The Phantom School - 53 Untold History

As I gazed upon the huge flames that encircled the school, I pitied myself. It was only my second day at this school, and this… This couldn’t be happening. Was it bad luck? Or perhaps nothing was happening, but I was going crazy.

I was sweating, and I couldn’t keep my eyes on the disturbingly bright flames. My eyes and my skin had a burning sensation already, simply by watching the fire in front of the window. I got away further into the building and searched for a restroom.

I got inside the restroom, exhausted. I washed my face and looked at myself in the mirror. If there was a photograph instead of the mirror, I wouldn’t believe that it was myself. I was looking really bad. I tried to get rid of my depressing thoughts and start thinking about solutions.

It was possible that someone in the city would notice the flames on the horizon and inform the fire department, but I could not risk everything by relying on that small possibility.

“Mr. Kenan…” I said. “Where could that man be?” He was the only one I could ask for help right now.

Of course, the chemistry lab was my first idea. I got outside the restroom and started walking to the lab. I was frusturated. There was no way he could be unaware of the flames surrounding the entire school. If so, what was he doing?

I opened the door of the chemistry lab without even knocking.

“Mr. Kenan!” I shouted and looked around the lab. There was no sign of him there. It was possible that we were searching for each other at the same time, at different locations. If only I could use my cellphone, it could have been much easier.

Just to be sure, I checked my phone again. Yet, no signal.

Maybe Mr. Kenan had went to the main enterance to search for me, because he had told me that we would meet there. I got outside the chemistry lab and ran to the main enterance. But he wasn’t there either.

“The intercom!”

If I could find the controls of the intercom, I could reach him no matter where he was. But unfortunately, I had no idea where I could find the controls. The only thing I knew was that it certainly wasn’t in the teachers’ room.

‘Finding things would be much easier if we had a map of the building’, I thought. Perhaps I could find a map in the teachers’ room. Since it was the only place I knew very well, I headed towards the teachers’ room.

“Now, where can I find a map?”

I looked around and found a very large drawer that was labeled ‘Maps’. I pulled it open. There was a huge political map of the world on top of everything in the drawer. I pulled it out of the drawer and put it on a table. Below that one, there was a physical map of the country, and a climate map of the world just next to it. The drawer was full of geography materials. “Of course!” I said myself in disappointment. “What did you even expect in the first place?”

I put all the maps back in the drawer and kept looking around the room. I saw Mr. Kenan’s personal locker. The lockers in the teachers’ room had no locks, so I could take a look. I thought that he could have some sort of map since he was been in this school for a very long time. I knew that it wasn’t right to open someone’s drawer without their permission, but since it was a matter of life and death, I thought he could forgive me for that.

I walked up to the drawer and opened it. It sent chills down my spine when I saw the blood stains all over the locker. When I unintentionally stepped away from the locker in panic, I tripped on something and fell on the table behind me. My head was hurting.

After the pain got more sufferable, I got back up to take another look in the locker. There were some paper and a couple of notebooks inside. Most of them were chemistry notes like I expected, but the handwritings were different. Perhaps they belonged to some of his students.

An unlabeled, small, red notebook caught my attention. I pulled it out of the locker and opened the first page. In the first page, there was only a title that read ‘List of Victims (1971 – 1975)’.

Perhaps I really shouldn’t have messed with his locker, I thought; but I couldn’t stop reading now. I turned the page. In the following pages, there were lists of full names of different individuals, their genders and ages. Some of the names were marked with stars.

I was anxious, but I kept reading.

After the list of names had ended, there were a list of the classrooms in Chersonese High, with some seemingly random numbers written near them. A few of the pages were stained, but I couldn’t understand what the stain was. It had no smell. I hoped it was just a cup of tea he spilled.

I could not take the notebook with me, but I really wanted to inspect it further. So I got my cellphone and photographed all the pages of the notebook. I put the notebook back exactly where it was, and kept searching for a map of the building. Just then, I noticed a folded paper near the corner. I unfolded the paper.

“There it is! Finally.” I said in relief. But unfortunately, the map did not clearly show the interior of the building, it was more like an external schematic of the general structure. With some numbers and angles… It was not a map, it was the architectural plan of the building. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that some parts at the bottom of the paper were damaged. The plans of the bottom floor was lost.

Just when I was about to put it back, I noticed the writing on top of the schematic.

‘Rough sketch and general schematics of the Chersonese prison, Block A’

“Prison!?”