The Phantom School

It was Mr. Kenan"s body. At least the half of it. One of his legs were missing, and his torso was cut open from the top of his chest. Even though the head and the shoulders were missing, it wasn"t that hard to identify. Some blood was still flowing out of the body. From where I was standing, I could see his damaged lungs and heart. I didn"t look for too long and stepped back.

"Come on, you"ve seen much worse." I tried to calm myself down.

I got back to the middle of the room.

"Didn"t people know about his death? Why is this body here?" I asked Cansu loudly.

I was wondering what Cansu had to say about this, but unfortunately, there was no way for her to talk to me right now. When I noticed it, I decided to get out of there and find a phone or something similar.

I got to the door and opened it. There was a dusty pa.s.sage leading to the bottom floor of the school. No wonder I haven"t noticed this place before, it was hidden too well. Perhaps they didn"t want students wandering around.

I got throught the pa.s.sage and ended up somewhere near the cafeteria. There was no one around, and it was slightly dark with just a few lights working. It was night. I had no idea how much time had pa.s.sed while I was in the underground facility, but it was nice to be up here once again.

I left the cafeteria and headed to the chemistry lab. If that was where Mr. Kenan was murdered, I could find some answers there.

I made my way there and gently opened the door. There was nothing unusual in the lab. I stepped inside and closed the door behind me.

Having found an opportunity at that moment, Cansu spoke to me through the intercom.

"Despite my hatred, I think The Community wasn"t involved in his death." she said.

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"There is something wrong." she said. "I"m not feeling his presence near here. If he was killed by The Community and ended up being trapped here, he would"ve contacted us by now. There must be something different."

"You may be right... But what could it be?" I said.

"I don"t know, teacher, I don"t know... We have to keep searching." she replied.

"I"m more worried about what The Community is trying to do to me." I said. "They let me escape, but what was the point of leading me here?"

"Strange..." she said. "I don"t sense them nearby. We are alone."

"What!?"

"...which also means you are free to get away and never come back." she continued.

"But they know I won"t do that." I said. "They are up to something, but... I don"t get it."

"Keep looking." she said. I kept searching around the lab, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn"t find any useful clues.

"Whoever murdered him did a pretty clean job." I said.

"There was a smaller room that can be accessed through this lab, remember it?" Cansu asked.

"I think..."

"The one where you sent me to die, my dear lovely teacher..." she said.

"Hey!" I said. "Only if I knew-"

"Okay, okay, whatever..." she didn"t let me talk. "Want to take a look?"

"Of course." I said. I found the door to the smaller room and opened it. Inside the room, the head of Mr. Kenan"s body welcomed us. His missing leg was also there, standing in a corner. The room was full of blood. I hesitated to go inside, but Cansu forced me.

"What are you waiting for, teacher? We might have found something."

I carefully walked forward, looking around.

"Okay, I"m taking my words back. Whoever murdered him did a really bad job." I said.

Suddenly, I heard something loud in the room. My heart skipped a beat as I ran back to the wall behind me. It was Mr. Kenan"s cell phone. I went there and grabbed the blood-covered phone from the ground. On the screen, there was a single notification, a text message. I opened the message to read it.

"LOCKER MAP"

"What does this mean?" Cansu said. "Who sent this?"

"No idea." I said. "There is no name of the sender. Don"t you sense anyone nearby?"

"No." Cansu said. "Which is why it"s so weird."

"So... maybe this is an actual message from an actual living person." I said.

"Possible, but doesn"t seem likely either." she said.

The phone vibrated in my hand. Another message. Another copy of the very same message.

"LOCKER MAP"

"Okay, this time, I"m sure 100%, I"m not sensing any spirits or something nearby." Cansu said. "Who is sending this?"

"I told you, there is no name." I said. "It doesn"t even say "anonymous", there is just no name, or number, or anything."

"Lack of knowledge is truly a curse on it"s own." Cansu replied.

"You are able to control these devices, why don"t you take a look yourself?" I asked.

"I just make use of the built-in speaker, smarty." she said. "The whole communication thing is way too complex. I can"t understand any of it."

Another message. I turned the screen on again.

"LOCKER MAP"

"This is not making any sense at all." I murmured.

"Sorry I can"t offer any help." Cansu said.

"Actually, you can." I said. "Why don"t you jam the connection like The Community used to do, and see if the sender can send the text again?"

"But what if they weren"t going to send another text in the first place anyway?" she said. "That could mislead us."

"You are right, but if we DO receive the text during that period, it will help a lot in understanding what this is about." I said.

"Yeah, I guess..." she said. "So, right now, I"m beginning to jam all the communications."

Suddenly, the phone began vibrating like crazy. Tens of notifications appeared on the screen, a flood of text messages... And every single text contained those two simple words:

"LOCKER MAP"