It was the last period of the day, and the air in the school smelled faintly of vinegar and baking soda from our experiments earlier. Mrs. Cartiair, our teacher, was packing up her materials, but Suraya and I stayed behind, pretending to reorganize our lab supplies.
We weren’t trying to be nerds or anything. We had a reason. Last week, we overheard Mrs.Cartiair and Mr.Bentley, the janitor, talking about something strange she found in the storage closet. She didn’t say much, but it was enough to start curiosity.
“They don’t pay me enough to deal with this,” Mr. Bentley grumbled, shaking his head.
Even since then, Suraya and I had been determined to figure out what they were hiding. Today was our chance. The school was nearly empty because most students bolted for the doors the second the bell rang.
“You ready?” Suraya whispered, looking at the storage closet at the far end of the room.
“No,” I said. “But let’s do it anyway.”
We tip-toed toward the closet, our sneakers squeaking on the marble floor. The door was locked, but Suraya pulled out a paperclip she’d bent into some makeshift tool.
“Where did you learn to do that?” I asked.
“Internet,” she said with a grin, then popped the lock. “After you.”
The closet was cramped and dark, filled with shelves of dusty jars, beakers, and unlabeled boxes. A faint humming noise filled the air, making the hairs on my neck stand up.
“What’s that sound?” I whispered.
Suraya didn’t answer. She was already digging through the shelves, pulling out random jars of colorful liquids.
‘Check this out! This one is glowing.”
I turned to see what Suraya was holding and it was a jar of something neon green that pulsed like it was alive and it wasn’t just glowing it was moving, swirling in patterns like it was trying to escape the glass.
“Put that back,” I hissed, “It’s probably toxic!”
“Relax,” Suraya said, shaking the jar lightly. That’s when it happened.
The jar slipped from her hands and hit the floor, shattering into a million pieces. The glowing green liquid oozed out, spreading across the tiles. I jumped back, but Suraya froze, staring at the goo as it started to bubble and sizzle.
“Uh, I think we should…”
Before she could finish, the goo began to rise. It wasn’t just a puddle anymore; it was forming into something… alive. Limbs sprouted from it then what looked like eyes. Bright and unblinking eyes.
“Run!” I yelled, grabbing Suraya’s arm.
We bolted out of the closet and slammed the door behind us. But the humming noise didn’t stop. It grew louder, and now there was a faint thumping sound, like tiny footsteps. Whatever we had unleashed was moving and fast.
“What do we do?” Suraya asked her voice shaky.
“Tell Mrs. Cartiair!” I said, dragging her toward her desk. But when we got there, she was gone.
The humming grew louder, and we turned to see the closet shaking. The handle jiggled, and then… it started to open.
To this day, no one believes us when we tell what happened. But if you ever hear a strange humming in the science lab, don’t ignore it.
And whatever you do, don’t drop the glowing jar.
