The Phantom School

No luck.

After a while, my eyes started to get used to the darkness, and I started to make out a few things in the dark. I was surrounded by... trees? I had no idea where I was, or how I got here. I carefully stepped forward, looking for any detail in the scenery that could be helpful; but my vision was obscured by a rather thick layer of fog. Either that, or my eyes were still getting used to the darkness. All of a sudden, I felt something on my shoulder. I turned my head around, but there was nothing there. I must have b.u.mped into a branch on my way, I thought. Just as I was about to move again, I heard something in the distance.

"Arda!"

Someone was shouting my name. I froze for a second, as I couldn"t decide if it was good or bad. Perhaps people noticed that I was missing, and they were looking for me. I hesitantly prepared to shout a reply, just before being startled by another sound: "Arda!"

I woke up, covered in sweat. Apparently, I pa.s.sed out in the cla.s.s again. I looked around, it was already break time and the teacher was nowhere to be seen. I sighed, slightly amazed by my drowsiness.

"Hey, dude, good morning!"

It was one of my good friends, Ata. He looked pretty cheerful.

"Good morning, indeed." I replied. "How was the lesson?"

"You did good by napping, I guess... We didn"t make much progress, the old man got caught in his own life stories again."

"I see."

Ata changed the subject: "Are you staying today?"

"For what? Why would I stay?"

"Don"t you remember? You were going to help us with carrying the supplies for the ceremony!"

"Oh, yes, the ceremony..."

He was talking about the graduation ceremony our cla.s.s has planned in cooperation with the few of the neighbouring cla.s.ses. This was the last year of high school, and we intended to make the most of it.

"So... you are coming, right?"

"Yes, of course, don"t worry."

"Alright. We will be near the art cla.s.s."

"Got it."

"Ah, I"m going to go grab something from the cafeteria. You want something?"

"No, I"m good."

"Fine, see you later!" he replied as he walked out of the cla.s.sroom, heading for the cafeteria. I looked at the clock, and while still feeling sleepy, I put my head back on my desk and continued my nap where I left it.

- - -

After the final lesson, I packed up my stuff and headed towards the art cla.s.s. My friends were already gathered there, waiting for me to show up. As I was walking down the hallway, someone hit me smoothly with her shoulder.

"Hey!"

She was Idil, my first, oldest friend in the high school. I met her while searching for my cla.s.sroom at the first day of high school. We quickly became good friends after we found out we were cla.s.smates.

"Hey, Idil."

"So, are you excited?"

"About what? Carrying boxes?"

"The ceremony, idiot. It is going to be a lot of fun, don"t you think?"

"Actually, I"m still wondering why we are getting ourselves in such a big trouble for this trivial event."

"TRIVIAL? Are you calling graduation trivial?"

"No, I mean... You know how we are, this is not going to be the only ceremony we will do."

"Hah... Well, I guess I can"t say otherwise. But still... don"t be too tedious."

We arrived at the art cla.s.s. Ata saw us and came nearby.

"Better late than never, eh, you two? Come on, we have a lot to do today." He said that as he handed me a box full of posters, then he continued. "Since you are late, I will a.s.sign you to the most frusturating job; hang these posters to every single hallway of the school."

Idil and I looked at each other and frowned.

- - -

The Chersonese High School had a rather large building compared to most other schools. When we began hanging posters on the third floor, we were pretty tired. I kept carrying the box of posters and stationery materials around as Idil hanged the posters around the school. All of a sudden, she let out a little scream. I dropped the box and ran to her.

"Are you okay?"

"Mostly okay, seems like I cut myself."

Her right arm was bleeding. I could see a little slit.

"We should get you to the infirmary."

"It is okay, we should just continue."

"It is going to take a while to stop bleeding, come on, don"t insist."

"Argh... Fine, let"s go."

We left everything there and went to the infirmary. The door was wide open, but there was no one there.

"Well, I"m sure we won"t get yelled at for taking a few band-aids or something like that."

"I"m going to clean my arm."

We took our time in the infirmary, cleaning and sealing the wound. Just as we were walking out of the cla.s.sroom, we saw our chemistry teacher, Mr. Kenan. He was a pretty fun teacher in his early thirties, and I loved his lessons. He looked at us for a while.

"What are you two doing here?" he asked. Idil replied, telling everything in short sentences:

"We were preparing for the graduation ceremony, and while we were hanging posters, I cut myself."

"I see. Is there no one in the infirmary?"

"No", I replied.

"Okay then. Don"t hang around too much, it is going to be late."

"O-Okay."

He walked past us, and down the stairway. I was a little confused.

"Don"t hang around too much? Why?"

"I think it is just a generic "teacher advice"."

"That warning didn"t sound too random to me. He emphasised it."

"Come on, you are overthinking. Let"s get back to job."

We went back to the third floor and got back to work.

- - -

After a while, we were on the fourth, the last floor; when we had an unexpected second encounter with Mr. Kenan. He approached us, but it looked like there was something bothering him.

"Aren"t you done yet?" he asked us.

"Almost, sir." I replied.

"Make it quick." he said in a weird tone. Idil asked:

"With all respect, aren"t you leaving the school building, Mr. Kenan? Is there something you wanted to do today?"

Mr. Kenan was visibly uncomfortable with the question. As much as I wanted to get an answer myself, I had noticed that he wasn"t in a good condition and I didn"t want to force him. Just as I was about to interrupt, Mr. Kenan replied:

"I"m about to get all you guys out and lock the building. So make it quick, there is someone who wants to go home and lay on the bed for the rest of the day."

He was a funny man, but I couldn"t tell how much humor he tried to mix in that sentence. He continued:

"Somebody has to lock the building, right? Come on, you can do the rest of it tomorrow. Let"s get out of here." This time, I was sure he is serious. Idil asked:

"Why is it that important, though?"

"Why don"t you just listen for me once without questioning everything, lady?"

"Okay, okay." Idil sighed.

As we were walking to the exit, I noticed something different in the hallway.

"Were those iron beams always there? I couldn"t have missed that for years!" I said, in excitement.

"I"ve never seen them either." Idil replied. Just then, Mr. Kenan"s eyes lit up like he just realised something.

"Quickly, to the exit!" he yelled. Idil and I were shocked by this sudden act.

"It is not too late, come on!" he cried. We had no idea what he was talking about, but we started to run with him. When we reached the exit, we were surprised by the sight of a heavy steel door, where our standart school exit door was supposed to be. Mr. Kenan ran to the door and tried to pull it open, and later, push it. It was no use, the steel door was locked. His face went red.

"d.a.m.n it, we are too late..." he said.

"Are you going to tell us what is happening?" Idil asked.

"I guess I have to. But I wish it would never come to that..."

I was in shock by both the steel door, and Mr. Kenan"s unexplainable behaviour. He looked around for a while, and asked:

"Were there anyone else inside the building?"

"A few of our friends were near the art cla.s.s." I said.

"Quick, we have to find them. I promise, I will tell you everything. In fact, I have to. But first, we have to find them!"

Without understanding what is going on, we ran to the art cla.s.s. When we got there, we saw that the door of the art cla.s.s was locked as well. Mr. Kenan yelled:

"h.e.l.lo!"

"Mr. Kenan? Thank G.o.d!" It was Ata"s voice.

"Gather everyone and get out to the hallway at once."

"We... we can"t, sir. The door is locked. Could you help us with that?"

"You... It wasn"t you who locked the door?"

"No, we thought..."

"Oh no!" Mr. Kenan said in a sad voice. Ata yelled from the other side of the door:

"What is going on? Are we stuck here?"

"It would be a lot nicer if you were just stuck there!" Mr. Kenan replied.

"What does that mean, exactly?" Ata asked.

"Okay, listen up. I don"t have much time, I must tell you what is happening." Mr. Kenan said. "But first of all, do you believe in paranormal things?"

"Wh- what is this, all of a sudden?" Idil replied.

"I get it, I get it. But you have to believe me." Mr. Kenan said.

"I don"t get it." Ata said.

"Shut it and listen, we don"t have much time." Mr. Kenan continued. "This school building... is a cursed one. At morning it might look like a regular school building, just like how it is now designed to be. But when the school time is over, things get a little weird."

"How?" Ata asked. "DON"T INTERRUPT ME!" Mr. Kenan replied, and continued again:

"This building wasn"t originally built as a school building. Way back at 1950"s, this structure was built to serve as a prison. At that time, before the city expanded so much, this place was far away from any settlement, making it suitable for a prison. Anyway, it served as womans" prison for some time, up to 1971. During that time, this prison became popular with allegations and rumors of horrible psychological experiments on it"s inmates. But, like I said, rumors only, because no one had actual evidence, and no one even knew who started spreading the rumors. Later, when more "proper" and modern prisons were built far away and this installation was no longer needed, instead of demolishing the building, it was repurposed as a high school. The building went through some major re-construction and internal design changes, and lots of education equipment were moved in. Anyway, after the building has served as a school for a while, some of the teachers noticed weird things about the building. When some of them stayed at the building after school hours, to help coordimate club activities, they noticed that some parts of the interior has changed. Most notably, some doors and windows would lock themselves down with no way to open or break through them. They couldn"t find an explanation, but they were sure something was happening. Then, one night, two teachers decided to stay in the building for the night to find out what is going on. When students arrived the morning after, they found those two teachers hanging from the ceiling, covered in blood, in one of the cla.s.srooms. Police arrived to investigate, and all the evidence pointed to suicide. Since then, we know that this building is cursed, but we don"t know the horrifying secrets about what happens at night in this building. n.o.body had the courage to try to spend a night here until then, and this story, or rather, "knowledge" had been given to all the new teachers that were appointed to this school; and so far, we did everything to keep it from the students in order not to cause fear and confusion among them. And this is also the reason why we have been denying most club activities."

"Did I just..."

"What?"

"No way."

n.o.body wanted to believe in that story. n.o.body in their right mind would, if things were not the way they are. But here they were, iron bars appearing out of nowhere, and doors locking themselves.

"What secrets does this place hold?" I repeat to myself.

"Will we learn what happened to those two teachers?"

"Will we ever make it out of here?"

"Can we make it to the next morning?"