The Phantom School - 64 Alone

I woke up very early in the morning with a back pain. I was in my room, laying on the floor instead of my bed.

“I guess I won’t be getting any sleep today either.” I murmured. I slowly got up and went to the kitchen to have a glass of water. Just when I was about to drink it, I stopped.

Everything that happened this night… Did all of that really happen or was I dreaming the whole time? It wasn’t common for me to remember my dreams, but still, I wasn’t sure. How could I test it?

The spirits could use many methods to communicate with me, but I couldn’t simply call them with my phone, could I? Maybe nothing was happening at all, I was simply dreaming and making things up…

My thoughts flew away from my head when I felt something cold on my stomach. I froze in horror for a second, and then looked down.

It was a moment of relief and disappointment.

I had done it. While spacing out, I had spilled my glass of water all over the place. It was annoying, but at least it wasn’t blood or something equally horrifying. I had really become so paranoid recently… I pitied myself.

I barely ate anything for breakfast, got out out of my home and headed for the bus station.

– – –

Another horrible day at the school was about to begin, with my inner voice yelling at me not to go in there, and most people being completely oblivious of anything going around in the building. As I was approaching the building, my phone started ringing.

“It’s this early in the morning, give me a break…” I sighed and grabbed the phone. I looked at the screen and stopped walking. There was a heart shape on the screen in the form of ASCII art. I looked at the heart for a while and then answered the call.

“Did you like my heart, teacher?” It was Cansu’s voice.

“So, this night… It was all real!” I accidentally raised my voice.

“I guessed you would say that.” she said. “I thought you would have an appropriate sleeping schedule since you sued to advise that to us in every opportunity.”

“You must be kidding.” I said. “You just literally DIED that day!”

“No big deal, I didn’t exist anyway.” she said. The nerves of this girl…

“Stop saying that. You exist.” I told her.

“You will have to behave like I didn’t ever exist, or people will start making fun of you.” she said.

“Okay, okay, I get it.” I replied involuntarily. It was useless to argue.

“Well, I never asked about it…” she changed the subject. “What exactly is our plan of action?”

“Today, they will try to bring in another student for operation. I will prevent that no matter what.” I said.

“Teacher, I know that much already.” she replied. “But how?”

“I think… I think I will send that student home some way.” I said. I really haven’t thought about that.

“Well, good luck with doing that every day.” she said. “What an idiot airhead.”

She was right to complain, so I didn’t say anything to her. I ended the call and put my phone back into my pocket.

As always, the building was mostly empty when I arrived. Now, I had to find Mr. Kenan and learn about the identity of the next student. I headed for the chemistry lab, hoping to find him there. But when I arrived, the door was locked. I knocked the door a few times and shouted.

“Kenan! Are you in there?”

I got no reply. I helplessly turned around and headed for the teachers’ room. Oddly enough, the teachers’ room was locked as well.

“Eh? What is going on here? They would never lock this room.” I said. I did not know what to do, there seemed to be no one around. I aimlessly started walking around the building.

I stopped and glanced inside when I came in front of the open door of the library. There seemed to be no one inside.

“Perhaps I can sit and wait in there for a while.” I thought. I slowly stepped inside the library and closed the door which was left open. I walked ahead and started inspecting the books on shelves. Thinking of it, this was my first time ever entering the school’s library as a teacher.

On the shelves on my right, there were some books like Nineteen Eighty Four, Brave New World and Animal Farm; on my right, there were many geography books, maps and similar material. Among all these books, there was one particular book which was misplaced that quickly caught my eye. I grabbed the book to take a look at it, but just when I lifted it up, it’s pages began falling apart. In panic, I quickly put the book down and started collecting the pages.

After I collected all the pages, I brought everything to a table. I started trying to place the missing pages to their appropriate places by looking at the page numbers. It was very hard to do since the book’s leather cover was also damaged, almost falling apart like the pages inside. There was no doubt the book was very old.

While I was busy doing that, I was trying to read some of the book in the process to have an idea about it’s content. But unfortunately, it was written in a language that I couldn’t understand. From the looks of it, I would say it was Latin, but I wasn’t sure. In some pages, there were weird drawings; stars, triangles, circles… I couldn’t guess what it was all about.

While I was focused on one of the shapes, I heard something and jumped in panic, rolling the table over and making a lot of noise. I thought I was alone in the library, so I was shocked when I heard someone.

“Who is it?” I said nervously. I had taken a book from it’s place without asking anyone, so I was feeling a bit guilty, especially after causing it’s pages to fall apart a second time just now.

No one answered me as I looked around curiously.

I was startled when I heard something on my right side. Random books started falling off their shelves with no apparent reason. I walked backwards and crumpled up in a corner, as far away from the shelves as possible. I put my hands above my head, waiting for it to end.

The entire library began squeaking.

I closed my eyes.

Something touched my hands.