I dream about half of the time I sleep at night. Most of those dreams I forget as soon as I wake up. There were two dreams, however, that I never quite forgot. One of those was I dream that I had when I was in grade 5, primary school (a long time ago!). The following is the story.

I

I woke up at night. The clock was ticking above me. It was 1 AM.

I overheard crackling noises outside my bed, whose sheets are oddly cold. The noise got progressively louder, as I heard my parents’ voices. “Weird,” I thought, for I have always taken for granted that humans are supposed to sleep at night.

I lifted the quilts and gently walked to the wooden door of my room, holding my eyes close to the crevice, trying to peek outside. The living room was fully lit; all the lights were turned on, and I could see my parents cooking.

“This is all weird,” I thought again, confused, as I opened the door and asked my parents what was going on. They had the same frustrated and confused look on their faces, but oddly enough, they don’t look tired at all, almost as if they had just finished a refreshing night’s sleep.

“Go look at the school announcements,” they told me. “We’re making breakfast.”

I picked up my phone, and indeed, there was an announcement from the school. It read,

“Due to special arrangements, all students shall come to school at 2:30 AM today, when the moon is the brightest. You may enter from the north gate. The gate will be open at 2 AM.”

Weird.

I had my breakfast with my parents. It was a typical breakfast for a Chinese family, with a jianbing and a cup of milk. Afterwards, I packed up, got my bike, and went to school, just as I would do every morning. It was 1:40 AM.

II

The path to school was unusually long. I was almost certain that the path to school wasn’t this long before. On my way, I passed through what seemed like an enormous expanse of forest, with a single road in the middle on which I’m riding my bicycle. The sky was a deep blue, like the blue of the deepest stretches of the ocean. The moon was a piercing white, shivering my heart every time I glimpsed at it. There were only a couple of streetlights as I rode, and as time went on, the streetlights got even more sparse, to the point where I was drowning in complete eerie darkness.

Beep. It was my phone. I checked my phone, and saw that it was already 2:35 AM. I’m late! I pedaled my bike at the maximum possible speed, with the distant trees rushing beside me. The streetlights returned, and eventually, our elementary school building entered the horizon.

My friends and many other students had already gathered around the giant iron gate of our school, and we chattered around about why the school would ask us to gather at such an inconvenient time. No adults were present, however. I stared beyond the gates. It was engulfed in darkness inside, and strangely enough, the gate wasn’t open yet.

The bell tower rang. It read 2 AM, and the gate slowly opened itself.

The crowd flowed within the gates, and I went with the flow. The lights inside the school turned themselves on, and the building was now fully lit. I’ll have to admit, it was actually pretty gorgeous. I took a small promenade with my friends around the campus, and eventually, we entered our classroom.

III

The classroom was brightly lit, just as if we’re taking normal classes in the day, and my classmates are all there, running around. The yellow-green curtains, however, are all closed, and when I tried to pull the curtains over, I felt like the curtain was made of an unusual metal-like material, and I wasn’t able to open the curtain.

Mr. Z, our math teacher, came in. He told us that, unfortunately, the usual homeroom teacher, Ms. C, was sick today, so he is filling in for Ms. C. I have always had a deep affection for Ms. C, who was always a kind and loving teacher who was willing to help me with any obstacles that I faced. Ms. Z was also tolerable, but he is much less of a kind person as Ms. C is, so I didn’t quite like him as much.

The bell rang again, and it was time for the first period, which happened to be math with Mr. Z. We were all asked to stay in our seats and stop running around, as Mr. Z handed us the worksheet for today. Curiously, the text on the worksheet changed every time I looked at it. Now it reads “Adding Fractions.” And now it reads “Place Values.”

Mr. Z was just loading the slides for the day on the classroom projector. And then, the lights went out.

Everyone in the classroom screamed, and some naughty children decided to capitalize on this opportunity by imitating the voice of a wolf.

“Stay calm, children! Stay calm.” Mr. Z shouted in a reassuring tone.

Mr. Z decided that we needed to get candles. He asked for volunteers to come with him to grab the candles, and some other people went with him.

Now, only the eerie green emergency lighting can be seen. As the screams settled, I looked around the classroom and discovered that the projector was still working. Thoughts immediately stormed my mind. The power is still working, so why did the lights turn off?

I went to the light switches on the wall and pushed them again and again. It made a faint buzzing sound every time I touched it, but other than that, it didn’t work.

We looked outside the window. It was still a deep blue, like the blue of the deepest stretches of the ocean. The moon was still a piercing white, but this time, it wasn’t as bright as before. I can hear the incessant, wavering cries of owls.

The other classrooms besides ours seem to also be shrouded in utter darkness. In fact, the entire building is now shrouded in darkness, save for the green emergency fluorescent lights that send off a buzzing sound. Everyone else seems to be in a great panic as well, and everyone is muttering as to what has happened.

IV

Mr. Z came back with a box of candles on his hands. He lit the white candles, and the harsh orange glow appeared at once, with the smell of wax coming off. We were asked to sit around the candle as the class continued steadily. Nobody was in the mood for taking the class, though, and people couldn’t stop discussing what’s going on. Eventually, even Mr. Z gave up on teaching. It seems like he is equally confused about what’s going on as we are.

After a while, the candles burned out, and no candles were left. Mr. Z told us that he would go find some more candles, and this time he would do it just by himself. And he went outside.

I looked at the ticking clock in the classroom, and it read 2:35 AM. I wandered around the classroom and talked to my friends. We all reached the conclusion that something weird is definitely going on. For one, none of us is feeling tired. In fact, all of us seem to be very excited about what’s going on.

The clock ticks on. Now, it’s 3:33 AM. Almost an hour has already passed, yet Mr. Z was nowhere to be seen! I was certain that he wouldn’t take a whole hour just to grab some candles, especially considering that we are in a fairly small community elementary school.

We discussed what we would do and eventually reached the consensus that we should form a small group to go find Mr. Z. I decided to volunteer as well, and we scoured through the entire school building in order to find Mr. Z. The entire building was still dark, and we started on the 4th floor, where our classroom is located, but to no avail. Afterwards, we went to the 3rd floor, and the 2nd floor and couldn’t find a person. Throughout our trying to find Mr. Z, I felt like I was constantly being watched by something, and I had the shivers.

Finally, we went to the ground floor, where I saw the only room that was lit up. That was the lab for science classes. We chased each other to the room, and we found Mr. Z in there.

Mr. Z had an unbelievably pale look on his face. In fact, his face was entirely white, giving us a terrified yet relieved look.

“What happened?” We asked him. “Why did it take so long?”

But Mr. Z refused to say anything. In fact, he can now no longer say a word, only making muffled sounds. He simply nodded, and we took him back to the classroom.

V

We were up on the stairs, heading to the classroom. I chatted with my classmates on the way, talking about all the weirdness that had happened throughout the day. That was when I heard a giant “bwam” sound—the sound of an anvil hitting the ground. I was shocked and startled, and I turned my head around.

Nobody was there.

I turned around again, and saw Ms. C behind me.

Ms. C, our homeroom teacher who’s supposed to be on sick leave today.

I was shocked. “Why did you com—”

And Ms. C suddenly rushed towards me and pushed me down the stairs. I fell into the endless void of what’s beneath the stairs as I yelled.

I woke up.

(June 15, 2024)