe someone just got really sick, or maybe there is someone going psychotic. Maybe it was simpler than that. Maybe someone just decided it would be a good idea to run nude down the hallway. My thoughts progressed to something worse. What if it was a robber or a murderer set out to get something or kill someone? What if it was someone who just wanted to shoot up the school? We were all trying to listen to see if we could hear something going on, but all we could hear was our own quiet breathing. A soft inhale exhale pace, the beat a turtle would walk to. It was so uniform it became creepy. Lucky for us though, we were in a room with our friends. For the most part, we were all fond of each other.
I was huddled in between Nicole and Kelley, directly in front of Liz and directly behind Tristan. I was almost in the middle. Thank God I'm not claustrophobic because that would have been hell. All I could do was look at Liz because I had positioned myself comfortably enough facing the windows and Liz was facing me. I couldn't move either. It was like being trapped in a small closet whose walls and door were people. I saw the worry in her eyes and knew I wasn't alone. I had figured everyone would be worried anyways, but this was proof that someone else WAS terrified. You would expect as naive annoying high schoolers that there would be at least one student in the room cracking jokes or whispering, but in this instance, only a slow inhale exhale. It was as if there was some sense in the air that something was going to happen.
I finally convinced myself that it was alright and nothing was going to happen and that nothing had happened. Then the intercom came on and an angry misty voice said:
"I suggest everyone remain silent and still because I'm angry, and I'm here to get my revenge on this school. You could make it out alive if you don't cause any problems, but when I get nervous, when I get scared, and when I get irritated, things don't end well".
At that, there was complete silence. This terrified everyone. A couple of people had started crying. I saw Nicole out of the corner of my eye with a tear running down her face. I turned the other way only to see Molly's eyes red. She was crying and scared. I didn't think that we would make it out alive. I thought it was over for all of us from here. I could barely hold back my own tears.
The intercom continued:
"My God, Mr. Kingsley, I've been waiting so long for this moment. Why couldn't you have just had them relax a little and leave me the hell alone! I still have the scars. All goddamn twelve of the scars and it's because you let them go. Maybe if you hadn't let them go, maybe if you let me get some revenge, maybe if you let me see them get punished. But, no, NO! What are you looking at? LOOK AT ME! You'll be only the first to have my revenge, but... WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KEEP LOOKIN’ AT?" Then there was an awkward pause and he cursed.
And then there was another silence.
This silence was worse than the first. This time I didn't want to look at anyone, almost like I had done something. But I glanced at Liz, who was looking at someone somewhere behind me. Everyone was just looking around. I assume trying to figuring out how they should react.
Mrs. Read was looking all of us over, not crying, and she didn't seem nervous at all. She sat cross-legged at the edge of our cluster of people. Once the intercom came on and the voice had begun to speak, she put her head in her hand for a few seconds. She then raised it and shook her head in a disapproving way, like she knew the student, or she had tried to convince this person not to do this. I decided instead of watching Mrs. Read I would try to put my head down and focus on myself.
Then there came a faint sound that I could not make out. It soon came to me; I heard sirens. The police were coming to save us from this monstrous being. Soon enough I could see the blue and white lights flashing through the shades and I knew they were coming. I could feel the atmosphere of the room change from dark and scared to a little bit of relief. I think I even saw a faint smile appear on Liz's face. I think I knew why. How could this lunatic think that he could keep someone from calling the cops? He had not jammed the phone lines or gone to every room to collect cell phones. Idiot.
Now, as the cops showed up, I realized that that could be dangerous as well because we were all technically hostages. We were all hostage to his unknown actions. With lunatics like him, I suppose, that you never know what they will do. And the cops most likely didn't either. They probably knew about as much as we did at this point. But from what we heard him say, it seems like he's only out for Principal Kingsley. I hope he's only out for Mr. Kingsley. I don't even know though. What if he's already committed other murders of staff? I didn't and I probably would never know, but I was scared. He basically told us to stay quiet because he could change his mind, so I suppose we still weren't safe. But even though the outcome of this situation was unpredictable, I still got some consolation from the police arrival. If anyone else got any consolation as well, I didn't see it. If anything, the people around me seemed more scared. I assume they went from "Yay the police!" to "oh crap what's the guy going to do with the police arriving?"
I was a little excited though. I was getting antsy because of it, and I kind of had to pee. I was slowly and quietly adjusting my position when I heard the door nearest to us. I don't know what I heard. I believe it was some sort of bomb. But we all jumped a mile. I heard many loud sounds in succession. For the rest, we just flinched a little. Apparently the tenseness of the situation made us all jumpy. After hearing the few, what sounded like huge bangs, outside in the hallway I heard light feet running by. It sounded like what you would hear if mice were scampering overhead, just maybe a little heavier. Most of us looked at the wall and the door at that point when we heard the bangs and the running feet through the halls.
I was wondering what kind of firepower they brought. Who did they bring? Was it Swat? Or was it just a bunch of cops? Forget that, I thought, who called them? The question just occurred to me suddenly. There's a guy running around, possibly with a gun, and someone had the guts to pull out their phone and call 911? I wouldn't have the courage to do that. I doubt it was Mr. Kingsley because he was the main hostage. I soon decided after going through possible teachers that who called didn't matter. It had been done and I was thankful for whoever did it.
I knew all this would end soon. I hoped it would end soon. I prayed it would end soon. After about 10 seconds, the intercom came on again but all we could hear was a creepy silence. Then, breathing. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. He was definitely going to say something, but I assume he couldn't figure out anything good to say. He was stuck. I was happy that he was lost. Then we heard a crashing sound come through the intercom. I could hear "freeze!" and "nobody move!" as they must have been entering the room where Mr. Kingsley was being held. Immediately after the police entered, intercom went off. The police must have entered the room. I could only assume that is what I heard before he put down the phone.
We sat in silence for a good twenty suspenseful seconds before I heard a sound that sounded like a gunshot. Everybody jumped. It was a muffled sound but I could tell it was definitely a gunshot. Everyone knew the worst had happened; someone had been shot in that room. We all just hoped it was the lunatic that started this.
School Hostage
Mrs. Read rambled on about a chapter of a boring book I didn't read the previous night. This was an occurrence that was too often. She would get excited about some character doing something symbolic and the class would pretend it was as interesting as she thought it was. It's like me with my screaming lyrics in the heavy metal I listen to. My friends worry too often that I'm depressed and disturbed because of my obsession with listening to screaming lyrics. They just don't get it, but I make them listen to some songs anyways, just like she makes us read her stupid books.
"Start reading the paragraph that begins with 'several years ago' on page 67 for me, Joe", she said to me in a forcefully pleasant tone. I thought to myself, "My God could this get any worse". I hate reading. I just can't stand it. I prefer listening to music over reading. In my life, when I listen to music I can hear the stories in the lyrics and make up my own while listening to the music. But reading, in my opinion, it's just lazy. There's no inspiration. You're just taking the words that an author gives you and putting the image in your mind. But with this book, you can barely even follow what's happening. Whether you're listening to me read or not it's just impossible to understand.
Before I even began reading there was a knock on the door. Mrs. Read told us to wait one second and then slipped outside. I was curious, so I asked Kelley, "what do you think that's about, Kelley?" "I don't know!" She responded in a very sassy tone. She was always sassy to me. I shouldn't have expected anything less. Like Tristan never misses his chance to make a witty, funny, or playful comment. Seconds after Mrs. Read left the room, he said "PARTY!" And the class, me included, quietly laughed. "Did I tell you about when Mr. Cortler wasn't here and we didn't have a sub?” I asked Kelley and Nicole. Nicole just looked at me and laughed a little and said "what did you do, Joe?" Before I could continue my story Mrs. Read walked back into the room. "Sorry" she said "that was a former student. He's been having some personal issues. Okay Joe, sorry for interrupting, you can continue." "Where was I?" I asked possibly to kill time, or hoping maybe she would have forgotten. "Page 67, at 'several years ago'" she said.
Just after I began to read it again "'several years ago'", I was interrupted by the intercom. "This is a lockdown, I repeat, this is a lockdown". It was the principal, Mr. Kingsley, who had spoken in a surprisingly calm voice. You would expect if it was a real lock down he would sound frantic and nervous. It was probably just a test, but we've never had practice lockdowns. Even if it were practice, there would have been talk about a practice lockdown before it happened.
My class had no clue what to do in the event of a lockdown. We looked at each other and at Mrs. Read nervously like some unnamed person let out a large fart, except there was no giggling. We slowly got up. I whispered to Kelley, "what do we do?” to which she responded with a blank stare and a shake of her head. Then finally, after what felt like ten minutes, but was really only a few seconds, Mrs. Read motioned with one hand to the corner of the room and with the other hand had a finger to her lips. After doing this, she quickly went to close the shades. We were fortunate enough to be in a room with a wall of windows on one side. The door was off to the right on the opposite wall from the windows, so we were huddled on the left side of the room.
I was nervous. I was scared that there was something terrible happening and the moment when Mrs. Read walked up to one of the windows to close the shade, a bullet would come shattering through the glass and continue straight through her heart. I could only picture it like a scene from the TV show “24”, the president pacing cluelessly into the line of fire. But thankfully after about a minute of working on the shades, she had finished and joined us quietly huddling in the corner.
None of us knew what was going on. Different scenarios continued to play in my head. Maybe someone just got really sick, or maybe there is someone going psychotic. Maybe it was simpler than that. Maybe someone just decided it would be a good idea to run nude down the hallway. My thoughts progressed to something worse. What if it was a robber or a murderer set out to get something or kill someone? What if it was someone who just wanted to shoot up the school? We were all trying to listen to see if we could hear something going on, but all we could hear was our own quiet breathing. A soft inhale exhale pace, the beat a turtle would walk to. It was so uniform it became creepy. Lucky for us though, we were in a room with our friends. For the most part, we were all fond of each other.
I was huddled in between Nicole and Kelley, directly in front of Liz and directly behind Tristan. I was almost in the middle. Thank God I'm not claustrophobic because that would have been hell. All I could do was look at Liz because I had positioned myself comfortably enough facing the windows and Liz was facing me. I couldn't move either. It was like being trapped in a small closet whose walls and door were people. I saw the worry in her eyes and knew I wasn't alone. I had figured everyone would be worried anyways, but this was proof that someone else WAS terrified. You would expect as naive annoying high schoolers that there would be at least one student in the room cracking jokes or whispering, but in this instance, only a slow inhale exhale. It was as if there was some sense in the air that something was going to happen.
I finally convinced myself that it was alright and nothing was going to happen and that nothing had happened. Then the intercom came on and an angry misty voice said:
"I suggest everyone remain silent and still because I'm angry, and I'm here to get my revenge on this school. You could make it out alive if you don't cause any problems, but when I get nervous, when I get scared, and when I get irritated, things don't end well".
At that, there was complete silence. This terrified everyone. A couple of people had started crying. I saw Nicole out of the corner of my eye with a tear running down her face. I turned the other way only to see Molly's eyes red. She was crying and scared. I didn't think that we would make it out alive. I thought it was over for all of us from here. I could barely hold back my own tears.
The intercom continued:
"My God, Mr. Kingsley, I've been waiting so long for this moment. Why couldn't you have just had them relax a little and leave me the hell alone! I still have the scars. All goddamn twelve of the scars and it's because you let them go. Maybe if you hadn't let them go, maybe if you let me get some revenge, maybe if you let me see them get punished. But, no, NO! What are you looking at? LOOK AT ME! You'll be only the first to have my revenge, but... WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KEEP LOOKIN’ AT?" Then there was an awkward pause and he cursed.
And then there was another silence.
This silence was worse than the first. This time I didn't want to look at anyone, almost like I had done something. But I glanced at Liz, who was looking at someone somewhere behind me. Everyone was just looking around. I assume trying to figuring out how they should react.
Mrs. Read was looking all of us over, not crying, and she didn't seem nervous at all. She sat cross-legged at the edge of our cluster of people. Once the intercom came on and the voice had begun to speak, she put her head in her hand for a few seconds. She then raised it and shook her head in a disapproving way, like she knew the student, or she had tried to convince this person not to do this. I decided instead of watching Mrs. Read I would try to put my head down and focus on myself.
Then there came a faint sound that I could not make out. It soon came to me; I heard sirens. The police were coming to save us from this monstrous being. Soon enough I could see the blue and white lights flashing through the shades and I knew they were coming. I could feel the atmosphere of the room change from dark and scared to a little bit of relief. I think I even saw a faint smile appear on Liz's face. I think I knew why. How could this lunatic think that he could keep someone from calling the cops? He had not jammed the phone lines or gone to every room to collect cell phones. Idiot.
Now, as the cops showed up, I realized that that could be dangerous as well because we were all technically hostages. We were all hostage to his unknown actions. With lunatics like him, I suppose, that you never know what they will do. And the cops most likely didn't either. They probably knew about as much as we did at this point. But from what we heard him say, it seems like he's only out for Principal Kingsley. I hope he's only out for Mr. Kingsley. I don't even know though. What if he's already committed other murders of staff? I didn't and I probably would never know, but I was scared. He basically told us to stay quiet because he could change his mind, so I suppose we still weren't safe. But even though the outcome of this situation was unpredictable, I still got some consolation from the police arrival. If anyone else got any consolation as well, I didn't see it. If anything, the people around me seemed more scared. I assume they went from "Yay the police!" to "oh crap what's the guy going to do with the police arriving?"
I was a little excited though. I was getting antsy because of it, and I kind of had to pee. I was slowly and quietly adjusting my position when I heard the door nearest to us. I don't know what I heard. I believe it was some sort of bomb. But we all jumped a mile. I heard many loud sounds in succession. For the rest, we just flinched a little. Apparently the tenseness of the situation made us all jumpy. After hearing the few, what sounded like huge bangs, outside in the hallway I heard light feet running by. It sounded like what you would hear if mice were scampering overhead, just maybe a little heavier. Most of us looked at the wall and the door at that point when we heard the bangs and the running feet through the halls.
I was wondering what kind of firepower they brought. Who did they bring? Was it Swat? Or was it just a bunch of cops? Forget that, I thought, who called them? The question just occurred to me suddenly. There's a guy running around, possibly with a gun, and someone had the guts to pull out their phone and call 911? I wouldn't have the courage to do that. I doubt it was Mr. Kingsley because he was the main hostage. I soon decided after going through possible teachers that who called didn't matter. It had been done and I was thankful for whoever did it.
I knew all this would end soon. I hoped it would end soon. I prayed it would end soon. After about 10 seconds, the intercom came on again but all we could hear was a creepy silence. Then, breathing. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. He was definitely going to say something, but I assume he couldn't figure out anything good to say. He was stuck. I was happy that he was lost. Then we heard a crashing sound come through the intercom. I could hear "freeze!" and "nobody move!" as they must have been entering the room where Mr. Kingsley was being held. Immediately after the police entered, intercom went off. The police must have entered the room. I could only assume that is what I heard before he put down the phone.
We sat in silence for a good twenty suspenseful seconds before I heard a sound that sounded like a gunshot. Everybody jumped. It was a muffled sound but I could tell it was definitely a gunshot. Everyone knew the worst had happened; someone had been shot in that room. We all just hoped it was the lunatic that started this.