"Rather than using a torch, can't you just flash a light for me?"
"...Alright."
With a flick of her finger, a small light appeared beside Kyle, illuminating the brick wall before him.
He worked the end of the metal bar beneath another brick, easing it forward until the mortar cracked. The wall was thinner than expected. Whoever had built it had simply filled an existing doorway, which made removing it considerably easier.
Whether that was a good thing remained to be seen.
"Can you see anything?"
Kyle leaned towards the opening without putting his head through.
"A corridor. It turns further in."
By the time the opening was wide enough, dust covered his sleeves and the floor around his shoes. He waited for the air to settle before squeezing through, listening carefully for anything on the other side.
Nothing.
He couldn't hear anything.
"I'll go first."
Zoey nodded and followed shortly afterward.
The smell changed immediately.
Damp concrete still lingered in the air, but beneath it was something dry and bitter that caught at the back of Kyle's throat. Zoey's light hovered over the blistered paint and the remains of a wooden shelf, its burned supports still attached to the wall.
"They didn't bother painting this side."
Kyle looked back.
The blackening continued around the original frame, ending against the much cleaner bricks they'd just removed.
Zoey raised the light and the two followed the damage along the wall. There were several cleaner spots among the dark patches on the walls, all around shoulder height. Their shapes stood out enough to make him look closer.
"...Kyle."
"I know."
He had already noticed.
Four dark streaks ran across the plaster at shoulder height, followed by a shorter mark beneath them. Farther down, another set appeared lower against the wall, the base of a palm dragging into a long smear.
'A handprint...'
Zoey moved the light between them.
"Do you think she came through here?"
"We don't know if they're hers."
"No, but look where they lead."
The marks gradually rose as they approached the exit, almost as though whoever had left them had been dragging themselves upright.
Kyle pictured someone moving towards the stairs like that.
Then he remembered where Mrs. Vale's body had been found.
"...Right."
Neither of them said anything else.
Pieces of plaster littered the floor, and a loose pipe stretched across their path. Kyle stepped over it, then waited for Zoey to do the same before moving on, the faint scrape of her sleeve against the wall following behind him.
While Zoey photographed the wall, Kyle checked the old floor plan on his phone.
"The passage turns right. There should be a storage room before the old exit."
"We check that first. If anything changes, we leave."
"Agreed."
Neither suggested splitting up.
The corridor narrowed after the turn, forcing them to move one behind the other. Plaster littered the floor while old pipes stretched above, rusted badly enough that Kyle avoided touching anything unnecessarily.
The storage room was only a few meters ahead.
Its door was gone.
Most of the shelves inside had collapsed, but Kyle barely paid attention to them.
Near the back stood a single chair.
Facing the wall.
"...There."
Zoey moved beside him.
"It's the same type as the ones upstairs."
She checked one of the photographs on her phone while Kyle kept his attention on the chair.
It had been placed so close to the wall that anyone sitting in it would've had almost no room for their knees.
"Let's look underneath."
Kyle approached from the side and gripped the backrest.
The wood felt rough beneath his fingers.
He pulled.
Nothing happened.
"...?"
He tried again with considerably more force.
The chair shifted slightly before settling back into place.
Zoey lowered her phone.
"What's wrong?"
"It's heavy."
"It's a chair."
"I know."
Kyle checked the legs.
None were caught beneath anything, and there was no visible reason for the chair to resist him.
He pulled again.
The same thing happened. This time, however, something about the resistance bothered him.
It didn't feel stuck.
It felt really heavy.
Almost like someone was sitting there.
"...That's weird."
Kyle released the chair and crouched instead.
Zoey lowered the light with him.
A small number had been carved into the underside beside one of the supports.
27.
"The missing chair?"
"Looks like it."
They'd spent two days staring at the empty space behind Mara's desk upstairs, and all this time the chair might've been sitting down here.
Facing a wall.
Something else was scratched into the wood.
Zoey angled the light beneath the seat.
"It's the same as the desk."
The words had been carved awkwardly across the underside.
Don't let her answer.
Neither of them spoke.
Kyle remembered the damaged message upstairs.
Someone had scratched away the ending, leaving them wondering who the word her referred to.
Finding the rest hadn't helped much.
"Answer what?"
"I don't know."
Zoey photographed the writing before lowering the phone.
"We don't even know who wrote it."
Kyle stared at the letters.
Someone had taken the time to carve them beneath the chair, somewhere nobody would've seen unless they purposely looked.
He glanced towards the wall.
"Why bring it down here?"
Zoey started to reply, but Kyle crouched lower and pressed one hand against the underside of the seat.
"Wait."
"What?"
"I want to try something."
He pushed upward. For the briefest moment, the chair lifted.
Then something pressed back.
Kyle's arm tensed as the legs lowered against the floor.
"...What the hell?"
Zoey's expression changed.
Kyle pushed again. The resistance returned almost immediately.
It wasn't simply heavy. There was something else... at play.
For a second, Kyle had the distinctly uncomfortable impression that something was actively keeping the chair down.
Almost as though someone really was sitting on it.
He slowly withdrew his hand when all of a sudden sound came from the corridor.
Scrrr—!
"——!"
"!"
Both of them turned.
The noise dragged on for a moment before stopping somewhere beyond the doorway.
Zoey moved the light towards the entrance.
But there was nothing.
"Was that something falling?"
Kyle didn't answer.
For some reason, his gaze had returned to Chair 27.
***
"Present."
The answer came from beside my ear, and I resisted the urge to move away while the teacher marked something on the register.
After several nights of this, I'd hoped I would've gotten used to it.
Apparently not.
'You could at least stop doing it right next to me.'
I returned to the exercise.
My headache had gotten worse since entering the classroom, and the numbers had started blurring whenever I stared at them too long. Taking a break would've been nice, but convincing the thing at the front that I needed one was probably more dangerous than simply continuing.
The last child answered.
I glanced towards Elon.
His head had turned slightly when Mara's name was called, but he wasn't looking at me.
His eyes were on the number carved into the edge of my desk.
Twenty-seven.
I'd noticed him doing it before without thinking much about it. This time, however, I watched as he pulled his book slightly farther away and resumed writing.
'Are you checking who's here, or where they're sitting?'
There was a difference.
Before I could think about it further, the teacher spoke.
"Show your working."
The footsteps started moving between the rows.
I quickly checked what I'd written and corrected one of the answers before the shadow reached my desk.
Something brushed the back of my chair.
Then—
"—!"
The seat shifted beneath me.
At first, I thought it was me, but the entire chair rose slightly from the floor instead, pushing my knees against the underside of the desk.
'What now?'
I immediately pressed my weight down, hooking one foot around the chair leg while keeping my upper body as still as possible.
The teacher was standing almost directly beside me.
The last thing I needed was another scene.
The chair pushed upward again.
Not by much, but enough for the legs to leave the floor.
'Seriously?'
I pressed harder.
For several seconds, the force beneath me remained, lifting while I tried to keep the chair down.
It felt different from the usual small fingers and footsteps.
This time... the force felt greater. Almost like the entire chair itself was being pushed from underneath.
Then, just as suddenly, the pressure disappeared.
The legs settled quietly against the floor.
"..."
I continued writing.
Through the gap beneath my arm, Elon's shoes remained beneath his own desk.
He was still there.
'This little shit...'
Whatever invisible girl had been bothering me apparently still hadn't gotten tired of it.
The teacher lingered for another moment before finally moving away, and only then did I loosen my grip on the pencil.
Somewhere behind my chair, I felt subtle movement coming from behind me. For a moment, the thought crossed my mind that what had just happened didn't come from the little girl, but that didn't make much sense.
Whatever was here had already moved furniture before.
I wasn't going to start inventing new problems on top of the ones I already had.
My attention drifted towards the register as the teacher returned to the front.
Another night.
Another mark beside Mara's name.
I still didn't know who had answered for her, nor why Elon kept looking towards Seat 27.
But whatever was doing this to me certainly knew something.
...And I was planning on finding out.
-x-X-x-
"...Did you find something?"
Kyle pulled his gaze away from the chair and looked back towards where the noise previously came from.
All that stared back at him was the sight of the empty corridor. For a moment, the darkness beyond Zoey's light seemed deeper than before.
He eventually shook his head.
"No."
Zoey's light remained fixed on the corridor for several more seconds before gradually moving back towards the storage room. Nothing had changed outside. The same burned walls stretched towards the edge of the room, and the only sound that eventually returned was the faint dripping of water somewhere within the walls.
The sound seemed unusually clear now that neither of them was moving.
Whatever had made the scrape wasn't showing itself.
"...I'm getting a weird feeling about this place."
Kyle glanced towards her.
"We've been through worse."
"Well, yeah. Doesn't mean that I still don't think there's something odd about this place."
"Fair."
Kyle's gaze returned to Chair 27.
The chair hadn't moved since he had taken his hand away, but after what had just happened, he wasn't particularly interested in testing it again. Instead, he stood and turned his attention towards the collapsed shelves along the opposite wall.
The chair wasn't the only thing that was bothering him.
Even with his back turned, he remained strangely aware of where it was.
"Let's finish checking the room and leave."
Zoey nodded.
Most of what remained inside the storage room was useless. Rusted tools, old containers, several boxes that had long since rotted open. The fire had damaged almost everything closest to the corridor, leaving blackened pieces of wood mixed throughout the debris.
Kyle was moving a broken shelf when something underneath caught his attention.
A metal box?
"...There's something here."
Zoey brought the light closer as he pushed the remaining wood aside.
A small document box had been wedged beneath the shelving. One corner was badly scorched, and the handle had partially melted into the lid, but unlike everything around it, the box itself remained intact.
"Locked?"
Kyle tested the latch.
"Was."
The metal broke after a little pressure.
A dry smell came out the moment he opened it, stronger than the burnt smell in the passage. Several folders sat inside, their edges darkened by heat, while the loose papers had stuck together after getting wet.
Some of the pages made a faint cracking sound as they shifted.
Zoey crouched beside him.
"Careful."
"I know."
Kyle separated the first few sheets slowly. Most were hard to read, either burned through or stuck together badly enough that pulling them apart would've destroyed whatever remained.
Then a date appeared near the top of one page.
Kyle stopped.
===
15 October
Mrs. Balle came to the school today.
Apparently, she never requested Mara's withdrawal.
Mara has apparently been missing since the eleventh. When I asked why she only brought this up recently, she said that she 'didn't know'. How does this make sense?
I went directly to the office afterward and asked them to check the telephone record again. They have no explanation for who made the call.
I also mentioned Elon's behaviour and the exercise book.
I was told not to encourage the children's stories while the police are investigating.
Mr. Harlan said that everyone is already distressed enough.
I agree with him.
I think.
===
"...Zoey."
"I see it."
This looked to be the remains of a diary.
'But why is there a document here for it? This is a bit odd.'
The scattered papers with the notes were weird enough, but now there were even more? And how did nobody find this box? It was hidden, sure, but it wasn't that hard to find if someone looked hard enough.
Kyle looked at the paper more closely.
A lot of the pages looked completely broken, making it hard to piece them in order. Several sections were filled with the handwriting Kyle recognized from other documents belonging to Mrs. Vale.
He brought the paper closer to the light.
===
12 October
Mara did not attend today. Elon says he saw her near the treeline after school and spoke with her.
I reminded him that Mara has been withdrawn and told him not to go looking for her again.
He seemed confused when I said this.
Desk 26 was removed for repairs, so Elon has temporarily been moved beside Mara's desk.
He asked if he could sit somewhere else.
This entire thing is causing me quite a lot of stress.
===
Kyle's brow slowly furrowed.
Zoey leaned closer.
"Read the next page."
===
16 October
Desk 26 was returned, and Elon has been moved back to his original place.
He refused to sit down until I moved his chair farther from Seat 27.
When I asked what was wrong, he said, "She doesn't like when I sit there."
I asked who he meant.
He wouldn't tell me.
I have requested that Seat 27 be removed from the classroom tomorrow. There is no reason to leave it there while Mara is absent, and the children have become increasingly distracted by it.
I should probably have done this earlier.
This is really bothering me.
===
"..."
Kyle looked towards the chair behind them.
It remained facing the wall.
The light barely reached it from where they were crouched, leaving the lower half of the chair swallowed by shadow.
He reached for the next paper, only to stop when he saw how badly burned it was. However, his face changed the moment he caught sight of the date above it.
===
17 October
Seat 27 was removed before lessons. The classroom was noticeably calmer afterward.
At least initially.
During arithmetic, Rachel raised her hand and asked why Mara was allowed to return without explaining where she'd been.
I thought she was making a stupid joke, but Edward said he had seen her as well.
Both pointed towards the place where Seat 27 used to be.
There was nothing there.
===
There was a short line beneath it, written more heavily than the rest.
[Mr. Harlan told me to go home after lessons and rest.]
Zoey's expression changed.
"Two Maras?"
"I'm not sure if I have to be honest..."
Kyle read further.
The neat structure of the diary ended there. Or more like, a lot of the pages were so burned that it was hard to see what was actually written. They were only able to catch sight of a few more phrases.
===
He thinks the stress of Mara's disappearance is affecting the class.
Possibly me as well.
I don't know anymore.
===
Neither of them spoke.
The faint dripping inside the walls continued.
Kyle had read enough strange reports since joining the Guild that something like this shouldn't have bothered him as much as it did.
But standing beside Mara's missing chair made the words feel different.
He moved to the next line he could make out, trying to be as careful as possible.
===
Something else is bothering me.
The chair removed from Seat 27 was taken to basement storage this morning.
I think I'm going to go check.
===
A section of the page had burned away, taking part of the sentence beneath it.
===
I wanted... permission.
Mr. Harlan isn't meeting me.
I'm going.
===
The writing changed again.
The next line had been pressed deeply enough into the paper that Kyle could feel the indentation beneath his thumb.
===
I saw Mara.
===
Zoey slowly lowered the light, the shadows around them seemingly taking the opportunity to move closer to them. Almost as if trying to embrace the two.
"...She saw Mara when she came here?"
Kyle didn't reply and just stared at the last part of the diary, his expression unreadable.
He tried to look further, but the bottom of the page had been completely burned to a crisp.
Kyle stared at the remaining words for several seconds before looking towards Chair 27. Whatever Mrs. Vale had seen on October seventeenth, it probably wasn't Mara.
It apparently knew enough to fool people who knew her.
Or was learning how.
A faint scrape interrupted his thoughts.
Scrr—
The noise dragged sharply through the otherwise silent room.
Both of them immediately looked towards the chair.
It moved. Not by much, but it moved.
But neither of them was touching it.
"...Kyle."
"I know."
Scrr—
Chair 27 shifted again, its front legs dragging softly across the concrete before stopping.
Kyle's skin prickled.
For several seconds, the room remained completely still.
Even the dripping seemed farther away.
Then the pressure seemed to disappear from the chair all at once.
Its backrest tilted slightly away from the wall.
Kyle stared.
Earlier, he had barely been able to move it.
Now...
He reached out cautiously and pulled.
The chair slid across the floor with almost no resistance.
The sudden ease of it felt incredibly wrong.
"..."
Zoey looked from the chair to him.
"What changed?"
Kyle didn't have an answer.
-x-X-x-
"Class dismissed."
I stopped writing and placed the pencil along the edge of the book.
The teacher left first, followed by the same familiar pause before the children began moving around me. Chairs scraped across the floor as they stood up, and I waited for Elon to leave before pushing myself up.
For some reason, the seat felt lighter when I stood.
I looked down.
"...?"
Probably my imagination.
My head had been pounding badly enough that I stopped trusting half the things I felt tonight.
I pushed the chair beneath the desk.
Scrr—
Something small immediately grabbed my sleeve.
I sighed.
"What now?"
The pressure tightened around my sleeve. Unlike before, it wasn't trying to pull me towards the desk.
It was pulling me away from it.
My expression changed slightly.
"...You don't want me sitting there?"
I didn't receive an answer.
Not that I was surprised, as I looked towards the seat.
The chair remained where I'd pushed it, the number carved into the desk clearly visible above the backrest.
Twenty-seven.
The grip around my sleeve tightened again.
Then a faint whisper came from somewhere close to my side.
"Don't answer."
"..."
I slowly turned my head.
There was nothing in the direction from which the voice came. The children continued filing through the doorway as though nothing had happened.
"What does that mean?"
There was no response.
"Don't answer what?"
Still nothing.
The pressure disappeared from my sleeve. I stood there for a little longer before looking back towards the desk.
My mind immediately went to the note.
Don't let her answer.
"..."
Interesting.
Very interesting.
'It's talking about the attendance, right?'
I did let 'her' speak for me then, afraid of the teacher finding out that I wasn't the real Mara. But this did make me curious. Why was this little 'ghost' trying to stop me from letting her answer?
I would've liked to stay and think about it, but the last few children were already leaving, and remaining alone in the classroom hadn't exactly worked out well for me before.
Thus, I moved on to the next class.
But right as I did—
Scrr—
The chair moved on its own.
And not just a little.
***
Kyle carefully folded the diary and placed it inside one of the protective sleeves Zoey had brought with them.
There were several more papers inside the box, but most were too badly damaged to read here. They could go through them properly once they were somewhere with better lighting and equipment.
For now, they had enough.
Mara had gone missing, yet several of the children claimed to have seen her afterward. Her chair had somehow ended up down here, and Mrs. Vale had apparently come to investigate it herself.
That was also very likely the same day her body was found near the stairwell.
Kyle's gaze drifted towards the corridor.
If the handprints they'd followed really did belong to Mrs. Vale, then at some point she had entered this place and somehow made it back out in a condition bad enough that she needed the wall just to keep herself upright.
'But what exactly started the fire? And why would a figure suddenly break out like that?'
"We should go."
Zoey's voice brought him out of his thoughts, prompting Kyle to nod.
They had searched most of what they could reach without forcing their way deeper into the damaged sections of the passage, and there wasn't much reason to remain here longer than necessary. The plan was to send everything they'd found back to the Guild, have the papers examined properly, and see whether anything remained beneath the burned portions that they couldn't make out themselves.
They packed the surviving documents and started back towards the opening they had made in the brick wall.
Neither of them spoke much. Kyle found himself listening instead.
The faint sound of their shoes travelled through the narrow passage, accompanied by Zoey's breathing and the occasional drop of water somewhere inside the old pipes. The wind sometimes reached the basement through the stairwell. Old wood creaked above, and pipes clicked whenever the temperature changed.
As they continued back, however, those sounds gradually disappeared until Kyle realized he could no longer hear anything from the floors above.
Only then did his steps start to slow down.
Zoey noticed.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Kyle continued walking.
There wasn't anything particularly strange about the silence. They were underground, behind a wall that had been sealed for decades. If anything, it would've been stranger if the place were loud.
Still, he found himself checking behind them once.
The storage room was already hidden around the bend.
The only thing behind them was the darkness.
They were approaching the brick entrance when a soft whisper suddenly reached Kyle's ear.
"...Hello?"
"——!?"
Kyle stopped so abruptly that Zoey almost walked into his back.
"What?"
He didn't answer. His expression had stiffened as he slowly turned towards the corridor behind them.
The voice had been small, almost distant enough to mistake for something coming from upstairs, but Kyle knew he'd heard it from inside the passage.
More importantly...
He knew the voice.
"...Seth?"
"What? Seth?"
Zoey's attention immediately shifted towards the direction Kyle was looking.
For several seconds, neither of them moved. Zoey flicked her hand, and a pale light shot forward, illuminating the passage ahead as shadows danced around the sphere, only to reveal the brick layered around the passage.
"I don't see anything."
Kyle's brows slowly furrowed, and he was just beginning to wonder whether exhaustion had finally started getting to him when the voice came again.
"Hello? Is there anyone here?"
"—!"
His fingers tightened slightly around his phone.
There was no mistaking it this time.
That voice...
It was Seth's.
Kyle instinctively took half a step towards the voice before Zoey caught his sleeve.
"Don't."
He looked at her.
"That's Seth."
"I know what Seth sounds like."
Zoey didn't let go of his sleeve.
"And Seth is supposed to be inside an anomaly."
Kyle's mouth closed for a short moment before replying, "That's why we're here."
"And if that really was him, he wouldn't have any problems getting out of this place."
Kyle's lips pressed together tightly.
Whatever connection this place had to VILE-303, there was no reason for Seth's actual voice to be coming from further underground.
The two remained where they were.
"...Hello?"
It came again.
A little clearer this time.
Kyle stared towards the bend, waiting for footsteps or some other indication that someone was approaching, but nothing followed the voice.
That was when something about it started bothering him.
Not the sound itself.
The way Seth's voice sounded.
The first two times had been strangely neutral. There was nothing technically wrong with the words or pronunciation, but Seth rarely called out like that when he knew somebody was nearby. The Seth that Kyle knew would've already sounded annoyed.
Then again...
'Right. He's not the Seth that I know.'
Kyle rubbed his forehead, pushing several strands of hair away from his face.
Zoey seemed to notice it as well, her expression gradually tightening as she kept the light trained on the bend.
Neither of them spoke.
Several seconds passed before the voice returned.
"...Seriously? Are you two just going to stand there all day?"
Kyle's breathing stalled.
That one sounded natural.
Zoey looked towards him, but Kyle didn't return the glance. His attention remained fixed on the corridor while a faint sound came from somewhere within the walls.
He nudged Zoey.
She raised the light slightly.
The pale sphere drifted farther ahead, illuminating the burned plaster up to the bend.
Nothing stepped into view.
"Kyle..."
He could hardly hear her voice.
"I know."
He'd dealt with enough strange things to know this wasn't a simple one. Normally he'd call for backup, but they weren't in a position to do that.
And if there was even a small chance that the voice really belonged to Seth—
Kyle slowly moved forward.
Zoey caught his sleeve.
"Are you serious?"
"What other choice do we have? We can't call for backup."
"I know, but..."
"...If that's him in there, and we walk out now."
He didn't finish.
Her grip remained for another second before eventually loosening.
"...Alright."
According to the old floor plan, the maintenance passage should've continued another fifteen meters before reaching the service exit. Instead, the light faded before reaching the opposite end.
Kyle looked at his phone.
Then at the corridor.
"...As expected, we might have to tear the wall down again."
Zoey moved closer.
"Blocked?"
He showed her the map.
"We should be able to see the end from here."
She stared ahead.
Indeed, all that greeted them was a brick wall.
Kyle's brows furrowed.
"Hello?"
Seth's voice came again.
This time, the voice was clearer than before. It came from right behind the walls.
Kyle's head lifted.
It was close enough now that there was no possibility of mistaking where it had come from.
Zoey's light shifted towards the wall.
In the end, she sighed.
"Alright."
Her hand extended forward, one of her nodes churning as light burst out from her hand, and the brick wall ahead suddenly collapsed. Kyle stared at the sight for a short moment before looking past the wall.
"Good work."
"...Right, right. This skill isn't really supposed to be used for something like this, but I guess it works."
The two moved forward slowly, keeping close enough that their shoulders occasionally brushed. Neither spoke anymore. The farther they moved, the less the passage resembled the basement they'd entered.
The burned walls gradually gave way to old painted plaster.
Kyle was the first to notice.
His pace started to slow down. Especially when he realized something.
"...Zoey."
"I see it. It's the same color as Class 3-C upstairs."
A few meters farther ahead, the corridor widened.
A door greeted them. A narrow rectangular window sat beside it, the glass so dirty that the room beyond appeared hard to see.
Kyle stopped several steps away.
Something about the sight made the muscles along his back tighten.
The window wasn't modern.
Neither was the door.
It looked exactly like the classrooms they'd seen in the old photographs. Zoey's light moved across the glass, but the grime scattered most of it back towards them.
"...Is that a classroom?"
Kyle didn't answer.
He moved closer.
The inside gradually became visible.
Desks.
There were rows of them, and as he looked closer, he noticed something incredibly peculiar. A large number of them had been burned, along with much of the classroom around them.
His expression slowly changed.
The room looked almost identical to Class 3-C.
The arrangement was exactly the same, including the chalkboard at the front. It also had the same narrow aisles running between the desks.
But unlike the classroom upstairs...
This one wasn't empty.
Zoey stopped beside him, her lips parted, but nothing came out.
She saw what he was seeing.
Every seat was occupied.
They sat perfectly still with their backs towards the window, their small figures barely distinguishable through the dirty glass. None of them appeared to be writing. Their hands simply rested on the desks while every head remained pointed towards the front of the room.
Kyle's throat tightened.
There were no sounds coming from inside.
Yet the children were there.
Zoey's light drifted slowly along the rows.
Every head stayed pointed towards the front.
Except one.
The child nearest the window sat at a slightly different angle than the rest. It wasn't facing them, but just slightly turned
Kyle couldn't remember whether it had been like that when they arrived.
Zoey slowly moved the light away from the window.
"How many?"
Kyle already knew why she was asking.
His eyes moved along the rows.
Twenty-five.
Twenty-six.
Then—
His gaze stopped.
Desk 27.
It was occupied.
"..."
Unlike the other figures, this one wasn't sitting. Their height was also greater than that of the other children.
And it wasn't by a small amount.
Its shoulders sat strangely high above the backrest, and unlike the children around it, its head was lowered slightly, hiding whatever face it had behind the dark outline of its hair.
Kyle moved closer to the glass without realizing it.
Zoey immediately caught his arm.
"Don't."
He barely heard her.
Something about the figure bothered him.
The posture.
The shape of the shoulders.
Even the way one arm rested beside the desk.
He had seen it before.
"...No."
Zoey's fingers tightened.
"What?"
Kyle stared through the window.
The figure in Desk 27 moved.
Very slowly.
Its fingers curled against the edge of the desk.
The children around it remained completely still.
Then its head began to turn.
Kyle's body stiffened as the face came into view through the dirty glass.
Kyle couldn't make out all of it.
Just the outline.
The eyes.
And the faint curve of a mouth.
For a moment, he couldn't hear anything at all.
Then the person standing near Desk 27 looked directly at Kyle.
A familiar voice came through the other side of the glass.
It was perfect this time.
"Hello."
-x-X-x-
"Hello."
The voice came out muffled from behind the wall as the outline behind the faded glass moved slightly.
Kyle didn't move.
For several seconds, he remained beside the window with his eyes fixed on the figure sitting at Desk 27. The dirty glass made it difficult to see every detail of its face, but that wasn't enough to hide what was in front of him.
From the same dark hair, to the features...
'Seth.'
Even the way his shoulders rested against the chair looked familiar enough that, had Kyle seen him anywhere else, he probably wouldn't have thought twice about it.
That was what bothered him.
"...Kyle."
Zoey's voice reached him quietly.
"There's no need for you to tell me. That's not him."
It was hard to see the features clearly.
But his face looked pale. Abnormally pale.
"Hello."
Kyle's expression gradually hardened.
There was something missing from the voice now.
The first few attempts had sounded strange because the tone had been slightly off, but it was perfect this time. The tiredness, the tremble, even the faint roughness around the edges sounded exactly as he remembered.
And yet...
'That's not him.'
Kyle was sure of it.
The thing behind the glass continued looking at him without moving the rest of its body, its hands still resting neatly against the desk.
Then something changed inside the classroom.
Swoosh—
Every child's head turned towards the window.
Kyle's breath stopped.
Twenty-seven faces looked directly at them.
Their bodies remained facing the chalkboard, shoulders perfectly straight and hands still placed on the desks, but every head had twisted in their direction at almost exactly the same angle.
Zoey's fingers pressed against her lips.
"...This makes no sense. Why are they here?"
Nobody inside the classroom.
The classroom simply stared.
Kyle had dealt with enough anomalies to know there were situations where staying to understand what was happening was considerably stupider than leaving.
This was rapidly becoming one of them.
His gaze returned to Desk 27.
The thing wearing Seth's face was still smiling.
'A copy...?'
A few things started to click in his mind.
Mara had disappeared, but people continued seeing her.
Mrs. Vale had eventually come down here and claimed she saw Mara herself.
And now Seth, who should've been trapped inside VILE-303 somewhere in Sines, was sitting inside an impossible classroom beneath Valmere Municipal School.
Kyle heard Zoey's voice from next to him.
"...We should go."
"Yes."
Kyle didn't argue.
The two slowly moved away from the window, taking care not to make any sudden movements as the children continued watching them through the dirty glass.
Kyle had almost reached the turn when something came from inside the classroom.
A chair scraped.
His attention immediately returned to the window.
The figure at Desk 27 was now standing before them window, face pressed against the window.
"..."
The pair of eyes stared right at them, following and tracking their every movement. Its head slowly tilted as though trying to see them better through the glass.
Then, from somewhere inside the room, a grave voice spoke.
"Eyes on your work."
Every child's head snapped towards the front.
The sound of the movement came all at once.
The figure at Desk 27 didn't follow immediately.
For another second, Seth's face remained turned towards Kyle.
Then it slowly looked forward.
Kyle didn't wait to see anything else.
"Go."
They moved.
***
By the time I reached the next classroom, my headache was really starting to bother me. Reaching for my pocket, I tried to pop another pill, but there was nothing left inside.
"Ugh."
I rubbed my forehead as I followed the children inside.
Seat 27 was waiting near the back like always.
At this point, I barely needed to check the number anymore. The children left enough space around it that finding Mara's desk was probably easier than finding the teacher's.
I sat down.
"...?"
My hand paused on the exercise book.
It was already open.
That wasn't particularly strange. The books were sometimes left that way between lessons, and after several days of moving through different classrooms, I had stopped paying much attention to where the pages were supposed to be.
What caught my attention was the writing.
Half of the exercise had already been completed.
I leaned closer.
"...Did I do this?"
The numbers and handwriting looked familiar.
More than familiar.
They were mine.
The same slightly crooked four. The same unnecessary line I always drew through the seven. Even the way one answer had been crossed out looked exactly like something I'd done myself.
I flipped back several pages.
The handwriting changed.
Mara's.
Then forward again.
Mine.
"..."
I stared at the page for a little longer.
'Maybe I did this yesterday.'
That was possible.
Probably.
The nights had started blending together, and the lack of medication wasn't exactly helping. I could barely remember which classroom I'd been in two hours ago, let alone every arithmetic question I'd solved over the last few days.
Still...
I didn't remember this one.
Step.
My thoughts immediately stopped.
The teacher entered.
I lowered my head and picked up the pencil as the door closed behind it.
"Continue your work."
Around me, the children began writing.
I looked at the completed questions again before moving down to the first empty one.
'More and more problems are adding up. Feels like I'm starting to lose it even more.'
Starting to feel a little redundant now.
For the next few minutes, nothing unusual happened. Which, in this place, usually meant something was about to.
The teacher eventually moved towards the attendance register.
My pencil slowed.
'Right...'
I suddenly recalled the warning.
Don't answer.
More specifically...
Don't let her answer.
I glanced towards the empty space beside my chair.
"Rachel Zims."
"Present."
The usual scratching followed.
One name after another left the teacher's lips. I continued working, though most of my attention remained on the space beside me.
This time, I wasn't going to let whatever was there answer.
It wasn't as though I had much of a plan beyond that.
When Mara's name came, I planned to simply answer myself and hope the teacher didn't suddenly attack me for sounding different.
It wasn't ideal, but I planned on testing the situation.
"Mara Balle."
Eventually, the little girl's name left the teacher's lips.
My fingers tightened around the pencil.
I opened my mouth to answer.
"Pre—"
"Present."
"——!"
Someone spoke before I could.
But...
That wasn't Mara's voice. It was deeper, rougher, and... it sounded exactly like mine.
My breath came to a stop.
The teacher's pencil scratched against the register.
My lips were still parted.
For several seconds, I found myself unable to react.
'What...?'
Something small grabbed my wrist beneath the desk, but I didn't react as my eyes remained on the page.
My thoughts remained fixed on the voice that spoke.
'That was my voice. That was definitely my voice.'
But how...?
How was that possible?
The teacher continued through the remaining names without so much as pausing, which somehow bothered me more than if it had reacted.
Someone had just answered in my voice from the empty space beside me, yet the teacher front merely dragged its pencil across the register and continued as though everything had gone exactly as expected.
I glanced towards the gap between my desk and Elon's.
There was nothing there.
Elon, however, had stopped writing.
His pencil rested against the page while his eyes remained fixed on Seat 27, and although his expression hadn't changed much, the way his book had been pulled farther away from mine made it obvious that he had noticed something.
"...Elon?"
He didn't respond.
Of course, he didn't.
Before I could try again, the teacher started moving between the rows, forcing me to lower my gaze and return to the exercise. I continued writing while trying to make sense of what had just happened, but the numbers in front of me felt as though they were simming inside of my vision.
'From the handwriting inside of my book, to my voice...'
Something weird was happening.
...Something that I was really not liking.
By the time the lesson ended, my eyes drifted in Elon's direction.
"Class dismissed."
The teacher left first, and after the familiar pause, the children began standing from their seats. Elon followed shortly afterward, but before he joined the others, his gaze briefly met mine.
For the first time, there was something different about the way he looked at me.
His eyes shifted towards the empty space beside my chair, then returned to my face.
It wasn't fear.
His eyes were too empty for that.
My brows furrowed.
"...What?"
Elon didn't answer. He simply turned around and followed the other children into the corridor, leaving me staring after him with more questions than before.
Strangely enough, the small fingers didn't grab my sleeve this time.
After everything that had happened, the little ghost suddenly seemed to have vanished.
I eventually stood and followed the class.
The next room looked almost identical to the others I'd passed through over the last few nights. Same rows of desks, same faded walls, same smell of damp paper lingering in the air as the children quietly moved towards their places.
I rubbed the side of my head while walking towards the back, already looking for the familiar space around Seat 27.
Then my steps slowed.
"..."
The very air around me seemed to constrict.
Staring ahead of me, my entire body tensed.
The seat...
It was taken.
At first, I assumed Elon had moved again, but the figure was a little too big to be the child, its shoulders rising well above the children seated around it.
From the hair, to the clothes...
For several seconds, I simply stood there while the rest of the class continued around me as though nothing were wrong.
The figure slowly raised its head, and my lips parted on their own.
"...What the fuck?"
A pale face resembling my own stared back at me.
-x-X-x-
I stayed where I was, watching my own face stare back at me from behind the desk.
The resemblance wasn't quite perfect. Its skin was paler than mine, almost drained beneath the classroom lights, and its expression barely changed when I moved closer, but even the way it held the pencil looked familiar. The tip rested against the page at the same angle I was used to holding.
"...Who are you?"
Its eyes lowered towards my mouth while I spoke.
Almost as if it were trying to study it.
Not my face.
My mouth.
I glanced towards the children passing between us. One brushed against my arm on his way to his seat, but none of them looked at the figure occupying my seat. Elon had already stopped beside Desk 26, his book held tightly against his chest.
"You can see him, right?"
Elon's gaze shifted towards me before returning to the figure. He waited until it moved its hand away from his desk before sitting down, placing his book as far from Seat 27 as possible.
That was enough of an answer, and I turned back towards the thing wearing my face.
"Get out of the chair."
It continued staring at me, and I was considering whether touching it would be the stupidest decision I would make tonight when a certain footstep echoed from the doorway.
Step.
The figure stood before the teacher entered, leaving the chair exactly where it had been. It moved into the gap beside the desk, close enough that I had to step back to avoid its shoulder.
For a second, its face passed directly beside mine.
It didn't look away.
The teacher stopped at the front.
"Mara, why aren't you sitting?"
I looked between the empty chair and the figure beside it. It hadn't vanished or even attempted to hide, yet the teacher's attention remained on me.
"There's someone—"
"I couldn't find my pencil."
A voice cut me off.
A voice... that sounded almost identical to mine.
"It's on your desk. Sit down."
I didn't know when, but only after taking a small breath did I realize I had been holding it for quite some time. The teacher was still watching, and I knew that I couldn't remain standing where I was.
Eyes on the clone of me, I sat without turning my back on it completely, keeping my feet beneath the desk as the children opened their books. The figure remained beside my shoulder, its arm hanging close enough that I could see the pale knuckles at the edge of my vision.
It didn't seem to breathe.
No, it wasn't breathing at all.
"....."
My fingers tightened around the pencil as Mara's note came back to me.
[She gets up when you come over.]
I looked towards the teacher, then thought back to how the figure stood up the moment the teacher came over.
I drew a small breath.
Biting my lip, I spoke again.
"There's someone in my seat."
"....."
A biting cold pressed against me from all directions. To the point where it almost felt as though the very air had been stripped away from the room.
Until—
"The chair is empty."
[Then you tell me my chair is empty.]
'It's not empty.'
"Continue yesterday's exercise. I'll take attendance."
Paper rustled around me as I tried to decide what I was supposed to do. I couldn't fight the thing with the teacher here, and even if I did want to fight it, I didn't have any nodes to support me on that.
I had no other choice but to remain seated and observe.
I forced my attention onto the page as the teacher began calling names. Beside me, the figure leaned forward slightly, its eyes following the movement of my pencil.
When I stopped writing to adjust my grip, its fingers moved too.
But not quite right after I started.
There was a brief delay, almost like it needed a moment to understand what I'd done before copying it.
My mouth went dry.
I could feel its gaze. Its warm breath...
By the time the teacher reached Mara's name, I was barely listening to the other children. I turned towards the figure, intending to stop it before it could speak, but its answer came before I could even put the pencil down.
"Present."
It used my voice again, and the teacher marked the register without looking up.
"That wasn't me."
I spoke up without realizing it. Several pencils stopped around us, and I felt Elon's arm pull away from the edge of his desk.
"Mara, you don't need to answer twice."
The teacher stopped before calling out the last name.
I remained still as the figure watched me from beside the chair, its empty eyes focused on me as it quietly observed my every movement.
I didn't blink once.
Something else flashed in my mind.
[Yesterday you told me not to answer twice.]
That was another one of those clues.
More and more pieces started to fit the puzzle.
'It's... strangely hot in here.'
I tugged at my collar, feeling a certain level of discomfort. At first, I assumed it was sweat, but when I pressed my wrist against my neck, I realized my skin was hot despite the cold air settling over the desks.
The difference was uncomfortable.
The classroom felt cold everywhere except for me.
"——!"
Something else clicked inside my mind as I took another deep breath.
Elon...
He had mentioned something like this happening to Mara.
'He spoke to her near the treeline, and the report specifically mentioned how warm her skin felt...'
This couldn't be...?
My pencil stopped above the page as I looked towards the figure again.
The same pair of empty eyes stared back at me.
They were closer than before.
I...
When did it move?
The sight nearly made me jump out of my seat, but I managed to keep it together as I looked away from those soulless eyes. Things were very clear in my mind.
It was studying me.
Very deeply.
The way I moved.
The way I spoke.
Everything.
'...Is this what happened to her?'
Step!
The question barely formed inside my mind when the sudden sound of a step echoed.
Step!
"Is something wrong?"
I lifted my head, but the words that came out weren't mine.
"Just a headache."
The teacher only looked at me as the room fell silent once more. I tugged at my collar again.
"Is that so? Continue working."
Step.
I stared at the page, unable to remember which question I was supposed to be answering. It had watched me rub my forehead, listened to me speak, and now it was explaining what was wrong with me before I could do it myself.
Almost like it was learning everything about me.
The thought made my stomach churn.
And just when I thought things couldn't get any stranger, a sudden movement at the back of the class caught my attention, prompting me to turn my head slightly.
The moment I turned, a pair of new eyes locked with me.
I froze at the sight.
Not before muttering,
"Mara?"
***
Kyle kept moving until the classroom window disappeared behind the turn. Zoey stayed beside him, her light low enough that their shadows stretched ahead rather than back towards the room.
Neither spoke until they reached the broken brick wall.
"...It looked exactly like him."
Kyle glanced back while Zoey stepped over the rubble. He could still picture Seth's face pressed against the glass, following their every movement as they stood outside the classroom.
"I know. It even sounded like him, but... That wasn't him."
Zoey adjusted the bag containing the diary.
"Mara was missing, but the children said she was still attending lessons. Then Mrs. Vale came down here and thought she saw her."
"And now we've seen Seth."
Kyle spoke right after, his expression tight.
Rubbing his forehead, he pinched his cheeks as he muttered, "He shouldn't be involved in the scenario at all, and yet, he's here. How does that make sense?"
"At least this confirms to us that he's trapped in VILE - 303."
Zoey looked towards the passage behind them, trying to see if the figure they had seen was following them from behind.
But all that greeted her sight was darkness.
"I'm not sure, but..."
Zoey hesitated whilst looking at Kyle before offering her opinion.
"...It's just a guess, but I think whatever is happening to Seth is somehow connected to what happened to Mara. Maybe that thing was a clone, or maybe a copy of him is being made while he's inside the classroom?"
"I think so too, but that still doesn't answer a lot of things. What if—"
A subtle vibration stopped Kyle as he reached for his pocket and retrieved his phone. The moment he did, his expression changed.
[Section Chief]
He hesitated before answering.
"Chief?"
"I was beginning to wonder whether you'd stopped responding too. Have you found anything?"
Kyle looked towards Zoey.
"We recovered some records. There's more going on here than the Guild file mentions. However, I think we've found a lead to Seth's whereabouts."
There was a short pause on the other end of the line.
After which, a sigh followed.
"A team has been dispatched to your location."
"What!?"
Kyle's grip tightened around the phone.
"I tried my best, but they already figured out what's going on. I've got no choice on this matter."
"That's ridiculous."
"I understand, but sometimes you need to take a step back to take one forward. In this case, it's obvious that something has happened to Seth. Our priority should be to help him instead of worrying about what is going to happen afterwards."
Kyle's jaw tightened.
"...Section Chief Johansberg has sent several elites from the Hoarding Department to help out. The moment they arrive, please fill them in on everything and help Seth. This is our current priority."
Kyle's lips parted, but no word came out.
The line ended right after.
Du. Du.
"What did he say?"
Zoey's voice echoed right after, and Kyle looked at her.
His expression underwent a series of changes before he eventually thought of something, and his expression turned even weirder.
In the end, he muttered—
"How much money do you have?"
"Huh?"
"Lend me as much as you can."
-x-X-x-
"Huh? What? What are you talking about?"
Zoey stared at Kyle in disbelief. Did he just ask her to loan him money? What?
"What has suddenly gotten into you?"
"...Just how much money can you provide me? There's not much time."
"What are you even...?"
Zoey's confusion only grew. Staring in Kyle's direction, she struggled to understand his sudden actions or what exactly he was trying to do.
He really seemed to have lost it.
And yet⎯
"I know that this might sound confusing, and I'm not sure myself if this will work, but it's the only thing that I can think of. Just tell me how much money you can lend me. I can give it back to you later."
"....."
Zoey's lips parted as she looked at Kyle, but eventually, she closed her lips and nodded.
"Alright."
She didn't know why Kyle was acting like this, but after being with him for as long as she had, she knew he must've thought of something. Taking out her phone, she opened her bank account and pressed her lips together.
"There's a limit to how much I can give you unless I go sign some paperwork. It's capped at 1 million. Is that enough?"
"Yes, it's more than enough."
Kyle glanced back towards the passage, straining his ears for any sound of footsteps. Thankfully, nothing came, and when he checked his phone, the transfer notification appeared a moment later.
"I've sent it."
There was a short pause before she added.
"...I don't know why you've asked me for money, but I'll trust you on this one. What exactly are you planning on doing?"
'I'd like to know that myself...' Kyle muttered to himself, just low enough that Zoey couldn't hear him as he looked at his bank account and sighed. After that, he scrolled through his phone before sending the remaining money directly to Seth.
Added to the million Zoey had given him, Kyle put in another two million of his own.
Unlike her, his transfer limit was a little higher, and he was practically giving Seth everything he had available. It wasn't that he didn't have more money, but most of his assets were tied up elsewhere, and he wasn't particularly liquid to begin with.
'You better make this work.'
Kyle's jaw clenched as he sent the money.
Unlike Zoey, he knew.
He knew about Seth's need for money and the secret surrounding it. He didn't know everything, but he understood enough to know that Seth desperately needed it, and that money was somehow useful to him.
'Right, you better make this work.'
Kyle stared at his now-empty bank account.
'...If something happens to you, I'm equally screwed.'
After all, their lives were now tied together.
***
I remained frozen for several seconds, my eyes fixed on the back of the classroom.
"Mara...?"
The little girl who had been bothering me since the start of the situation was no longer beside me or behind me.
Instead, she stood near the doorway.
For the first time since I had entered this place, I could actually see her properly.
She was small, around the same age as the other children, with dark hair falling loosely around her face. Her uniform was wrinkled around the sleeves, and several strands of hair stuck against her forehead as though she'd been sweating.
'She looks quite... normal.'
That was the first thought that entered my head.
More importantly...
She looked frightened.
"...You're Mara?"
Her eyes moved towards the front of the classroom before returning to me.
She didn't answer.
Instead, she leaned slightly past the doorway and looked into the corridor, checking one side before the other as though making sure something wasn't there.
My expression slowly changed.
"What are you looking for?"
Again, nothing.
She simply stepped into the corridor and disappeared beyond the door.
"...Wait."
I immediately moved.
Several of the children had already left the classroom, and the teacher was long gone, which meant there wasn't much keeping me here anymore. I moved between the desks and stepped into the corridor, looking towards where she'd gone.
But it was empty.
My brows furrowed.
"Seriously?"
There weren't that many places she could've—
A certain movement caught my attention through one of the windows farther down the hall.
I turned.
Something peeked from one of the doors.
"..."
She was looking directly at me.
For several seconds, neither of us moved. Then she stepped away from the door, disappearing from sight.
'Is she trying to lead me somewhere?'
That would've been nice to know before I started following ghosts through an infinite school, but considering everything that had happened to me these past few days, this was a nice change of pace.
I headed towards the classroom.
The door was already open, but the moment I looked inside, Mara was gone again.
"Come on."
There was nobody there.
All that was present were rows of empty desks sitting beneath the faint light from above.
I hesitated for a moment.
This was different.
Every classroom I had entered since the first night had been occupied by the time I arrived. Even when the corridors changed, the children were always there, sitting quietly and waiting for the lesson to begin.
But why was it not the case for this classroom?
The air smelled stale as well, heavy with dust and something faintly damp that reminded me of wet paper left for a very long time inside a closed room.
"...Mara?"
My voice travelled through the classroom before fading somewhere near the back.
There was no reply.
Not that I was expecting one to begin with.
I stepped inside.
The floor creaked faintly beneath my shoes as I passed the first row, my attention moving from one desk to the next. Most of them were covered in scratches, and several chairs had been pushed at strange angles as if the children inside the room had left in a hurry.
Something about the place made the hair along my arms rise.
Not because I could see anything.
Because I couldn't.
For the first time since the entire event had started, the school felt completely empty.
And somehow...
The strange silence felt unsettling.
'I'm starting to miss the teacher.'
My steps slowed down near the second row.
Creak...!
"⎯!"
My head turned immediately, only to be greeted by the same empty sight.
"..."
My gaze lingered towards the empty classroom before I continued towards the back, keeping one hand near my side despite knowing there wasn't much I could actually do without my nodes.
I moved from one desk to another before finally stopping towards a certain desk.
The moment I blinked, she appeared.
Sitting in Seat 27 was none other than Mara, her little hands rested neatly against her lap while her head remained lowered, dark hair hiding part of her face.
"So you are Mara."
I spoke softly, trying my best to maintain my breath.
This time, she reacted.
Slowly, her head lifted, and her eyes met mine.
Unlike the other children, there was something very human in them. Her eyes... they felt alive. But within those eyes, I spotted something else.
Something akin to⎯
Fear.
"...It's already started."
Her small voice drifted through the air.
"What?"
Mara's fingers tightened slightly against her skirt.
She looked towards the door behind me before speaking again, her voice so quiet that I nearly missed it.
"What happened to me."
My expression gradually stiffened.
"It's happening to you."
"..."
The warmth beneath my collar suddenly became much harder to ignore.
For several seconds, all I could hear was my own breathing.
Then I swallowed.
"What exactly happened to you?"
Mara didn't answer immediately.
Her attention shifted towards the empty seat beside her, as though expecting someone else to be there.
When she finally looked back at me, her expression had changed.
"You don't have much time."
My heart started beating faster.
"What does that mean?"
Mara's lips parted.
Then stopped.
Her eyes moved slightly as she looked past me.
Towards the classroom door.
I didn't turn around.
Not immediately.
But then, my head slowly turned, and a figure appeared right outside the door, his empty eyes staring right at me.
Elon?
-x-X-x-
"Elon?"
The boy remained at the doorway.
His expression was the same as always. His face remained pale and empty beneath the weak classroom lights as his gaze drifted away from me and towards Mara.
She had gone completely still the moment he appeared.
For several seconds, none of us moved. The silence inside the room suddenly felt heavier than before, especially with Elon standing there and Mara seated quietly in Seat 27, her fingers still pressed against the edge of her skirt.
"...You've finally started to move."
Elon's eyes finally shifted towards me.
Then, after a short pause, he spoke.
"You're still here."
My brows furrowed.
"You're finally starting to talk?"
He didn't answer.
Of course, he didn't.
Still, the fact that he talked was progress.
His gaze shifted back to Mara, and there was something in the way he looked at her that made the back of my neck prickle.
Mara slowly stood.
Her eyes never left Elon.
"Is he somehow involved in your situation?"
I asked Mara, but she took a small step backwards, her attention suddenly moving towards the corridor behind him.
That was when I heard it.
Step.
My expression changed.
The teacher.
'What? Why is the teacher coming here?'
This wasn't where the next class was supposed to be held...
Mara's face tightened.
"Wait."
She looked at me one last time.
"You need to leave the seat."
"What?"
"Don't let it answer for you."
Her little voice whispered into my ear, leaving me somewhat at a loss. I understood the meaning behind her warning, but what I didn't understand was Elon's involvement in all of this.
Why was he here? And why was he finally talking?
Step.
The sound was closer now.
In the time it took for me to blink, she was gone
What?
All that greeted me was the sight of the empty chair and desk before me.
"..."
My gaze snapped towards Elon.
He was already walking away.
"Seriously?"
I followed him into the corridor, keeping my voice low. I didn't want to be overheard by the teacher. Thankfully, it didn't seem to be close.
"What's your involvement in all of this?"
I didn't know if it was a smart decision, but I felt the need to speak to him. It suddenly felt as though I was getting closer and closer to the truth. At the same time, it also felt as though I was getting closer and closer to getting absorbed by the anomaly.
"Why are you suddenly showing up and talking? What is happening to me?"
Still nothing.
My patience was starting to run thin, which wasn't being helped by the fact that my head was really hurting. I had ignored it for now, but it was really starting to bother me.
I caught his shoulder.
The moment my fingers touched him—
"—!"
Pain exploded through my body.
I staggered back, my grip disappearing instantly as something deep inside me twisted.
My nodes!
For the first time in days, I could feel them. Unfortunately, I immediately wished I couldn't.
They felt as though someone had reached inside my body and squeezed them together, forcing a burning pressure through every channel connected to them.
"F-uck...!"
My hand pressed against the wall as I tried to breathe.
It suddenly felt as though my entire head was burning, the colors around me shifting between red and blue.
'W-what's going on?'
Looking around, the world felt as though it was spinning. The colors continued to shift, and for a moment, it felt as though I was changing between the Butcher's vision and the sunglasses' vision.
Hot, cold. Hot, cold.
The nodes pulsed painfully within my skull, each throb growing louder and louder inside of my mind.
Then—
"...Seth..."
Something whispered in the air.
My head lifted, my gaze drifting towards Elon.
"Did you say something?"
He stared at me.
His lips remained still.
Then—
"...come here..."
Another whisper brushed against my ear.
"Huh? Who?"
Then another from somewhere behind me.
"...don't answer..."
I slowly turned.
"What? Where...?"
The corridor was empty.
"Look here."
"....Over here."
More voices followed, overlapping beneath the hum of the lights. All of them said different things, but if there was one thing they had in common, it was that they...
All sounded like me.
"...this is annoying..."
"...what the fuck..."
"...come on..."
A lot of them were words I had said before.
Not recently, either.
I pressed both hands against my ears.
Stop. Stop...
That did absolutely nothing.
It was there that I realized... The whispers weren't coming from the corridor. They were inside my head.
"I really am starting to lose it..."
I staggered back, my grip disappearing instantly as something deep inside me twisted. My breathing became uneven as my head continued to throb. For a moment, the hallway blurred, and I caught sight of a figure standing at the far end.
It was me, wearing the same clothes and the same face, simply standing there and watching until I blinked and it was gone.
"...Great."
Wonderful.
Exactly what I needed.
Elon was still looking at me, and for the first time, his empty expression looked almost sympathetic.
That somehow made it worse.
"Don't just stare at me. If you know something, say it."
His mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Instead, one of the whispers spoke over him.
"...Too late."
His voice entered my mind, his lips sealed as he looked at me.
My blood ran cold.
I straightened slowly.
"Too late for what?"
No one replied to me. All of a sudden, I started to question if the voice had even been real to begin with.
Then something appeared in front of my eyes.
A translucent panel.
——
[External Funds Received]
[1,000,000]
——
"...?"
I stared at it.
Another notification followed almost immediately.
——
[External Funds Received]
[2,000,000]
——
For a moment, the voices disappeared from my attention completely.
Three million.
My eyes widened briefly before I suddenly started laughing to myself.
"...Ah, this is getting really bad."
I was starting to see things. I was starting to really lose it.
And yet—
'This is just what I needed.'
I reached forward, gaining access to the 'Gate Developer Mode'. Before I knew it, my hand started moving on its own.
***
Kyle heard the vehicles before he saw them.
Several engines approached from the road leading towards the abandoned school, their sound growing louder until the first black vehicle appeared through the broken gate.
Zoey looked towards him.
"They're faster than I expected."
"...I know."
Kyle shoved his phone into his pocket and watched as three vehicles stopped near the entrance.
The doors opened almost immediately.
Six people stepped out.
None of them looked like ordinary support personnel.
Kyle recognized two.
That alone was enough to irritate him.
The first was a tall man with short silver hair and a long coat bearing the insignia of the Hoarding Department. Beside him stood a younger woman with dark red hair tied high behind her head, her eyes moving over the school with obvious disinterest.
The others spread out behind them, looking over the surroundings whilst talking amongst themselves.
One of them laughed at something another said.
Another barely even glanced towards the damaged school before checking his gloves.
It didn't seem like they were taking the situation very seriously.
If anything, they looked as though they had already decided there was nothing here worth worrying about.
The silver-haired man approached first.
"Kyle."
His tone wasn't unfriendly.
That somehow made it more irritating.
"I heard that you were in need of help."
His gaze drifted towards the school.
There was a brief pause.
"...This is what you needed help with?"
Kyle's expression stiffened.
The man stared at the entrance for another moment before slowly shaking his head.
"Seriously... It always ends up like this somehow."
A faint smile appeared across his face.
"I thought you guys had changed for a moment, but I guess not."
He glanced back towards the others.
"Looks like we have to clean up after you guys again."
A few quiet chuckles followed from behind him.
His gaze moved towards Zoey, then towards the damaged entrance behind them.
"We'll take over from here."
Zoey's eyebrows rose.
"...Excuse me? What do you mean by taking over?"
The woman beside him gave her a faint smile.
"You've already done enough. There's nothing left for you to do. Just let us handle it since you guys obviously can't."
Her tone was dismissive as she spoke.
"The Section Chief wants both of you back at headquarters while we handle the situation. Given how much time you've wasted here, it's obvious that we need to take over."
Kyle took a deep breath, trying his best to calm down.
"You don't know what's inside."
"We'll manage."
"You haven't even heard what we found."
"We were briefed on the way."
The silver-haired man's expression barely changed.
"If there was anything important, I'm sure it was included."
Kyle took another deep breath.
He was really starting to lose his composure.
Then again, it wasn't like he wasn't used to this situation.
The crew before him was one of the most elite within the Guild, known simply as the 'Clean Up' crew. They were in charge of cleaning up after missions that the Guild deemed impossible to clear by the squad originally dispatched.
They were the type to brute-force anomalies into containment. They were also sent whenever the Guild deemed a team to have failed.
And they never seemed to let anyone forget it.
"Give me the documents."
Claude stretched his hand in Kyle's direction.
Kyle didn't react.
Claude waited.
His smile slowly deepened.
He almost seemed amused.
The woman with red hair sighed.
"Don't make this difficult."
Kyle's jaw clenched, but he eventually relented, taking out several files and documents he had filled out along with Zoey over the past few days and handing them over.
Claude took them without even looking through them.
"Wasn't so hard, right?"
He smiled, patting Kyle on the shoulder.
Kyle's fingers twitched.
Claude had already turned away.
He whistled to his crew before heading towards the school.
"We'll take it from here. Do go back if you can. You won't be needed here anymore."
Kyle and Zoey didn't get a chance to say a thing before the six of them entered the school.
A short silence followed between the two.
Zoey continued staring at the entrance before eventually looking towards Kyle.
It was just as her lips parted that Kyle spoke.
"...Just wait a bit."
He took a deep breath, feeling something stir in his chest as he stared at the school.
The irritation slowly faded from his expression.
"You'll see soon enough."
His gaze remained fixed on the entrance.
Isn't that right, Seth?