The Phantom School

It suddenly became silent, then a faint noise came from the handset. Someone must"ve answered the call.

"h.e.l.lo. This is... uh..." a male voice started speaking. He couldn"t finish the sentence immediately.

"h.e.l.lo." I replied, softly.

"I am the latest victim of the terrible curse of the building." he said.

"I am afraid you no longer hold that t.i.tle." I replied.

"I... I have to warn you about it, and I will tell you what to do." he said. His voice was a little nervous.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Listen... If you are listening to me right now, this means you have already found the note. Good job; so, the first step is already complete." he said. He was having a hard time making full sentences.

"Who am I talking to?" I asked again.

"Now, what happened to the two of us... It was necessary for us to do that. I hope you understand." he continued.

As I hear that, I thought the man speaking to me was one of the two teachers who died in this building years ago. In that case, this was a recording. It made sense since I couldn"t get any replies to my questions. But, just to be sure, I wanted to try once more.

"Do you know where you are?" I asked this time.

"The curse arrives at night, when there are no crowds nearby. It hunts for the lonely, unfortunate people in this building. Once you are caught, there is no escape." the voice continued. At that point I was sure that this was, indeed, a recording. I cautiously kept listening to it. "So, the precautions must be taken before "the curse" gets to you. First of all, don"t let anyone stay alone in the building. If someone needs to stay here, for any reason, make sure that person has a good company. Yet better choice, don"t let anyone stay in the building after the crowd is gone. I have no idea why this is happening, but so far I could figure out this much: don"t be alone. Don"t stay in this building at late hours."

We already knew more than him about "the curse", but I had to find out more. More specifically, I had to know what we needed to do AFTER we became victims of "the curse"; this was the part of knowledge I lacked. So far, only thing we did was running from one place to another, searching for clues, trying to solve the mysterious nature of the cursed building while witnessing the horrible deaths of many lovely people. But finally, with this recording, we could finally find out more about the ways of escape.

"But... In the unfortunate case that... you found this note when you are already a victim... this is what you need to do. I can guess you are running out of time, so I will be quick. Though, before doing anything, make sure to place warnings for the people who will arrive in the morning; so that they don"t share the same fate with us. It might be a notebook like I found, or you can... I don"t know, just don"t let them fall into the hands of this curse. Okay, after that part is done, here is what happens. Now, I know you won"t like it, but just... you just have to trust me on this one. Once it is night, and people in the building have been "caught" by this curse, LEAVE NO ONE ALIVE."

I couldn"t believe what I heard. I couldn"t understand the reason behind it. "Leave no one alive"? After all, killing everyone was the goal of "the community", and by killing everyone... I would only be helping "the community" in their evil quest. Like he had just read my mind, he continued talking.

"Yes, you heard me right. LEAVE NO ONE ALIVE IN THE BUILDING. Don"t let your emotions take the control of your body and mind. Don"t let anybody stay alive, including yourself. I know it is hard, both physically and mentally, but this is for everyone"s sake. Because, if you don"t... If you don"t do that... Things will only get worse. Your actions will shape the future... in a bad way."

What could be worse than killing everyone in the building? I thought that there couldn"t be any fair trade-offs involving people"s lives. Perhaps... this recording was another trick by "the community" to deceive us.

"If you reach the morning alive, if any of you lives long enough to see the sunrise once again, then that"s it. If you reach the morning, you will be taken control of, and you will... I mean, "the curse" will have the opportunity to kill everyone, even during the school hours. It will be a genocide, a bloodbath. Think about it. No one in his right mind would risk that. The value of lives of the many innocent people clearly overweights yours."

It felt like I was stabbed in the chest. This was nothing like what I expected. The reality hit me.

All those times, "the community" actually had many chances to kill us; but this was why we were still alive. It wasn"t Mr. Kenan, or anyone else... In fact, he was gone long before already. After most people were killed, they had started using a reverse psychology technique. We had lived an adventure full of lies after lies... We were on our own all this time.

So, that was it. At least there was on thing "the community" were right about. After all, like I"ve been told before... there really was no escape from this building. And the only right course of action was to kill everyone, for the sake of all the people that will arrive in the morning. The recording continued.

"I... I am sorry... I wish you had found out about this before you were "caught" by the curse. But there is nothing any of us can do right now. I am sure you will choose wisely, so... Farewell, my friend. As I finish this recording, I will be off to do what I must. I hope you understand the necessity of my actions. I hope our sacrifices will make a good difference."

And so, the recording was finished. The voice on the phone was full of white noise now. I slowly put the handset back.

I just stood there, drowning in my thoughts and confused emotions. Since the beginning of this horrifying adventure, we were already destined to die. It was impossible to accept, but on the other hand... Without the necessary sacrifices, we would risk the lives of hundreds of people who would arrive in the morning.

So, as the last two people alive in the building; we had our last task to accomplish before the morning. Everything was up to us.