City Lights

City Lights is a creepy story about a new kid that turns up in class and seems to be depressed for some reason. It is based on a strange story from Japan.

One day, there was a new kid in my class. Nobody knew who he was. He didn’t have any friends and never talked to anyone. He was always just laying with his head down on his desk, looking depressed. I wondered if there was something the matter with him.

“What’s wrong?” I asked one day when we were alone. “Did something bad happen to you?”

When he heard my question, his hands started shaking. He let out a long, deep sigh, steadied himself and slowly, he began to talk.

He said that one month ago, something had happened that really disturbed him. He was sitting in his room playing games on his computer when he happened to glance up at his ceiling. He noticed that the board covering the entrance to the attic was out of place.

He wanted to investigate, so he grabbed a flashlight, stood on his chair and climbed up into the attic. When he got up there, he was surprised by how large the attic was. He shone the flashlight around, but he couldn’t see any of the walls or the roof. It seemed as if the darkness stretched on forever.

He began walking forwards, searching for whatever could have moved the board. All of a sudden, the batteries in his flashlight ran out and he was plunged into darkness. He was scared. The darkness seemed to surround him, encroaching on all sides.

He began searching for the way out. He wanted to go back down to his bedroom, but no matter what direction he walked in, he couldn’t find the opening. There was no light at all leaking in. It was pitch dark.

He was lost and alone in his own attic. He continued wandering around in the dark, searching for a way out, but he couldn’t see where he was going and became disoriented. He had no idea where he had come from and didn’t know which direction he was going.

He began to panic and continued walking… walking… walking… He didn’t know how long he had been walking, but he finally saw the faint glow of light in the distance. He started walking faster. He was sure that it must be the light from his room.

But as he got closer and closer, he realized that it coudn’t be the light from his bedroom. He got close enough to make out where the light was coming from. It was a city in the distance.

He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It just didn’t make sense. There was an entire city in his attic, and the lights could be seen from quite a distance. It seemed impossible.

He didn’t know what else to do. He didn’t know where else to go. He began walking towards the city, hoping somehow that he could find his way home.

At this point in the story he began shaking again. He let out a pained sigh and tears rolled down his cheeks.

I was puzzled by his story, so I tried to console him as best I could.

“You’re OK now,” I said, patting him on the shoulder. “It was scary, but you’re back now.”

He looked up at me, tears still running down his face. He slowly shook his head and said, “You don’t understand… I still haven’t found a way out of the city…”