Jonah knew something was wrong when he woke in school.
It was like a lightning bolt had shocked him out of slumber. His eyes hammered open and he shook in his chair. The room around him had walls covered with math posters. A few dozen teenagers were seated in rows of wood and plastic chair desks that spanned before him. It only took him a moment realize that he had fallen asleep in class. That, and about every head in the room was turned towards his direction, including a thin woman in the far front.
Heat rose to his face very quickly. The woman, a teacher he knew was named Miss Keno, flashed a sharp grin as if she had waited a long time for this moment. She wore a blouse and a black dress pants, and her hair was tied into a bun. Her face looked lean and stretched like a snake's.
"Ah, Jonah dear," she said. "How nice of you to join us."
Jonah swore he heard a hiss at the end of her sentence. Confused and disoriented, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind: "Uh, what am I doing here?"
A couple of the kids snickered.
Miss Keno gave another smile. "You're in Calculus, Jonah, and now you've earned yourself a warning for sleeping in class. One more warning and you'll be sent to detention. Does that clear things up for you?"
Jonah nodded blankly, still unsure what was happening. He vaguely remembered binging on games the night before and crashing after his clock struck six in the morning. Or maybe was he was working that night? He wasn't sure. His memories registered in a weird blur where yesterday felt like last year.
Danny Key, a girl sitting in front of him, gave a glance. She wore a short-sleeve shirt tucked into pale blue skirt. Her dark, wavy hair flowed down her shoulders with streaks of blue. Jonah remembered meeting her a month ago, when school began, but could scarcely recall talking to her after that.
"Psst," the girl said in a low whisper. "You okay back there?"
Jonah blinked. "I think so."
"Woah, woah, woah." Danny leaned in for a closer look. "You look like a trainwreck."
"Gee, thanks." Now that Jonah thought about, he probably did look like a trainwreck. His black hair felt messy and rustled, and he realized that he was wearing a wrinkled black long-sleeve with grey sweatpants. Just how bad was his morning?
"How did I get here, again?" he asked.
"I dunno," Danny said. "You sort of sauntered into class, plunked down, and dropped into slumber like a stone."
Before Jonah could ask any further, Miss Keno called for attention from across the room. Danny gestured for him to hold on, and turned back around.
"Does anyone know the answer?" Miss Keno asked. The drone of silence that buzzed in reply was almost deafening to Jonah. Only in the back seat did realize how miserable his class was. The students around him sat like stone gargoyles. Everyone seemed to be either spaced out or perplexed.
Before the silence could grow awkward, a slender hand shot up into the air. Jonah didn't need to look to tell whose hand it was. He braced their ears for what happened next.
"The answer is three-pi over four on the sine wave," a girl said with a touch of pomp. She dropped her arm, adjusted her jacket sleeves, and lightly tapped the floor with the sole of her leather boots. Jonah mouthed the next few expected words silently. That's correct, good job Alden!
"That's correct, good job Alden! Always at the top of the class…"
So he was half right.
Danny quickly spun around and rolled her eyes at him like, 'get a load of this.' Jonah nodded along and mouthed 'I know.'
Alden was the class genius who also happened to be the class outcast. She had the highest GPA and became captain of every sports team she joined. But somehow she couldn't really fit in anywhere. Jonah had only been at Sogol High for a solid month, and even after his first day he could tell this tall 70-inch woman—who always dressed in thin jacket, jeans, and scarf no matter what the weather—was not going to be someone he was going to like.
But then again, he reckoned he wasn't going to make many friends anyway. Sogol High wasn't anything new; normal teenagers doing normal teenager things without him. It was always without him, from kindergarten to his now third year in high-school. The only one that approached him was Danny, and even she took off with her own friends later on.
Miss Keno continued her pointless lecture, and Jonah reached into his pockets to pull out a sleek black iPhone, hiding it quickly in the desk cavity. New message, the notification box read. From xxREDxx (Number Hidden). Red was one of Jonah's gaming friends, and the reason why he couldn't get any sleep the previous night.
xxREDxx: yo
xxREDxx: you free for moo again at 5?
MOO was an acronym for an in-game area called Mines of Olympus, where players could collect weapon crafting material such as Celestial Bronze. Jonah quickly tapped across the phone screen, trying not to catch Miss Keno's attention.
Jonah: busy at 5 can we do 7? maybe go to stock camel
Jonah: camp* sorry autocorrect
xxREDxx: lol k
He glanced around for a quick check. Miss Keno was still staring and speaking at a projected image with a bunch of confusing numbers and symbols. Good. Jonah went back to tapping on his phone. Then he noticed something strange.
xxREDxx: also 5pi/2
"Jonah," Miss Keno called out. The wiry boy snapped his eyes back up, shoving the phone as far into his desk as he could, and nodded. "Can you answer the question for us?"
He took a long hard look at the image being projected on the board and understood nothing. Dyslexia meshed the numbers and symbols and words together; he couldn't even read the problem properly. With an awkward silence hanging in the air, Jonah said the first thing that came to mind. "Five pi over two?" he guessed.
"That is…correct. Nicely done," Miss Keno said, triggering a collective gasp from the entire class. Every head turned around to face Jonah—even Alden, whose face formed a 'you-got-into-the-wrong-neighborhood' sort of snarl. Danny covered her mouth like he had actually done something impressive for once. Jonah let out a sigh of relief, and looked back at his phone.
xxREDxx: 6pi/4 :D
"Jonah."
Miss Keno wasn't done. "Can you answer this one too, please?"
Another question, another jumble of confusing numbers. Jonah might've gotten away with it the first time, but a second time…he decided to play his luck again. "Six pi over four," he answered immediately.
"Well, well, you've done your homework," the teacher smiled. She turned back to the image on the board and continued her lecture. Several whispers were already floating around in class, which didn't bother Jonah that much. What bothered him was the feeling of being bored into by invisible laser beams fired from Alden's glare. He kept texting.
Jonah: how are you doing this?
xxREDxx: skills
Jonah: no seriously
xxREDxx: wait
xxREDxx: sending you a present
His phone suddenly exited the message window and returned to the main screen. Freshly planted on the bottom right corner of his wallpaper was a 'currently downloading' app titled PHOBOS. The app had an icon that looked like a sort of glyph—a cross with curved arms and a glowing dot at the head. What in the world?
The lunch bell echoed across the school hallways and into the classroom. Jonah swore he could feel the earth shake a little as students from all classes stampeded into the cafeteria. All except for Alden, who stayed and told Miss Keno that she would need permission to enter the teacher's lounge for photocopying purposes. The teacher nodded, and called to Jonah as he was packing up his bag.
"Jonah," she began, "you will be spending this lunch period in detention with Mr. Morovsky in room 304." Before Jonah could protest, she continued, "you can also give me your phone device, which you persist on using rather than paying attention in class. Also, give my regards to that interesting friend of yours."
And on that end, Jonah reluctantly handed over his iPhone, which Miss Keno seemed to take with a certain level of satisfaction. On his way out he noticed Danny waiting for him outside the room door, grinning like an idiot. "You goofed up?"
"Oh, shut up," Jonah said, shouldering his bag.
"Ah, no worries." Danny patted him on the back. "I have a feeling you'll get it back soon enough. Tell you what: I'll go ahead and buy you coffee in the cafeteria. Maybe that'll cheer you up."
Jonah shook his head. "Thanks, but I think I'll pass. Wouldn't want to risk another infraction when Keno catches me not being miserable in detention."
"Oh," the girl said. She quickly glanced at the background as if waiting for something to happen. A short silence passed before she returned to smiling self again. "Okay, sure. I'll catch you later, then?"
Jonah nodded, and Danny left to the cafeteria.
Even though Jonah only attended Sogol for a little more than a month, the way to the detention room came naturally to him. Getting past the crowd of students that usually clogged the halls during lunch didn't prove to be much of a problem. Most of them either avoided him or pretended he didn't exist. Some were pushing through the throng for the cafeteria. A couple made out beside a row of lockers. None of them offered him a glance.
Before Jonah could climb the stairs to the cafeteria, something vibrated in his pocket. Puzzled, he slipped a hand in and pulled out what looked like a black iPhone. His iPhone…which didn't make sense. It was the same one that he handed over to Miss Keno a few minutes ago. Did he hallucinate that? He couldn't decide whether to be happy or weirded out.
The phone's lock screen was already stacked with notifications of messages from xxREDxx. It was like the guy was desperately trying to get to him. Sliding a finger over the screen, he unlocked his phone to find the app PHOBOS still in the middle of download, nearly halfway done. Then he checked his messages, and felt his lungs tighten as the contents came rolling.
xxREDxx:hey
xxREDxx: whatever you do, do not go to the cafeteria
xxREDxx: extraction is currently en route to your location
xxREDxx: but until then, your life is in danger
Your life is in danger.
That was the only part that registered to him. The words had a sort of gravity that turned his legs into lead. He nervously glanced around at his surroundings for any sort of possible threat. None of the students were paying him any attention. Most of them were already upstairs in the cafeteria. There couldn't be a way for anything to—
"Excuse me, what do you think you're doing?"
Jonah nearly jumped at the voice. He whirled around and, to his surprise, came face to face with Alden. The girl was staring at him like he had done something weird. The green of her eyes was far more intimidating up close than from a distance. Granted, Jonah probably did look like a moron after seeing those messages.
"Er, uh... " Jonah mumbled, quietly slipping his phone back into his pocket. "What's the problem?"
Alden's eyes narrowed under waves of blonde hair. "You've been standing still here in the middle of the stairs for five minutes straight and now you look like you've seen a ghost. What's going on?"
"Nothing," Jonah said, slowly stepping back down the stairs.
"Oh, really?" The girl crossed her arms in obvious doubt. A thick brown folder was pressed against her chest. "And what happened in Calculus, I'm assuming that was that nothing too?"
Oh geez, Jonah thought. She's one of those types of people.
"Alright," he said, pressing his hands together in apology. "I had a phone hidden under my desk. I cheated. That's how I got the answers. That's all that happened in class. I promise I won't do it again and you can keep being the smartest student."
"What? No, no," Alden said. "That's not what I meant. I'm talking about what you did to Miss Keno. The answers you gave in class were completely wrong."
The halls suddenly became very quiet.
"They were?" Jonah asked. "But Miss Keno approved. She even said 'nicely done,' and the whole class seemed to agree too."
"That's the thing: I've never seen you before. Your name didn't turn up in any of the class rosters I checked, so technically you're not even part of the school. Yet you're mouthing off answers in class that aren't even related to the question, and for some reason Miss Keno and the others seem to buy into you. What exactly did you do?"
"I... don't know." Jonah's mind was already racing. The text answers, the ominous messages that his life was in danger, his class allegedly hallucinating over him—his day had gone from strange to downright freaky. He got bad vibes from all of it, but something told him he was in for much more.
"Wait," he said, "how can I be sure you're right?"
Alden squeezed the folder in her arms. "Trust me, I don't make mistakes."
There was a short silence that followed her words. The whole ordeal sounded like something out of a cheap mystery novel. "Alright," Jonah said, drawing a long breath. "So according to you, I'm not supposed to be here, but somehow this morning I happened to walk into school and make everyone believe I was one of them. Is that what you're saying?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
"So you've never seen me in school before?"
"Never before today, no."
"You're absolutely sure I'm not supposed to be here?"
"I know my classmates. You're not one of them."
"But that doesn't make sense," Jonah said. "I remember enrolling here. The first day's parade, jam sessions in the cafeteria, power outs in the first week, Miss Keno's godawful Calculus class. You're saying I made these up too?"
"What are you talking about?" Alden said, looking even more confused. "There was no parade on the first day, or jam sessions in the cafeteria, or any power outs. The only thing you mentioned that was actually there was Miss Keno."
"Alright, well what about Danny Key? She was in class too, so she can vouch for me. Go ask her."
"Who?" Alden stared at him blankly. "There's no one on the student roster with that name. Are you sure you aren't a transfer student or something?"
Jonah knit his eyebrows. Nothing was adding up. First he wasn't part of the school and now Danny wasn't either. It was like the whole world was dumped into Lethe and plagued with amnesia. Wait, Lethe?
"Hold up," he said. "What if it was all some registration malfunction? Couldn't that happen too?"
Alden shook her head. "It's already been a month since school started. If there was a registration malfunction, somebody would have known by now."
"So Danny and I are the only ones missing from the student roster?"
"I believe so," she said hesitantly. There was uncertainty in her voice.
A short silence passed before the realization hit Jonah. "Oh. You're not on the student roster either, are you?"
Worry flashed across the girl's face for a brief moment. She tried to cover it up, but Jonah could already tell something was up. But before he could say another word, he felt a sort of gravity that made his instincts scream danger. As if out of thin air, Miss Keno appeared right behind Alden, eyes glinting a dark light. Jonah could tell Alden had to stifle back a scream as she turned around to find the Calculus teacher.
Miss Keno curled her lips into a serpentine grin. "Hello Jonah, Alden. Is there a problem here?"
"No ma'am," Jonah said, premonition sending shivers down his back. He gave a quick glance at Alden, who looked similarly perturbed. There was definitely something off about Miss Keno that they hadn't noticed before.
"Aren't you supposed to be in detention, Jonah?" Miss Keno asked. Then she narrowed her eyes on Alden. "And Alden, what's that you're carrying?"
Alden shuffled back and squeezed her brown folder. It had only now occurred to Jonah that the folder was stamped 'Student Records' at its upper corner. "It's my work folder," Alden lied. "A pet project."
Miss Keno squinted her black marble eyes like she could see right through it. She held out a slender hand. "Give it to me," she ordered. Her words were layered with something else that made Jonah want to slip out his phone and throw it to her. He held himself back, but Alden simply passed over her folder.
"This is my student records folder," Miss Keno said, flipping through the contents. "Alden dear, did you take this from my cabinet? You know it's against the rules to break into a teacher private compartments, much less read the confidential information inside."
The girl blinked. "I—I didn't—"
"Theft and dishonesty?" Miss Keno smacked her lips. She didn't sound surprised or even disappointed that her top student broke into her office cabinet and stole the records. It was almost like she wanted this to happen. "You know what I have to do with students who commit these kinds of infractions."
"Detention?" Alden guessed.
Miss Keno nodded and pointed a finger down the staircase. "Room 304. Both of you. Now."
Alden looked like she was about to unleash a salvo of back-talk but Jonah gestured for her to move on. The girl shouldered her bag and stormed down the stairs. Jonah followed shortly after, but on his way down he noticed Miss Keno holding back a grin. Her form seemed to flicker in and out, and her eyes glinted a sickly red he hadn't noticed before.
And then he was reminded of Red's ill omen.
Until then, your life is in danger.