By Mya Raulston

Bang! Bang! The sounds of screams filled the hallways, sending a herd of visitors stumbling into the nearest patient’s rooms of the hospital. Bang!

Gunshots.

I stood confused for a moment, staring down the hall in an utterly shocked state of mind. My daze was broken by the sound of a louder, closer gunshot. BANG! I heard an alarmingly loud scream, and not a second later there was yet another gunshot, louder than the last. BANG!!! Just around the corner, I saw an arm fall lifelessly to the smooth glossy floor, the ever-growing pool of dark red already beginning to spread beyond the length of the hand.

Numbly, I ran to the nearest open door I saw: the janitor’s closet. Distantly, as if through someone else’s ears, I heard slow, deliberate footsteps echoing down the now empty corridor. Once in the closet, I quietly and carefully shut and locked the door. Inside my chest, I could hear rather than feel the fast thump-thump-thump-thump of my heartbeat. Outside, I could still hear the footsteps, closer now. In my head, I kept thinking this was the end, that I wouldn’t make it out of this.

Sitting with my hand clamped over my mouth, I bit down a sob. I should have been checking on patients right now, but instead, I’m a sitting duck in a hospital janitor’s closet, waiting to be found and shot. As the last of the sobs escaped my mouth in a silent scream, the footsteps stopped. I stopped breathing. I stopped moving, begging my heart to do the same for fear of being discovered. Through the narrow slice of light beneath the closet door, I saw two shadows. They looked like feet standing just outside the door.

That day, I finally realized why people feared silence. It’s like fear of the unknown. Inside that closet, everything was still. I did not dare to move, not even to tuck my hair behind my ears. I breathed only the most shallow, quiet gulps of air. There were no more screams or sounds of gunshots in the hallways now. There were no more patients and visitors scurrying for their lives to an exit or a patient room. The loud click of the footsteps that were oh-so-near to me had stopped. The figure stood silently in front of the door. It was the kind of silence that your mind seems to drown forever in, pleading for even a quiet creak to prevent you from going completely insane. The kind of silence that could kill.

As I was waiting, the feet moved away. I released the breath I was holding, just now noticing the tears freely falling from my face. Wiping them away, I counted to 1000. One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi…. For the last fifteen minutes, I didn’t see or hear anything. Thinking the coast was clear, I got up on my weak knees and unlocked the door. Slowly, I pushed the door open, careful not to make any noise, to stay silent.

This was it. The coast was clear. I could see the exit only thirty yards ahead of me. Outside, I could see armed policemen with blue and red lights flashing behind them. All I had to do was walk out. Then I’d be safe.

Thirty yards. I could make it. I began walking, trying to keep my footsteps quiet. Twenty yards. I picked up my pace, tears beginning to flow down my cheeks again. Ten yards. I could have been outside in the safety of the police, but instead, I ran into a man dressed in all black. The last thing I saw was a flash coming from the inside of a gun barrel.

Then, all was black and silent.