"I can't just leave these poor souls."

Kishinuma and Shinozaki gave each other worried looks and stared at the two ghost kids I found in the infirmary. Tokiko and Yuki didn't seem to be paying much attention to my classmates. I decided I'd try to explain why I had decided to stay with them to my friends, picking up the newspaper I had found earlier and sliding it over to Shinozaki.

"These kids have been through a lot, even worse than we have since coming here. I can't just leave them."

Shinozaki picked up the newspaper and read it aloud to Kishinuma. Her eyes widened when she got to the part that described how Yuki and Tokiko were murdered by their own teacher. She and Kishinuma whispered a few things to each other before facing me again.

"I still think you should get away from them, Suzumoto…" Shinozaki bit her lip. "It's too dangerous to stay here with those spirits."

Tokiko and Yuki suddenly shot a glare at Shinozaki. I reached out to comfort them before they got upset. But before I could touch Yuki, I felt myself being lifted off the ground.

"Suzumoto!" Kishinuma yelled, running at me as I was lifted up into the air. I wanted to tell everyone to calm down, but the sudden weightlessness of my body made me feel too sick to speak.

Shinozaki was crying out for Kishinuma to stop, but he ran right at me and tried to pull me back down. Tokiko jumped at him and grabbed his face, but suddenly fell off. I fell to the floor, my legs bending in an awkward way when I hit the ground. I heard a horrible screech and had to cover my ears to keep from being deafened.

I looked up to see Tokiko dissipating, as if she were some smoke being blown away by the wind. Kishinuma stumbled backwards and pulled some sort of purplish dust from his pocket and stared at it in shock.

I brushed myself off and got to my feet. I turned to Yuki, who had a disgusted look on her face.

She muttered something to herself, her stump of a tongue making it difficult to make out her words. She shot forward and grabbed Kishinuma by the shoulder.

I tried to think of something to say to calm Yuki down, but then Shinozaki screamed out and Yuki glared at her. A smile crept into Yuki's face.

Suddenly, Kishinuma was flying across the room, and I heard a horrible scream punctuated by the sound of glass shattering and wood breaking.

Yuki faded away with a cackling laugh, and I ran to the entrance to the infirmary to check on Kishinuma, who had been flung through the closed doors. He was lying on his back, the remains of the door and a pool of blood forming under him. I realized that some of the glass had gone straight through his chest.

Shinozaki came from behind me and screamed out upon seeing Kishinuma. He lifted his head up weakly at the sound.

"Get out of here, Shino… zaki…" He coughed up blood, a stream of red running down his face. I started to feel sick.

"Suzumoto!" Shinozaki yelled into my ear as she grabbed hold of me. "Is there something we can do? This is an infirmary, right? We can bandage him up!"

I looked at the glass pushing through Kishinuma's chest. It made me sick to think of it, but Kishinuma wasn't getting out of this alive.

Shinozaki must have read my expression and figured what I was thinking, because she let go and knelt next to Kishinuma, rubbing the blood off his chin. "Kishinuma, don't die here…"

Kishinuma was still coughing on his own blood, but he tried to answer anyway. "Promise me… you'll get out of here… Shinozaki…"

I knelt next to them, watching as Shinozaki tried in vain to bandage Kishinuma's wounds with her scarf and a torn-off piece of her skirt. I felt like I was about to cry, but I tried to hold it in so Kishinuma might be able to die thinking that Shinozaki was in the hands of someone who could keep her safe…

Kishinuma stopped breathing, and Shinozaki started sobbing. I reached out to touch her shoulder, but she stood up and backed away from me.

"I can't take this anymore!"

"Shinozaki, wait!…"

Shinozaki ran down the hallway, stumbling on loose boards as she tried to get away from Kishinuma's body. I stood up to follow her, but then I heard heavy footsteps behind me.

I turned around to face the footsteps and found a huge man with deathly pale skin and red eyes charging at me with a hammer. I yelped in fright and ran away, hoping the man wasn't fast enough to catch me.

As I ran down the hallway, I caught the sight of Shinozaki sprinting up a flight of stairs at the end of the hall and I decided to run a different direction to lead the giant man away from her. I regretted this almost immediately, as I nearly fell into a gap that was far too wide to cross. I turned around to see the giant man was already rounding the corner.

I was starting to consider taking my chances with the pit when I heard a familiar voice from behind me:

"Suzumoto! Here! Hurry!"

I spun around and saw Ms. Yui reaching out for me from a doorway partway across the gap in the floor. It would be a long jump, but if I stayed behind that man with the hammer would get to me…

I took a few steps back and ran to the gap and jumped. I grabbed Ms. Yui's hand and felt lightheaded as I started to dangle over the gap. I realized that Ms. Yui was using her left hand, and her right arm looked badly hurt and was bleeding all over her blouse. I grabbed onto the edge of the floor with my free hand, preferring the risk of splinters to dragging my teacher to her doom.

Eventually I managed to climb into the room Ms. Yui was in and we watched as the giant with the hammer ran back the way he came. I was panting heavily, trying to force air back into my lungs after that run.

"Are you alright, Suzumoto?" Ms. Yui asked, touching my shoulder with her good hand. I frowned.

"I'm fine…" I sighed. "But Kishinuma is dead and Shinozaki ran off somewhere…"

Ms. Yui's face darkened with sadness upon hearing that. I slumped my shoulders and let the tears in my eyes start to flow. Why did this have to happen?…

Ms. Yui hugged me, at least as best she could with only one good arm. "You're safe for now, Suzumoto." I looked up at her and saw she was holding back tears. "I'll keep you safe. We'll find the others and get out of here, alright?"

I thought about how Yuki had thrown Kishinuma into the infirmary door, killing him. She went through a lot while she was alive… but that wasn't forgivable. We couldn't stay here.

I stood up, taking Ms. Yui by surprise. I wiped the tears off my cheeks and looked out at the empty hallway. "Let's find a way back out there…" I took a deep breath. "We need to save the others before it's too late."