…I closed the door to my office and walked down the hallway; the florescent lights added a surreal atmosphere to my movements, as though I was walking through a dream. Just as I neared the doors to the teacher’s lounge, I saw something in the corner of my eye. I turned to fully examine it, but nothing. This drinking is getting the best of me. I need to put the bottle down for a while. I went to open the door, but then I heard what I thought I saw. A little girl was skipping down the hallway towards me, humming some dissonant folk tune. Her Victorian dress bobbed up and down with her knees. I thought I was the only one here, is there some school play tonight? She stopped herself about ten feet away from me. The tune she was humming sounded familiar, but I couldn’t recognize what it was.



“Hi mister.” Her voice sounded hollow. There was something wrong here.



“Hey sweetie. What are you doing here so late at night? Are your parents around?”



“No. I haven’t seen them anywhere.”



She didn’t sound worried, she sounded…determined. “Okay, what’s your name?”



“I’m Emily. Can you help me find my parents?”



“Okay, let’s go find them.” I turned to lock the teacher’s lounge door. As I did, i saw her brush something off her shoulder. Her dress strap? What the fuck?



“Emily, what are you doing?” I turned back to look at her, and realized what i was seeing. She wasn’t undressing, she was peeling her skin off. A chunk of flesh hung loosely from her upper arm. Blood poured down her wrist and dripped a puddle on the floor. She began tear at her face. Her lips and left cheek pulled back to expose her teeth. She pulled her eyelids off, dropping them with ease onto the floor. I tried to suppress the urge to vomit, but nausea was coursing through my veins. I heaved a mixture of whiskey and chips onto the hallway floor. I brought myself to look back at her. What could i do to stop her?



“Mister, don’t you remember what she said? Its always dark down here.” She started peeling the muscles out of her skinned arm. Chunks of meat lay on the dark marble floor, her blood reached my vomit and turned it a sickening dark orange hue.



“All of us have nightmares down here, mister. Don’t you see? We’re all nightmares.” I couldn’t look anymore. I started calling for help. But who was around? I recalled seeing a first-aid kit in the teacher’s lounge the day before. Would that even help? Maybe the phone. I unlocked the door and ran across the room, to where the phone hung on the wall. I was halfway into dialing when I heard Emily at the door.



“Mister, you can’t help me.” I turned to look at her. She had ripped out all the muscle in her left arm, and was tugging at the bone. It popped free from the socket with a sickening wet pop. She held it in her right hand and began hitting the wall with the limp limb. Thwack thwack thwack. I felt sick.



“Can you can take me home? I don’t want to anger him.” Her voice took an air of sadness. “I just want to go home.”



“Emily, I…” I vomited again. The sting of alcohol and stomach acid burned my throat. I fell to my knees and heaved again, greenish-yellow liquid spilled onto the carpet. I looked up to see what new self-mutilation Emily had done, but she wasn’t there. I stumbled to my feet and slowly walked out of the room. She had vanished. Her blood was sitting in a pool in the hallway, but there was no blood trail leading down either ends of the hall. Where could she have gone?



I started running down the hallway, yelling her name. Nothing. Where the fuck could she be? What the fuck was that? I stopped near the gym, out of breath. She had simply disappeared. What is wrong with me?



Suddenly, I heard that melody behind me. I turned. Emily had been standing right behind me. In the time I was looking for her, she had pulled bits of her scalp off. The blood soaked her blond hair, and she grinned a half grin at me.



“Give me a kiss. I need to feel better.” She leaned forward with her face distorted. An overwhelming stench of turpentine flooded the air. I felt dizzy and disoriented. The smell make me legs weak and i fell to my knees for a second time. Emily was leaning in closer. Everything was unraveling. The walls themselves began to peel. Chips of paint floated in the air, I breathed in asbestos and lead. My lungs vomited blood, and leaked out of my mouth. I felt Emily’s lips on mine, and that’s the last thing I can remember before passing out…