Alex couldn’t be sure. When a shadow passed inside the classroom next to him, darkness covering light for a brief moment at the bottom of a wooden door, he knew Joey must be inside. Alex ran to the door, but it wouldn’t budge. He slammed his whole body into it again and again, but the door refused to open like a stubborn child.
Not knowing what else to do, and disregarding the original fear of damaging school property, Alex dashed down the hallway to retrieve something, anything. He broke the glass, and waited for a brief second for the alarm to sound, but it didn’t. Alex felt his heart-rate quicken as he pulled the extinguisher from its nest, and he darted back to the classroom door, and raised the extinguisher over his head like the hammer of a god. With as much force as he could muster, Alex brought the extinguisher down onto the doorknob, which broke into several pieces as it clanked onto the tiled floor, and the door sprang open with so much force that it shattered against the walls inside.