Broken Hour
What's more stale than a school day that never ends?
There is no breeze, no light, no life. The air is vacant, thick with the scent of old books, left-out
pencil shavings, and the sour bitterness of sweat from other students sitting in this very
classroom, trapped in an endless wait.
A firm but weary voice droned on as the words gradually lost purpose. The lesson gave no
structure to the mind, welcoming the dark clouds that blurred thoughts into a pile of gunk.
Elaina's eyes flicker to the window. Outside was nothing but a gray, hollow sky looming over
the dead grass that covered the school grounds.
Eagerly searching for life that the teacher never provided, she scanned over her classmates, who
sat still in their seats. The blank, exhausted, yet laser-sharp expression plastered on everyone's
face left a pang in the stomach. Their eyes were widened, unblinking, fixated on the lesson, but
their pencils didn't move across their notebooks.
Elaina's pulse quickened. She leaned over to whisper in a classmate's ear. "Do you understand
this?"
No response.
She swallowed the lump in her throat before it fully developed.
Looking down at her own book, the lump grew back as she had sworn she'd been taking notes
this entire time. The stillness of everything shackled her mind like a cloth wrapping around her
eyes. A stained, circle rim imprinted on the space of the wall above the door where a clock
would usually be. The ticking of the big and little hands is meant to give order in the classroom.
The bell never rang, no hands to tick. Structure was never a choice.
Elaina shifted in her seat once again; this time, the stiffness in her back sharpened her senses.
There was no telling how long she'd been sitting. Classmates were deemed useless, so she raised
her hand with determination locked on the teacher.
No response.
The teacher kept going. Scratching the chalk against the board, creating ear-piercing friction that
slipped in the dry air. The agonizing vibrations shocked a reminder that time was only an
illusion.
Time was fractured to the point of forgetting if it were even a part of existence in the first place.