The Phantom School

Ata was laying still on the ground, with an open wound on his neck. The blood had sprayed all over the cla.s.sroom, and he was gasping desperately for air in front of the door. But a deeper look inside the cla.s.sroom revealed an even horrible scene.

One of our cla.s.smates, Melis, was standing in the middle of room, with a pair of scissors in her hand. Some blood was dripping from the scissors to the floor. Her uniform and long hair were covered in blood stains. She was completely still, staring at the bodies of many poor students that shared a similar fate with Ata. My heart skipped not one, but three or four beats at once.

Idil and I were frozen in shock and fear as our reflexes failed to take any action. Only when Melis looked up and saw us, we realised that we had to do something.

"She will come for you, run!"

The voice echoed in my mind. The warning was clearly about her, but the situation made no sense. For that matter, nothing actually made sense since the beginning of this horrible adventure. How, and more importantly, why would she do something like that?

Unfortunately, this was not the good time for deep thinking. Realising the immediate danger we were in, I grabbed Idil by her healthy arm and started sprinting back to the far end of the hallway. I had very little time to look behind me, which confirmed the most unfortunate fact that Melis was in fact a good runner too.

At that time, I have been trying to mentally prepare myself for a possible close encounter with her; which would most probably end in a brutal struggle, if I was not mistaken. But I had no idea if I could be able to deliver a fatal blow, in case it was required... I was not a murderer, after all. Besides, I was not prepared to fight someone who was my friend, just a very short time ago.

As Melis closed the distance, adrenaline took control of my body, and my bravery kicked in.

"Run, don"t look back!" I shouted at Idil.

"No! Whatever you are thinking, it is a really bad idea!" she argued.

"We are way too slow." I replied, heavily breathing as we run.

"You can"t leave me alone!" she said.

At that point, the distance between Melis and us were so close that if I did not stop immediately, I would not be able to safely stop to turn back anymore. I made my final desicion and released Idil"s arm from my grip, leaving her on her own as she ran. She did not like the idea of leaving me behind, but she wasn"t stupid enough to stay with me and alter the plan.

I stopped there to face our monstrous "cla.s.smate". She stumbled and slowed down as she realised I went completely defensive. As I prepared to block her attack, she came to a stop a few meters in front of me. I was full of adrenaline, and all of my emotions had been completely silenced.

She made a terrifying screeching sound and made a move towards me. Only then I was able to realise my fatal tactical mistake: I would not be fast enough to block her as she swung the scissors towards me from my left shoulder. For that moment, everything progressed in slow motion for me.

Just at that time, a miracle happened. Mr. Kenan appeared running upstairs near the end of the hallway, delivering a very strong punch to Melis; launching her towards the side wall of the hallway. The scissors she had swung did not reach me. She smashed into the wall and dropped to the ground. Her scissors were knocked off of her hand.

"Run, I will handle her!" he shouted at me.

Without any hesitation, I ran away from the scene.

I could not handle my curiosity and I stopped to look back after a while. Mr. Kenan was about to face her alone. He was a strong and healthy adult, but I was not sure how he would "handle" her.

Melis, despite being knocked off for a moment, gathered her strenght a little and spotted her scissors on the floor. Still shaken by the punch she recieved, she started crawling towards the scissors. Mr. Kenan ran towards her. Unfortunately, Melis was fast enough to grab the scissors before Mr. Kenan reached her.

"Mr. Kenan! Watch it!" I shouted from distance.

Without being able to stand up, Melis flung the scissors at Mr. Kenan. It was indeed a pretty nice shot, in means of accuracy. The sharp side of the scissors. .h.i.t Mr. Kenan in the face. I could not exactly see what happened from this distance, but perhaps that was a good thing.

Mr. Kenan let out a pretty loud scream, but his adrenaline kept him on his guard despite the immense pain he had. He made a move towards Melis once again, and this time, he grabbed her by her arms.

I had already lost some of my precious time, and I decided to run further away to find out where Idil went.

- - -

After a while, I could no longer hear either Mr. Kenan or Melis. I was walking in a slower pace now, watching out for anything else dangerous I could come across. Meanwhile, every minute, the school building was transforming into a more unpleasant place. I had noticed that one of the cla.s.srooms completely turned into some sort of dormitory. My spirit of exploration was a little blunted since the terrible things I witnessed so far, so I didn"t go in. While I was walking past that place, I was startled by Idil"s voice.

"Oh, you are alive!" She was excited. "What happened back there?"

"Mr. Kenan rescued me from my certain death." I replied.

"Where is he now?" she asked.

"He has engaged in a deadly fight with Melis." I said. "He told me to run away."

"Oh my..." she said in a soft voice. "I wish he... "stops" her."

"I don"t get why she would do such thing." I said.

"Me neither, but the reason doesn"t really matter when our life is in danger, does it?" she said.

"Yeah, but I really want to uncover the strange... "thing" about this place."

"Do you think... it is somehow connected with the curse of this building?" she asked me.

"Perhaps." I said. "How could I know?"

Our little talk was interrupted by a loud crash sound from the stairwell. I instinctively ran towards the stairs to see what was going on. I looked down the stairwell...

At the bottom floor, I saw Melis" body; or at least the remainders of it. The body was smashed into the ground at high speed, scattering the blood and internal organs over a wide area. Parts of her skeleton was visible, with many broken bones. I knew she had just been trying to kill us a few moments ago, but I couldn"t help feeling bad for her death. My heart and my brain were working the opposite way.

Idil instantly looked away, but couldn"t help vomitting. The smells weren"t any better than the view.

I could hear Mr. Kenan"s distinct footsteps from upstairs. He was coming closer to us.

"Mr. Kenan!" I yelled, but got no response.

As he moved into the hallway from the staircase, I noticed his right eye missing; his face was full of blood. It must"ve been the result of the scissors swung by Melis during the struggle.

"Oh my, your face!" Idil shouted, trembling.

Mr. Kenan did not say a word as he kept walking towards us, causing an uneasiness on both me and Idil. We unintentionally started walking backwards, slowly.

"Mr. Kenan?"

My inner voice was not telling pretty things to me...