Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ One of Those Days ❯ pt. 1: Chemistry Lab ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

It was one of those days again.
How did he know? He just knew. He couldn't explain what, how, where, or why, just that it was.

The last time he felt like this was the day his father died. He knew something was going to happen, maybe he even knew exactly what it was. But that was three years ago.

The time before that, he nearly got hit by a car. He was just a 6-year-old, playing with chalk on the sidewalk. Some man, on a drunken rage, took off in his car, and when nearing him, the driver exhaled vomit on the windshield and lost conscience, veering on the road until it came towards him. He didn't even seem to notice what was about to happen, but without thinking, he laid back on the sidewalk, parallel to the car. The driver missed him completely, going right over him, but the man continued and ran into the cement foundation of the house, and died upon impact.

It wasn't until today that he realized what it was that made him feel this way, on a day like today.

His first thought wasn't even to tell someone. They'd think he's crazy. He didn't want that, it'd be too much unwanted attention.

As soon as he woke up, after noticing the feeling, he proceeded his day as usual, noting what the feeling meant. Getting dressed, he felt nothing other than the feeling. Eating breakfast, nothing other than the feeling. Going to school, the same thing. It remained with him the entire day, despite the incidents.

His first hour class was Chemistry. He didn't mind the class, but he felt it was more work than necessary. It was a lab day, so everyone went to put on their chemical aprons and goggles, not that it would do a certain person any good.

Today's experiment was to heat a beaker of hydrogen chloride mixed with sodium oxide, to produce regular table salt. One of his class mates received a new Bunsen burner, the only one of the new order that hadn't been stolen the night before. Feeling superior, the student became careless in his "I'm better than you" manner. He loosely attached the rubber hose to the gas nozzle and turned on the valve, but the student didn't notice the gas, he was still bragging. Feeling more impressive, the student also had one of the newest igniters, and he acted as if today were the luckiest day of his life. The bragging student's lab partner took no notice as well, for she had had a crush on him for quite some time. In a display of braggery, he made impressive sparks with the igniter, still unaware of the gas.

"Stop fooling around, Eric!" shouted the teacher, but he was too late. The damage was done. While the teacher gave the warning, Eric, the bragging student had flicked one last time. But there was an unreasonably large spark, and it fell moving towards the gas nozzle.

An eruption of flame spouted from the nozzle, as it was on full power. Eric was not harmed, oh no, but his lab partner immediately became engulfed. Her senses were still stupefied from Eric's showing off, and she didn't react until she felt the full force of flame. But by then, she was too late. She ran to the emergency shower, but lost strength and collapsed beneath it. He was at the station nearest it, and his mind wasn't focused on the burning girl, but rather not wanting to be burning himself. As a lick of flame caught onto his pants, he pulled the rope, and the shower doused the girl, and his leg, in gallons of water.

Unfortunately, not much was left of her. Her skin had become blackened, in the mere few seconds. The nozzle was still spewing its tongue of death, but another student, with a bit more sense than Eric, turned off the gas, and with that, the deadly fire. The fire alarm soon followed, as the teacher had pulled it. As all of the students except for the teacher, him, Eric, and the charred girl, panting on the floor, left the building, the teacher then called for an ambulance.

The girl's face was still directly on the floor, and she was gasping for air, so the teacher didn't move her body, but merely moved her head, using the un charred skin, to the side so she could breathe easier. It put her eyesight directly on Eric, and her eyes became filled with confusion, deciding whether or not it was the one she admired that had foolishly set her aflame. Slowly, her eyes drooped, crackling her charred face, and she moved no more.

Eric became haunted. He had killed someone.
He and Eric had watched the whole thing.
Calmly, the teacher said, not noticing the girl closing her eyes, never to open again, "You're staying here, Eric. We'll get this ordeal with Lindsay under control, and hopefully, she'll survive." Turning to him, the teacher said, "The bell's about to ring, but you're a witness... I'll let you resume class, after everyone else comes in. I know you're strong, but you could also go home if you wish. I'll call you down to discuss what happened, if you're still here, after the ambulance takes her to the hospital.

All he said was, "I'll go to class." As he walked around Lindsay, laying dead on the floor, the teacher bent down to see if Lindsay was responsive. She wasn't, so the teacher assumed she had passed out.

It wasn't until he left the room that the teacher noticed that she wasn't breathing.
On his way to his next class, which would be resuming after the others returned to the school, he still had that feeling. Indeed, it was one of those days.