Murder Mystery

The fluorescent hum of the classroom lights was a familiar drone, a soundtrack to another Tuesday, September 10th. For Blake, it was merely background noise to his illicit nap, head slumped against his desk. "Alright, class! Who can tell me what number 14 on the homework was?" His teacher's voice, sharp with annoyance, cut through his doze. "Blake! Are you kidding me!?"

He jolted awake, disoriented. "Huh? What's going on?" The ensuing reprimand was rote, the threat of the principal's office old news. "Blake, your behavior is unacceptable! This is the third time in a row!" But before the words could fully land, before he could retort, the world around him warped. The classroom, the teacher, the mundane reality, all dissolved into an inky blackness.

He spun, a desperate, rising panic seizing him. "W-what the?? Where am I?!" His voice, raw with fear, echoed in the void. A disembodied voice, calm and detached, crackled from an unseen intercom. "Who on earth is making all that racket? Oh, it's just you. I suppose you're the first person to arrive."

The surreal nightmare had just begun.