Allister Hale's Story Graveyard.

Aaron met Alice on her way to the classroom this time putting him on his guard earlier. Since he had the opportunity he had a choice to make. He could prevent her from seeing the mess in the classroom, or maintain her initial effect on the scene.

“Morning, I mean good afternoon Alice.”

“Ohh, aaron. Attending your afternoon classes for once?”

“No, I've got a book I'm returning to Grant.”

“Ah, he is out sick today.”

“...say,” They were approaching the classroom now. In the Initial loop Aaron had not noticed how quiet the hall had been. Normally when the students were on their lunch break the hall was noisy. That was still the case however, he could tell that his own classroom was silent. “...Do you hear anything? Coming from our classroom I mean.”

Alice stopped and listened. “No, I don’t”

“Stay here I’m going to take a look.”

Alice nodded with a puzzled look on her face as Aaron walked up to the door and opened it to look in. as far as he could tell at a glance the room looked the same as it had in the initial loop. Aaron shut the door and turned to Alice. “Go get some security officers. I think Jim and Naver are close by, and uh… you don't want to see what's in there.” Even though Aaron had expected what he found he still felt his face go pale when he looked the classroom over. Alice hesitated before nodding. She probably saw his face.

Officer Jim arrived on the scene first followed closely by Naver and Alice.

“Officer they’re uh… They’re dead Jim”

“Don't make jokes like that. You need training to make that call and it's easy to get it wrong even then.”

“No, they’re dead. Look for yourself.”

Jim opened the door and appraised the scene and shut the door. Then he reached for his radio and hesitated before speaking “Put the school on lockdown. Any students on the west wing third floor are to be put into the nearest classroom. All others are to report to their classrooms. Have the deans report to classroom W345. I repeat…”

The next two hours was spent accounting for all of the students, securing the halls and organising a response. Once the school was deemed secure the situation continued.

All of the classrooms had been checked immediately after Jim called the lock down. After that the classrooms were checked at regular intervals by patrolling officers. During one such interval another classroom had been butchered. The school barely had a chance to begin reacting before a third scene was discovered. At this point the school staff began evacuating the students to the dorms. Alice and Aaron were among the first evacuated and when they entered the dorm Aaron led alice to one of the sitting rooms in the Common Wing. This particular room had a clear view of the entry hall.

“What… was all that?”

Aaron looked at alice. “Anyone who was in the classroom when… whatever happened… happened, is dead.”

“How could you tell so quickly.”

“I didn’t quite get what I had seen until after I sent you after security. That's how little it looked like slaughtering as compared to a butcher’s shop where someone forgot to clean the blood.”

“Oh…”

Aaron watched as the evacuation into the dorms continued. While he didn't have an accurate head count Aaron was confident more than half of the students never arrived.

“Aaron, do you have any idea what's going on?”

“Honestly only a little. We’re in big danger. I don't think most of us are making it out alive.”

“That’s grim.”

“Better than half the students didn't make it to the dorm. As near as I can tell no one has a clue what is killing the students. Honestly I think at this point you would be better served taking a nap. Just after dinner was announced Aaron heard more screaming. Rather than investigate he felt his best option was sleep.