The Phantom School - 68 The Book

It was late night. I had just got off the bus, walking on the sidewalk towards my home; trying to protect the pages of the leather-covered book from the gentle rain.

Every time I looked at the book, I couldn’t get that horrifying view out of my mind. I had witnessed similar scenes before, but this one had scarred me a lot more. It was completely unexpected, and it had happened somewhere I thought I would be safe from all the terror. On top of that; it was not a murder, it was a suicide. I was wondering if it had anything to do with the book, or Mr. Kenan…

I got home and threw my suitcase to a corner. After the bus crash and the arrival of an ambulance, the police had interrogated a lot of eye witnesses, because there were no cameras on either the bus or the bus stop. I had to wait for the end of the interrogation and the arrival of another bus, so it was pretty late, and I was really tired. But I couldn’t wait to learn more about that book The Librarian gave me today.

I sat by the table in the kitchen and opened the first page of the book.

Like before, I couldn’t understand the language it was written in. After staring at the page in confusion, I began turning the pages, searching for drawings like those I had seen before while I was looking at the book in the library. Maybe I could manage to make something meaningful out of those shapes.

I finally found a page filled with seemingly random shapes. The shapes were imperfect, they were clearly drawn by hand. Some parts of the drawings were distorted, the ink had dispersed. As I continued examining the book, I noticed that some pages were torn in half. A lot of stuff were missing.

I began staring at the pages without being able to grasp anything, sitting at the same position for almost half an hour.

“Of course, you idiot.” I said myself. I could just manage to think of using the online translation service on my phone. I grabbed my phone, connected to the internet and tried to type in the writings on the pages; but I could find nothing useful. The language was unknown, there was no way to translate it.

I was left with a single option; I had to find Mr. Kenan tomorrow and ask him about the book, which was almost impossible at the current situation. He was mad and crazy. Perhaps it was time for him to retire…

My phone started ringing. My guess was correct, it was Cansu. But this time, there was something different; the heart shape on my phone’s screen was broken in half. What could that mean?

Without thinking too long, I answered the call.

“Hi.”

“Hello, teacher.” Her voice wasn’t so cheerful this time.

“Is there something wrong? What did I do?” I asked.

“You didn’t do anything wrong… I am just disappointed with our general inability with helping people.” she replied. “Someone died today.”

“Yes. It was a horrific scene. He just gave-”

“I wasn’t talking about that man in the library.” she interrupted. “Someone else died in the lab today, and we couldn’t save him.”

“I… I know. I tried.” I said.

“I know you did. We did our best. But sometimes, our best isn’t enough.” she said.

“What is your point?” I asked her.

“We can’t fight The Community by ourselves. I can read some of your thoughts… Just, no matter what you do, don’t go and search for Mr. Kenan anymore.” she said.

“I have to know what this book is about.” I told her.

“What is the big deal? Why do you think that this book is so important?” she asked me. I couldn’t reply.

“Do you think it somehow has a connection with the suicide of The Librarian?” she asked.

“Perhaps. I don’t know.” I said. “I don’t know what to expect; but if Mr. Kenan really had told him to not give the book to anyone, there must be a good reason. He might be crazy, but he is a clever man.”

“I can only hope that we find out soon enough.” she replied. “I don’t like watching all the events happening around us with my arms tied behind my back.”

“Me neither.”

“Wait, what is that?” she suddenly got excited.

“What is what?” I asked her. “I can’t see you, I don’t know what you are looking at.”

“There is something on the top right corner of a page. Look closely.”

I carefully inspected the book. Cansu was right; around the middle of the book, corners of a few pages were folded. I carefully turned the pages to take a look.

On the page, there was a clear handwriting I could understand. I curiously started reading it.

‘-DECRYPTED OUTPUT STARTS HERE-

Passages and Doors / Recovered Passwords / Date Recovered

Cafeteria Enterance / <no pass> ———— / <->

Library Enterance— / <no pass> ———– / <->

Quarantine Wrn.— / <no pass> ———— / <->

Facility Main——- / 4864 ——————- / 5-3-1981

——————– / 1599235 —————- / 19-5-1981

——————– / CCD3301 ————— / <unknown>

——————– / 0028255ATG ———– / 7-10-1984

——————– / GCC101-SRT65 ——– / 25-4-1997

Cell Wing A —— / RTE-PT 0976 ———– / 9-1-1976

——————- / FRT-AC 3334 ———— / 18-5-1981

Cell Wing B —– / <unknown> ————- / <->

Armory ———- / <no pass>————— / <->

Medical Storage/ 77134865092 ———– / 18-4-1995

M-Railway —— / 1093356 —————– / 20-5-1981

—————— / <procedural>———– / 25-4-1986

N-Railway —-> out of service

-DECRYPTED OUTPUT ENDS HERE-‘

I looked at the page for a while without saying anything. Cansu broke the long silence.

“What do you think?” she asked me.

“What is this?” I asked her in return.

“Why don’t we take a look at the other pages?” she suggested. “There are some other folded pages.”

I turned the page. In the next part, there were some drawings which looked like maps. On closer inspection, I noticed their labels.

‘Facility Enterance – Layer 1’

‘Facility Enterance – Layer 2’

“This… This can’t be! This is a treasure!” I yelled.

“This really is a map of the underground facility.” Cansu confirmed. “You are right that this IS a treasure, but it is also very disturbing…”

“Why?” I asked.

“Why did that man give this to you? There must be a lot more to this ‘Librarian’ that we don’t know… and maybe we will never know.” she said.

“This still doesn’t explain the suicide.” I said.

“Look.” she said. “These writings are very new compared to the rest of the book. The ‘decrypted’ part. Maybe before he gave the book to you, he took his time writing all those stuff in an understandable way.”

“But… But why!?” I was repeating the same questions over and over again. There was no explanation of the actions of The Librarian.

“We shall know soon enough.” Cansu replied. “I mean, tomorrow.”