Loud chatter came from every direction, the endless assault of different conversations and topics was a buffet for many who sat and listened in. Small groups and large groups of friends moved from one point to another across the lobby area of the school, all of them awaiting the bells for first class. All of the teens were occupied in their individual sections, each one split up by the usual social categories. Small pods of mixed teens and social levels were scattered about. Different discussions were on everyone's minds. However in the grand scheme all of those words and thoughts were meshed together and lost in the ultimate mixture of all the voices.
    The lobby room was rather large comparative to most of the rest of the school. It had to be since all of the students met here every morning. It was around eighty meters long or so, with a length of about fifty meters roughly. Couches and chairs with footstools rested against walls and corners, forming barricaded zones for the more secluded individuals of social gatherings. Some people even sat in those spots without social gatherings around them. It was a first come first serve community. Even now with dozens of teens in this zone more were flooding in as the time ticked away. Five minutes till class began. Punctuality was important for the school board and community, and everyone knew it. Even the troublemakers didn't dare stay out of class beyond two minutes.
    Social groups were divided evenly and growing as more students arrived. The obnoxious, foul mouthed, popular, and athletic teens all circled around each other in a frenzy, all trying to get to their friends and respective pods of communication. Close by were the outcasts of the previous group, all of the unpopular, unathletic, yet more respectable teens who didn't force their way into any other group. Next in the list were the mysterious and unsocial students. The dark, depressed, strange, and mentally challenged members all resided in this group, all of them floating individually yet together. After them were the total rejects, who forcefully attempted to stand in with any group possible yet couldn't. They were a massive combination of every other social group in one. Finally came the gamers and the smart kids. High grades, always getting picked on, video game pros, the whole deal in one. Many of the anti-social children resided here too, especially because of the low profile and limited physical communication they could keep here.
    It was in the last group that a particular member rested. He was younger, sixteen to be exact, with a healthy body and a fresh mind. He was around five foot eleven, with dirty blonde hair and green eyes. His skin was smooth, few blemishes could be seen anywhere. He had broad shoulders, about 19 inches wide. He was a somewhat stocky kid with more than just bones on his arms, which both came to a rest around his hips. His legs were fairly wide and large, again holding more than just bone on them. He wore a light grey hoodie over his casual red T-shirt. His black shorts with white stripes going down either side of the legs were nothing out of the ordinary here. His tanned skin was another ordinary feature of any student here, same with his dirty white shoes.
    His shoulder sling bag rested on his lap and provided a support platform for his school issued computer, a MacBook Air with all the newest features. He had downloaded as many games and systems as he could before school security systems took effect, allowing him to play games and work on programs with ease. He was currently drawn into a game he'd started and was now determined to finish. With three minutes till first bell rang he hurried the process of success along while still trying to bring out a good quality victory. He sat alone up against a bare wall as people walked past him. No one gave notice to him, just as he wanted. The less attention he got the less drama he had to be involved in.
    Just as the bell rang for first class the teen closed his computer and jumped to his feet, tucking the device under one arm and holding his bag with the other. He fell in line with the now streaming crowd of students as they all forced their ways through the doors and into the halls of the high school beyond, the torture place for many and the haven for others. For the individual teen in focus this was a mixture of both. While he hated having to attend it, like many common day students, he did enjoy the little escape it gave him from his empty home life. He also enjoyed the small amount of social encounterings he had here. He was close with pretty much all the teachers, he got good grades and kept up good attendance, but he was more focused towards his only two regular friends in this whole place.
    Zayne never considered himself much of an outgoing guy, but when forced out of his shell he was pretty easy to get to know. With a personality as diverse as his it could seem like a daunting task at first. He carried more of a serious aura, but in conversation was a much more light hearted individual. While rather strong Zayne enjoyed not doing much and not having to exercise every day. His only two friends, Aries and Austin, were similar yet different. Their small little band was one of the few groups in the social ranking that seemed to be off the radar. No one took notice of them, which Zayne loved.
    Zayne took a right turn and maneuvered past three groups of students to finally reach his first class. The first door on the right of Hall Two was the basic science class, Zayne's first period. The class was diverse, with an equal balance of each social group in it. The teacher was nice, although he could get to the other end of the spectrum fairly quickly when tested. That was something Zayne appreciated about his science teacher. He never had to face the wrath of his educator because he never did anything to get on his educator's nerves. Nearly half the other class did, but Zayne didn't care about them. They did their thing and he did his, and most of the time that involved him playing games and working on projects for other classes.
    The bell rang, and class began shortly afterwards.

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    Lunch period arrived, bringing with it all the challenges and events of students fighting for the top spot in the lunch line. The cafeteria barely held all of the students, and the actual food distribution room was way smaller than the eating area. With only two entrances going to the same place, this caused a congestion in the entrance, forcing everyone into tightly compact clusters of people, all shoving and pushing to get their food before the bell rang. Many were unlucky and never even set their foot in the door before lunch was over. Zayne was never one such individual, his fourth period was right next to the cafeteria, however he'd seen those unfortunate members before. A more efficient system was being worked out by the school, but for now this inefficient system would have to do.
    Zayne was sitting in the back corner of the cafeteria, a nearly one hundred and twenty meter long by seventy meter wide room packed full of chairs and tables. Several booths with outlets nearby were available to students, and many of the smart or video gamer teens sat in those places. Zayne awaited his two companions in the farthest reaches of the room, on a lone table with only three chairs and a small round table for resting. Zayne had chosen a burger, the popular chocolate milk, fries, and some ketchup from the menu on this slow Monday afternoon. Everything today proceeded as every other Monday would. Students complained and chattered at the food entrance, the sounds of laughter and conversation were heard from a mile away in this room since the walls were made of some echoing material, and each social group searched for each other to ensure their safety in this place.
    Just as Zayne took the last bite of his burger he spotted Aries and Austin out of the corner of his eye approaching quickly.
    Aries had red hair, with freckles all over his face. He was around Zayne's height, give or take a few centimeters. With nineteen inch broad shoulders, a more heavy set body, and rather slower reflexes he was the polar opposite of a fit and ready athlete. He weighed roughly two hundred and thirty pounds, with his age almost overlapping Zayne's. He was a nice guy, always hilarious and joyful. Zayne had come to know him deeper than most and understood most of the darker tales of Aries' past, but pushed them aside as he did with most negative thoughts and facts he was presented with.
    Austin was a five foot ten, dark haired, blue eyed, dirty human being with his own light sided twists. While the baseline personality of Austin was jerky, and rude beyond compare, Austin himself was still a likeable person. He made jokes, he was funny to some, and he didn't feel like hiding his opinions towards any subject, while he also made sure to let people know he wouldn't hold back anything when picking on or making fun of someone. He wasn't the strongest of individuals, with less visible muscle than Zayne, but he still held quite the force behind a punch. He had a less broader shoulder width than both of his contemporaries, coming in around seventeen to eighteen inches. He wasn't very skinny, but he wasn't overweight either, roughly one hundred and eighty or ninety pounds. Zayne comparatively was around one hundred ninety to two hundred pounds.
Without wasting a breath the duo sat down and instantly sparked up a conversation, "So did you see the meme I sent you?" this question coming from Austin to Zayne.
"Yes," Zayne mumbled between bites, "I saw the meme. I laughed. Now please stop sending me memes in the middle of class. The teacher almost took my phone for that."
"Oh come on why do you have to be so high strung?" Austin replied as he took a massive bite from his pizza.
"Wait there was pizza?" Zayne asked quickly as he noticed Austin's cheesy meal rest back on the plate below.
"Yeah, fresh from the oven too," Austin garbled.
"Guess being first isn't always the greatest huh?" Aries sneered as he purposely took a bite of his pizza in Zayne's view.
"I like pizza but I'm not gonna wait for it to come out of the oven just to get something I want. A burger was perfectly fine," Zayne argued.
"Yeah, how was that fake meat for you?" Austin joked.
"Perfectly fine thank you very much," Zayne replied dryly as he opened his milk and pulled out his phone.
    Zayne's finger paused over the home button as he read the news line on his screen saver. A recent headline from three hours ago, roughly right as Zayne was entering second period. Police had been baffled by yet another disappearance today, marking this the thirteenth disappearance in the last two weeks. Zayne swiped across the report and put in his code, then began to read the article.
"What're you looking at that has you so shocked. Wait are you looking at more memes without me?" Austin questioned quickly.
"No, I'm reading about this new missing person that police discovered was gone this morning," Zayne explained as he began to reread the article out loud.
    Police had gotten a call from a woman late last night that her husband was not home by his usual time. For any normal police force this wouldn't have been a huge problem. However, due to the recent disappearances in the same general area this case sparked interest in the police force. They immediately dispatched several patrol vehicles to investigate the surrounding area. The woman explained that he worked at the nearby Walmart and had asked her what she wanted for dinner from Taco Bell. When he hadn't come home nearly three hours later she became frightened and called police to report it. The man's car was found in the parking lot of the Taco Bell nearly an hour after the investigation began with no signs of the man anywhere. The food was in the passenger's seat and the keys were in the ignition, but it seemed he'd been attacked by something before he started his truck. The window had been smashed in, not by a weapon, but by what investigator's assumed was a fist of some sort.
"Dang," Aries mumbled between food chunks, "How many is that now?"
"Thirteen," Zayne ghostly replied, totally baffled himself by the information.
"And the previous disappearances were all almost exactly the same?" Austin asked.
"Yup," Zayne replied as he closed his phone and put it away.
    The bell for lunch to be over rang, startling the group. Austin and Aries shoved their remaining food down their throats and waved goodbye to Zayne as they moved on to their next class. Zayne put his tray and trash away, then sat back down at the same table. His class was right next door to where he sat, so he was in no rush to get to his next hour. As he sat in the chair watching students pass by he did what he did every Monday after lunch. He brewed over and contemplated the information. Ever since these incidents began he'd been engulfed in conspiracies and facts of each incident. It led to one conclusive end, one that the police denied at every turn. Still, the evidence didn't lie. The only conclusion to these events that Zayne could come to meet was that it was the work of the Midnight Horror.
    Several weeks before the events began a group of teens were out in their backyard, which was conveniently a massive forest that covered nearly twenty acres of land. The teens were having an overnight camp out in their forest and one of the members was recording it for his social media page. They were watching the beautiful stars of the evening when they heard an unnatural roar, one they'd never heard before in their lives even over Youtube or whatever. Curious but scared the group packed up and began to move home for the evening rather than staying outside. On their way back however they found unnaturally large tracks of a creature they'd never seen before. Broken trees and split bushes were left in its wake, so the group hurried along their way. Almost immediately after they got to the porch of the large log cabin home they heard the roar again, and turned to face the forest. As they did a large, roughly nine foot tall behemoth of a monster dashed into the darkness of the woods just barely outside the viewing range of the camera.
    Further study by film editors and police forces brought totally different results. While the police said it was nothing more than a prank, the editors said that it was real. What was startling about the whole situation was that the teen who lived in the log cabin home was the first to vanish. Two of the other members of that camping trip had vanished as well, leaving only two left. Police had them and their families under tight watch, but everyone was nervous. The remaining two members began a campaign to expose the truth of their encounter with the beast. That was when it got its nickname, The Midnight Horror. Editors gave proof that the work and the angles of the video provided were too sparatic and wacky to be properly edited to provide fake footage. Police stuck close to their statement and rejected all questions on the matter.
    The music warning of one minute left snapped Zayne from his thoughts and back to reality. He quickly got to his feet and took the three steps necessary to enter his next class, ready to get this miserable Monday over with.

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    The end of the school day brought both great joy and great boredom for Zayne. He loved his home, and he loved his family, but the circumstances they lived under made it difficult for them. As Zayne stepped up the stairs of the bus and shuffled into his seat, right next to Aries, he continued contemplating the question of the Midnight Horror and its connection to the mysterious outbreak of disappearances. Amongst those thoughts arose his questions of what he would do tonight with all the free time he had.
    Zayne spent most of his day until around five P.M. at school. Then he'd come home and enjoy dinner with his mom and dad, then watch TV or play games with them for an hour, then around seven thirty or so they'd leave for work. They'd be gone till twelve in the afternoon the next day. From then they'd sleep, make dinner, sleep or spend time with Zayne, then return to work and repeat the process. More commonly now however Zayne noticed, especially with the outburst of vanishes, his parents worked even more now. They were police officers after all.
"So you wanna come to my place tonight? We can go to school together tomorrow and then take you home," Aries suggested out of the blue.
    On any other night Zayne would have refused, however he'd already gotten a text from his mom telling him they'd be gone all day today, so he really didn't have much care right now. He sent a quick text to his dad and got the answer he wanted, then agreed and got off the bus with Aries, which was the next stop. Aries and Zayne were the only ones to get off.
"This way," Aries nodded as he began walking.
"I've been to your house, I know where it is," Zayne griped.
"Alright, just making sure I wasn't gonna lose you or something," Aries quickly replied.
    The two walked silently for a while until Zayne bursted. He just had to ask the question and start the conversation.
"So what do you think the cause of these strange disappearances is?"
Aries looked at him curiously, then looked forward for a moment and let out a low mumble before answering, "Me, personally, I think it's just some group of criminals wanting to cash in one big paycheck."
"Ah," Zayne whispered to himself, deflating a little.
"But..." Aries spoke up, forcing Zayne to return his gaze to his friend, "...I'm really into SCPs and monsters and stuff, you know that, so I haven't ruled out the possibility of that Nighttime Terror thing or whatever it is."
"My thoughts exactly," Zayne perked up.
"Really?" Aries questioned.
Zayne recoiled, "Well not exactly, but I think it has something to do with the Midnight Horror."
"Midnight Horror! That's what its called! I totally blanked out on its name for a bit," Aries chimed in.
"Yeah, but doesn't it seem really convenient that a few weeks after that video those exact kids began vanishing, and then others soon after?" Zayne asked.
    The conversation carried on for several more minutes in the cool, crisp air of the backroads. Aries' home was located in a more secluded area of the Joplin zone, with many backroads and dirt paths winding and twisting up to it. It was unsettling to be discussing the topic they were when they were surrounded by forests, but they did it anyway. They were unique that way. Walking down a dirt road, surrounded by the beautiful orange, yellow, brown, and red leaves of the trees as Fall set in was peaceful. Calming, which was probably what gave them the confidence to speak about such a topic that they were. That and the reaffirming truth that anything in the forest was easy to hear and spot because of the contrasting colors and crunching of leaves.
    Zayne disliked the cold. In fact he hated it. The chilling feelings he received, the uncomfortable shivering, the clattering of teeth and such. It made Zayne hate it even more. It also didn't help that Zayne was a rather heated person. Not only was his temper quick and hot, so was his physical body. Not in an attractive sort of way either, that had been proven a while back. Zayne's body was weird in a more chemical sense. Ever since being a young child doctors were baffled by his unique... ability... to exert large amounts of heat when he was angry, happy, or exercising. He was like a walking radiator. The unexplainable ability just ran in the family apparently. Zayne's father had the same unexplainable trait, whereas his mother had an odd trait of making things colder when she felt those emotions or did those activities.
    Despite not having the heat or body of any attraction sort, there was something beyond a friendship Zayne had at school. It was the only non regular friend person he'd hangout with, and that was because she was his girlfriend. Aleah, a girl exactly Zayne's age and of the same social class as him. The only misfortune of their relationship was that they only got to see each other on Tuesdays and Thursdays, since schedules were wonky at school on those days. Aleah was never at school in the morning at the lobby. She'd always complained that it was too cramped for her taste. Zayne could understand. He didn't blame her for the feeling, especially since he'd felt it too many a time.
    The duo finally arrived at Aries' home, a brick home around the size of a tennis field, with a porch that covered maybe the size of a city apartment backyard. A single chair rested on the wooden front deck outlooking the road and the forest beyond. Zayne rubbed his hands together as he stepped inside the front door with Aries, who very loudly shouted that he was home with a guest.
"What guest!?" Aries' sister, an obnoxious younger sibling of about six years, shouted from her room down a long hallway just to the right of the front entrance.
"Why do you want to know!?" Aries shouted back.
"So I can see if I need to warn them of your stupid addictions!" Aries' sister chuckled back.
"Shut up!" Aries commanded as he threw both shoes off and began walking down the hall towards his room, the very far right door.
    Aries' always wore a large black leather jacket over his very... special... Bob Ross Rainbow Cat shirt. His long, baggy, blue jeans almost came over his feet, which would prove troublesome for walking, but stopped just in time to allow proper movement. Aries' room was very bland in comparative to other teens rooms. Zayne didn't care, mostly because he knew why. Aries' had lost almost everything in a house fire a month ago, so they didn't have much around their home currently. The only thing Aries had currently was a small twenty four inch Visio TV with his personal Nintendo Switch hooked up to it. He had his favorite line of games all standing next to the game console, his entire collection of Legend of Zelda games. Then he had a few other side games he'd gotten just for the multiplayer in case he had others over.
    The bed was actually not even a bed. Aries was perfectly contempt with his massive eight foot by three foot inflatable water bed with a pillow and throw over blanket. He lived a rather simple life with only a small drawer, maybe two feet high and eight feet long, with several compartments for the few clothes he had. Next to the door which Aries had used as soon as he'd stepped in was the clothes rack that now held his leather jacket and Zayne's shoulder sling bag. Aries didn't use backpacks. As weird as it seemed, Aries carried a large Tamco tool case with all of his supplies and school material. No matter how many looks he got Aries was determined to keep using that tool box till the end of their run at High School, which was shockingly only three years away.
As Aries collapsed on his bed he grabbed the Switch Controller and booted up the console, "So what do you want to play?"
"Asking before doing? There's something you don't see every day," a younger voice sneered from the doorway.
"Get out of my room now!" Aries demanded as he stood up and began walking towards the door.
"I'm not in your room sucker!" Aries' sister mocked as she stuck her tongue out at her approaching older brother.
    Aries just stuck his tongue right back at her and slammed the door in her face.
"Sorry about that," Aries huffed and then returned to his bed.
"Nah it's fine. I feel like this tonight," Zayne suggested as he pointed towards Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors.

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    Zayne and Aries sat in the lobby together the next morning at school. The previous night was spent solely on video games, junk food, and sleep, as was custom of every hang out they ever had. The two had been lucky enough to catch a sitting spot in a corner of the lobby for themselves. They were surrounded by most of the social outcasts, so they were pretty safe from most confrontations with other groups. That was one thing Zayne disliked about school, to add on to his list, was the clashing of social classes. It had been an issue since day one, one that still continued to this day now, and one that Zayne constantly feared he'd be sucked into.
    Of course you had your clashes of nerds, geeks, and jocks. But this year thrown into the mix were other groups like the social rejects or outcasts who constantly tried to force their way into social groups or just acted funny, in a weird or creepy sense, to attract attention from other groups in a negative light. Maintaining a high social level with all of the groups, no matter which group you devotedly belonged to, was of utmost importance to many in the field of students. Aries didn't give two hoots about it, and Austin couldn't have been more oblivious to it, but Zayne was more focused on the thought. Aleah shared the stance that Zayne did, although he couldn't tell if it was just to be more agreeable or if she genuinely thought the same way.
    Just as the bells rang for class Zayne spotted a kid in the crowds. Had it been any normal kid he wouldn't have given it a second thought. But this kid was different. He wasn't like the others surrounding him. From his looks, which wasn't much, he didn't belong in any social group. He was alone, huddled in a corner with his hood up over himself. His eyes were wide, terrified even from the distant glance. He was staring at his hands, which rested behind his legs as they curled up towards his chest. He looked to be mumbling something to himself, but Zayne couldn't tell what. He wasn't an expert lip reader. The student snapped out from his reality and realized that the students were moving. He quickly jumped up and vanished into the crowds, as did Zayne, who was now contemplating what could've possibly been wrong with him.