National Anthem (Short Story)

National Anthem

    The most unique feature to a person is their eyes. If no two snowflakes are the same, then no two perceptions of those snowflakes can resemble either. But for the longest time Nemo felt as if nothing matters, living every numb day with apathy. He kept to himself, because there was nobody else worthy of knowing how he felt. The only thing that Nemo looks forward to is the blissful sensation of drowning into his sleep, drifting away from everything. Unfortunately, he could not sleep in class with his badgering peers reciting any thoughts that came to their mind. Their banter was irritatingly loud. He couldn’t hear the alert on the intercom about the scentless gas leak from the laboratory from a defective experiment.

    Ironically, the badgers responded to the subtle ring of the last bell of the day. They grains of society plummeted through the funnel out of the room; Nemo deliberately taking a while to gather his belongings. When he steps out of the threshold of the classroom, he looked up to find nobody was in the halls. Everything became brighter and more vivid. Nemo was startled and looked around frantically. At that moment, he noticed a few people approaching him slowly with blank facial expressions but plastered smiles.

    Out of sheer bewilderment, Nemo runs away from the “people.” The hallway appeared to become more narrow with the increase in running speed. When he finally got to the end of the hall, he turned the corner to find that he was in the same hallway again, at the other end. Nemo runs into the nearest classroom door. He stumbles into the cafeteria of the school. The “people” were eating but turned around slowly to smile directly at Nemo. A terrified sensation rushed through his body. He sprints to the cafeteria exit and landed in another hallway: one with the front door to the school at the other end.

    Determined to end this torturous experience, Nemo uses all the energy he can muster to dash to the door. As he runs, the lights flicker and shine over the “people” standing still watching him pass… smiling. He looked straight ahead to ignore them, until he passed one that looked exactly like Nemo. He was still running while looking back at the mirroring (somewhat happy) image of himself. Suddenly a “person” took the opportunity to trip Nemo, who tumbled at the speed he was running in. Experiencing the ringing pain on his body, he turns over to see the doorway to be yards away from the door. at the same time, Nemo notices a ringing echo of a familiar song: the national anthem. All of his life he never understood the concept of an anthem, which made its incessant playing infuriating and annoying for him. The one way to escape was making it out of that door.

    Limping to escape, he screams for the last few feet to get to the door when he sees the sun moving outside from afternoon to complete pitch blackness in a matter of seconds. He became alarmed and wanted to stop, but was pulled to the door and slammed into it. Nemo fell head first and breathed heavily, looking up to find himself in the hallway of the class he first stepped out of when the bell rang. His eyes swelled with tears, and with whatever bit of strength he had, Nemo stood up and yelled as loud as he could. Behind him, a “person” creeped up and began to choke him, portraying a maniacal smile. Nemo lost consciousness and fell to the floor flat on his back with his last sight being numerous maniacal smiles surrounding above him. When he woke up moments later, Nemo saw many worried faces surrounding him and a medic faintly talking to him in a calm manner. To his left was an earphone playing the national anthem, summoning tears from his neutral facial expression.