The Phantom School - 38 Chapter 38

I left Mr. Kenan with Idil and went to take a look at the the hallway. I silently approached the intersection ahead of me and peeked around to corner to see where the sounds were coming from.

The same group of classmates I have encountered earlier were coming this way. As soon as I identified them, I started running back to the classroom. We could not risk being found, so we had to leave quickly.

“They are coming.” I told Mr. Kenan as I rushed inside the classroom. Even though I did not clearly state who ‘they’ were, Mr. Kenan seemed to understand.

“We have to leave. We will have to carry her.” he said, looking at Idil as she was sleeping peacefully, still completely unaware of everything going on around her.

I grabbed her and slowly tried to lift her up. Mr. Kenan interrupted me.

“Don’t waste your energy, let me-”

Before Mr. Kenan could finish his sentence, Idil turned her head and opened her eyes. She looked around as her eyes tried to adjust for the lighting, or rather, the lack of it.

“What a nice surprise.” I said, but without much excitement. Waking up right in the middle of a moment of danger wasn’t the best thing she could do.

“Good. Now we can move much faster, let’s go.” said Mr. Kenan.

“How did you get into my room!?” Idil yelled at us. She was still sleepy, and unaware of her environment.

“Could you please tell ‘your room’ to stop trying to kill us?” I replied. This should’ve been enough to get her memories back in place.

She froze for a few seconds, then remembered where we actually were, and what we were doing before she went to sleep.

“Now, run!” Mr. Kenan said. Idil realised something unpleasant was going on, and she quickly got up. We rushed out of the classroom, and started running towards the stairways near the closer end of the hallway, away from the sound and our murderous classmates.

“How much did I miss?” Idil asked.

“Not much, I’ve just encountered Mr. Kenan in the hallway when you were sleeping…” I said.

Mr. Kenan looked at me and tried to imply that it would be better if I didn’t tell her about the violence between us. I agreed with him, as it would only make things more complex for her. Without caution, it could even spark new hostilites when combined with the constant efforts of ‘the community’.

“…and that’s pretty much it.” I completed my sentence.

“Alright.” she said, but she noticed something afterwards. “Wait, it’s not alright… If that’s the case, what are we running from? We shouldn’t run from everything that makes noises.”

“There is a time for everything, young lady.” said Mr. Kenan. “It would take too long to explain everything now. So, please trust us and do whatever we say for the time being, which means you should simply keep running with us.”

“Alright, alright, I get it.” she replied. Just after she said that, she stumbled and was about to fall. My relfexes kicked in and I held her up. She was still a bit sleepy.

“Thanks, I’m sorry I can’t even go straight.” she said.

“It’s normal, you’ve been through a lot.” I replied.

We started running downstairs.

“By the way, Mr. Kenan… Where are we going?” I asked.

“Hold on, you guys don’t have a plan!?” Idil asked.

“Calm the hell down, of course I have a plan, I know what I’m doing!” Mr. Kenan replied.

We went downstairs to the bottom floor.

“Are we just going to charge the main exit and hope it will open?” I asked. Mr. Kenan had told us that he had a plan, but I thought he could’ve just said that in order to avoid worrying us too much. After all, he was the type of man who made plans on the run, much like me.

“You just can’t get rid of either your curiosity or distrust, can you?” Mr. Kenan replied. “I already told you that I know what I’m doing.”

“I just wanted to know in advance.” I said.

“You wouldn’t like it too much, so that’s why I’m not telling it right now.” he said. “You know I have a good reason to do anything I do.”

I didn’t reply. Although he was strong, intelligent and helpful; no one was completely reliable while we were in here, under the mental attacks of ‘the community’. He had the best self-control among us all, yet he had attacked to kill me simply because of a misundertsanding on his part. But, of course, I didn’t want to reveal my thoughts on the subject, because that would just increase the tension between us just when we started trusting each other again.

“Whoever we were running from, I think they didn’t see us.” Idil said.

“I agree. But if we stay here for long enough, an encounter with them is inevitable.” I said.

“Yes, exactly.” Mr. Kenan said. “This is why I wanted you to follow me all the way here. We aren’t simply running to safety, but possibly to our escape from the building as well.”

“You don’t mean the main exit, do you?” I asked. “Because if that’s it, you know that we have already tried escaping that way and failed many times before.”

“No, it is not where we are going; and can you please be patient and stop wasting your energy talking so much?” Mr. Kenan replied.

“Well, that’s a good point.” I said, and stopped talking. We stopped running and started walking slowly towards the cafeteria.

“This place doesn’t revive good memories.” Idil said.

“If we fail, no one will have memories to revive.” said Mr. Kenan. “We are almost there.”

We entered the cafeteria. The ground was still covered in blood, but I saw no bodies nearby.

“There we are.” said Mr. Kenan, and started hitting the wall from a seemingly random point. We couldn’t understand what he was doing. But then, the paint on the wall of the cafeteria started peeling off in small chunks.

“Are we going to go through the wall?” Idil asked.

“No, there is a more convenient way.” said Mr. Kenan, and revealed a door hidden behind a very thin layer of coat and paint. It was an old, rusty metal door; it was a leftover piece from the prison with no doubt.

He slowly opened the door. There was a dark stairway going deeper down, much below the ground level. I couldn’t see too far ahead, but the view was… ‘unattractive’. Mr. Kenan was right, I didn’t like the idea of going in there.

We still had much to learn about this building…