During the afternoon classes, Ashley, Dane, and Ian sat in their Math class. Ian furiously scribbled notes down that their teacher – Nikki Kupchanko – was writing on the board.
Ashley sat directly behind Ian, and while he took notes, she leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "Have you seen Jason anymore?"
Ian turned around to face Ashley, letting out a huff. "It was the Grim Reaper, not Jason."
"Oh sorry, my mistake," Ashley snickered. "It's hard to tell one fictional killer from another."
"He's not fictional!" Ian exclaimed angrily, a bit louder then he meant to. "He's real! I saw him!"
"Please," Ashley smiled. "You have to let me know who here is dealing the drugs to you, cause I've been hurting for some ever since I arrived."
"Ashley Briltz!" Nikki shouted from the front of the class. "Please be quiet and pay attention."
"Sorry, Ms. Kupchanko," Ashley mumbled as she leaned back in her seat and Ian turned to face the front again. Once Nikki turned back to continue writing on the board, Ashley stuck her tongue out at her.
***
After all classes ended for the day and everyone had some free time to themselves for awhile, everyone piled into the Dinning Hall for supper.
Dane, Ashley, Karsen, and Melissa gathered some food from the Lunch Line and started making their way across the busy room to find an empty table, laughing and joking about something along the way.
On the way to an empty table, they passed by a table with one lone occupant – Ian Turner. They stopped and surrounded him upon Karsen's head nudge in his direction.
"So Ian," Karsen said, chuckling. "It's going to be dark soon. Night time is when the Reaper comes out to claim his next victim..."
"Yeah, be sure to lock the doors tonight," Ashley said in a high-pitched voice as she made her hands form into claw-shapes.
The group laughed while Ian tried his best to ignore them and read a Star Trek novel while eating his supper. When they never left and instead opted to stick around longer, continuing to make remarks and tease Ian, another girl with raven-black hair spotted the sight from a nearby table and excused herself from her friends.
"Can't you guys just knock it off and leave him alone?" The girl – Danielle Giblak – asked, feeling frustrated at how immature these people were being. "All day long, you've been teasing poor Ian. It's getting old now."
"It's not our fault that he makes up stories to get attention," Melissa stated.
"And it's also not our fault that he watches way too many movies and reads way too many books, then allows them to blur his perception of reality," Ashley added on.
"That's enough!" Ian shouted, getting to his feet angrily. "I'm not making anything up, and I didn't imagine it, alright!?" The sudden burst of anger caused the entire room to quiet down and eavesdrop on the confrontation.
"What if he really is telling the truth?" Danielle asked, which caused the others to scoff. "What if he really did see something?" she went on, despite the reactions she was getting. "I don't know if he really did or not, but four people have disappeared without a trace and unless you have a better theory, then you shouldn't be so quick to shrug off Ian's."
"They just ran away," Dane informed Danielle with a shrug of his hand.
"And the missing teachers?" Danielle spat at him. "I suppose they just 'ran away' as well, right?"
"Maybe it was the Blair Witch," Karsen snickered quietly, which only caused everyone to moan and roll their eyes.
"And we call
Ian far-fetched," Ashley moaned.
"I know what I saw!" Ian shouted, tired of all this teasing. "Forget it. I'm out of here." And with that, Ian picked up his Star Trek book and stormed out of the Dinning Hall, slamming open the door and rushing down the steps, quickly disappearing from view.
As the room returned to its normal noisy atmosphere, Danielle whipped around to face the others again. "Nice going, you jerks," she said, fed-up with them, and rushed after Ian to make sure he was ok.
Dane, Ashley, Karsen, and Melissa just all shrugged and ended up sitting down at that empty table instead of continuing to the one they had spotted before all the commotion.
***
Over at the Teachers' table, they also returned to their food, now that the situation ended itself without any of them having to get involved.
"Someone really should talk to that kid and keep him from shooting his mouth off," Edith Arlett scoffed. "I have a student, Katie Smith, that's now too scared to leave her cabin once classes are over, because she's convinced there's someone in a grim reaper costume going around, killing people."
Aaron chuckled as he took a bite out of his sandwich. "The whole Grim Reaper thing is hogwash started by Ian Turner. I agree that he needs to have a stern talking-to. Edith, just try assuring the girl that the disappearances were a confined incident and nothing bad will happen to her."
"I already tried that," Edith went on. "It didn't work."
"That girl has every right to be scared." All the heads at the table turned and looked at Jeff, confused.
"What do you mean?" Eugene asked.
"Dillon is here," Jeff growled.
"We have many students named Dillon," Aaron informed Jeff.
"This Dillon isn't a student anymore," Jeff continued to talk cryptically.
"Just what the hell is going on?" Eugene asked, feeling his temper rising at being so confused.
"It all started in 1999 in Alberta, when I was 14 years old. Me and some others got stuck in our school during a snowstorm and a kid named Dillon dressed in a Grim Reaper costume and murdered most of us. Only two of us survived, but Dillon go away."
"I remember that," Nikki stated. "The Wainwright High School Murders. I was living in Edmonton, just two hours from there at the time. I remember every school in the area implemented brand new emergency procedures in case something like that happened again. Everyone was freaked because the killer was never caught."
Jeff nodded his head and continued, "Then when we were in University in Newfoundland, Dillon came back for us. He trapped us in the school and took our friends out one by one until we were the last ones left. We killed him finally – with the help of a kid named Ryan Miller..." Jeff noticed everyone's looks. "Yes, the same Ryan Miller that grew up to be a teacher and that is one of the people that disappeared last night."
"But you just said it: The killer is dead," Eugene said.
"I thought he was," Jeff exclaimed. "But I was obviously wrong. Ian's sighting has to be more then just some wild coincidence. He sees someone dressed as a Grim Reaper right when people, one of which is Ryan Miller, start disappearing, at a place where I work. There's just too much going on for it to be a coincidence."
"Where's Allison now?" Nikki asked.
"I haven't talked to her much after we graduated from University," Jeff informed her. "But last I heard she was working in Toronto at a News station."
"If you and Ian are really onto something," Edith said for the sake of argument, "then maybe Dillon isn't back. Did you think it could be Allison?"
"No, that wouldn't make any sense at all," Jeff stated matter-of-factly.
"You said it yourself, Jeff. You haven't talked to her much in the last six years or so. Who knows what kind of lasting mental problems those events could have had on her."
Jeff leaned forward in his seat to hotly argue against that theory, when Aaron pushed his chair back and stood up. "Well, thank-you for the upcoming nightmares I'm going to have," he chuckled, "But I must go mark some test papers before I head to bed." The others said good night to him and Aaron walked out of the Dinning Hall and into the dark blue evening sky.
"Aaron has a point," Jeff said, also getting to his feet and leaving the table before the inevitable witch hunt and finger pointing went from Allison to himself. "I should probably get my marking done as well."
Leaving his tray of unfinished food behind, Jeff left the table. He turned back only to say, "I suggest we all lock our doors tonight." Then he headed for the door and also left.
***
While most of the students and teachers stayed inside the Dinning Hall late into the evening – as it also doubled as a gym with the tables removed and many students found various activities to keep them busy and out of the mosquito-infested night air, Katie Smith opted to stay hiding in her cabin.
She laid on top of the sheets on her bunk and flipped the page in her novel. Her silence was disturbed however, by a low, lingering, creaking noise as if someone was very slowly opening the front door.
"Hello?" Katie called out as she looked up from her book. When nobody answered, Katie put her book down and got to her feet. "Hello?" She called out again, louder this time, and again she received no answer.
She listened intently, but heard no further sounds. Still, she was convinced she had heard someone and now she was starting to 'sense' the presence of someone else in the cabin, so she made her way into the dark main room and called out one last time as she walked slowly around the room, so as not to bump into any furniture, and felt around the walls for the light switch like a blind person.
Half-way through the room, still fumbling for the light switch, she heard a very distinct shuffling noise from some place behind her and she whipped around with a short gasp, eyes wide. She did her best to scan the darkness, but couldn't see more then a foot in front of her. Fighting back raging fear, she turned back around to continue her search for the light switch, knowing it was around that area some place.
A couple seconds later however, all her thoughts on the light switch automatically left her mind and was replaced by pure terror as a hand strongly grabbed her shoulder from behind and whipped her around.
Katie let out a blood-curdling scream as the lights in the room instantly turned on and Ashley stood directly in front of Katie, laughing so hard her side felt like it would explode.
Katie, near tears at being frightened so bad, explodes, "That wasn't funny!" she screeched. "I was scared to death!"
Ashley could hardly contain her laughter. "You should have just seen your face! Oh man, that was classic!"
"You can be such a ****," Katie yelled at her and then pushed her out of the way as she stormed past her and back into her room. Ashley, still laughing slightly, followed Katie into the room and as Katie laid back down on her bunk and picked her book back up, Ashley started rummaging through the drawers.
Catching Katie glaring at her coldly, Ashley explained, "Relax, I'm not going to scare you anymore. I just came back for my contact lenses." She found her small plastic case that held her contact lenses and stationed herself in front of the small mirror on the dresser so she could put them in. "A bunch of us are going to play Spotlight if you want to come out and join us."
"That's alright," Katie declined as she found her spot in her book again.
Ashley turned to look at Katie to try to convince her to come, but instead asked, "What book are you reading?"
Katie held the book up, showing Ashley the front cover, showing her that it was a hardcover edition of 'School Day' by Jeff Long. "It's a horror novel based off of actual events," Katie explained. "Mr. Long, the English teacher, wrote it a few years ago."
"Based off a true story?" Ashley chuckled.
"Yeah," Katie went on. "About some kids that got stuck in their school with a killer dressed as the grim reaper."
Ashley froze upon hearing that, and remembering what Ian Turner had been ranting about earlier. "Grim Reaper?"
"Yeah," Katie confirmed.
Surly it had to be a coincidence, Ashley had to tell herself. Or maybe Ian had read the same book. Still, Ashe couldn't deny that a cold shiver ran down her spine at that moment.
"I have to keep myself occupied in the evenings when everyone else is gone," Katie chuckled.
"Is reading a true horror story really the best thing for that?" Ashley asked, and Katie just shrugged in reply.
Ashley shook her head with a slight smile and turned to leave. "Oh," Katie spoke up one last time, stopping Ashley just as she was walking through the doorway into the main room. "Would you be able to clean your muddy shoeprints you left behind, before you leave? I noticed you left them all over the floor of the main room when you turned the light on."
"Hey, don't look at me," Ashley raised her hands in a defensive motion.
"They weren't there an hour ago and you're the only one to come in during that time."
"I always take my shoes off on the mat. Muddy shoeprints is a pet peeve of mine," Ashley explained with a genuine voice.
"Sure, sure," Katie rolled her eyes. "You're not going to scare me again. Nice try though."
Ashley sighed, giving up. "Whatever." She left the room an a couple minutes later, Katie heard the door open and close loudly as Ashley left to go play spotlight with some of the others.
Finally back to silence, Katie returned to reading her book and after a few solid minutes of reading, she was distracted by hearing a loud creaking out in the main room once again. "Ashley?" she called out, and like before, there was no answer. "Come on Ashley, you really don't think you're going to scare me again, do you?"
With a sigh, Katie closed her book and got off her bunk once more and made her way into the dark main room, Ashley having turned the lights off when she left. "Knock it off Ashley," Katie called out. "You can't fool me twice."
Katie smiled to herself, finding it funny that Ashley seriously thought she could trick her a second time. Remembering where the light switch was from the last time, Katie made her way to it without trouble, however the second she flipped it, the light bulb blew, only lighting the room for a split second before plunging it into darkness again.
"Great," Katie mumbled out loud. She turned to head back to her room, which still had its light on and shining brightly, but she stopped on the spot and gasped, as the second she turned around, she caught a glimpse of someone rushing out of the darkness of the main room and around the corner into her bunk room. She didn't know who it was, but whoever it was, was definitely taller then Ashley was.
"Hello?" Katie called out, wondering if Ashley had gotten anybody else in on her little prank and it was them that was now in here with her. "Who's there?" she called out as she started taking slow steps toward her room.
Katie called out another two times before she neared her doorway, trying to decide in her mind if she really wanted to go in or if she should just rush out of the cabin. Before she could make up her mind however, the entire cabin is plunged into darkness as the power flickered and then went down. She glanced out a nearby window and saw that the next cabin over still had lights on, so it was only her cabin without power.
Just great, she thought to herself. "This isn't funny!" she shouted out, refusing to move from her spot.
"I know," a chilling whisper said near her ear.
Katie started screaming as she turned frantically from side to side, trying to see through the darkness to who was near her, but by the time her eyes adjusted to the dark, a firm hand grabbed her by the shoulder and whipped her around to face Grim Reaper.
She screamed again, but her scream was cut short when Grim Reaper shoved her to the floor, hard, and within a split second had his scythe pole out, extending it and having the scythe blade swing up from it to form the full scythe. A split second was all it took for him to go from being defenceless to having a sharp weapon swinging down to end Katie's life.
***
Eugene Tilly stood in the main room of one of the cabins a few hours later, clapping his hands. "Ok everyone," he addressed all the male teens in the room. "Light's Out time."
There were moans of disappointed, but nobody argued as they all started heading to their bunk rooms. Fifteen minutes later, when all was ready for bed, Eugene went around and flipped off all the lights before leaving and moving on to the next cabin.
Inside one of those bunk rooms, Ian laid on a bottom bunk, while Karsen laid on the top bunk of the same bed.
"So Ian," Karsen said slyly with a smirk. "What did you and Danielle do earlier when you two went off on your own like little lovebirds?"
"Mind your own business, Karsen," Ian snapped. Although his tone was snappish, in the dark Ian couldn't help but smile at the sweet memory he'd cherish for the rest of his life. Suddenly his body jerked a little bit though, making his mind leave behind all thoughts of earlier that day and being with Danielle.
"Oh come on, you can tell me, we're buddies, right?" After being ignored by Ian for several minutes and not getting a response, Karsen said in a snappish tone, "Well fine, good night to you too."
As Karsen rolled over and almost instantly fell asleep, on the bunk below, blood trickled from the side of Ian's lifeless face. Laying flat on the floor below the mattress, Grim Reaper removed his scythe blade from the mattress.