I should've turned back the moment we stepped foot into that town. It looked almost abandoned barring the few cars we saw on the side of the road while driving to my father's old house when he was a high schooler. I should've just threw a fit to make sure we didn't stay in that place. Well, anyways we arrived at my father's old house with little to no issue. It was a kinda small yet somehow charming place that seemed oddly clean despite nobody living in it for the past 25 years and quite strangely the whole town looked oddly taken care of despite the lack of people.
My father looked at me and said "C'mon before you get settled in I wanna show you the school I used to go to." Now you see this was completely unnecessary as I wouldn't even be going to school there due to me having already graduated.
So, despite it being already dark out him and I stupidly decided to walk to the school as it was only a mile or two away according to him. We only brought a flashlight and our phones to the school and we still didn't see a single other soul around the town which at the time didn't really strike us as odd. We had to go through this path through the woods to get to the school and heard absolutely nothing not even the crickets chirping.
Once we got to the school it came to our realization that it had been long since deserted and not a foot barring maybe a few homeless people seeking a rainy nights shelter as evidenced by the trash around the place such as empty beer cans. Now my father for some reason unbeknownst to me got the bright idea to explore the school and said "We should head inside and check around the place a little." Now me not knowing any better just went right along with it and nodded. Both him and I then decided to sneak into the school through the windows as the doors were barred off.
As soon as our feet hit the floor of the school they creaked which marked the first noise we have heard throughout the few short hours we had been there. While we were walking through the halls he told me all about the past he had here such as which classrooms were which and which professors he liked. But after we reached room 204 he went silent and a frown creased his lips. I figured this had something to do with his past and why he moved away shortly after graduating high school. He then said "This is where everything went wrong" as he grabbed the handle of the door to reveal the old blood stains all over the walls of the class.
This horrific scene only excentuated by the fact that written on the wall with blood that looked oddly fresh for such an old accident was "Five have fallen down. One more and we shall be united." Then to startle me even more something wet, cold, and heavy fell on top of me. I heaved it off to me only to find my hands stained with red and looking at the mutilated corpse of what I presumed to be a woman. I immediately dropped it and then vomited all over the room. I then got up to try to leave the room only to find my loving father collapsed with a frightening figure behind him.
The figure was cloaked in black and then said in a cryptic voice while I was reaching for my phone to call for the police "Since you have seen this scene you must fall too" as he darted towards me and stabbed me in the gut with what I guessed to be a knife. The figure then left and I felt my eyelids grow heavy as the call goes through with the police.
In my last moments all I heard was "Sir. Sir. Are you gonna report something?" All I could do in this moment was say "Help" hopefully loud enough for the other side to hear. After my eyes closed the pain slowly abated until there was nothing. No sound, no pain, no sight, not even the darkness of closing my eyes, just nothing. Then after what felt like hours although it was hard to measure with all my senses deprived of me I opened my eyes to find myself in the courtyard of a large building.
Despite my initial bewilderment the overall structure of the building looked oddly familiar to that of the school I was just in except this school looked newer and well kept. In fact the courtyard was rather nice with a full length soccer field that I must not have noticed before because it was too overgrown to see. Now in my bewilderment I neglected to notice a guy exit the school go behind me and tap me on the shoulder which caused me to jump startledly and yelp.
The guy looked quite familiar too and heck he even looked kinda similar to me except he looked at me rather strangely after the yelp. He then says "Umm. Dude are you alright?"
I then struggle to bring up the response "Yeah. May I ask where we are?" He then looked at me as if I were the strangest thing he had seen in his life.
He took a second glance at my face to see if I were serious or not and then when he saw I was he responded "We're on the grounds of Birch Mountain High School in Strutson." He then sighs as if to say Why do I always get the crazy ones.
This statement made my jaw drop as this was where one, my father went to school, two, where I was fucking murdered and, three, this place was old and decrepit last time I checked. My hands then immediately dropped to my pockets to check for my phone but no dice.
Now seeing this the dude who has answered my question asks "You sure you're good?" He seemed mildly concerned as my actions reflecting back on them would be deemed strange by any person.
I forced a smile despite the akward situation and then responded with "Yeah, yeah. I'm sure. Um do you know what year it is and if there are any places in town where I could get some sleep?" I hoped that he wouldn't think too oddly of me as this so far must have left quite the impression.
The young fella looked at me like I was crazy and said "Yeah. It's 1989 and there's a inn not too far from here in town. The people there are pretty nice and I'm sure they'll let you stay there if you offer to work for them. It's called The Roadside Inn. Also now that I think about it I never did ask for your name." He looks at me as if waiting for me to respond and then says "Well I guess I'll go first. I'm Pete Fega and I go to this high school, may I have your name?"
This brought quite a large amount of shock to me as that is the name of my father and the year is just before he departed from this area so I quickly thought of a different last name to use and then responded with "I'm Alex Pert. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Well I'll get going to the inn then. Toodleoo." After saying goodbye I headed down to the inn.
After spending some time searching around the town and asking around about the inn I finally stumbled upon the it. Now despite its name, The Roadside Inn, wasn't on the roadside and instead was located moreso inside of an alleyway. After building up my gumption I grabbed the doorknob and went inside.