The Phantom School

In the middle of the cla.s.sroom, there were two bodies hanging from the ceiling. They were two male adults in formal dresses, but I couldn"t recognise them. That reminded me of the "two teachers" Mr. Kenan told us about, but I thought this had nothing to do with them. Because the corpses were rather new, they might even have died a few minutes ago. You could easily tell that by looking at the blood, flowing down the bodies. Bodies were complete and intact unlike many others we encountered before. Their necks were cut by the rope, and their faces were pale. There was a chair beneath one of them, knocked off to the ground; pointing to a suicide. It was unclear whether this was caused by direct manipulation of "the community", or they did it to protect other people, just like Mr. Kenan did to protect us.

I was unsure about what to do. I thought of leaving the cla.s.sroom, since I was already side-tracked enough; but discovering two new people, furthermore, two "dead" people in the school wasn"t something I could ignore. I wanted to find out more about who they were, and what they were doing here. But, at the same time, another part of my mind was forcing me to leave the room, since it could still be suffering from the presence of "the community".

In a hope to figure out what we should do next, I looked at Idil. Unfortunately, she did nothing but stare back at me for a long time before talking.

"We are not supposed to be here." she said.

"I know, but... Don"t you wonder too?" I asked.

"We don"t have much time." Idil said. "Look, a lot of people died in this building, and I don"t want to be the next. Leave it be. This is not our priority. Let"s get going."

She was right. We were running out of time to find the notes Mr. Kenan wanted... Not only that, but every second was bringing both of us much closer to death than ever before.

I was about to leave the room, but as I reached the doork.n.o.b, it moved by itself and escaped my hand. This was the only sign I needed to confirm the presence of "the community" nearby. Being trapped like this by "the community" in the past, I was aware of such possible traps by now; so I was standing in front of the door. But unexpectedly, the magical force on the door was much stronger than I thought. I was thrown away from the door, and the door shut itself closed. We were trapped in a cla.s.sroom, once again.

"Fool me twice, shame on me..." I whispered myself.

They were much stronger in this cla.s.sroom than they were in the hallways protected by Mr. Kenan"s "alliance of souls." We were no longer under the protection of "the alliance", and it was all because of my curiosity. I was angry with myself.

"Oh no." said Idil, agreeing with my thoughts.

"Oh no, indeed." repeated my inner voice.

Once again, we were facing "the community", alone. But this time, they were stronger than ever before, and they could damage us, directly.

The sudden transformation of the cla.s.sroom into an empty dormitory confirmed that. Although the structure has changed, the bodies were still there, connected to the ceiling by b.l.o.o.d.y ropes. I started looking around the dormitory to identify the potential threats.

"Keep your eyes open." I said to Idil.

"Are you being serious? I know." she replied.

As I was looking around, a weird sound startled me.

"You..."

My nervous system gave a body-wide response in terror. I launched myself to a corner, screaming furiously like a little kid. After I gained the control of my central nervous system again, I looked back into the dormitory.

Idil was horrified as well. She was near the door, trying to pull the door open with brute force. For several seconds, I couldn"t figure out where that noise came from. Perhaps "the community" was trying to reach us again.

"You..."

This time, I couldn"t be mistaken. One of the dead bodies was talking! Although his damaged vocal cords were making it harder, he could forcefully make audible words.

"...been to your aid..."

Idil stopped trying to open the door, and turned around to listen to the dead body, still terrified by what"s going on.

"...made your desicionsss..."

I couldn"t hear everything he tried to say, but I was sure that it was "the community" trying to use the dead bodies to contact us one more time. I was still on my guard for any physical threat.

"...now, to the fate of the two, innocent souls..."

He tried to breathe in some air, but it was impossible. At that moment, the rope snapped and the body was free of the rope. It fell to the ground, and made a terrific sound as air filled his lungs again.

"Perhaps it is a good time to repent, as there is no way out of here. We had allowed your heroic games and drama for so long, but you have pa.s.sed the limit as you attacked the sovereignty of the many poor souls that aids us in our cause." The body was talking with a more understandable voice now.

That was it. My curiosity had brought us our end. Even Mr. Kenan was powerless against them here.

"It was easy for Mr. Kenan to trick you as your beloved teacher, so we can not completely blame you for believing in whatever he says. For that reason, we are giving you the chance to join us and revert your mistakes, but this will be your last chance. Join us, and we shall be one to bring justice to all the "phases of reality"!"

Mr. Kenan had warned us into not listening to whatever they said to us, but it didn"t matter anymore. We had already walked into a dead end: an unholy alliance with "the community" wouldn"t ensure our lives; on the other hand, facing "the community" meant certain death. We were powerless.

I wanted to plea for mercy, but I couldn"t say anything. It was just an awkward silence. After about a minute, the body started talking again:

"I will take it that you have made your desicion to NOT join us. Shame." the body said, and laughed. "I thought you would be smarter after everything you have been through... Like it or not, you will be joining us, sooner or later. There is no escape from this building. Even Mr. Kenan and your friends don"t have any power over us, as you can clearly see. They will have to bow to us soon enough. Your faith in yourself and your friends only pushed you into more and more pointless struggles. We were kind enough to give you the chance to join us on your own desicion, but you chose the harder way. Don"t worry too much though, it will be over soon enough; and you will understand the grave mistakes you"ve made. You will even start liking us for everything we have done."

Idil ran away from the door and tried to get closer to me. The body which was still hanging from the ceiling made a sudden move and blocked her way. She was scared by the sudden move, and she ran back to the other side of the dormitory.

"So be it." the body said.

Idil turned around and looked at me from the other side of the empty dormitory.

"Don"t worry, I will get there. Just keep your eyes open for anything!" I told her.

She just kept staring at me as I was thinking about what to do. After several seconds, she started walking towards me again, slowly. Weirdly, this time, she was not stopped by the body. She walked past the corpse and kept approaching.

"We have to get back to the door." I told her.

Suddenly, she ran and pushed me to the wall. I hit my shoulder and the side of my head to the wall, and it felt like my arm broke. My vision was blurred. I pushed Idil away with my other arm. She stumbled away and fell down. I tried to regain my senses. I could stand on my feet, but everything was fading out. I went unconscious in a few seconds as a result of the impact to my head.