The Phantom School - 77 Balance of Evil

Everything went dark.

It was silent.

I felt nothing. All the pressure on my body was gone. “That’s it… I think I am blind now.” I said to myself. I could no longer see what was about to happen to me, so I relaxed myself. I let go of the tension caused by the adrenaline on my body.

The relaxation lasted until I heard the sounds of electric arcs bursting by my side. I held my breath in horror once again.

I was seeing some colored lights flashing around. Was this… how it felt to be blind?

The electric arcs lit up the interior of the tube. I was wrong; I could still see my surroundings. I had not went blind, the electricity was gone again. The underground facility had no power.

My vision went all white. Someone had turned on a flashlight just outside the glass door of the tube I was in. I kept my eyes closed until he pointed the flashlight away. The three men in the room were discussing something in fuss.

Meanwhile, I was looking at the people being held in other tubes. I could barely see them, but I noticed that they were trying to move around in their tiny tubes. They were struggling, presumably trying to escape. But… they had been staying still until now. Why now, in the darkness, would they do that?

In the tube, only being able to hear my own breathing, I noticed that I was breathing faster than before. My body was forcing me to breathe in and out a few times every couple of seconds. I was… drowning. Without electricity, no air could be provided into the tubes, maybe even the whole facility. So, that was the cause of panic among the scientists and the subjects… I should’ve guessed.

Two of the scientists ran up to one of the tubes ahead of me and tried to open the glass using brute force. The other man tried to open another one. They were trying to get the people in the tubes out.

I tried to punch and kick the glass to get their attention, but it was no use. I couldn’t get the metal rods off of me, I was stuck here.

Suddenly, the glass of my tube shattered open with a loud sound, without me even touching it. The scientists stopped what they were doing and looked at me. The clean air in the room filled the tube, and I could breathe normally again.

Just after the glass shattered, the lights in the room flickered and everything came back to life. The metal equipment all around me rotated away, I was free to move once again.

“I knew it. I knew it! You had to wait until the last second…” I said under my breath.

“Guards!” one of the scientists yelled. As he was walking away from me, two guards ran into the room and aimed at me.

“Halt!” the voice came from the speakers. The guards, confused, started looking at each other while pointing the guns at me. The scientists were even more confused.

“We have an important message to deliver.” Cansu continued on the speaker. “Let him out.”

The guards looked at the scientists. The scientists looked back at the guards. I felt the need to do something. If I didn’t, they could just find me as a serious threat and decide to kill me on the spot. If I were the scientists, that’s probably what I would do.

“We have something important to tell.” I said.

“You and who?” one of the scientists asked.

“It is a part of that ‘important thing’.” I said.

“Tell us.” he said.

“Tell your man to lower their guns first.” I said.

“You don’t get to decide that.” he said.

“If you don’t trust me, I won’t be able to trust you with this valuable information.” I said.

“We don’t know if it’s valuable information yet.” he said.

“Then perhaps you will never know.” I said.

“Let him talk.” Cansu interrupted.

“Just for the record, I don’t know that voice.” one of the scientists said, referring to Cansu.

“Are you brave enough to ignore the potentially valuable information?” I asked.

The scientist sighed.

“Lower your weapons.” he said.

“Get them out of the room.” I said. The scientist looked at me angrily.

“Fine.” he said. “Wait outside the room.” he said to the guards. The guards, still confused, left the room and closed the door.

“Alright.” the scientist said. “Speak.”

“The Community is still here.” I said.

“And who is that community?” he asked. I never thought of it… They were probably referring to them with a different name.

“The evil spirits of those you killed are still hanging around here!” Cansu said from the speaker.

The scientists were shocked. They couldn’t say anything for a while, but they simply looked around in fear.

“She is just behind us, isn’t she?” one of them said, pointing at the speaker.

“You are lucky, it could be an actual evil spirit.” I said. “But she is with me, and we are not your enemies.” I hurt my own feelings saying that to the evil faction of scientists.

“Tell us more!” the scientist shouted. “We need to know more, this is a matter of life and death!”

“Everything going on around here is a matter of life and death.” I said.

“Let’s make a deal!” Cansu said. “We will help you against The Community, but you will have to make a promise.”

“Which is about…”

“You will release your subjects after this is over.” I said.

“Unacceptable.” the scientist said. “Tho whole reason we are willing to fight that… community is that we need to keep this going.”

“In that case, you are not any better than those evil spirits!” I said.

“We don’t get to decide what is the god course of action, and what is the bad one.” he said. “We must obey the high command, we can not jeopardize the operations of this facility!”

“Take me to your high command, then!” I yelled.

“Unfortunately for all of us, this is not possible.” the scientist said. “We have no means to get in contact with them. They give us the orders, and we carry them out.”

“That’s just stupid.” I sighed. “If that’s how it’s going to be… I can’t help you. You will be forced to live with the fear of working in this haunted place, until you are killed the moment you make a mistake.”

“No!” he yelled. “If they notice that we have been informed of their presence, The Community will definitely come after us, and you! Our last struggle against them were decades ago, and we have stopped observing for them many years ago… We need more information about their contemporary organisation to put up a fight!”

“It won’t matter for me if I’m going to rot in here anyway.” I said.

“Alright, look, fine…” he said. “I can NOT release all the subjects; but we can let you out and pretend we’ve never encountered you, with one condition: You will never ever step into this building for the rest of your life.”

“I have one other person which I need you to let out.” I said.

“Okay, that makes two people. But, please, I have no authority to release anyone else!” he said.

Suddenly, all the glass doors that were keeping the subjects in the tubes opened. I jumped out of my own tube in fear, and approached the middle of the room, away from the tubes all around. The scientists ran near me and circled me, watching out for the tubes. I did not get what was happening.

“With the information you hold, you are now under our protection.” the scientist said. “Stay away from the tubes!”

The two guards outside the door barged into the room.

The subjects were walking out of the tubes they were kept in. Despite their damaged bodies, they were surprisingly mobile.

“What is going on?” I said. No one replied.

“Argh!” a man just by my side cried in pain. When I looked at it, I immediately pushed him away and ran backwards. His arm was being bitten by one of the subjects that had escaped from the tubes.

The guards started firing on the subjects.

Just as I turned around to make a run to the door, I saw someone directly in front my face. His nose was dislocated, and half of his face was not covered with a skin. Half of his teeth had been broken. The veins on his face were clearly visible.

He held my left arm and pulled me closer.

I tried to kick him away, but he dodged my attempt.

He swung his left hand and hit me.