Utopia of The Infinite [C]

It rained on the classroom windows like a clock, with each drop being louder than the last. Above, a thin strip of neon light buzzed and flickered as if it were about to die.

She stood at the front of the classroom with her chalk still in her hand. Her friends called her "Auri" when she let them. 

Her mind was elsewhere as she looked at the equation she had just written. That wasn't wrong. It didn't seem to matter.  She narrowed her eyes.

"Are you done bragin'?" 

From behind, Isolde asked while spinning a screwdriver she had taken from a place that wasn't her pencil case.

Auri didn't answer. She wasn't bragging.  She was never.

Sera hummed softly behind her, and the tip of her pen danced along the edge of her notebook. Flowers once more. Sera would never say she was tired or nervous, but she always drew flowers when she was.

"Why is it so quiet?" 

A word from Mira. 

Once more, she was feeding something under her desk. It was possibly a bird.  Like a squirrel. No one was shocked anymore.

Wen sat next to the window with her head tilted, looking out at the rain as if she thought it might show her something. 

Outside, the lightning came in slow flashes that turned the room bright white and hazy blue.

“The lights might not be working right because of the storm”

Lyra said in a low voice.

No one spoke to her. She was right, though. The flicker was getting faster and more regular. In control.

Then the phone line broke.

A loud pop of noise. The girls looked up.  The teacher and the students were all frozen in mid-movement. Much like dummies.

"That's not normal"

Rhei finally said when she finally spoke up. 

Her voice was calm, but she had too much of a grip on the sides of her desk.

The radio made a noise. As if some faraway music were being played backwards, a bell rang through the room. It wasn't a machine.  It had life to it.

The lights went out one by one.

The first one. Then two. After that everything. Darkness. A short time went by. The world broke.

The ground moved under them, but not like during an earthquake. It felt more like a stone being thrown into a pond.  She put down the chalk and reached for the desk next to her. 

Gone. In her hands, it turned into mist.  She gasped, but not out of fear. It was because she was confused.

"Just did the floor....." 

The walls began to bend inward and twist like fabric, cutting off Wen's words.

They were no longer in the classroom. They were not in any place.

Auri's body hit something soft that wasn't living. Like a pillow made of silk and static electricity. The sky above her was a deep violet color with white lines that looked like webs. 

Islands hung high in the air, real pieces of land floating in the air and slowly turning as if they were attached by unseen lines.

She sat up, her heart beating fast.

“What in....”

She saw something move. Someone tripped over the glowing blue grass, which looked like sea anemones moving in a deep current.