The building laid quiet. It was tall and wide, squared with big windows within windows and windows. It looked like a Rubrics Cube that desperately wanted to solve itself from the inside out. The architect was either clever or had a fever dream.
Above the building lingered stars and satellites, battling with lights, their unevenness contrasted the building. Inside it breathed, swelling with darkness and big halls that echoed even the smallest of whisper. High ceilings over a mass of bodies. They laid quiet, all breathed calmly. Occasionally one snored and the sound travelled throughout the hallways.
     A week full of creativity awaited them. For now, they snoozed in anticipation, thankful to have been chosen. Lana smiled in her dreams. Finally, she had thought when she arrived. A long lasting dream of hers. This place had the reputation of creating new artists. An education for kids of all ages to explore their inner creator. She was always unsure what to do with her ideas but this place promised guidance; a place to grow into yourself.
     She woke up from the rustle and tussle of people around her. Just a few minutes later she snapped upright as a hearty laughter filled the room. People around her had had the same reaction. She looked at them but quickly turned her head when they looked back.
     Breakfast came and went fast. It was first come, first served, and Lana wasn’t going to waste energy fighting for the good jam. She just wanted whatever was left, stress free. For a few minutes she stood to the side and watched as the others rushed and fought over the food. She found her scraps and ate in silence at the far corner of the hall.
     Soon after the food rolled away, they repurposed the breakfast tables for work benches. Lana realised she had randomly sat down at a table with equally eye-contact-avoiding children. She noticed how the other tables eagerly discussed their art and their dreams. All around her were happy gestures and she thought: a lot of bragging. At her own table they did as she, looked around themselves, with big, scared eyes and then back at the table.
     They got a smörgåsbord full of supplies at one end of the room, and the same rave of hungry kids ran towards it and grabbed everything they could to fill their arms: all kinds of paper, paint and glitter, before running back to their tables. The tumult and pumelling made them crash into each other, dropping most of what they carried and scrambling to pick it back up.
Lana took a deep breath and ran for it, dodging stealthily past other children and teens. She knew that today was a test, and as she didn’t consider the breakfast to be of any importance, she suspected the choice of material would show who she was. This was after all the day they would thin out the herd and keep only the serious students. Luckily she was small enough to sneak in between some rowdy tall teens and grab her favourite colours: teal and silver. She didn’t care too much about the material as she needed to be quick. Her mother’s voice echoed in her head to pick a complementary colour, so she grabbed a handful of orange and dark yellow. Then she saw a deep red, the kind that reminded her of the phrase “the ocean, the colour of dark wine”. Hypnotized she grabbed it, then ran back with the material held tightly to her chest. Some beads spilling, but no concerning amount.
     Sitting down, she heard a smack! Then a cry and some other screams. Looking over her shoulders she spotted a kid on the ground, things strewn about them and a stream of blood pouring down their forehead.
     Afraid that it was because of her beads she snapped back at her black slate of paper. Focusing on the first assignment to make a collage. Preferably they would remember some old artworks and then recreate them in smaller samples.
     The day went very fast, Lana sat hunched over her work and forgot everyone around her. When a tall, thin, almost rubbery-like thing bent down to inspect her work. It was a teacher. Lana’s patchwork of varying artwork, some inspired by Greek mythology, seemed to be crawling around on the page. The teacher drew the edges of a thin line at the bottom of their face. Lana thought it resembled a smile and hoped it was an almost invisible approval.
     After it finished, she learned that she’d passed. Giddy with joy she jumped in a circle, bumping into some others. This frightened her to a halt, but noticed they didn’t care. Instead they stared at the sullen faces leaving the room. She was surprised how many were still left, they must have started as a hundred students and now were down to sixty. Only one more person was her age, the rest were older.
Lana stood by the lanky teens whom almost towered over her, then they were moved to a corner of the room where a white sheet hung. It was as white as the walls but cast a big shadow behind it. Before it was a stool and in front of that a three-legged camera.
     Everyone took their place in a queue, an unusual behaviour for the group. The task was to take a picture. Only one chance per person, no exceptions, to capture their true self. The teens helped each other to touch up on facial artistry. Looking excited to show off make-up and hairdues. Lana was sour, she didn’t like having her picture taken, ever. Suddenly all her skin felt itchy, like she couldn’t stand still. She was a bit behind in the queue, or rather, dead last. Every time the flash went off, she flinched. Every step forward took her a few seconds and she squished her knuckles tight and scratched the side of her thigh.
When it was finally her turn, a familiar voice cried out at the other end of the room:
“But I should get a second chance! It wasn’t my fault, I tripped on the beads!”
Lana turned her head just as the flash went off. Trying to look away, hide herself from the kid she’d sabotaged. Her hair swished and her eyes saw the courtyard outside. It was empty.
     She shrunk after that, having failed the photo-shoot, but no one seemed to care. As the pictures were put up on the stale white wall, all along the room, they were all just looking for their own picture and laughing at some other. One teenager even said that Lana’s picture looked artistic and praised her choice to turn around. A stern person, old enough to be a teacher, walked across the wall and inspected the pictures. He stopped at Lana’s and his shoulders seemed to rise, then he just turned and walked away. It was the oddest thing. He seemed to be floating.
A few of the teens whispered and Lana could catch them saying that that man looked like he had just crawled out of his own grave. As Lana wrinkled her eyebrows she turned to the windows again and realised they had two layers, each big but with squares of smaller windows framed by steel bars inside them. It was a bit odd, but she wondered if she could fit through one. Confounded by the thought she turned back to pay attention.
     The day continued as the sun now shone through the big windows on the western side. It filled the room with warm light and revealed some glass art up in the ceiling that reflected rainbows all around them. Lana stared at them and almost forgot to eat. Lunch had been handed out and she held a spoon in her soup. Everyone was on edge. The man was back, walking around them. Sometimes looking, sometimes turning to the pictures. Time went, as the autumn sun descended. The kids got more and more quiet thinking they were in a new sort of test.
     A ticking started. At first low, then higher and higher, as the room went darker. When the last rays and rainbows left the ceiling, a clock rang. All light disappeared. Lana didn’t like it, she slowly sank and oiled herself down to the floor underneath the table. At first everyone held their breath. Then the lights came back on. The room was coloured in red splatter. Silently, and without as much as a gust of wind, half the kids were gone and replaced by the same red she had splattered on her collage at the end. She only saw the bottom of it. For everyone else the walls were painted. The pools on the floor made her heart leap.
     The silence broke from a kid, he was screaming at the top of his lungs, then he ran for the doors but the tall teacher stood there, in company of equally tall beings. Their eyes didn’t even seem to look at them, they looked nowhere. Lana could see them across the pools of red. As panic set and more children ran for the doors, Lana started to slowly crawl towards the big white screen and then she hid behind it. The light flickered and all hell broke loose. The kids started running around the room looking for a way out. With each blink of light, it became more and more quiet. They were plenty so the chaos remained. Lana didn’t need to look to know that the pools of blood were growing.
     The crack of the window rung like lightning. Lana dared to glance up and saw part of the glass between the steel bars had been shattered. She was impressed by this, as she had for a thought the glass would be too strong. The teenaged girl who’d broken the window was frantically fighting her way through it, Lana saw blood streaming across her body. As she disappeared more tried to follow. One smarter girl tore off a jean jacket and flung it down on the jagged glass edges on the bottom of the hole. Other kids came running from all around the room and Lana got up to jump through the window. She did it fast, no hesitation allowed. As two teens were fighting to go first she jumped. Behind her she heard the ones who’d been too slow get silenced.
     They found themselves in the inner yard, surrounded by low buildings and small bushes where some kids stood frozen behind, hugging the pines. Lana snuck tightly to the wall under the windows, as she saw something snatch one of the children from the middle of the yard. It was so soft, so quiet, and so fast. A strange vision, mouth seemed to open from the groin up to the throat but even the bite was strangely soft. All she could hear now was the blood raining down.
     As the teenaged girl who’d crawled out first was snatched, Lana ran forward, not knowing what she was doing. It didn’t seem reasonable, she didn’t recognise herself in the decision at all, but they couldn’t just take them all. She yelled at them to stop but was too late to help her. Standing in the middle of the yard where she’d disappeared. Nothing happened to her.
     It was quiet now. Most kids were in hiding. Lana looked at her bloodied hands. On the roofs she saw them, not looking directly at them, just glinting them at the corner of her eye. As soon as a kid made any movement they rained down upon them. She managed to throw a glance at them as she stood frozen. One looked intently at her with big eyes, looking disproportionate to the face. Then again, the face didn’t need much room for a mouth. She looked away, but kept standing there, out in the open.
     When one child was left, they ran up to Lana, seemed desperate and yelled at her to help. Lana wanted to shake him off but the teen was so much bigger and stronger, he locked his arms around her so she couldn’t move.
     Nothing happened. Lana stood still. Time moved so slowly, and Lana just breathed jagged breaths. She looked at the silvery feathers of the creatures in the moonlight. They looked up at the sky, tempted to fly away but instead seemed to yawn and looked down again upon her and the teen.
     A door opened on the other side of the yard. Bathing Lana and the other kid in light, they narrowed their eyes but only saw a silhouette. It seemed human, but tall, like a lanky teen that had grown up to be a man but never left his growth spurt, never filled out.
     It approached them, slowly, and Lana planted her feet. So far they hadn’t attacked her, so maybe she could protect the teen behind her. It was the right thing to do, as her mother would say.
     The lanky creature came up to her and she could see the reflection of a pair of eyes staring down, big and round.
     It leaned forward and grabbed Lana by the collar. Lifter her until the teen had to let go. As soon as he did, the sound of the blood splashing on the ground echoed and Lana closed her eyes. But the creature just lowered her to the ground again.
     “You”, said a voice she would never be able to describe, “you are not like the others, quiet one, you can join us in our hunt.”
     Lana looked up at them all and didn’t know what to do. She simply nodded.